After the party ended with a "BANG!", everypony who came returned to their own homes to rest up for the night. The group also needed to depart to get some shut eye. After the last pony exited the castle, Twilight and Spike were also exhausted and wanted to go to bed. Before they could do that, however, they talked to Ash about sleeping in the same guest room where he was recovered back to health. Ash was about to suggest that also and so, they agreed.
After they have used the bathroom, they all tucked themselves into bed. They all said their "Good night" to each other before turning off the lights and drifted into their minds.
Later in the morning.....................
The Sun rose in the horizon and many ponies were getting ready for the day, but more than ready for tonight. For tonight is their pony version of HALLOWEEEEEEEEEEEN!!!!!!!!!!!! (Too dramatic?)
Anyway, the three in the castle were also doing the same. They have all brushed their teeth, washed themselves up and got ready to go and get ornaments and decorations for this holiday. Although, Ash does not know yet why they were heading to Sugarcube Corner to get these decorations, but already seeing what has happened in the last hours yesterday, he opted not to complain much.
When they have arrived their destination, they entered to see Mrs. Cake, one of the workers of Sugarcube Corner, standing behind the counter.
"Ah, Princess Twilight!" Mrs. Cake greeted while slightly bowing. "You're here. I assume that you're here for the decorations that Pinkie promised.
"Yep," Twilight replied. "Is it ready?"
"Oh, yes. I'll go and get them. In the meantime," Mrs. Cake turned to Ash. "why don't you show your new human friend around the place?"
"Actually," Ash interrupted. "I already know this place. Inside AND out. Heck, I even know the entire interior of the Canterlot palace." Mrs. Cake was slightly taken aback. Nopony could know every little detail inside the Canterlot palace unless they are royalty or a royal guard.
"Well," She cleared her throat. "since you already know what Sugarcube Corner is like, maybe you can help me with something."
"Sure. What can I do for you?"
"Can you watch over our babies? They're right over there." She pointed a hoof to Pumpkin Cake and Pound Cake, playing with each other on the set of low stairs behind them.
"Uh, I don't know. I've never actually watched over kids before. But, if it makes things any quicker," He grabbed Spike and pushed him toward the babies. "Spike can do the job, right?"
"WHAT!?" Spike yelled out loud. "There is NO way I'm gonna..................!!!!" Before he could continue, he saw that Ash and Mrs. Cake already left in a flash. Spike sighed loudly of annoyance and not just because Pound Cake was biting on his tail with his toothless jaw. Twilight giggled. She never witnessed Spike watching over the Cakes' babies before, so this was a good opportunity. "Uh, Twilight," He called to his foster sister. "Little help?" Twilight only rolled her eyes and smiled before levitating the babies off of Spike's tail and ear. "Thanks."
"Don't mention it," Twilight said.
After a while, Mrs. Cake and the boy came back with four boxes full of fake cobwebs, rubber snakes, false spiders and many more.
"Here you go, Ms. Sparkle," Mrs. Cake said. "Hopefully, these will be enough for some decor changes and all that."
"Thank you, Mrs. Cake," Twilight thanked. "These are just the right ones. C'mon, you two."
As they exited the building, the baby drake and Ash held a short argument.
"The next time one of us has to babysit," Spike said to Ash quietly. "YOU'RE gonna be it."
"Yeah, you wish." Ash mocked. And because of that, Spike punched him on the leg. Unfortunately, some juveniles can only do such little physical damage to another creature, so the only thing Ash said was......"I'm okay." Spike groaned again and walked even faster, catching up to Twilight. Ash sighed and rolled his eyes before speeding up as well.
In the area of Sweet Apple Acres, we can see a giant barn-like house in the distance. Said house happens to belong to Applejack and her family. And speaking of "family", a little filly ran outside the open double doors of the entrance.
The filly had a light yellow coat, a red mane, and tail, wore a light crimson bow on her head and her cutie mark (I'm tired of saying "flank-image") was a shield with three stripes consisting of red, light pink and light grape purple. It also had an apple on it that is purple and pink colored. Her name was Applebloom.
Anyway, what Applebloom was doing was that she was running to her tree house, A.K.A. The Cutie Mark Crusaders Clubhouse. It used to belong to AJ when she was still little, but she does not play in it anymore, so she gave it to Applebloom and her friends. After a few more steps, she finally arrived at her destination. She ran up the steps to the top and entered. Within the clubhouse, we can see some items included in any other clubhouse. One of the unexpected features was that it had a speech pedestal, probably for giving short announcements or something. But, there were also two fillies, waiting for Applebloom to arrive.
The first one had a light gray coat, light purple hair and tail with a pale rose streak. She too had a cutie mark with the same shield, but the differences were that it had a purple star with a pink music note. Her name was Sweetie Belle.
The second one had an orange coat, a moderate cerise mane and tail, a cutie mark like the previous two had but instead, it bore a purple wing with a pink bolt of lightning. Her name was Scootaloo.
Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and Applebloom have been friends since they have met the first time. They name themselves The Cutie Mark Crusaders because they have wanted to earn their cutie marks for such a long time. And ever since the bullies from their school, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, have redeemed themselves a few weeks ago, they have been rewarded with the (kinda) same cutie marks to help other ponies understand their destiny. The trio were very happy because of this and have always helped ponies in need ever since.
Applebloom walked past her friends and stood behind the plinth to make an announcement.
"Hear ye! Hear ye! This meeting of The Cutie Mark Crusaders is officially opened!" She declared. "So, have ya' girls find anythin' ineterestin' lately?" The two looked at each other before turning to Applebloom and shook their heads, meaning 'No'. "Seriously? Ya'll haven't found anythin' at all!?"
Then Scootaloo decided to speak first. "Why do you care so much?"
"Well, I was hoping that you girls would have somethin' interestin' for today. Other than me." Applebloom noticed that the two crusaders were looking at her, almost like they desire something. "What?"
"Well," Sweetie Belle spoke then. "have you?"
"Well, yeah! Ah'd like to tell ya'll about it, but maybe you girls aren't ready for it." Her friends have always witnessed her go nuts and panic, especially that one time when they got stuck up a tree because they intended they would earn their cutie marks by..........climbing up a tree, I guess?
"What!? Are you COCO in the LOCO? We wanna hear it now!" Scootaloo said.
"Yeah, we'll believe you." Sweetie Belle said. Well, now is the time to tell them and there is no time to wait.
"Alright, but just promise me that ya'll won't think it's stupid." They both nodded their heads. "Well, okay. Here it goes. So, it all started when................"
As Applebloom told her friends the tale of whatever she had in mind, we change the day speed to night time. After a few hours of morning, afternoon and evening, we finally reach the night time, about 8:00 P.M. or so. Where the ponies were all ready to go and celebrate the spookiest and scariest holiday ever brought in Equestria,
NIGHTMARE NIGHT!!!!
What? It is for dramatic effect.
Anyhow, we shift our view to The Castle Of Friendship once again to view the living room within it. It was with filled spiders and cobwebs, some were real or fake, rubber snakes hanging from the draperies of the windows and even real life rats, roaming around the marble floor. Spike, Ash and Twilight were the only ones in the castle, with Spike wearing his two-headed dragon costume this year while Ash was not going to wear a costume because he does not acquire any costume in Equestria that fits his "size". The two were standing in the living room, probably chatting about some topic. Abruptly, the double doors opened to reveal Twilight wearing a sort of witch-like attire. She also had a broom on her back to complete her costume.
The two noticed her and stopped to see her costume. Although Twilight expected Ash to be amazed, neither he or Spike were surprised to see Twilight wearing her same witch costume 5 years ago.
"So Ash, what do you think?" She asked Ash. Of course, his answer would be.....
"Isn't that the costume you had when you were still 14?" Ash and Spike asked surprisingly at the same time.
"Wait, you knew?" Spike then asked Ash.
"Nah, I just guessed." The boy responded. He knew Twilight had that costume when he saw the Fluffle Puff Nightmare Night 2 video back on Earth. He was just not sure if she actually had that costume or when was the last time she wore it.
"Well," Twi spoke. "now that two out of three of us are dressed, let's go and celebrate Nightmare Night!"
"Yeah!" The boy and drake raised their fists in the air.
"I'm actually really excited for this," Ash commented. He has already celebrated Halloween on Earth, now it is time to celebrate Nightmare Night in Equestria!! "But, let's just hope nothing bad happens like the last few times you guys did."
"Well, enough of that." Spike tried to hurry up this short conversation. "Let's have some SpOoOoOky fun!" Twi and Ash agreed before the three walked to the exit.
A few minutes, a gathering of friends and a few houses later...........................
We can see the Mane 6 with each others costume, going on their spooky and scary night. Applejack was wearing a viking costume with a plastic sword on the side of her costume, Rainbow Dash was dressed as her favorite hero from her favorite book series, Daring Do A.K.A. A.K. Yearling, Rarity dressed herself up as a beautiful mistress of night, with her gown being very dark indigo and her tiara being spider-styled, and Pinkie Pie was dressed as some sort of giant yellow bunny costume, included with a purple bow tie. She said that it was to convey her "inner dark and mechanical side", whatever that means. All of them were confused, but, it is Pinkie. They do not have to argue. And to their surprise, but not to Ash's, Fluttershy also came, dressed as a cute bumble bee. At least, Ash said she was cute in that costume, which made her blush.
"Hoowee!" Applejack shouted. "Now that's what ah' call a carriage load of candy, fellas'!" All of them had so much candy, but Twilight had the most candy because, you know, she IS a princess.
"Yeah!" Pinkie exclaimed. "This night was SOOO FUN! And the best part was that I get to celebrate it with a real life HUMAN!!!! This is the greatest Nightmare Night EVEEEEER!!!!!!!!" She jumped so high and hugged everypony so tightly, they could not even breathe.
"Uh, Pinkie," Spike said while inhaling heavily. "We...can't....breathe!!!"
"Oops, sorry!" She let go and made the group fall to the ground while Ash landed perfectly on his feet. He always knows how to get out of Pinkie-related situations, especially this one.
"Good, now that we're done, I guess we should get going now." All of her friends agreed.
But then, Ash noticed something on the tree branch in the corner of his eye. So, he quickly turned around but saw nothing on the branch. Then, Spike spoke to him.
"Hey, is everything alright?" He asked the boy worriedly. "You looked like you saw a ghost there for moment."
"Spike," Ash changed the subject. "have you ever felt like you're being watched? 'Cus I am."
"Well, not really. But, only on some occasions. Why?" Paranoia can be worrying and Spike was starting to feel like Ash was having it right now.
"Well, I just have this feeling that we're all being..........." Before he could finish his sentence, Fluttershy called for them.
"Um, Spike, Ash," She called with a slightly louder voice, "we're all waiting for you. What are you two talking about?" The two looked at each other and sighed, followed by them saying,
"Nothing."
"Well, come on then. We're gonna stash up our candy back at the castle."
"Alright," Spike said.
As soon as they were going to leave, all of them suddenly heard screaming further away. They all ran and galloped there until they saw the Cutie Mark Crusaders running away from something. The crusaders saw their friends and sisters in their path, so they stopped and hugged them for refuge.
"Applejack!" Applebloom shouted.
"Rarity!" Sweetie Belle shouted as well.
"Rainbow Dash!" Scootaloo called out loud.
The trio hid behind their sisters/related sisters and quivered.
"Woah, girls!" Applejack shouted. "What happened!? Why are ya'll runnin'?" She was seriously worried.
"T-t-that," Applebloom replied with fear while pointing a hoof to the direction in front of them. What the group witnessed shocked them and any pony that also saw the creature.
It was the same bat biped from last night. Although the ponies around did not know what the creature was, Ash knew exactly who and what it is. And he thought that it would never be in Equestria. But alas, here HE was.
"Hey!" RD shouted. "What's your deal scaring little fillies around!!??" The bat creature did not reply, but only stepped forward slowly. "Oh, not talking, huh!?" Then, Dash ascended into the air. "Well, maybe THIS will knock some sense into you!!" She dashed downward and targeted at the creature precisely. But, when it seemed she was going to make contact, the bipedal bat sidestepped out of her way, "What the!?", making her crash into the dirt, thus leaving her unconscious.
"RAINBOW DASH!!!" They all cried. Then, the creature proceeded to walk. Steam blew out of Applejack's nose.
"Hey, ya' ugly diaper-wearing critter!!" Applejack yelled. The bat stopped again. "Ya' think ya' can pick on my sister and best friend? Well, ya'll got another thing comin'!!" She took hold her lasso out of nowhere with her teeth, twirled it to make circle motion and used the momentum to tangle the bat with it. She held the rope with all her might, hoping that it will be long enough to subdue him, "Ha! Now how do ya' like them ap..........?!?!", but it was no use as the biped grabbed the rope, spun around, "Woooaaah!!!!", before letting go after about 5 spins and letting Applejack land near RD.
Then, the bat did not move but only stared. The ponies already knew that it was waiting for one of them to make the next move. When, it moved closer, it lifted its arm and pointed at.........Ash?
"Wait," Spike said. "you want Ash?"
Then, it spoke, "Yes.", in a very sinister voice. Everypony's spine shivered because of his voice. It lowered its arm, but then Twilight stepped forward.
"Well, you're not taking him!" She did not who this creature was or why it wants Ash, but since it injured two of her best friends, she was not going to let Ash get hurt also. "And why do you want him anyway?!"
"That is none of your line of work," He replied.
But then, Ash remembered that line before,.........
It's.......very important line of work that I cannot let random ponies get involved with."
Then, Ash remembered that the creature was..........
"G-Gooma ZG?" Ash asked with fright.
"Hm, so I was correct. You DO possess too much knowledge of me."
"Yeah, more than you think."
"Ash," Twilight called. "is this true?" Ash only sighed.
"Yes, it is." He walked ahead, but Twilight stopped him. He shook her hoof off and continued to pace forth. When he stopped, the beast and the boy stared into each other's eyes. All of Ash's fright and fear turned to anger. The ponies waited for who would make the first move.
After what a felt like about 10 seconds, Zooma charged first, followed by Ash for some reason. In the middle of his charge, he suddenly thought,
"Wait, what am I doing!?!?" Before he could answer himself, Zooma brought his fist forward, but Ash ducked in time to avert it. Suddenly, he felt like his energy was rising and did a spin kick directly to ZG's chest with incredible speed. ZG staggered back to recover from the sudden counter attack. Ash, however, felt confused. He just did a stunt that even his sister could not have managed. "How-h-how did I do that?" He looked at his hands and saw a red aura, flowing through them. "Okay, this is definitely NOT normal." Then, he heard ZG speak.
"You have quite a lot more strength than I thought. However," He stood up, fully recovered, "it will not be adequate to stop me!"
He charged again, but this time, Ash was ready. Zooma tried to punch him again, but Ash jumped back to avoid it. Then, ZG did the same spinning kick that time, but Ash caught his leg and delivered a powerful kick of his own. ZG stumbled back, but recovered quickly and brought a fist that struck Ash's face this time. Ash thought it would hurt a lot, considering he was sensitive, but he felt less pain than usual. "Wait, that should've hurt more, shouldn't it?" Suddenly, ZG charged again and delivered a spinning roundhouse kick to Ash's chest. Ash struggled to heal for a moment before noticing that ZG was charging at him, so he dodge rolled out of the way to the left while clutching his chest.
Ash knew he was vulnerable and ZG was about to strike. Before he could, however, a magic dark pink aura surrounded ZG, "What the Hell!?!?", lifted him off the ground and he was hurled backwards into a wagon of oranges. Then, a random pony with an orange coat, a white mane and tail rushed at the wagon, suggesting it was his.
" Oh, c'mon!" The orange pony whined. Then, he saw ZG rising up from the debris, which got him to scatter and scream.
"What the?" Ash found out the source of the aura. "Twilight, I-..." He breathed heavily.
"Don't mention it." Twilight interrupted. Suddenly, Batsy charged again, but it was not going for Ash. Alternatively, it was going for.........
"Twilight, watch out!!" His warning was quick enough as Twilight saw the incoming Zu. So, she jumped away just in time to dodge the attack. She stood near Ash and helped him up. "Where are the others?!"
"They've already left to get help and took Dash and Applejack to a nurse. You okay?"
"Yeah, I think so."
Then, they saw ZG was doing a battle stance. They looked at each other. "You ready to take this punk down together?"
"You bet! Let's win this!" Then, they entered their own battle stances.
And with some warning, Ash and Twilight charged in first. ZG already saw it coming and flew upwards. Twilight also flew after him and shot magic blasts out of her horn in mid-air. Every blast was dodged easily, except for one which struck him on the wing flap. "GAH!!"He crashed roughly back at the ground and attempted to get up. Now, with his wing burnt, he will be unable to fly for a while. "Damn you, you BASTARDS!! You'll pay for that!!" Twilight descended, but quickly noticed that ZG rushed forward once more. Then, Ash rushed forward as well and made direct contact with the bat's chest. But, the moment he did, his right arm was covered with an aura of black, but his shoulder soon gained a spiritual image of a red shoulder pad. His forearm had a red mist and his wrist had an image of a golden gauntlet.
"What is happening to me!?!?" He thought. But, he realized that the Gurongi was also shocked and this gave him enough time to deliver a hefty punch to ZG's side, making him stumble and fall. "Wait, this looks really familiar." Then, he saw that ZG was even more shocked than him.
"No, it cannot be happening!!" He was surprised and did not expect the boy to have the powers of......."No, I will finish my task, no matter what!" Then, he charged at Ash once more. Ash was prepared for this and blocked ZG's punch with his other hand and the result was the same as his right hand. Ash delivered a rising kick to the Gurongi's lower jaw, thus damaging it. Then, it happened again to his leg but differently. It glowed a black ghostly image, a knee pad with a red circle and a golden ankle bracelet. The result happened also to his other leg.
"Okay, this is SERIOUSLY heavy." ZG charged again, but Twilight blocked Ash with a shield spell while rushing beside him.
"Ash, we need to think of a way to defeat him!" Twilight explained. Ash thought for a moment before his brain hatched another idea.
"Okay, I got it!" Ash said. "Twilight, open the barrier!" Twilight released the barrier and Ash immediately kicked ZG in the face, making him stumble once more.
"You cannot defeat me! EVEN IF YOU TRY!!" But then, Ash clenched both of his fists tightly.
"No, you're wrong," Ash said with slightly quiet.
"Eh?"
All of the sudden, his chest was surrounded by a red ghostly image of chest armor. His eyes were no longer brown, but instead, they were red except for his pupils. His entire head was covered by a ghastly image of a helmet-like mask we all know too much. Twilight gasped at this, she had no theory why this was happening right now, but she continued watching in shock. "There is always hope! And that is the one thing that you don't have!" His soles began sparking out electricity and glowing orange and yellow. "I don't want ponies to fear anymore!" The aura turned into one whole figure that surrounded Ash's entire body. "I want all ponies to smile!" He did a finisher stance. "So, take a good look....." He readied his feet to sprint. "at my......" Twilight and ZG were surprised that his voice changed to.....
"FINISHER!!!!"
"Nani!?"
Just as he said, he ran forward and screamed with his soles sparking out lightning with every step he took until he jumped, did an epic front flip, "WAIT! WAIT!!", before he brought his right foot onto ZG's chest. After that, he back flipped back to the ground, doing his landing stance. The kick had so much force, it made ZG spin on the ground until he weakly got up with you-know-who's symbol appearing on his chest. Suddenly, cracks of yellow light began appearing along his body and led to his buckle. After only five seconds, he screamed before exploding into nothing. Twilight had to shield her herself because of the bright luminosity and heat released by the explosion. Then, the aura disappeared and his red eyes went back to brown.
Directly after that, Ash landed on both his knees and fainted on his face.
It has been a while since Ash has passed out and became unconscious. Twilight's friends arrived right after 5 minutes after the battle took place. They sent Ash to the Ponyville hospital and hoped that he will be okay. The doctor said that the good news was that Ash was going to recover the day after the event occurred. They understood and the doctor and nurses tried everything they can use to heal him. Hopefully, he will be in a better state in the morning............
The next day in the morning...........
Beeps.
That was the only sound that could be heard from Ash's patient room. Ever since the occurrence last night, ponies could not stop telling and chatting to each other about it. It was even featured in the newspaper in Ponyville. And now, the only sound was now accompanied by another sound, which were the double doors, opening to reveal the Mane 6 and Spike, entering into the room. They were worried sick, but also very confused and they have a lot of questions for him. Twilight and Spike got him some flowers while Fluttershy got him a cute little purple bunny doll. And Pinkie Pie also brought a gift, which looked like a sort of blue staff with golden blue crystal holders at the ends. Her friends questioned this, but she articulated it was for "when he ever needs a weapon in combat". So, they went along with it. They all stood on different parts of the room with Twilight, Spike and Applejack on the left side of the bed, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie sitting on the sofa at the left-hand corner and Rainbow Dash and Rarity just stood near the doorway.
Suddenly, all of them saw his hand just flinched a bit, indicating that he is waking up. They all went to different sides of the bed and witnessed as Ash flickered his eyes until fully wide open. After that, he began to sit up and groan in pain, but also yawn with exhaustion. "Ow," He said. "What happened?" He rubbed his eyelids and saw that he was laying on a hospital bed and the group was standing and looking relieved to see him. "Guys, why am I in a hospital?" All eyes turned to Twilight because she was the only one who stayed during the conflict. Twilight sighed. This was gonna take a lot of explaining.
"Well, it's a long story and it's pretty hard to believe."
To Be Continued.......................................................