"So girls, how's about we head over to the barn? We got one hay of a party goin' on in there!" Applejack gestured.
Twilight nodded in agreement. "Sounds good, Applejack! Let's-"she was interrupted by Spike pulling on her leg. She gave him a questionable stare and bent down as he motioned for her.
"Come on Twilight," he whispered anxiously, "I've been dying to go on the haunted hay ride! I don't want to go to some silly dance party."
Twilight paused before speaking. "…Be that as it may, it's probably not just some 'silly dance party'. I mean we're talking about Pinkie Pie here, Spike! If anypony knows how to throw a good party, it's her."
"Jeez, I know I know, I wasn't saying anything bad about it. I'm asking as a friend and as a number one assistant – can we pleeaasseee go on the hayride first? We can meet up with them after. Come on, it'll be over before you know it!"
Twilight decided to indulge the baby dragon. "Okay, fine. But I don't want to hear any complaining later when we're in the barn."
"Deal." They shook on it. Twilight turned back to her friends, who were giving her inquiring glances.
Twilight didn't want to split up from her friends, but she promised Spike. "You girls go ahead; Spike and I will catch up. We're going to ride the haunted hay ride first, if that's okay?"
"Of course it's fine darling," said Rarity lightly. "You two go have fun, you know where to find us~!"
"Alright! Let's go let's go let's go!" Spike chanted, pulling Twilight in the direction of where the line started.
Twilight hurriedly tried to get in a few last words before Spike ushered her too far. "Uh, bye everypony! See you in a bit." Out of the corner her eye, she saw her friends waving goodbye as she was pushed further and further away. "Easy there, Spike. It'll still be there in two minutes; we don't have to rush over."
That didn't help at all. Spike was still pulling her forward as if she couldn't walk on her own. "Well what if we get there and it turns out we just missed it? We'll have to wait even longer to get on!"
The path through the apple trees was a small dirt walkway, mean to be traveled by the workers and their carts as they picked apples. Today, it was the spookiest street on the block, leading Twilight and Spike through a narrow road of cobwebs and balloons. The farmland smell did well to compliment the evening's aura. If Twilight closed her eyes, she could imagine when she was once a little filly, how she would fantasize the different legends of this mythological season. Of course, she never encountered this Hallowvale Spirit in any of her books. Still, the mixed fragrance of the night could only be described in one way – it simply smelled like Halloween.
Not many ponies opted to ride the hay ride first. By the number of ponies on the path with them, most seemed too entrapped by the mysterious costume party or the loud Halloween games. The few that made it to the other end of the dirt path were rewarded with a pleasant sight – the line for the attraction wasn't long at all. In fact, Spike thought, if they hurried, they could get on to the very next load!
The line itself was marked by – who would've guessed it – hay bales. For a moment Twilight wondered how the Apple Family managed to obtain so much hay when they were an apple farm, but she decided not to dwell on it for her own sake. There were already a few ponies in line, but the line looked short enough where Twilight and Spike would be able to get on the next tractor. Finally taking their place in line, they sat down and began to speculate.
"Where do you think the tractor will go Twilight?" asked Spike giddily, fidgeting his hands.
Twilight took a moment to work out the direction and curve of the tractor path. "Well it seems to me that it goes on through the apple trees for a while, though I wouldn't be surprised if it dipped shallowly into the Everfree Forest."
Spike grew apprehensive. "Whoa, do you really think we'd go into the Everfree Forest?"
Twilight shrugged. "It's possible. I mean, the edges of the forest would seem like an ideal place to build up the right amount of fright while still keeping away from the deep forest where the creatures lay. And based on the trajectory and curvature of the road, it seems more than likely."
"Hmm…" Spike pondered. "I'm not sure how I feel about that…"
"What, getting scared? Because we can turn back if you-"
"NO!" Spike shouted louder than he meant to. "Uh, I mean," he caught himself and quieted down, "I still want to do this. I am pretty fearless after all."
Twilight couldn't help but giggle. Although Spike wasn't as much of a scaredy pony like Fluttershy was, he was far from fearless. She chose to let it slide so he could keep his pride.
The moon, the smart mare noted, was now at a 45 degree angle to the ground and casted dull shadows around them. The position of the moon put the time at around 9:00 PM. A small wisp of cloud crossed in front of the moon. The small array of water molecules in the cloud infracted the light given by the moon, distorting the color slightly. From where she was sitting, the moonlight looked almost purple. It was interesting, but she thought nothing of it.
The purple unicorn decided to move the conversation along. "So now it's your turn to use your deductive reasoning," Twilight encouraged. "What do you think we're going to see on the ride?"
Spike put his claw to his chin. "Hmm… Well it's Halloween, so I'm sure we'll see a bunch of pumpkins... maybe a fake ghost or two. I wonder if they're going to have anypony dressed in costumes out there to try and scare us."
Twilight hadn't considered that. She wondered if Applejack and Pinkie Pie really put in that much work. To have ponies lying wait in the woods seemed almost silly, even impractical. What a terrible job it must be, she thought, to have to stand in a single spot in a forest for hours on end, waiting for the tractor to come into view. She concluded that it was illogical and was as arbitrary as the Hallowvale Spirit itself.
"We'll see."
"Hey look, the tractor's coming!" A pony at the front of line shouted. Cheers rang out from those in line, including Spike whose nervous tension shed from him like it was never there. As the tractor grew nearer, the ponies from the last trip chattered excitedly, discussing what just happened.
"Oh my goodness, that was excellent!" shouted a filly, returned by cheers of agreement from her friends. Big Macintosh turned his head from where he sat on the tractor, glancing at the group out of the group of young ones.
"Eeyup."
The tractor came to a stop a few feet away from the start of the line. Big Macintosh jumped down off the tractor and unhitched one of the railings on the passenger cart. He then pulled up some crude, wooden steps that allowed the ponies to step down from the ride safely. "Hope y'all had a good time. Enjoy the rest of your night," Big Macintosh waved the last group away as the eagerly disappeared into the apple trees heading back towards the main area. Finally, the red colt could pay attention to his new guests.
"Evenin' everypony. If y'all don't know me, mah name's Big Macintosh, though you can just call me Macintosh. Ah'm here to make sure ya don't go fallin' out of the tractor while Ah drive, so let's go over some basic safety…"
Over the next minute or so, Macintosh explained the do's and don'ts to riding in the tractor. It was all common sense really: sitting down = good, jumping out and sprinting into the woods = bad. Keen as always, Twilight listened with interest just in case they would be tested for their listening skills after he was done. They weren't.
"Alright everypony, so we're clear?" Nods and simple answers confirmed that they were ready and eager to depart. "Okay everypony, into the carriage and find ah seat."
Twilight had to hold Spike from cutting in line; he was too impatient for his own good. They finally were able to hop on board. The soft hay underneath them crunched quietly. A pang of environmental consciousness tweaked at Twilight while she thought of how much potential food (the hay) was wasted today.
The two took their seats and waited patiently for the ride to fill up. When Macintosh replaced the hand railing, there were a total of 10 ponies onboard, including Spike.
"Hold on." Macintosh warned as he flipped on the engine, which came alive with demonic vengeance. It growled as if it was trying to escape the very hood that encased it. Luckily no such event occurred, and the caravan lurched forward without a problem, keeping a slow, steady speed. Excited chatter filled the carriage as the cool breeze wafted past them all, rustling manes and disrupting costumes. The farther they went, the denser the apples trees around them became. Some of them grew so tall that they towered above the tractor, their branches silhouetted by the moon.
Twilight noticed a single strand of cobweb overhead, flying carelessly in the breeze. Moments later she saw two, then four, then ten. Soon she couldn't count as the canopy above them became thick with cobwebs. All ponies on board looked up in amazement, and huddled down in slight fear, hoping that the spiders weren't home. Twilight of course knew the webs were fake, but it was fun to pretend.
They came upon a mock-cemetery on the right-hoof side. Freshly filled graves with ominous tombstones left foreboding messages scribbled across them. There were even a few shallow graves that had yet to be filled.
Whoosh! Ponies gasped in fear as something swooped down from overhead. It was even enough to startle Twilight and Spike, whose hearts were pounding out of their chests. There were able to catch a glimpse of the fake bat on a wire before it disappeared into the other side of the trees.
"Scared yet Spike?" Twilight tried to make it sound teasing, and not let her own fear leak into her voice.
"M-me? No, of course not! You know me better than that…" responded Spike, whose shaking gave his bluff away.
Further they went down the path, until they finally entered the forest, just like Twilight predicted. The moonlit above was replaced with dark canopy or tree tops, darkening the entire landscape around them. The only source of light came from lanterns that hung on the tractor near Macintosh, and on the very back of the carriage. To even be skin-deep inside the Everfree forest at night was enough to send chills down anypony's spine.
Orange eyes stared intimidatingly from random places inside the forest. From the cart, Twilight could actually make out the shape of a pumpkin. It was a very clever trick to place the jack-o-lanterns where they were; you could barely tell they were pumpkins at all.
Every now and again, everypony would grow tense as they thought they heard a bush shake, or a twig snap. With hunter-keen senses, they all kept their ears perked. Spike kept his eyes peeled; as a dragon, he by far had the best vision, and could see greater distances at night. Some of the littler ones chattered anxiously, wondering what would happen next.
Around a bend, they found a small shack with a campfire outside it. It seemed abandoned, and it big, red painted letters were the words "run while you can". Twilight thought it was a bit cheesy, and even more so contradictory after what Macintosh said about saying inside the moving carriage. It still managed to work on Spike by the looks of it; he was eyeing the warning warily, glancing back the way they had come.
"BOO!" A filly on board shouted, nearly giving everypony heart attacks. It wouldn't had been so bad if everypony wasn't so wound up with nervous tension, but now even a simple loud noise could make them jump. The filly and her friend laughed at the others' expense. Twilight recognized them from Cheerilee's class – Silverspoon and Diamond Tiara.
After everypony got their breathing back down to manageable level, they once again resumed their search for the scary. Every once in a while, they'd pass a new, simple outpost that would catch their attention: a small building, a graveyard, signs, pumpkin patches. Once they were distracted with what was in front of them, some clever would swoop down or surprise them from the other side that would spook them all. Twilight soon found a pattern where she could predict when and where something would happen, decreasing her own fear of the unknown.
"Now that I think about it, this is actually kind of fun…" Twilight allowed herself to think. A quick glance down to Spike showed that he too was getting used to it, and allowed himself to smile and chuckle.
Tap tap tap. Twilight hesitated. What was that? It kind of sounded like a twig tapping against the side of the cart. Twilight looked down and nothing was there, just the dirt and gravel that they traveled on. The purple mare shrugged it off, thinking she must have imagined it.
Tap tap tap. She shot a look down, but again, nothing was there. She narrowed her eyes suspiciously, keeping her stare towards the side. After several seconds of nothing, Twilight was beginning to think she was going crazy hearing sounds.
"Twilight? What are you looking at?" asked Spike.
Twilight turned to face him, embarrassed that she was caught staring at empty space while she should have been enjoying the ride.
"Oh, nothing Spike. I just thought I heard-"
Tap tap tap. This time she was ready, snapping her head in the direction in less than a quarter of a second. What she saw gripped her heart in terror.
The edge of a dark tendril retreated into a nearby bush.
For several seconds, Twilight couldn't move or speak. Her mind was going haywire trying to comprehend what she just saw. Could it be an animal? No, it moved too fast. Could it be a part of the ride? Possibly, but it still wouldn't explain what it is or how it moved so fast. Besides, she could've sworn Macintosh said nothing would try and touch the-
Thud!
A loud thud came from the other side of the carriage, and it hit it with enough force to send it rocking. Everypony on board froze with fear, and a few let out short screams before covering their mouths.
Macintosh looked back warily, and it was at that look when Twilight realized this wasn't supposed to be happening. Protectively, Twilight pulled Spike closer to her as an eerie, deep rumble came from the darkness.
It almost sounded like a laugh…