//------------------------------//
// Chapter 18 
// Story: Waning and Waxing 
// by Calliope Pony 
//------------------------------//

I cast about, trying to think of a different way to dealing with these persistent ponies. Direct attacks didn’t work.

Frighten them.

Yes. Fear can be a powerful weapon. I remember a spell I found long, long ago. We were investigating Sombra, and we found spellbooks with powerful, forbidden, dark magic. One of the books contained fear spells, and I remember one which might work just perfectly now.

The spell creates frightening illusions. But the true strength of it is that it responds to the fear it inspires. The more fear ponies feel from the illusions the more powerful the spell grows. It feeds off its victims and causes their terror to increase until they are reduced to a state of mindless panic.

I wait until the path takes the ponies into a dark grove, and then I cast the spell on the trees around them. The grove grows darker still, only to be illuminated moments later by monstrous faces leering from each tree. The ponies instantly begin screaming. They huddle together, fear increasing by the moment.

Perfect. I float close by, relishing the sounds of screaming, of frantic hoofbeats, of giggling-

Giggling?

Incredulous, I look to see the pink Earth mare laughing and making ridiculous faces at one of the trees. Her companions can make no more sense of her behavior than I can, and they yell at her to run. She has a wide smile on her face as she turns to them. She begins... singing?


 “Oh, girls, don’t you see?
When I was a little filly and the sun was going  dooooown-“


She’s not really singing, is she? The purple unicorn echoes my thoughts, “Tell me she’s not-“


“The darkness and the shadows, they would always make me frooooown.”


The white unicorn sighs, “She is.”

The pink mare begins pronking circles around them.


“I’d hide under my pillow
From what I thought I saw,
But Granny Pie said that wasn’t the way to deal with fears at all.
She said, ‘Pinkie, you gotta stand up tall
Learn to face your fears.
You’ll see that they can’t hurt you;
Just laugh to make them disappear!’”


As she laughs the illusionary faces begin to vanish from the trees. The other ponies gasp, but as she continues singing they start laughing as well.


“Soooo giggle at the ghostly
Guffaw at the grossly
Crack up at the creepy
Whoop it up with the weepy
Chortle at the kooky
Snortle at the spooky”


The spell gains strength from the fear of its victims, but if there is no fear its strength fades. As Pinkie bounces and sings and laughs the illusions fade faster and faster. At last, as she finishes her song, the last of the illusions disappear and the spell breaks.


“And tell that big, dumb, scary face
To take a hike and leave you alone,
And if he thinks he can scare you he’s got another think coming,
And the very idea of such a thing just makes you wanna HAHAHA
Laaaaaaugh!”


The ponies collapse to the ground together in a laughing heap. I just hover and watch them, dumbfounded. Oddly, I’m not bothered by this defeat so much as I am baffled. How could I have predicted they would have insanity on their side?