The Last Something Sweet to Bite

by Knackerman

Return to Candyland

Sunset whirled, sending her cloak flying outward as she turned to see who, or what, had spoken. A deadly spell limed a verdant arc along the length of Sunset's horn as she prepared to defend herself. The spell fizzled out to a mere spark as she beheld the tiny filly that cowered before her. "I-I-I I'm ever so s-s-sorry. I didn't mean to s-startle you miss," came the tremolos apology.

"Who are you? How did you get down here!?" Demanded Sunset, eyes sharp as she looked the filly over, certain that this was some kind of trick. She certainly seemed mundane enough, a tiny earth pony with an orange coat and curly bright red mane. A green bonnet was tied smartly in a bow under her chin. Her appearance was so ordinary that it, in and of itself, was suspicious. She didn't even seem to have a cutie mark yet, as her flank was quite blank.

"I came in through a hole a few yards back that way," answered the filly gesturing behind her somewhat uncertainly. "I swear I didn't know anypony was in here or that this library belonged to anypony. I was only hiding here because this is the one place that the dead ones never come."

"The dead ones?" asked Sunset narrowing her eyes.

"Yes'm, the ones all covered and coated with sugary sweets but dead and rotten underneath. It's their festival night you see, so they're abroad in the land making mischief," she shivered, as if the very idea was a fright all its own. "If they found me, they'd torment and torture me and worse... So much worse. Especially if she was involved."

"She?" wondered Sunset allowed, the look of mistrust in her eyes softening.

"Why, the one who rules this realm. The Candy Mare." It was the filly's turn to to look curiously at the cloaked unicorn. "Pardon, but how could you not know that miss? I thought everyone knew about the Candy Mare."

"I'm afraid I've been away... Far away for some time now," replied Sunset cautiously. "In fact, you might say I'm not even originally from here. But that doesn't mean I don't know of the Candy Mare. Tell me, how have you survived in her realm little one?"

"Hiding mostly. I'm small so I can climb into very small spaces that the dead don't seem to be able to fit into. That and," the filly gestured around her. "I have this sanctuary. Not even the Candy Mare herself seems to know it's here. It's dark and a little scary, but nowhere near as scary as being out there with them when you're by yourself."

"You're by yourself? What about your parents?" inquired Sunset.

The filly's ears drooped and her face fell. "They...they're not alive anymore."

"Oh...Oh of course. I'm so sorry," she apologized quickly. "I shouldn't have asked."

"No, no it's quite alright miss," reassured the filly, trying hard to hide tears that wobbled at the corners of her eyes. "Oh, where are my manners? Here I've been wittering on and I've not even introduced myself. My name is Pumpkin Patch! I'm ever so pleased to meet you!"

"I'm Sunset Shimmer. The pleasure's all mine, I'm sure." she paused before continuing. "Frankly I'm amazed a filly like you has managed to survive by herself at all."

"It hasn't been easy," replied Pumpkin. "There are a few other survivors, but there are less and less every day. I...I fear," she shivered. "I fear it won't be long until I'm the only one left. Just me and... Them."

"That won't happen," replied Sunset firmly. "I'm here to put a stop to the Candy Mare and the nightmare she's caused once and for all."

Pumpkin Patch brightened. "Really miss, is that true? But how ever will you do it?"

"I have my ways," replied Sunset cannily, not yet certain if it was safe to trust this little filly with such information.

"Really miss?" asked Pumpkin, an incredulous look on her face. "I don't doubt many have tried before you and failed. What makes you think you will succeed?"

"I have this," replied Sunset, lifting 'Ye Olde Tricks and Treats' into view, reasoning that it wouldn't hurt to tell the filly at least this much. "This is a record of the Candy Mare's first appearance in Equestria, as well as her first defeat."

"How does that help?" asked Pumpkin, eyeing the book with bright green eyes.

"Well, other versions of the story say that Luna was able to bind the Candy Mare so that she would fall dormant and sleep in the earth, but the truth is that Luna did much more than that. These pages detail how Luna was able to split the curse that was the Candy Mare from her body, leaving her formless, nothing more than a shade. It was this body that was sealed in 'sleep eternal', in hard stone rather than just 'earth'," explained Sunset, turning to the pages in question that were written in an ancient earth pony dialect. "Those old earth pony tribes had so many words for different types of 'earth'; soft clay, loose sand, hard rock, many of the translators just lumped them all as 'earth' and seemed to think that was close enough. Still, this passage actually implies that the Candy Mare's body is sealed in carved stone. A statue!"

"But I've seen the Candy Mare miss," replied Pumpkin somewhat warily. "Her body didn't seem to be sealed away anywhere to me."

Sunset shook her head, "She doesn't have a body, not a real one. She hasn't had one since all those many moons ago when she was defeated by Princess Luna. The passages go on to say that different pieces of the Candy Mare were sealed away in fearsome statues forged in Luna's image as she appeared when clad for war. I believe that these are the statues of 'Nightmare Moon' that tradition dictate children leave offerings to during the festival of Nightmare Night. But there's a problem..."

"A problem miss?" asked Pumpkin, just barely able to follow along.

"Yes. Though pieces of her body were scattered, this text seems to imply that Luna's victory is where the Candy Mare was bound, that it was Luna's victory that sealed her fate. The phrase is very specific and repeated several times. It goes on to some rather flowery prose about how it is a victory that shall wave a flag over her fallen form for all of eternity." Sunset turned the pages back and forth, trying to make sense of the words she was reading, trying to see if there was some other way they could be interpreted. "Basically the bulk of her body is sealed in stone and 'bound by Luna's Victory', whatever that means. It won't do me any good to find the remains sealed in the statue's of Nightmare Moon if the greater part of them are somewhere else entirely."

"Pardon me for asking Miss Shimmer, but why ever would you want to find that fiends original body?" asked the filly perplexed.

"To destroy it," she replied simply.

A shocked look passed over Pumpkin's face like a fleeting phantom, but then she had to ask, "Whatever for? It's clear the Candy Mare doesn't need it anymore. She moves about Equestria freely, unhindered by whatever it was that Princess Luna did to her."

"No. The curse that created the Candy Mare still moves unhindered, but the conduit of the curse remains where it has been this entire time. If this were not so, she would've never needed to create a new body for herself in the hum-... uh, in the far off land that I was in a short time ago." The filly just gawked at her, still not quite understanding. "The Candy Mare isn't a real pony. She's a spirit or a curse, like a living grudge that leaps from victim to victim, using candy and their bodies to manifest itself. But if I can find her original body and destroy it, there will be no conduit for that curse to act through. Then the Candy Mare could create as many vessels as she likes, but once I burn her bones to ash, it will destroy everything that she is or was. Her spirit will simply cease to exist."

Those last words were spoken by Sunset with a pleasure that surprised even her. The look on Pumpkin's face was a mixture of both fear and doubt. It was somewhat surprising when she suddenly seemed to come to a decision. "I'll help you," she said. "I think I know what that book means. I've had a lot of time to explore near this sanctuary. I think I know where 'Luna's Victory' lies. But in return, I'll require a favor."
---------------------------

Though Sunset had agreed to Pumpkin Patch's terms, she wasn't sure it was wise to trust the filly. She'd spent too much of the last few hours fleeing from a terrible monster in the form of a child to fully trust that this little filly. As she lead Sunset through the Forbidden Archives to the exit she used to go in and out of the palace, Sunset was already thinking it was impossible that she was entirely what she seemed.

It didn't help that, though Pumpkin had asked her for a favor in return for her guidance, she hadn't actually said what form that favor would take. Sunset was reminded of some of the darker tales that she had read in the archives before, of travelers being lured to their doom by lost children they had found deep in the woods. Most often, those stories had ended rather gruesomely in tribal cannibalism, but every now and again the stories would take even darker tones and the filly or colt would turn out to be an even more malevolent entity. Demons had mostly been driven from Equestria long ago, or bound deep in the pit of Tartarus, but there were still rumors that such entities still persisted in long abandoned or disused homes out on the edges of society. Sunset didn't want the 'favor' to turn out to be a bargain for her life or her soul.

Still, when they emerged from the crumbling palace walls, it was not Pumpkin's potential betrayal that was foremost on Sunset's mind but a deep and abiding sense of wonder! Abject wonder!

Canterlot, no, all of Equestria had changed remarkably. She had expected the city to be in ruins, a burned out husk. While there were signs of that here and there, it was not so much the city but the environment itself that had changed. Beneath the glow of a high, full moon, a thick pall of mist just barely concealed bubblegum pink grasses that perfumed the air with a sickly sweet stench. The land was luminescent in the dark, sparkling beneath a sugar frosted coating that seemed to dust everything. Trees grew amid the ruined buildings, candy cane trunks supporting sugary needle sharp leaves. A green gloppy sludge, that passed for a river, bubbled and fizzed along its banks and beneath a nearby gingerbread bridge.

The very air was heavy and cloying, the scent of so many sweets harsh in Sunset Shimmers nose. And the buildings! Where they were not scorched and crumbling, they too had seemed to be grown over with a thick candy shells or bizarre gingerbread versions of their former glory. She looked back at the hole from which they had so recently emerged, and was awe-struck by the towering edifice of candy and cream that had once been The Palace of the Princess. It was as if it had been transformed into a vast and extravagant forty story cake! She was uncertain if she should feel sickened or astonished.

An overwhelming sensation of deja vu washed over her as a chill penetrated Sunset's heart. This really wasn't her Equestria, but even so, the scene felt so familiar. With the deja vu came an overwhelming sense of foreboding and dread. It took Sunset a moment to realize that she was very much alone on an alien world that she did not understand, and that the one living pony that had offered to guide her was swiftly dwindling into the fog ahead of her. Demon or otherwise, Sunset couldn't bare the thought of facing this world on her own now that she had seen what the Candy Mare had wrought of it. On hushed hoof falls, she quickly caught up to Pumpkin Patch. She was about to speak when the filly raised a hoof to her lips, a sign that she was to remain quiet.

It didn't take long for Sunset to see why. Near the center of town, fires burned brightly. The echoes of laughter and singing, that sounded as though they didn't belong in this world, floated from the burning grin that had been carved into a squat building that was awash in flames. The dead were here. Sunset could see their shadows, as twisted and deformed as their shapes, black against the dancing fire light. There must have been thousands of them! Dead ponies arraigned chaotically singing and laughing and screaming, "Nightmare Night! What a Fright! Give Us Something Sweet to Bite!" They chanted the phrase over and over, seeming less a song than a cry of anguish... A plea even. A desperate call that knew only hunger, loss, and pain.

Even so, the dead seemed happy. They all wore bright, sharp, shining smiles that reflected in the firelight. The Candy Ghouls had no choice in that matter, being made in the image of the Candy Mare herself. And they all seemed to laugh as the larger turned on the smaller, and tore them apart.

Pumpkin Patch at last spoke as they turned a corner and slowly drifted away from the terrifying scene, "When they can't find fresh meat they try to eat one another. Apparently they taste terrible, as there is always enough left over for them to regenerate by the next night. Still, on Nightmare Night who knows what they'll do? Their desperate to honor their creator, their master, their Queen the Candy Mare. If they were to catch us..."

"They won't catch us," reassured Sunset, not quite believing her own words even as she spoke them. "My defensive spells should extend to you so long as you stay close. Just show me what we're out here for and then I'll take you back to the Archives...er... your sanctuary."

As they continued along their way, the candy coated buildings fell away, giving rise to a series of crumbling statues and more alien looking foliage. A great expanse of sugar dusted leaves, in hues of every color of the rainbow, extended in a wide expanse as far as Sunset could see. It took a moment to realize what she was looking at were hedgerows. They had arrived at the great maze of Canterlot.

It was so strange to see it like this, a place she had played in her fillyhood, at one and the same time familiar and yet so bizarrely changed. The many statues that had stood sentinel over her youthful play themselves seemed to be overgrown with crimson vines that, on closer inspection, were revealed to be growths of red liquorice. It took a moment for Sunset to realize that she was standing before the statue of Discord.

As a child the statue had always been a foreboding presence, as she knew that it was more than a mere craven image. It was funny, it seemed the statue was actually in the act of cringing now, where before it had been laughing triumphantly. Surely there was a story behind that, but that was not the only difference. It appeared that the head had long since been smashed to rubble. Perhaps the Candy Mare had discovered the statues secret and taken precautions. She doubted that just smashing the statue would be enough to destroy the entity that slept within, but even so, festooned as it was with the scarlet creepers she almost pitied the old crumbled thing. Compared ot the Candy Mare, Discord's brand of chaos and turmoil were like a day at the beach.

"This way, it's not far now," said Pumpkin Patch, a certain hollow tone to her voice.

Sunset immediately saw their destination, and knew right away why Pumpkin had suspected that this was their goal. It made perfect sense. The statue of a mare, waving a flag that had now grown tattered and discolored by weather and time, stood proudly as the only statue that the crimson creepers had not yet engulfed. Indeed the ground all around the statue seemed to be completely, well, normal. Healthy green grass and even a few flowers sprouted there, as though this was the last spot of land in all of Equestria that stood defiant against the Candy Mare's power. Looking at the statue with an eye for magic, Sunset was almost blinded by the radiant spell that lay over the cold stone. No wonder the Candy Mare's corruption couldn't seize hold of this statue, it would be like trying to hold the sun on the cusp of your hoof.

There was no doubt about it, this had to be where the Candy Mare's body, her true body, had been sealed away.

"This is it! This is what I needed to find! To think it was here on the palace grounds all this time!" exclaimed Sunset. "This is an incredible stroke of luck."

"If you say so miss," replied her filly companion in a flat monotone, her expression unreadable in the shadow of the statue. "Now, about my favor..."

Suddenly on guard, Sunset turned to Pumpkin, "Yes? I will do what I can to uphold my end of our bargain, once you tell me what it is you want. I am a mare of my word. But I have to warn you, our time is short."

"Don't worry, this won't take long," said Pumpkin leaning out of the shadows, her eyeless face shriveled and distorted. Without warning she shoved her hoof through Sunset Shimmer’s skull.

Comments

[Surpirate]

Huh. I thought that this Pumpkin was the Candy Mare before she became the Candy Mare. 'Cause of portals and stuff.

[pvzMLP]

Pumpkin Pacth? Hmmmmmm, wait. BY THE WITNESS OF A PONY WATCHING THE INTERCOURSE BETWEEN AN URSA MAJOR AND AN ADULT DRAGON. In other words...PUMPKIN PATCH=THE END OF THE UNIVERSE!!!!!!

[Midnight Radiance]

"Don't worry, this won't take long," said Pumpkin leaning out of the shadows, her eyeless face shriveled and distorted. Without warning she shoved her hoof through Sunset Shimmers skull.

OH COME ON!!!!!!

[bleachomaga12]

"No, no it's quite alright miss," reassured the filly, trying hard to hide tears that wobbled at the corners of her eyes. "Oh, where are my manners? Here I've been wittering on and I've not even introduced myself. My name is Pumpkin Patch! I'm ever so pleased to meet you!"

run sunset get the hay out of there now

[CreepyPie]

the ending....
https://youtu.be/KHecCiA4uQ8?t=3s

[Wahtiff]

You seem to be a master at doing this. You hold out a candy bar like Sunset held out the milkbone to Spike, you wave it to us and invite us to come and get it, and the second we jump...

...we get a carrot shoved in our mouth instead.

[Rose_Flame]

If lore serves me right as well as the reading i saw on youtube of home sweet home and such, Sunset Shimmer bouta be snuffed out like a candles flame and will certainly not be shimmering for much longer. Cuz Pumpkin Patch = Candy Mare prior to becoming the crazed candied cannibal and murderous missy that she is now

[Rose_Flame]

Yyyyyyep. Lore indeed served me right. Rip Sunset Shimmer, who never got to see the sunrise.

[lochbessie]

Ima be honest I forgot Candy Mare's real name was Pumpkin Patch and I got her mixed up with Pumpkin Cake.

How did I mix up a guy and a girl? Don't ask me.

[Moosetasm]

This is why “incinerate first, ask questions later” is the best policy.

[KingSombraTheTyrantRuler]

10897587
Her- Oh yeah! It was! And here I was crying for the Candy Mare to show up out of nowhere. I suspected that from the beginning of the chapter... And Candy Mare showed up!