“Evening Trixie,” said Pokey as he wandered into the residence, “You look a bit different today,” he pondered his employer for a second “Did you do something with your mane.”
“Oh, ha ha ha, I’m in costume, just like everyone else today,” she turned a on the spot to let her assistant get a good look at her. In place of her normal cape and wizard’s hat she instead wore a black formal suit with its tails draped over her flanks and a frilly white shirt. On her head sat a tall top hat. The costume looked a little baggy on her. “Today I am not the great and powerful Trixie, I am Quartermoon the Magnificent,” she bowed, “One of the things Princess Luna said we could dress as is someone we admire and there was no better magician than grand-père. “ Trixie’s eyes dropped for a moment and she almost seemed to shrink, “I miss him,” she said in a small voice.
“I’m sure he’d be very proud of you,” reassured Pokey feeling rather awkward. “Anyway, the beard’s a nice touch,” he gestured at the neatly trimmed goatee on Trixie’s chin, “It looks almost real?” he gave it a tug with his magic.
“Ow. It is real,” said Trixie perking up. “I found the spell for it in one of the books I borrowed from Twilight.”
“Does she know you still have them? And can I borrow it now you’re done?”
“What she doesn’t know won’t hurt her, and I knew you can’t grow your own,” she grinned in triumph.
“I could if I wanted to,” argued Pokey looking sheepish, “I just don’t have the time. The spell doesn’t have any side effects does it?” He looked intrigued and slightly horrified.
“I don’t think so,” she sounded a little unsure.
“Well, it could make you male in other ways...” he trailed off.
“Such as?” Trixie’s eyes went wide, “You don’t mean... Oh Luna, no. Why would you even think that?” she shuddered in revulsion.
“Anyway it is a nice costume, did Rarity make it?” He said changing the topic.
“She offered to, well insisted and pestered would be better words for it, but why have a copy made when you have the original.”
“So that’s?”
“Yes one of my Grand-père’s own costumes, it needed a bit of taking in to fit, but I think it works almost as well as yours my cute fluffy assistant.”
Pokey himself was wearing a grey rabbit suit which covered his entire body, the ears hung loose on his head, his muzzle had a pink nose and whiskers added and a fluffy tail stuck on top of his own completed the costume. “Yeah, well you won that bet probably fair and mostly square. I still don’t know why the apple trust had so many of these things lying around but I’m glad Rarity worked her magic on it and made it slightly less embarrassing, slightly. So what do you think?”
“I think I’ll need a bigger hat. Anyway we have a lot to prepare for tonight. Cheerilee should be gathering up the foals to ‘trick or treat’ in less than an hour then I have to put on a show for them.”
“Because you so hate doing that and being the centre of attention,” said Pokey sitting at his desk.
Trixie glared at him for a second before continuing, “Then Carrot has put on a party for the girls up at her place.”
“I still don’t understand why we’re doing all this.”
“Because Luna thought it would be a good idea. You had to deliver all these pamphlets, didn’t you read any of them?” Trixie used her aura to lift a small booklet from her desk, on the cover was a smiling image of Luna in strange armour and the words ‘Your guide to Nightmare Night’. “It’s some new holiday that Luna thought up, apparently her twin in that other world though it would ‘double our fun’ or something. Luna thought that with all the Corona based problems Ponyville could do with more fun so she decided to try it out here first,” she started to flip through the pages, “Apparently foals get to extort sweets from the townsfolk, then Luna demands her cut, we all wear costumes and save apples from drowning, among other things. It’s a bit like Mardi-Gras at home.”
“Seems strange to me but I guess we shouldn’t question royalty. So what is it you want me to do anyway?”
“Well I thought I’d start the show with....”
“Now Opal,” said Rarity, “Hold still while Mommy finishes fitting your costume.” Restraining the squirming feline in her aura the white unicorn attached the last of the outfit. Once released the cat hissed and ran for a corner to hide her shame.
Sighing the fashionista admired herself in the mirror, at least she recognised her good work, even if her pet didn’t. The unicorn was dressed in an elegant black dress which fitted her perfectly, if she did say so herself. It reached the floor and trailed along behind her almost making it seem like she was gliding over the ground. Her normally purple curly locks had been died raven black and straightened so that they framed her face making her white coat stand out even more than normal. The only hint of colour was the blood red lipstick she wore.
This new holiday was a literal Luna sent opportunity for her. With ‘Nightmare Night’ premiering in her own home town anypony who was anypony would be flocking to take part. Although most of the visitors would be bringing their own costumes it was still a chance to show off her work. Using her considerable diplomatic skills she had ensure that all of the element bearers would be wearing her costumes, as well as many other notable individuals. Well, almost all of the elements, she noted with irritation, Trixie had been her normal disagreeable self and decided to make her own costume. Still that amateur attempt should make her own efforts look even better by comparison.
Deciding she looked as good as she was likely to the costumed unicorn headed down into her basement. On the way she was overcome with a wave of dizziness and nearly fell. She steadied herself and yawned mightily. Finishing all the costumes had been a herculean task and she had rather been burning the candle at both ends to get things finished. It had been two, no three days since she’d had a chance to sleep but sacrifices had to be made for fame.
The basement store room had been cleared of the rolls of fabric that normally resided here and in their place stood a large iron cauldron heated by a magical flame. The contents, a faintly glowing greenish liquid was simmering as it had been for several hours now. Rarity had followed the instructions exactly and it was almost time for the last ingredient now. She would have to find some way to thank Twilight for the idea when she got the chance, it was a shame that the noble unicorn hadn’t accepted the costume she’d offered. Still she was sure she would think of something.
Taking a last moment to read the spell book again Rarity began to circle the cauldron chanting as she went.
“Mimi kusimama hapa mwili wa nyama tayari kuwa roho
Kuja kwangu
kuingia kwangu
Sisi kuwa moja”
A faint green mist started to rise from the depths of the liquid.
“Mask uso inakuwa
Moyo inakuwa roho
Akili inakuwa tambiko
Nafsi inakuwa mungu”
“Mask uso inakuwa
Moyo inakuwa roho
Akili inakuwa tambiko
Nafsi inakuwa mungu”
Rarity picked up a large pile of crystals each carefully carved with a rune on it and dropped them into the cauldron before incanting the last part of the spell.
“Mimi kuchukua fomu yangu ndani ya fomu yako kuelewa ulimwengu
Kuchukua ya mwili yangu na kufanya kama wewe tafadhali”
For a moment nothing happened and Rarity was afraid she had gotten something wrong then a glittering cloud emerged from the liquid with a spider’s web of green lights connecting each particle. Suddenly a wave of energy boiled up from the cauldron bowling the white unicorn off her feel before passing through the buildings walls and spreading out into the town beyond.
After a moment Rarity picked herself up and looked around. She suddenly felt amazing, all traces of tiredness and weakness had left her, she felt strong, powerful and a little hungry. She rolled her tongue over her protruding canine teeth, definitely hungry. She should probably get a meal to celebrate her success. Trying to decide where and who to eat Rarity walked up the stairs to her living quarters.
Trixie had been using her illusion powers to nightmare up the residence when the wave of magic hit her. Luckily she had not been actively perceiving magic as the wave flowed past or shy might have been injured, even so it seemed to her that the sun had suddenly come out in the middle of a moonless night. The shock was enough to knock her from her hooves, “Merde!” she swore as she nursed a bruised fore leg, “What was that?” She turned to her companion, Pokey stood rock still in the centre of the room a green web seeming to cover his form for a second.
“Pokey?” repeated Trixie in horror. Then to her dismay his form started to shift, the first thing she noticed was the horn of which he was so proud of disappeared while the ears on his costume filled out and began to twitch. His rear legs grew and folded underneath him while his hooves melted into paws. His muzzle shrunk and the nose and whiskers making up his costume melded to his face, finally his eyes turned solid black. Trixie had a sudden flashback to the horrible accident which had changed Lyra into a bear like creature, but this was different, where previously had stood a stallion now there was a giant rabbit. “Pokey!” Trixie gasped.
The creature opened its mouth to reveal long sharp incisors, “Eeeeh, What’s up Trix?” the creature asked with Pokey’s voice.
“You can understand me?”
“We’ll of course I can, I wouldn’t be much of an assistant if I couldn’t, although you don’t make it easy with that strange accent of yours.”
“What strange accent?” she demanded, then shook herself, “Never mind, you’re a rabbit.”
“Nothing’s getting past you today is it? I thought you noticed that when you hired me.”
“But you were a pony, now you’re a rabbit. What happened?”
“Are you sure you haven't started on the Bourbon already? I’ve always been a rabbit, what kind of pony would be called Pokey Bunny?”
Floored by this announcement Trixie collapsed onto her seat, a glass, or a bottle of Bourbon did sound good right now. But no, what if Pokey’s transformation was some sort of attack by Corona. She had to get to the bottom of it. Concentrating she cast the ‘Alicorn eyes’ spell Luna had taught her. She blinked, the background magic looked odd, most of the room seemed drained of magic while Pokey almost shone. Strands of magic linked points all over his body holding together dozens of spells; illusions, transfigurations, invocations in a constantly shifting pattern, it was almost beautiful and far beyond her understanding. In some ways it looked like the spells were being generated by Pokey himself.
Sighing Trixie deactivated the spell and sat head in hooves wondering what to do, at least only Pokey was effected. Then a horrible thought struck her and she rushed for the door.
Outside the town was in chaos
In the sky above a dozen wonderbolts flew, at least one of them she recognised as having previously being an earth pony. Animals of various shapes and sizes roamed free, a bear she assumed was once a pony was curiously peering into the second floor of a building while the occupants fled through the back door. A giant ladybird crawled over the roof of sugarcube corner while a pink cavepony mare dragged a white unicorn stallion in a spacepony costume into the building. In the distance a pack of diamond dogs loped through the streets.
Switching her magic perceiving spell back on Trixie surveyed the disaster, all of the transformed ponies were webbed with the net of spells in the same way as Pokey although each was covered in a different mix.
“Well this is different,” said Pokey standing behind Trixie in the doorway.
“This is a disaster, I don’t know what’s going on but I’m sure somepony’s going to blame me for it, somepony always does. I need to tell Luna about this,” she reached for her hat only to realise that the one she wore was her grandfathers and not the one that allowed her to transport messages to Canterlot. She ran back into the house. The hat stand was bear, as was under her chair, the storage cupboard, the kitchen, the bathroom and under her bed. “Hat, here hat, Hat, Hat!” she called searching under the furniture for the errant item of millinery.
“It’s in for its ten thousand letter tune up remember,” said Pokey chewing on a large carrot he had gotten from nowhere.
“Oh, yeah,” Trixie remember telling Luna that she was sure she could run one little festival without needing to call for help. “Curse you irony,” she mumbled. She concentrated for a second to see if she could summon it to her but the distance was too great, and the background magic too disrupted, for her to work the spell.
“Ok, we’re going to have to fix this by ourselves,” announced Trixie.
“How are we going to do that? It’s us against a whole town of transformed ponies. It’s just lucky that neither of us were affected.”
Trixie eyed the giant rabbit her assistant had been changed into, “Yeah, lucky,” she nodded, “I don’t know exactly what did this but it’s obviously magic and there's only one pony in this town who knows almost as much about magic as me, Twilight Sparkle!”
The trip to the library was surprisingly uneventful. It appeared that most of the more rowdy transformed villagers had spread out from the town centre while most of the unaffected inhabitants were hiding at the moment. The most dangerous moment was when a huge black chariot had come rumbling past pulled by a masked stallion. Trixie had had to throw herself to one side to avoid being run down while Pokey had calmly hopped over the whole thing earning himself a look of admiration from the small red and yellow clad passenger.
“Road Hog!” screamed Trixie shaking a hoof at the rapidly disappearing vehicle.
“Calm down,” said Pokey, “We’re here,” he gestured at the tree than housed Ponyville library, its branches were covered in fake cobwebs, somewhere an owl hooted. “Now we can get Twilight to look at you.”
“Good. Wait why me?”
“Well obviously you’ve been effected, you thought I was a pony earlier. Maybe that beard is touching your brain?”
“There’s nothing wrong with me! It’s the rest of the world that’s crazy.”
“Rrrriiiigggghhhht,” said Pokey with a knowing smile.
Trying to calm herself Trixie knocked on the door set in the tree trunk.
“Happy Nightmare Night!” announced Twilight as she threw the door open. “Trixie? Where are the foals? Why do you have a beard?” She craned her head around to look past her visitors. “The book said that only foals would be collecting treats.” The purple unicorn was wearing a simple sackcloth cloak and hood tied with a plain cord.
“It’s an emergency and it’s a costume,” started Trixie before trailing off, “What are you wearing?”
“Do you like it? It’s a historically accurate version of Clover the Clever’s outfit as described in Ponyvers ‘The history of our planet volume twenty four’. Most of it’s made from fabric found at the Rhome dig site a few years ago, over two thousand years old and wonderfully preserved. Few know how to do the old style stitching any more but I found a craftspony in Stalliongrad who still did it and I had to get a machine specifically built to plat the cord in the right way. I think it’s worth it to be completely authentic.”
Trixie stood mouth open staring at the simple garb, “How much did all that cost?” she asked.
“It was quite expensive but probably not more than twenty or thirty thousand bits.”
Trixie’s head spun, Twilights costume was probably worth more than most of the other costumes in town together.
“That’s a lot of moola,” said Pokey. Twilight stared at him as if noticing his form for the first time.
Shaking her head Trixie pushed her way into the library, “Twilight we need to talk.”
The inside of the library was just as over decorated as the outside, there was not a single free from cobwebs or lacking a fake spider or rat. “I like what you’ve done with the place,” noted Pokey, “Very homie.”
“Why do you have a giant rabbit with you?” Twilight whispered to Trixie.
“He’s my assistant,” she hissed back.
“Your assistant’s a giant rabbit? Did you pull him out of a hat or something?”
“My assistant was a pony wearing a rabbit costume. Then a wave of magic hit and he turned into a rabbit, it’s affected a lot of other ponies around town but not everypony. I’m surprised you didn’t feel it, it knocked me off my hooves.”
“I think I might have been in the basement,” said Twilight pacing somewhat nervously, “It’s magically shielded.... to protect the books.”
“Magically shielded? Why do books...”
“Do you mind if I look at him?” asked Twilight quickly changing the subject, both Trixie and Pokey scowled.
“Who’s him? The cat’s father?” asked Pokey, then his face softened and he twitched his whiskers, “Fine, you won’t find anything, but make sure you get my best side.”
Twilight’s eyes and horn glowed for a moment as she activated her own spell detection spell. “Oh my,” she gasped, “This is fascinating, so many spells at once, I don’t think I can name even half of them.”
“What do you think of the reduced background count,” asked Trixie.
“That is interesting, I think the spells are feeding off of the background magic as well as the targets personal magic. It seems familiar, oh no, oh no.” The purple unicorn suddenly took off bouncing from bookcase to bookcase searching for something.
“I have that effect on some mares,” said Pokey.
Trixie ignored him, “What are you doing? You didn’t have a hoof in this did you?”
“No, not me, Rarity,” said Twilight coming to a stop.
“Rarity? What’s this got to do with her?”
“We’ll she came around last week to try and find some books about costumes. She looked awful. I think she was pushing herself too hard trying to make all the outfits for Nightmare night. Anyway I don’t get too many visitors, I think most of the town is still sore about the Ursa, so we got chatting and I talked to her about this book I’d read about Zebra magic. She must have taken it.”
“Zebra Magic! My old nemesis! Why is it always Zebra magic!” cried Trixie.
“She’s had some bad experiences with Zebra magic,” noted Pokey.
Twilight was rather taken aback by this outburst, but continued anyway, “For many of their ceremonies they wear masks or costumes to appear like a certain totem animal or object, the sun, big cats, etc. and they use magic to, well, become their totem. I think that’s what this is, I didn’t think it was so literal though. I thought it was little more than an illusion to make the costume more realistic. Hardy real magic at all.” Trixie huffed at this. Ignoring her Twilight continued her lecture, “But I remember something about a more powerful version of the spell that allowed the subject to gain the actual physicality and powers of the totem. The powers are drawn from the targets unconsciousness. So if someone thought the totem had the strength to crush a boulder then the spell would grant them that strength, within limits of course.”
“So Pokey can do what he thinks a giant rabbit can do?” asked Trixie.
“Yes.”
“How do we counter the spell then?”
“Well the background magic is limited, if we wait long enough it’ll run out and the spells will all wear off but that could take hours maybe even days this near to the Everfree. I can’t remember the reverse spell and Rarity has the original book so we’ll need to get it from her.”
“Then we need to get to Rarity’s right now before anypony gets hurt,” yelled Trixie rushing to the door, followed by a gently loping Pokey.
Twilight followed them to the door then hesitated.
“What is it?” asked Trixie sounding annoyed.
“I can’t,” she waved the hoof with the alarm bracelet on it, “If I leave this will go off and I’ll get in serious trouble.”
“Come on this is an emergency,” urged Trixie.
Twilight paced backwards and forwards looking distressed, then a thought struck her, “Wait you can give me permission to leave, you can shut this off!”
“Well, yes but the paperwork! Particularly if I don’t arrange it in advance,” moaned Trixie, “It’s so much easier if you just leave without permission.”
“You’d prefer for me to be thrown back in prison rather than having to fill in some forms? How lazy are you?”
“She’s got you there doll,” agreed Pokey.
“Ok, fine. I Trixie Lulamoon representative to the Night Court of Ponyville hereby give permission for the prisoner Twilight Sparkle to leave her dwelling.” A spark shot from her horn to the bracelet and it glowed with a blue light for a second, “But you owe me.” she grumbled as the three of them walked and hopped towards Carousel Boutique.
Once again the journey was short and uneventful although cries of panic echoed through the streets.
“Ok,” said Trixie, “Now we have to get Rarity to undo the spell she’s placed on the town. Let me do the talking, I’m sure I can sort this all out.” She knocked on the door to the boutique.
The door opened on the second knock revealing Rarity, her form wrapped in a flowing black dress and her long black hair falling almost to her hooves. Her normally pale coat was so white it almost sparkled in the moonlight. “Ah, darlings, you must be the takeaway I ordered.” her normal accent seemed to have a hint of something more exotic in it. She did a double take “Trixie? Ms Sparkle? A large rabbit? This is unexpected.”
Trixie stared for a second then shook her self, “Rarity, have you been playing around with Zebra magic?” she said without guile.
“I don’t know vhat you are talking about, but please come in, we can discuss thiz further.” The white unicorn gestured for them to enter, looking at each other Trixie and Twilight shrugged and entered. Pokey started to hop in after the mares only to be stopped by their hostess. “Iz your pet houze trained?” she asked looking at Pokey suspiciously.
“Hey, I ain’t anyponies pet, I’m Trixie’s assistant,” scowled Pokey the expression looking sweet on his lapine face.
“Pokey?” gasped Rarity, “Oh, my costume has vorked even better than I had hoped, so realistic, oh, I shall be zo famous for this.” She danced a little jig before remembering herself and glided into the living room of her house.
Twilight and Trixie looked around the room, neither had been here before but it was not what they had expected. The room was a mess with off cuts of fabric and sewing equipment strewn all over the place.
“Ah, vhere are my manners,” said Rarity using her aura, which for some reason had turned black, to clear a free area for them to sit, “I’ll get you some drinks.” She drifted out of the room.
“I think that mare’s a bit loco in the coco you know,” whispered Pokey leaning towards his companions while tapping a paw to his head.
“She does seem strange,” agreed Twilight.
“I don’t know, she’s always eccentric, but I think she’s lying about the magic, this place is practically humming with it.”
“You can feel it to?” asked Twilight. “I can’t tell where it’s coming from but I think..”
She was cut off by the return of Rarity. The black clad pony was levitating a bottle of wine and three glasses behind her. “Here you are, nothing but the best for my guests.” She passed the glasses to her companions and filled them up.
Trixie tasted the drink, it was very good. “You’re not having any?” she asked.
“I don’t drink.... vine,” replied Rarity with a hint of distaste.
“Your loss,” said Trixie as she took another swig.
“I have to say your costume is very... quaint Trixie. The beard is a nice touch, not many mares could pull one off.”
“Thanks,” said Trixie not sure if she was being insulted or not.
Twilight put down her glass, “Do you mind if I have a look around?” she asked, “I haven’t seen your house before.”
“Oh, I’m afraid there isn’t time for that right now, I’m just about to start dinner.”
“What are you having?” asked Twilight politely.
Rarity reared back and opened her mouth revealing large canine teeth, on cue a rumble of thunder could be heard in the distance, “Vhy you my dear.”
Pokey spat out a mouthful of his drink, “She’s a vamponey,” he yelled.
Trixie looked ready to follow him when she remembered how good the wine was and swallowed instead.
“Oh, it’s twue,” moaned Rarity bringing a hoof to her forehead, “I am one of the cursed children of the night. Cursed to remain forever young and attractive, cursed to live forever, cursed to only have an ever fashionable black wardrobe, cursed with all these cool powers and this amazing sex appeal. Actually that doesn’t zound so bad.” She sounded thoughtful.
“Run,” yelled Trixie picking a chair up with her power and swinging it at Rarity, it exploded as it hit her leaving the vampire unharmed but looking surprised. She recovered quickly and lurched towards her attacker fangs bared. Pokey leapt forwards, and grabbed her in a bear, or rather rabbit, hug. With a shrug Rarity broke free and hurled the surprised rabbit through her window and out into the street. “Zuch rudeness,” she muttered, turning back to Trixie, “Now vhere vas I?”
“Get away from her!” yelled Twilight holding a shard of wood in her aura from the broken chair.
Rarity backed away from the enraged unicorn, hissing as she went.
“You wouldn’t really stake her would you?” whispered Trixie.
“No,” replied Twilight, “but she doesn’t know that, now try and find out where the magic is coming from.”
“Good plan,” said Trixie starting to edge towards the door.
“Opalescence,” cried Rarity, “Save Mummy.”
“Who’s....” started Twilight when suddenly in a flash of black and white a bat winged, fanged cat dropped from the ceiling onto her and started to lash out with its claws and teeth. “Aghhh, get her off me! Get her off!” yelled the unicorn, the impromptu stake dropped to the ground forgotten.
“Hold on!” yelled Trixie, “I’ll help you.” she ran towards Twilight to help her friend only to be knocked aside by Rarity.
Panicked Twilight ran screaming from the room pursued by the flying cat.
“Now don’t play vith your food for too long Opel dear,” remonstrated Rarity after her pet. “Now on that note,” she smiled nastily at Trixie.
The magician looked around the room and realised she was alone with the vampony, deciding discretion was the better part of valour she cast an invisibility spell over herself and disappeared.
“Oh dear,” said Rarity, “My dinner haz disappeared, if only my senses were so heightened that I could smell vhere she was, oh vait,” In a flash she was at the other side of the room pinning Trixie to the wall, she smiled showing her fangs, “zhey are.”
Trixie wanted to scream but she caught a glance of Rarity’s glowing red eyes. It was surprising how deep they were, a small part of her cried out that this was a bad thing but most of her wanted to look deeper to see if there was an end to the long tunnel they seemed to have become. Distantly she heard Rarity complain about there being hair in her food then she felt a stabbing pain in her neck but she was too caught up in her captor’s hypnotic gaze to pay any attention. She gasped as she felt herself deliciously emptying into the white mare’s delicately sucking mouth and her entire universe narrowed to just the bite.
Outside Pokey picked himself up and brushed off the shards of glass from his coat. He turned back towards the house and shook a paw at it and its occupant. “Of course you realize, dis means war!” he yelled. He started to stride towards the building, then stopped, if he was going to win this he was going to have to start fighting like a rabbit. He thought for a moment then looked down at the ground and a smile grew over his face.
Taking up a diving pose Pokey leapt into the air and started to burrow as he hit the ground quickly disappearing in a pile of dirt which started to move towards the boutique.
Twilight didn’t know where she was. She seemed to have lost the spiteful ball of fur and fangs for the moment but some instinct told her it was nearby. The rooms and corridors around her were dimly lit by a few weakly glimmering fire flies.
She opened a door and entered what looked like a foal’s bedroom. The walls were colourfully painted and here and there were hoof paintings of groups of ponies. The floor was strewn with a number of toys and games.
Twilight cautiously stepped in, wary of an ambush from the flying cat. As she passed the bed she noticed an equine form lying on the floor and jumped, almost crying out. She stood still for a moment willing her heart rate to slow before cautiously lighting up her horn. The shape appeared to be a large doll or puppet of some kind, it was in life scale and was painted in white and pink. Its glass eyes stared past her.
Twilight was just cursing herself for her silliness when with a creak the doll’s head turned towards her and spoke with the squeaky voice of a small child, “Hi, I’m Sweetie Bell. Would you like to play with me?” clumsily the creature started to get to its hooves.
With a scream of terror Twilight run towards the nearest door and wrenched it open, she rushed into the space beyond and slammed the door shut behind her hearing it lock. She found herself in a small cupboard barely large enough to fit her.
Slumping down and shaking slightly Twilight started to feel around her, her hoof came into contact with something cold and furry. Opel gave a loud hiss and leapt at the pony that had disturbed her.
“Buck” swore Twilight as the vampire kitty descended on her again.
Pokey broke through the surface in a cramped room, the only source of light was a green glow emanating from a large cauldron placed in the centre. “Where am I?” he asked himself, “I knew I shoulda taken that left turn at Albuquerque...”
“You my loathsome lagomorph,” came Rarity’s voice from behind, “are in my lair.”
Pokey spun around to find Rarity standing at the top of a flight of stairs, next to her stood a dazed looking Trixie. The magician’s costume was rumpled, her hat was missing and her mane ruffled, there was a vapid smile on her otherwise blank face and two small wounds on her neck.
“Trixie?” called Pokey in horror.
“Your friend is mine, she had felt the ecstasy of my dark kiss and serves only me now,” crowed the vampony.
“I will do as you command mistress,” mumbled Trixie.
“And I command you to, ewww a bug,” screeched the white mare rearing back from a cockroach as it crawled along the wall, “Take it away, take it away,” she whined.
Obediently Trixie picked up the insect on one hoof, “What shall I do with it mistress?” she asked in a monotone.
“You can eat it for all I care, just get it out of my sight.”
Following the instruction Trixie placed the bug in her mouth and chewed with a crunching sound, both Pokey and Rarity screwed up their faces, “Needs more pickles,” commented Trixie dreamily.
“So doll,” asked Pokey dipping a paw into the green liquid, “What’s cooking?”
“Get away from there,” screeched the vampony. “Get him my minion.”
Trixie staggered down the stairs and towards Pokey. He calmly took a hop backwards and Trixie leapt for him only to disappear down the hole he had arrived via. Pokey looked down at the pit and then back up at Rarity, “Ain't I a stinka?” he said before putting his shoulder to the cauldron, trying to push it over without success.
Enraged Rarity zoomed down the stairs and charged at the rabbit throwing the cauldron aside in her rage before levitating into the air carrying him with her. “You will beg for death by the time I’m finished with you,” she snarled before noticing his eyes were on the upturned cauldron, its contents leaking away, “No,” she screamed dropping the rabbit to the ground and rushing to the mess on the floor.
"What a maroon." commented Pokey as he picked himself up. Suddenly there was a fizz and a stench of ozone the green glow faded away the spell that had been blanketing the town was discharged and the magic effecting the costumes stopped. Pokey Bunny shuddered as his ears dropped and he returned to his pony form again. He looked around confused. Next to him Trixie was clambering out of the hole she had been stuck in.
“What happened here?” asked Rarity, also returned to her normal form.
“You enchanted the whole town,” cried Trixie.
“I did? I only wanted to make my costumes more realistic.”
“Realistic!” screamed Trixie. “You turned to a vampony! You bit me! It was... confusing and Icky!” The blue unicorn’s anger drained away for a second, “And sort of exciting, mistress.” She looked shocked, “Where did that come from? Am I still hypnotised?”
“Still at least no one seems to have been seriously hurt,” said Pokey calmingly.
“She made me EAT A BUG!” yelled Trixie her anger returning, “I can still taste it!”
“It’s not like it’s the first time you’ve eaten something strange,” said Pokey with a grin.
“A BUG!” screamed Trixie again, before starting to calm down, “I hope my friends came out of this better than I did.” She looked around. “What happened to Twilight anyway?”
Twilight realised that she was not longer trapped in a cupboard with a bat winged vampire cat but instead a perfectly normal cat in a bat costume. Then she realised that that didn’t improve the situation.
“Aghhh, get her off me!”