//------------------------------// // Special: What a Fright! // Story: PonyFall: Onward Valiant Crusaders // by Fullmetal Pony //------------------------------// Friday, October 31          “So, it’s like Nightmare Night, but without Nightmare Moon?” Apple Bloom had her hands held up with the invisible weight of the holidays in them. She threw them up into the air and crossed her arms. “How does that even make sense? What are people even celebrating?”         “Candy?” I replied after a brief pause. Apple Bloom furrowed her brow, followed by Scootaloo doing the same. Sweetie observed the conversation but said nothing. Giving my head a shake, I replied, “Okay-okay, so the holiday doesn’t make much sense here, but it’s an excuse to get out of the guest house at least.”         “But we don’t even have costumes,” Scootaloo complained.         “That’s the good part, everyone will think you’re in the best Cutie Mark Crusader costumes ever.” The frowns and dull looks I got were not the response I was hoping for. “I thought it was a good idea.”         “Who goes as themselves?” Apple Bloom grumbled. “Yeah, a bedsheet with holes would be better,” Scootaloo added. “I like the idea,” Sweetie mumbled. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo turned to her with eschewed faces, but she kept her head slightly bowed and her lips turned in the smallest hint of smile. “There’d be other people our age… and some nice clothes.” The message behind Sweetie’s words hit Apple Bloom and Scootaloo and their confusion softened. Apple Bloom looked back to me. “Okay, if Sweetie’s in, I’m in too. I guess walking around couldn’t hurt. Plus, getting candy does sound fun.” “I’m in too.” Scootaloo jabbed a finger at me. “On one condition. I get some wings at least.” “Nothing some cardboard, paint, and string can’t make.” Before I left my chair, I noticed that Sweetie was glancing up at her forehead. “A horn for you?” “Hmmm.” Sweetie scrunched up her face as her eyes went cross eyed. Scootaloo tried to hold back a giggle, but managed to contain it. Sweetie loosened her face after a moment of concentration and refocused her eyes. “No, I think a horn would look a little weird with my skin.” “Okay, wings only it is then.” With the conversation at an end, I stepped outside into the mid-eighty degree heat of October’s end. Inside my main house, on the kitchen table lied two uncarved pumpkins. How mom expected me to carve one with one arm was beyond me, but she’d been forgetful of certain things ever since I’d come home. Things like the missing food from the fridge or a slight increase in the water bill. At least the discrepancies wouldn’t last much longer; it was just a matter of waiting for Doug’s tickets to get here and then head off to Australia. Wonder if Australians celebrate Halloween. The thought came with visions of two pink haired girls dressed like they were heading to Bronycon followed by a confused man. The mental image entertained me while I rummaged through the old dump of art supplies from by-gone days that had collected in my laundry room. A few minutes of searching produced no orange paint or paper from the room’s drawers. I was about to sigh and make do with a crayon and printer paper, when something soft rubbed against the back of my hand from with one of the drawers. Reaching back, I grabbed onto the material and yanked it out, revealing it as a large piece of orange foam-paper. The grin I got whenever I did something creative came to my face. ~~~         “Sam will be here at seven?” asked mom while she hefted down the larger of the two freshly carved jack-o-lanterns. The smaller one remained in the nook between my left arm and chest until I squatted down and placed it next to my front gate. The two lanterns formed an odd pair of guardians to my house: the bigger one with a goofy expression and the other resembling a Picasso painting had Picasso been born with arthritis. At least the whole “throwing up pumpkin seeds and goo” thing amused me and gave my pumpkin a semi-unique spin.         “Yeah,” I replied while wiping off some pumpkin gunk from hands. “By that I mean around seven and by ‘I’ll be back by eleven’ I mean, around eleven. We probably won’t even stay that long though.”         Mom pushed off the ground and made her way back to the house. “A party does sound good… you have been a little cranky lately.”         “Eh, probably the painkillers,” I lied.         We slipped back into the house where our paths diverged. Mom continued off to the kitchen to finish dinner while I slipped back into my room. A quick wash of my hands and then I made a final check on the contents of my backpack. There was water just in case, some glow sticks from the seasonal Halloween shop in the mall, and my pills in case the night got a little to crazy. Most of the space in my bag was taken up for three large paper bags I’d filched from my parents’ grocery shopping. Finally, there were the wings, or the closest I could get to them. With the final check done, I returned to the hallway and prepared to fill myself in preparation to the night.” ~~~         “Call us when you’re coming home,” dad said with a wave. I responded in kind until the garage door came down between us. It was a quick stroll over to the guest house with the setting sun at my back. One knock and the door opened. “I still think this is weird,” said Apple Bloom as she marched outside first, wearing the same overalls and yellow shirt I’d found her in. Next came Sweetie, but, rather than her original dress, she was in jeans and a white cardigan. Finally, Scootaloo came out; like Apple Bloom, she was adorned in the orange shirt and jeans from that fateful walk. Scootaloo looked up at me with a giddy look in her eyes. It may as well have been Christmas for her as I unzipped my backpack and pulled out the “wings.” They were a single piece of the orange foam-paper I’d found. Simple black marker took the place of feathers while two loops of string ran through the prop like the sleeves on a backpack. “I know it’s not the best, bu—” The wings went flying out of hand and onto Scootaloo’s back in instant. “Ah yeah!” She flexed her arms and back in a way that flapped the wings. She grinned at the new addition. “These are even better than the school play ones.” “Hey!” Sweetie puckered her lips. “I made those!” “I still think we should’ve just gotten a pegasus to play Romareo,” Apple Bloom added. Before I could probe into the questions that arose about “Romareo,” the soft hum of an engine alerted me to our ride’s arrival. At the tip of my driveway came a orange and black (fitting for the occasion) car with a square build. Commanding the odd— at least, I’d always thought it was a bit strange-looking— car was a familiar round face partially obscured with blond hair and a beard. I was still getting used to the latter given that Sam had never sported a beard until this semester. Hauling himself out of the car after parking, he raised up a hand in greeting. “John!” “Sam!” Our hands clenched in a strong shake, albeit awkwardly since they were our left ones. “Good to see ya again.” “Yeah, been a bit busy with school.” His eyes drifted down towards my cast. “How’s the arm?”         I hefted the cast upward so he had a better view of it. “Better, doesn’t hurt quite as much anymore. Enough about stuff like that though. It’s candy time!”         “Yeah!” came three excited shouts from behind me, drawing Sam’s attention.         “You must be the kids John talked about,” Sam said with a smile. He hunched over slightly so that he was a little closer to the Crusaders’ height. His eyes scanned over them for a second before he turned to me. “Ya know, you see so many pony costumes with tails and horns, it’s nice to see simpler stuff like this, less cluttered.”         Scootaloo jumped up to Sam’s face. “Wings are still cool, right?”         Sam chuckled a little. “She’s definitely got Scootaloo down. Man, John, you really struck it lucky babysitting these kids.”         “Eh.” I nonchalantly shrugged my shoulders. “I had to do something while I’m stuck here. Doesn’t hurt that they’re well behaved.” Placing my hand on the back seats’ door, I pulled it open for the Crusaders. “So, shall we be off?”         We all piled into Sam’s car with with Crusaders in back and Sam and me in the front. Sam twisted his keys and pulled out of the driveway. “Kinda glad ya had something in mind. The party sounded a bit too far of a drive. Plus, trick-or-treating does sound a fun.”         Sweetie leaned forward from the middle seat to get a better look at Sam. She traced over his shorts and Waxfang T-shirt. “What’s your costume?”         “Oh, I’m not wearing anything. Little too old for that, but it’s still fun to see everyone dressed up,” Sam replied. With a turn, his car exited my neighborhood, entering a main street. At the nearby stoplight, the ends of the crosswalk were dotted with a few monsters and pop culture icons. I knew we were only at the fridges though.         Scootaloo’s eyes were glued to the world past her window. Taking in the costumed straglers, she asked, “What’s ‘trick-or-treat?’”         I mentally groaned but Sam merely laughed. “‘What’s trick-or-treat?’ Sorry, but you’ll need to try a little harder than that to pull one over on me.”         My hand, positioned in a way that Sam wouldn’t notice, waved back in forth in a signal to drop the conversation. Scootaloo glanced down at it and sunk back into her seat. “Ha, yeah, I guess it is a pretty lame… trick.”         Sam carefully wove his way through growing hordes of kids and eventually came to his house. In reality, we could’ve just walked to it, but without Sam, that might have drawn my parents’ suspicion. The Crusader’s bounded out of the car and entered the world of All Hallows Eve.         A good majority of the houses had at least some sort of decoration affixed to them. There were pinup skeletons, fake bats, and too many jack-o-lanterns to count. My personal favorite were the false spider webs. A tug at my arm drew me away from the festive splendor. Apple Bloom stared at me with her attention occasionally shifting around. She motioned for me to get to her eye level and grabbed hold of my ear. “What’s with all the pumpkins with faces?” “Oh…” Hadn’t covered that one. Thinking fast, I shot a finger out to the a rather large jack-o-lantern frozen in an eternal snicker. “Yeah, that jack-o-lantern is a bit creepy. Someone must’ve really gotten into the Halloween spirit on that. Nothing to worry about though.” Apple Bloom backed away. She shared a moment of contemplation with her friends and they all nodded. “Got it, but wouldn’t ya rather eat that pumpkin then carve it up like that?” “Trust me, stores will have plenty of that by…” Sam playfully scratched at his beard, drawing out the punchline. “Tomorrow.”  An image of the Crusaders huddled around a small Thanksgiving table came to me. It was quickly replaced by them destroying the kids area and moving onto the adult table. Pumpkin pie and mashed potatoes went flying in all directions. A slight shudder ran through me as the pancake incident mixed with a Thanksgiving that could happen. Hopefully, we can get them back before then. Pushing the thought of holidays gone wrong away, I pulled out the bags and doled them out to the girls. “Alright, I think we’ve got everything ready.” “Sounds good to me,” said Sam. We all stood still for a moment. Sam leaned over to Scootaloo. “That means you can go trick-or-treat.” “Oh, right.” With that, Scootaloo took the lead with the other Crusaders behind her: Apple Bloom in the middle and Sweetie at the back close to Sam and me. The lineup allowed Sam to get a good view of the back of Sweetie’s head. He stared down at it as we made our way to our first house and opened his mouth to say something, but Scootaloo pushed the doorbell before he could speak. The door pulled open to a middle-aged brunette holding a bowl of candy. “Oh, now what are you all dres—” “Nightmare Night, what a fright! Give us something sweet tonight!” the Crusaders all sang in unison. Sam chuckled again and I tried not to look embarrassed or nervous. That somehow registered as taking a step back and folding my hands into my pockets while shuffling in the same place. The middle-aged woman’s lips pursed, and she held the bowl out of the Crusader’s reach for a moment. Her confused expression melted down into a smile and she pulled out three decently sized pieces of candy. “That’s a catchy jingle you made up. Happy Halloween.” The door closed and we were left outside. The Crusaders stared down at the start of their horde with wide grins. The joyous mood carried over to Sam as well. “Ha! They really are in character.” I said nothing and we continued over to the next house. Sam’s attention remained on Sweetie, but this time, he managed to get a few words out. “Just wondering, how’d, uh, the one dressed as Sweetie get her mane down so well?” “Oh!” Sweetie stopped in her tracks and spun around to face Sam. “My sister did it! She’s really good at costumes and stuff like that!” A growing part of me prayed that Sam would be denser than a rock tonight. He scratched his beard and chuckled some more. “And where’s she at tonight?” “Um…” Sweetie’s smile deflated and her form slumped slightly. “She’s far away… I wish I could’ve told her happy Ni— Halloween.” “We college kids are horrible at communication. I’m sure she’ll give you a call eventually.” Sam gave his shoulder a shrug and came to a stop a few feet away from the second house’s door. In front of us was a collection of kids and their parents, the former eagerly awaiting whatever was behind the door. The door slowly creaked open and the children yelled,” Trick-or Treat!” What greeted them was an empty entrance hall. Whispers and confused looks turned to playful screams when a headless man leapt from inside the house at the kids while cackling. In place of his head was a bowl of candy that he extracted from his neck and handed down to any of the kids that had managed to brave his surprise appearance. “Zehaha! Happy Halloween!” “Awesome!” Scootaloo jumped ahead and grabbed a chocolate bar from the bowl. She stayed for a second and glared at the headless man. “Wait, how’d you know where to hold the candy?” “The same way I know where the stairs are!” the headless man bellowed. Apple Bloom stepped up next and took her candy with a grin. However, Sweetie stayed back a little and only slowly got closer to the candy. The headless man bent down so that he didn’t loom over any of the remaining trick-or-treaters. “Nothing to be scared of. I don’t bite… can’t without a mouth!” A nearby kid in a Spiderman costume giggled, rushed over, and snatched up a sweet. His bold move inspired the other kids and they all came over to get their fill of sugary goodness, Sweetie included. ~~~         Ponyville has nothing on John’s place. There must be a thousand, maybe two thousand people living here, and all of them have candy. Well, there was that one lame place that gave us raisins, but that person looked even older than Apple Bloom’s grandma.         Still, it was pretty dark out now and it took a while to get dark in John’s town. The strings that held my wings to my back were also starting to hurt a little too. I mean, they still looked awesome, but I didn’t want to wear them all night. Plus, my bag was feeling pretty heavy. Sweetie and Apple Bloom looked like they were having trouble with their bags too.         “You getting tired?” John asked.         “How’d you know?” I’m convinced all grown-ups can kinda read minds.         John pointed down to my arm holding the bag. “You’ve been moving that bag back and forth a lot more lately and you’ve been scratching where your wings are. You can take ‘em off if they’re hurting you.”         “It’s fine.” My face felt a little hot. I couldn’t believe it was that obvious that I was looking tired. I bet Rainbow Dash could’ve gotten three times as much candy without even breaking a sweat. Wonder is she’s out in a costume somewhere.         Sweetie rubbed her eyes. Her arm wobbled a little from her bag. “I’m a little sleepy… and we still need to put some the candy at Ni—”         “Yeah, I know, you need to put some candy away from later,” John interrupted. He extended a hand out ot Sweetie, who dredged up her bag and lobbed it over to him. His arm sank a little from the weight, but he didn’t seem to mind. “Your parents are probably gonna be at the house soon anyway, so lets just go to one more house. That sound fair?”         I was gonna say something, but then I saw that Apple Bloom was acting a little strange. Her eyes were really wide and kinda shimmered in the nightlight. Her bag fell the ground and she raced away from us and over to a group of costumed people on the other side of the street.         Without missing a beat, John snatched up her bag too and gave chase. John’s giant friend looked at me and Sweetie for a second, grabbed both our hands, and tugged us over to John. I ran alongside him, but Sweetie kinda just stumbled along. Apple Bloom had better have found some good candy.          We made it over to the house, but Apple Bloom wasn’t over by the door. John was holding her arm and keeping her away from the costumed people. He was talking with an older one.         “Sorry. She just really likes those sorts of costumes,” John said.         “Shucks, ain’t no problem,” the older person replied. She was a little shorter than John and the way she talked reminded me of some of the people from John’s school. She was wearing a really big hat that looked kinda silly and this weird brown vest that was really reflective. For some reason, she had a bunch of white streamers attached to her pants. She bent down so that she was face to face with Apple Bloom. “Always good to see another pony out and about.”         Pony? What is she ta— The wind blew the streamers in a different direction, revealing three small, red apples sewn the older girl’s pants. I pointed an arm at her. “You’re Applejack!”         “Darn tootin,” the fake Applejack replied while shifting her hat around. Her finger shot out and moved around to me and Sweetie. When she spoke again, her voice didn’t sound a screechy and didn’t have that drawl. “Let me guess. You’re the Cutie Mark Crusaders?”         “Yes,” Sweetie murmured with her eyes drifting around, not focusing on anything in particular.         The Applejack girl smiled really wide. “That’s so cute. Oh, you should talk to my sister. I’m sure ‘Sweetie’ would love to.” A hinge creeked and her head twisted over to a nearby gate. “Hmm, speak of the devil.”         Out of the gate came a bunch of colts and fillies. I recognized a few as vampire ponies, timberwolves, frankenstallion, and ghosts, but the killer hockey player and the colt with a pepperoni mask wearing a Hooves Warming Sweater seemed a bit out of place. The final person to come out was wearing a dress that shimmered from these weird thing diamond things sewn into it. She had plastic ears sticking out of her head that were attached to a white horn, making the combination look like the worst headband ever. Streams were attached to her dress, similar to the Applejack girl, but hers were purple. Three blue pieces of her dress shimmered more than the other parts.         I instantly spun over to Sweetie, but she was already sniffling. “Rarity.”         “Wow, I knew it was good, but not enough to make people cry,” said the Rarity girl. Something about the way she talked and spun around, showing off her costume, made my head hurt. It was the kind of ache I got whenever Diamond Tiara opened up her mouth.         “Something wrong?” asked the Applejack girl, her lips now turned down.         “N-no,” Sweetie stuttered, trying her best to hold back tears. “It… my sister did stuff like that before s-she…”         I went over to Sweetie’s side and gave her a hug. Apple Bloom wrenched her hand away from John and went over to Sweetie too. I noticed the girl scrunch up her nose at us and turn away to get to the next house. The Applejack girl ushered her and the other colts and fillies away, leaving just us, John, and John’s friend by the house.         “Hey, it’s just a costume,” Apple Bloom reassured Sweetie.         “But I know she’s out there,” Sweetie bawled. “She’s probably scared and worried about me and we’ve just been getting stupid candy!”         Sweetie’s forehead flashed. My bag flew upwards and exploded with a shower of sugar. A few lollipops and bars smacked me before I put my hands up. At least they shielded me when a nearby light blew up. John rushed between me and Apple Bloom and scooped Sweetie up. “Hey, hey. Don’t say stuff like that. Your sister is just fine at school.” John rubbed Sweetie’s back to calm her down. A grunt escaped from his mouth. He’d used both arms to pick her up. “I know she misses you too, but you’ll see her soon.” “W-when?” Sweetie sobbed, staining John’s shirt. “Soon.” I didn’t like the way John said that. It reminded me of what parents say when something really bad happens and they’re scared too. Sweetie tucked her head deeper into John’s shoulder. “I… I want to go home.” “Yeah, with power acting weird and all, I think its best we go back,” John replied. ~~~         The ride back was at least faster. Far less people now patrolled the streets. The night’s supply of candy was dwindling now and only the most ardent trick-or-treaters remained outside. Jack-o-lanterns had gone out and a silence fell over the suburban neighborhood. “Sorry about your bag,” Sweetie said to Scootaloo from the back of the car. “It’s fine,” came Scootaloo’s monosalvic answer. However, her tone shifted and grew softer. “You gonna be okay?” “Yeah, I just miss her,” Sweetie replied with a slight crack in her voice. We came to a stop in front of my house. Piling out, I was stopped from exiting by Sam. A string of panic ran through me. “Uh, something wrong?” “John, I don’t mean to pry, but…” Sam let go and shifted back into his seat. “That Sweetie kid, her sister’s okay, right?” He quickly raised up his hands and swished them back and forth. “I mean, I didn’t want to say anything, but she seemed really upset.” “It’s her sister’s first semester away from home,” I sighed. “Never met her, but they were really close. You shoulda seen the first time I babysat her, nearly broke my other arm in a fit.” “Jeez, I’d quit after that.” Sam clutched the car’s gearshift. “Well, aside from the end, it was pretty fun.” “Yeah.” I thankfully slid out of the car and waved Sam goodbye. “Hey, didn’t you say Sweetie’s sister did her hair? How’d she manage that from far away?” Sam asked while he shifted into reverse. I froze for a second before he burst out laughing. “Eh, you can tell me in the morning. Playing tricks like that is always… entertaining.” In the second before Sam turned the car and his face away, the light of nearby streetlamp caught in his eyes, turning them a glimmering shade of ruby. Then, like that, he was speeding away. Rather than ponder the possible supernatural ramifications, I slumped my shoulders and trudged over to the girls. They were huddled together and looking down at something. “Okay, you can compare your hauls inside the guest house.” “John look at this!” A delicately shaped tin foil crescent moon got shoved right into my face by Scootaloo. Whatever sweet was underneath pushed into the foil and created a visage of lone mare’s head. “Huh.” Politely pushing the sweet away, I gave my head a scratch. “Guess we had quite a few pony fans tonight.” “But it’s weird.” Scootaloo flipped the tiny moon around, analyzing it from all angles. “I don’t remember anyone giving me this. I mean, it was in my pocket and I definitely didn’t put anything in my pocket.” I glanced away from the girls and up at the waxing moon. It was at the point where it was slightly convex and had little resemblance the the odd confection in Scootaloo’s hands. I breathed in the Halloween air and took in a last whiff of the holiday. I couldn’t help but think that something was watching us. At least whatever it was gave us something to eat. I clasped Sweetie and Scootaloo’s shoulders and pushed them along with Apple Bloom back over to the guest house. At the door I released them “I wouldn’t worry too much about that. Maybe its a sign of good things to come. Now, I won’t be a tyrant about candy, but try not to eat too much of it. Best to save some for later. Also, really not worth the stomach ache.” “Yes, John,” the Crusaders droned. “Okay, happy Halloween.” With that said, I gently closed the door and made my way not to the garage, but rather, the front of my house. By now, the jack-o-lanterns were out so I only had the small lamps along the path to guide me. A breeze blew and a nearby bush rustled. In the moonlight, the bush had a turquoise hue and when it moved it almost looked blue. Something shimmered at its base and I stooped down and extracted another crescent moon sweet. “Okay, um, Luna or whoever, uh, thanks?” I got no reply and quickly hustled back to my house. There’d be time tomorrow to ponder the night’s strange occurrences. For now, I didn’t feel like lingering outside any longer. Something was afoot and now didn’t seem like a best time to mess with the unknown.