//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: The Nightmare Before Ponyville // by Grim The Pony Reaper //------------------------------// While Jack was singing his song elsewhere, Twilight Sparkle was getting a schedule ready for the night. When she finished, she started to walk out the door, but a certain assistant of hers wanted to ask her something. "Twilight? Why don't you have a costume on?" The newest alicorn turned to her assistant and responded, "Unfortunately, since I'm a princess now, I'm in charge of supervising the entire celebration, and that sort of means no dressing up. Speaking of which, though," Twilight looked at Spike with confusion, "where's your costume?" Spike simply replied, "I have my costume! I'm going as a dragon!" The two stood still in awkward silence for a while, when Twilight finally said, "You do know you are a dragon, right?" Spike just responded with a chuckle, "That's why it was so easy for me to get ready!"Another awkward silence filled the room, but soon broke when a pink pony came bursting through the door, catching her breath. "TWILIGHT!!" Pinkie Pie shouted, still trying to catch her breath. Twilight sighed, knowing if Pinkie was involved, her schedule was probably moot. She turned around to talk to her. "Yes, Pinkie?" The party pony stopped catching her breath instantly, and yelled, "Theresthisnewponythatshowedupjustafewminutesagoandhecameincostumeithinkhesherefortheholidaybutimnot..." "PINKIE, SLOW DOWN!!!" Twilight boomed. Both Spike and Pinkie looked at Twilight with surprise. Twilight started to look a little sheepish, and almost whispered, "Sorry, I'm still getting used to the Royal Canterlot Voice. Sorry. Ummm, please continue." After she said this, Pinkie started bouncing up and down and exclaimed, " There's a new pony here, and I think he's here for the Nightmare Night party!" Twilight seemed a little surprised at this new information. "Well, this is a little sudden. What do you think he's here for?" Pinkie just kept bouncing on the walls, completely unfazed by Twilight's slight concern. "I don't know, but what I do know is that I have to find out where he lives so I can throw him a PARTY!!!" As soon as Pinkie said this, she zoomed out the door, but suddenly ran back in. "Oh, and he looks like a skeleton in a suit." And she zoomed off again. Twilight, once again, sighed. As Jack was admiring the town, he started to see something in the distance. He looked at it with interest, and quickly noticed it was coming closer, and closer.........and closer really fast. It's still going. It's... not slowing down.... Oh no. That was the last thought he had before something almost hitting Mach 2 crashed into him with full force. The only thought Jack had immediately when he saw his blurry vision was, simply,If I wasn't dead already, I would be now. Literally everything was sore in his bones. Luckily, it wasn't too sore, for some reason. "Hehe, um, excuse me?" As he heard this, he started to focus his sight on the blue blob directly in front of him. After a few seconds of complete disorientation, the pieces started putting themselves together, and Jack's vision came back to reveal... a winged pony. "Sorry, just lost control for a few seconds. You okay?" Jack just nodded. She extended a hoof out to Jack, which after a few seconds of confusion about the situation, he took and pulled himself up. "Sure you're okay? That was a pretty big crash." The skeleton cracked his spine, and replied, "Well, if I wasn't dead, I wouldn't be." Rainbow (We all know who she is except Jack) looked at him with confusion, then saw all of him, and got the "joke". "Heh, funny. Nice costume, by the way." Pointing to Jack. Now, it was the skeleton's turn to be confused. "What is it these ponies keep saying about a costume?" Rainbow chuckled a bit at the supposed humor, then looked at the dead serious face of Jack. Her smile slowly turned into a frown, and then her jaw hung open a bit. "Wait, you're... serious?" She stepped up to him, which he backpedaled a bit to in return, but not much. She, with a little hesitation, touched his skull. It feels... real. Then she touched a different part of his skull, only to find the same outcome. Then, she did something that she had to force herself to do. She reached out to his eye, seeing if he would flinch. Jack didn't too badly. Then she tried to touch the fake black lid that was obviously covering his eye. She didn't find it. She reached further, trying to touch it. Still, she didn't find anything. Then she reached further, and further, and she finally touched something, however, it was not fabric. It was bone. Then Rainbow looked at her hoof, which was, undoubtedly lodged in Jack's eye socket. She reached back incredibly quickly. "Oh... my.... CELESTIA!!!" And with that, she took off with amazing speeds. To this, Jack just shrugged. As Pinkie was running towards Jack, eager to formally welcome him to Ponyville, Rainbow slammed into her. "Wowie, Dash, what's the rush?" As Dash caught her breath, she got out, "Pony *wheeze* skeleton *gasp* not alive." When Pinkie heard this, she realized she must have been talking about the new pony. "You mean the new pony dressed as a skeleton in a suit that came here for Nightmare Night is ACTUALLY a skeleton?!?! IN A SUIT?!?!?!" To this, Dash just nodded with fear in her eyes. " That... is... AMAZING!!" Pinkie started sprinting for the new pony, and soon after, Rainbow tackled her. "No!! Don't go! That pony can't be good!" To this, Pinkie just wiggled out of her grasp and giggled. "Don't be silly, Dashie! Just because a pony isn't alive doesn't mean they don't have a heart! Oh, wait, it does... I mean feelings! That's what I meant!" To this, RD just facehoofed. But then she thought about what she could do in this situation. "Fine, you can greet him," Rainbow pounded her hooves together with a sinister look on her face, "but I'm tagging along." At this, Pinkie smiled and nodded, completely unaware of what was going to happen. Jack still was travelling Ponyville, but something was definitely on his mind.This has been an extremely eventful 4 minutes... "THERE!!", he heard someone scream, and then something caught his eye. He turned to the right on the crossroads he was on, only to find unluckiness. For there he saw two ponies traveling in his direction at incredibly high speeds with no signs of stopping. ........uh oh.