“Run.”
And so Pinkie did, running as a cruel reflection of her own laughter echoed behind her. This-this wasn’t right. Pinkie had seen clones of herself. In her nightmares, she had been chased by herself, her own self doubts. But this was different, it was her with pointy teeth and a scary face, and laughing at it wouldn’t work because all it would get you was laughter in return, laughter bigger and crueller and scarier than anything Pinkie could’ve imagined.
“Man, getting chased into a corn maze on Nightmare Night by a vampire. You’ve just really hit all the cliches, haven’t ya?” Pinkie’s eyes darted. searching for any hint of her, as her own voice, only twisted and off, echoed throughout the maze. Wait, vampire?
“That’s right, vampire!” the monster answered, as if in answer to her thoughts. “Um, you were thinking that, weren’t ya? I mean, you’d think I’d be able to guess what you were thinking, since I used to be you and all! Boy, would I have egg on my face if you weren’t thinking that!” The doppelganger snorted as Pinkie sprinted through corner and corner, hoping that the next one would lead to the exit but fearing it would instead lead to her pursuer.
“See, what I think happened is that dear ol’ Twily, or your Twily anyway, did some big, dangerous reality tearing spell that accidentally teleported me here. And thank goodness, because my Twily was about to kill me! Luckily, your Twi didn’t seem to have any Slayerness, so it was almost too easy breaking off her horn and gorging her eyes out like us on an ice cream day!” Pinkie stopped and her eyes widened as she processed what this-this monster was saying, and felt like she was going to throw up. Cold, merry laughter broke the silence of the night. “I’m kidding, silly! Killing your wimpy Twi wouldn’t be any fun! I gotta earn the life draining out of her eyes, y’know? There’s just an extra oomph to it when you have to work for it, especially with my Twi’s Slayerness. Always funner to prank an expert like Dash than an idiotic wimp like Shy, right? Or are you still using that ’She couldn’t handle it,’ excuse? Cause we both know that only made it funnier! For the first few times. Then it got old.” Pinkie scanned her surroundings in a panic. The voice seemed to be in front of her, then behind her, then in front of her again, and this had to be a nightmare, why wasn’t she waking up
“Anyway, I’m way more excited about you, me,” her voice seemed to drop in pitch. “Do you know how many times I’ve dreamed about this?” she asked, her voice booming, the jolly facade gone and replaced with the spine tingling sensation of a hunter deeply enjoying the thought of the kill to come. “Torturing myself as I beg for it to stop, as the light slowly fades away, as I suck my own blood...” It was almost seductive, and somehow Pinkie could hear her lick her lips right next to Pinkie’s ears. She rapidly looked behind herself, but nopony was there. “It’s even better than that chocolate fountain dream we used to have!” The high-pitched, happy voice suddenly came back in force, and Pinkie wasn’t sure which one was worse. “And you know, the best dreams were when I didn’t dream about me, exactly. I dreamt it was old me, who for all intents and purposes, is you. Annoying, idiotic, naive. A party pony who spent all her time and all her life trying to make meaningless ponies happy just to feel good about herself for a second. And ripping that naivety and stupidity out of her piece! By! Piece! Lemme tell you, I am way happier now! Now all I care about is me, and how ponies can make me happy! Specifically, how their deaths can make me happy! Because back then, all those ponies? They weren’t laughing with you. They were laughing at you.” The exit was close, Pinkie could feel it, she just had to-
Suddenly, she was face to face with herself, the vampire, as if she was just made of the darkness. “Gotcha,” she whispered as she gripped Pinkie’s face. Pinkie whimpered, and the vampire seemed to shiver with pleasure. “Are you scared?” Pinkie just whimpered some more. “I said are you!?” she howled. Pinkie frantically nodded. A small, friendly smile appeared on the monster’s face. “Then just giggle! Giggle at the ghosties! And I’ll giggle too. But remember. I’m not laughing with you. I’m laughing at you.” The vampire’s scary face came back, and grinned. “Now, let’s make this party last, hm?”
The giggling and screaming echoed through the night.