//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1: Just Because I Can't See It, Doesn't Mean I Can't Believe It! 
// Story: Everypony Hail to the Pumpkin King 
// by Harmony Charmer 
//------------------------------//

	Twilight Sparkle sighed as she placed the final book onto the bookshelf, her aching frame leaning against the ladder. It had taken hours and extreme concentration, but she had finally managed to reorganize the entirety of her book collection to her new system that Spike had helped her to develop.

"There we are!" Spike proclaimed, sliding down the ladder by the poles. "That's the last section!"

Twilight smiled blithely. "Thanks for the help, Spike. I'm just glad we got to finish before..." She blinked as she glanced at the clock. "Wow, it's almost midnight! We should get you to bed, Spike."

Spike yawned, though he still gave Twilight a bit of an accusatory look. "Don't you have to get up early so you can help Amethyst Star with the plans for the Nightmare Night festival?"

Twilight's cheeks warmed, but she merely coughed to diffuse her own discomfort. "Well, I'm not a baby dragon who needs their sleep, now am I? Besides, this is hardly the latest I've stayed up."

"Yeah," Spike concurred. "We should get to bed, though. Who knows what kind of crazy might come in for us?"

Twilight laughed a bit. "And we wouldn't want to be tired for that, now would we?"

Right at that moment, there was a loud SLAM! that came from down the hall, followed by rapid hoofsteps that resembled that of a thundering stampede. The doors to the library swung open and banged against the wall as a very eccentric looking Pinkie Pie appeared in the doorway.

Spike, after getting over his initial shock, turned towards Twilight with his usual "What did I tell you?" expression. Twilight merely rolled her eyes at him before turning back to Pinkie.

"Pinkie, what are you doing here?" Twilight questioned. "It's almost midnight!"

Pinkie zoomed across the room and grabbed onto Twilight by the shoulders. "TwilightyouarenotgoingtobelievewhatIfoundinthewoods!"

"What?" Twilight blurted out, completely confused.

Pinkie grinned even more. "I said, 'You are not going to believe what I found in the woods!'"

"Why were you in the woods?" Spike asked, blinking in befuddlement.

Pinkie giggled. "Oh, that's easy! I was bouncing around town but I wasn't paying attention and I ended up going into the woods and at first I was kinda scared but then I remembered that sometimes it's fun to be scared! So, I kept bouncing through and I ran into this giant talking skeleton only he wasn't a pony which is super weird and he could talk, too which is also super weird, but he was so, so, so fun to play with and he told me that his name was Jack, like a jack-o-lantern, you know?"

"What?" Twilight repeated, feeling no less enlightened by the conversation.

Pinkie wasn't deterred. "After that, we talked for a bit and I found that he was from this place called Halloweentown, though I haven't figured out why it's called that, and we found out that Halloween is supposed to be his world's Nightmare Night! Crazy, right?"

"Doesn't even begin to cover it..." Spike muttered, but he listened nonetheless.

"Then, he told me that he had to get home, and I remembered how my Granny Pie told me about crypts being portals to different worlds and suggested that to him!" She blinked. "Huh, you know, I don't actually know if he got home or not... Guess I'll have to go look for him!"

"Pinkie, wait!" Twilight exclaimed, darting over to her friend as she prepared to make a grand exit. "What in the wide world of Equestria are you talking about?"

Pinkie arched a brow. "Uh, have you not been paying attention? What is there for you not to understand?"

Twilight frowned at her. "Everything! What do you mean you found a giant talking skeleton in the woods?"

Pinkie smiled again. "You were listening!"

"Pinkie!"

"Oh, right!" She giggled. "Sorry. Anyway, I was just walking through the Everfree— well, more bouncing than walking— but then I ran into Jack!" She stood up on her hind legs and waved her hooves. "He walked like this, and had bony fingers that could walk around like spiders!"

Spike gulped. "W-What?"

"And he could take off his own head!" Pinkie giggled once more, unaware of Spike's discomfort. "I wish I could take my own head off! I mean, I could, but I couldn't really put it back on, y'know? He said he even does it to recite Shakespearean quotations! Can you believe it?"

"I don't believe it," Twilight said, her brows furrowed.

Pinkie blinked in shock, her theatrics screeching to a halt. "What?" 

"I don't believe it," Twilight repeated. "I mean, a giant, talking, bipedal skeleton that can detach its own limbs?" She shook her head. "It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever."

"Yeah, but Discord doesn't make sense either, and you don't have trouble with believing in him!" Pinkie observed.

Twilight sighed. "Pinkie, you're my friend and I love you, but do you really expect me to believe something so crazy? I mean, I'm not calling you a liar—"

"But you are!" Pinkie protested. "You're saying that I can't be telling the truth and that means you think I'm lying!" She frowned at her disapprovingly. "I don't lie about this stuff!"

"I'm sorry, but unless you give me substantial proof that indicates that you're telling the truth—"

"But I am telling the truth!" Pinkie huffed in anger. "Why would I lie to you about this?"

"To sc-scare us for Nightmare Night..." Spike stammered. "Walking skeletons with detachable limbs..." He shuddered. "That's pure nightmare fuel!"

Twilight pointed at Spike. "See? Even Spike doesn't believe it!"

"S-Sure..." he agreed not-so-convincingly.

Pinkie pursed her lips. "Fine! If you don't want to listen to me when I'm telling the truth, how about I don't tell you anything at all!"

She zoomed out of sight.

"Pinkie, wait!" Twilight called out. She sighed and turned back to Spike. "Can you believe her?"

Spike shook his head at her. "N-Nope."

Twilight rolled her eyes. "She'll come back around later, I'm sure. Right now, let's just get to bed."

"Y-Yeah..." 

Twilight walked out of the library without a bother while Spike dragged on behind her, fear gripping his chest. Hopefully he wouldn't see any walking, talking skeletons anytime soon.





Sally paced around the room, her hands clasped together tightly. Her heeled shoes clacked against the floor and echoed throughout the empty, spacious room.

"Jack..." she murmured, releasing her hands to twiddle with the threads that bound her hands to her arms.

A small yelp came from the entrance of the room and she turned to see Zero fly in through the door. She smiled at the sight of him, but frowned once more as she saw his gloomy expression.

"Still no luck?" she asked.

Zero whined in response.

She sighed and faced to the window. "Jack, where are you?"

Jack had gone out to the woods, much to her chagrin, to try to find some dead things for the town's upcoming celebration of Halloween. However, he disappeared that very same night and none of the citizens seemed to be able to place his exact location. Not even the mischievous trio of pranksters, Shock, Lock, and Barrel could say where he went off to. Sally had initially presumed them to be the perpetrators for his disappearance, but a good scolding and couple yanks on their ears was enough for them to show that they hadn't a clue to where Jack had gone.

Zero whined once more and he floated over to Sally's side. She stroked his transparent ears absentmindedly and continued to look through the window.

"It's not like him to be gone this long..." Sally observed. She looked at Zero. "The last time he did this, he found Christmastown!"

Zero's nose brightened up, just like it did the night that Jack decided to fly off and act as Santa Claus. Sally shook her head in a fond manner as she recalled how he had mispronounced Santa's name as "Sandy Claws" and smiled a bit. Her smile faded as she stepped closer to the window, the sun rising higher and higher off in the distance.

Zero yipped.

"I know I should be getting some rest," she told him, sighing a bit. "But I can't sleep with Jack gone like this."

Zero nodded his head towards the cabinets, where her ingredients for potions and clothes' dye were. 

"I'm not going to take nightshade to make myself sleep." She frowned at him. "I'm not Dr. Finklestein."

Zero began to pout.

"Oh, come on, now, you can't get mad at me for worrying," Sally protested gently. She clasped her hands once more. "It's just... Jack gets into a lot more trouble than he intends to, and I don't want him to get hurt in the process."

Zero nudged her side affectionately, sensing her unease.

"I know, I know, I should have more faith in him." She turned back around, where she saw Jack's sketches for the town's celebration. There were many scribbles that Jack had made into his journal and piles of crumpled up paper that had been torn out of it. Sally, knowing better than to offer advice when she had none, left him be when he was brainstorming. But, when he got too quiet...

She should have checked on him last night.

"Do you think he wandered out for no reason?" Sally asked Zero.

Zero cocked his head to the side in a confused manner.

She pulled at the thread on her shoulder. "I mean... Maybe he didn't go to collect anything at all."

Zero yapped at her.

"I know, I know, he would never do such a thing... But... He just went off, barely an explanation for me." She gripped her hand tightly. "I just wish that he would be more open with me..."

Suddenly, the door swung open, and Sally jumped so quickly that her hand tugged on her thread. Her left arm fell to the floor and wiggled around a bit in alarm, then laid limp. 

"Sally?" Jack questioned, arching a brow at her.

"Jack!" Sally exclaimed. She ran to him and wrapped her one arm around him. "Where have you been?"

Jack pulled away from her. "Sally, I'm—"

Sally put her hand on his face. "Are you hurt? Did you get lost in the woods? Why did you disappear like that? You scared me half to life!"

"Sally, dear, I'm fine," he told her. He glanceded over her shoulder. "Also, why is your arm on the floor?"

Sally turned around and looked at her arm, which appeared to be waiting for her to reattach it to her body. She sighed a bit and grabbed onto it.  She pulled out the needle from her hair and the thread from her pocket routinely, as she had done dozens of times before.

"You startled me," she answered. She frowned at him as she began to put her arm back on her shoulder. "Where have you been, Jack?"

Jack smiled at her. "Sally, you're not going to believe what I found!"

Sally began to sew her arm back on. "What is it? Did you find any dead things for the celebration?"

Jack grinned even wider. "Better! I found an entirely new world!"

Sally almost dropped her needle. "What?"

Jack nodded. "Yes! You see, I was in the woods, and suddenly, I had awoken in this weird place that had leaves on the trees! But, get this: it wasn't Christmastown!"

"What?" Sally blurted out.

"And as I was wandering around, trying to find my place, I met this talking pink pony!" He clapped his hands together excitedly. "Oh, she was such good fun! I've never met a pony quite like her!" He paused to think about it. "Actually, I've never met a pony at all, but that's not important!"

Sally glanced at Zero, who shared a concerned look with her.

"Then, she told me about this holiday that her town celebrates called Nightmare Night!" Jack exclaimed. "It's supposed to commemorate the date of princess turning corrupt or something along those lines, but it sounds just like Halloween!" He smiled his usual toothy grin. "Also, the mare loves a good scare!" Jack paused in telling his story and stared at Sally with a peculiar expression. "You sewed your arm on upside down."

Sally glanced at her arm, which was facing towards the sky. Her arm smacked her head and she frowned a bit. "You distracted me."

Jack chuckled, his bony fingers failing to clamp his mouth shut. "Sorry, Sally."

Zero yipped at Jack and sniffed him vigorously, then gave him an odd look. He floated towards the door, looking back to bark at them.

"What is it, boy?" Jack asked.

Zero zoomed out of the room.

"Zero!"

"Jack, wait!" Sally shouted as he darted out after Zero. "Ugh, not again..."

Her now detached arm tapped her shoulder, then held itself in a way that might as well have said, "Well? Are you gonna go after them?"

Sally sighed and ran out after Jack with her arm in hand, wondering just what she'd gotten herself into.