Witchcraft is Magic

by wingdingaling

Chapter 1: A Night of Terrors

Chapter 1

A Night of Terrors

The night proved to not be peaceful for Apple Bloom.

As she fell asleep, she carried with her the noises of the night into her dreamworld.

The filly was running through the Everfree Forest to investigate the eerie music on the wind. All the while, she could see horrible things off the side of the trail.

They were half hidden from behind the trees. But, Apple Bloom felt like that even though they were hiding, they wanted her to know they were there. Worse still, she didn't know what was trying to get her.

Though Apple Bloom could barely see them, she knew that the things were not anything that she was familiar with. The idea of being stalked by unknown creatures of the night spurred her faster towards the source of the phantom music.

As she ran, she could hear the music growing louder and louder.

She was getting closer to the source. But, as she did, she didn't know if she really wanted to find it. What if it was the creatures that were making it? And what if they were luring her to be whisked away to the other world like in Granny's stories?

But with the creatures around her, Apple Bloom couldn't afford to stop. She knew if she did, she was as good as gotten by them.

The music became louder and louder, until it became an unbearable crunching snapping noise. A noise so loud that it awoke Apple Bloom from her sleep.

After she had woken up, the filly quickly turned on her lamp and looked around her room. Everything was as it should have been. Her wardrobe, her mirror and her oy box were all as untouched as they were in the late hours of the night.

A quick look at her clock, and she saw the time was just past 2 a.m., meaning that the sun wouldn't be up for another few hours. Unusual for the hour, Winona was awake, alert, and trying her best to get Apple Bloom's attention.

"What is it girl?" Apple Bloom asked.

In a moment, the question was answered for her.

Outside, the noises of the night were joined by a new one. A faint crunching sound, like somepony was walking on twigs, or dry leaves.

Apple Bloom thought that maybe one of her family was out there for some reason, and went to the window to see who it was.

What she saw was a ghastly sight.

By the light of the moon, the filly saw how many of the apple trees that were visible from her window had been destroyed.

They were ragged and bereft of any leaves or fruit. And several of their branches had been torn down to the ground.

Apple Bloom scanned the area to see if she could find a culprit that had done it. And she found it.

On the moonlit ground below, something was moving. Something that appeared to be a pitch black earth pony. If it was, it was different than a normal earth pony, the way that its mane and coat were the same dark color. Though Apple Bloom couldn't see the stranger's face, she got the distinct feeling that it was a mare she was looking at.

Apple Bloom became anxious, knowing that a stranger on the property so late at night wasn't a good sign. More than likely, it was a competitor who was sabotaging their orchard.

The moon disappeared behind a cloud, making the ground below go dark.

All Apple Bloom could see now was the dark outline of the stranger against the ground. She was about to go get her sister to kick the strange mare off the property. But, what happened next stopped her.

Down below on the ground, the strange mare turned her head toward Apple Bloom's direction. For the filly, it was unsettling enough to be watched. More so was how the eyes of the stranger glowed with a ghostly blue light.

Her eyes didn't glow like light from a lantern, or from a lamp. It looked more like the light was flowing from her eyes like river water. In spite of the unnatural light, the stranger’s eyes didn't illuminate her face well enough for Apple Bloom to get a good look at it.

In that moment, Apple Bloom’s blood ran cold. She realized that the lamp in her room was on, so that even though she couldn't see the stranger, the stranger could see her!

Apple Bloom ran hastily to her sister's room.

"Applejack! Applejack Wake up!" the filly said, as she shook her sister.

"Wha...Mmm..." Applejack grumbled as she was woken from her deep sleep, "What gives?"

"Somethin's out in the orchard! I don't know what, but it destroyed a bunch o' trees!"

That was all Applejack needed to hear to spur her into action. She woke up Big Macintosh, and the two went outside to investigate, while Apple Bloom stayed inside with Granny Smith and Winona.

Outside, the older Apple siblings found no trace of anypony or anything that had been there. Whoever Apple Bloom had seen was gone.

But, a closer look at the trees showed that the branches hadn't simply fallen off, or were torn down. They all looked as if they were swung at with something. But, that wasn't nearly as disturbing as what they found in the trunks. The trunks of the trees had deep breaks in them, as if they had been hit by a frenzy of blunt strikes.

Applejack thoughtfully ran a hoof along the length of one of the wounds inflicted on the tree.

"What in tarnation could o' done this?" she wondered aloud.

---

At the edge of the Everfree Forest, the residents of Fluttershy's cottage rested peacefully. The animals that lived there had all retreated into their homes for the night, and slept huddled together with their friends and families.

Though they all slept, something else walked among them. The ones who stayed asleep were the lucky ones. The ones who awoke were faced with the horror in their midst.

Inside her cottage, Fluttershy slept peacefully. But, just like the Apple family, her night was about to become much more harrowing.

There came a loud din from outside.

Fluttershy jolted awake, recognizing the sounds as the chickens panicking in their coop.

She knew that the only time that they squawked and cackled like they were doing was when something was very wrong.

Without any hesitation, she jumped out of bed and went downstairs to investigate.

The timid pegasus walked to her back door, where the chicken coop was outside. As she walked, she felt several tiny paws grab hold of her hooves. When she looked down, she saw many of the smaller animals who lived in her house, including her pet rabbit, Angel, trying to stop her from going any further.

"Please let me by. I have to check on the chickens," Fluttershy politely requested.

All she got in return were fearful stares.

"What's happening out there?" she asked.

The animals answered in their silent language that only somepony like Fluttershy could understand. Something that said to her that it was too dangerous to go outside.

"If the chickens are in such danger, then I have to go...No matter what," she said, trying to sound brave.

Fluttershy walked to the back door and peered out the window to see what was happening. Through the veil of darkness, she saw the chicken coop. All of the chickens inside were fluttering about, making a loud clamor with their squawking.

Perfectly evident, was the source of their distress.

Pacing back and forth in front of the coop was a large silhouette. One with the distinctive form of a timber wolf. But something was very off about it.

It was very large, but that wasn't what struck her as strange. It was the fact that this timber wolf looked like it had fur like any other canine creature.

Fluttershy watched the wolf-thing pace, and knew exactly what it wanted to do. It was trying to find a way inside the coop to eat the chickens. Even though she was fearful of untamed predatory animals, she had to do her duty and protect her animal friends.

"You can do this, Fluttershy. Remember to be brave," she whispered to herself.

With a shaking hoof, Fluttershy slowly opened the door. The door creaked quietly, making Fluttershy fear the wolf-thing would hear her coming.

The creature before the coop continued to pace, as if it were completely focused on the chickens within.

Fluttershy held her breath as she opened the door completely. On shaking knees, she inched toward the unknown thing.

After Fluttershy, Angel Bunny slowly hopped behind her, ready to protect his pegasus in case anything went wrong.

Fluttershy stopped at what she thought was a reasonable distance to stay from the unknown animal, and felt her whole body lock into place as she looked at the beast.

"E-Excuse me..." she said quietly.

Angel poked her leg to prod her into speaking louder.

"Excuse me," she repeated, slightly louder.

The wolf-thing stopped pacing and looked at Fluttershy.

Fluttershy and Angel both were overcome by fear. While the pegasus was rooted to the spot, Angel hid behind her leg.

Now Fluttershy could see the face of the creature. It looked like a timber wolf, but its face was covered with grey fur. And it had yellow eyes, as opposed to the usual green. When it opened its mouth slightly, she could see a pink tongue, and white teeth inside of it. If this creature was like the timber wolves, or any other canine, it wasn't a sign of aggression, but still meant the creature was to be approached with caution.

"I-If it's alright with you--C-Could you please...go back to your home? Or a-at least stop scaring my chickens?" Fluttershy stammered.

The wolf-thing made no discernible motions. In all her years of dealing with animals, this was the first time that Fluttershy was stumped when it came to communicating with one of them. The creature before her was something entirely unheard of to her, and she didn't know if she had the skills to handle it.

Then something happened that she never would have expected from a canine creature.

At first, the wolf-thing slowly walked toward her. After the first few steps, it went from walking on four legs to walking on two legs.

The two legs it walked on she could looked like clawed paws, like what was normally found on a canine animal. But, it was the front legs where any canine similarity ended. The front paws were now hung at the wolf-thing's sides. And they were not paws, but hands. Each hand had five fingers, each one tipped with a long, black claw.

Fluttershy had never seen this behavior in any canine before, and didn't know if it was hostile or not.

With a frightened squeak, she and Angel both ran back into their house, barred the door behind them, and hid under the table with the rest of the animals.

The timid pegasus looked out the window to see if the wolf-thing was still out there. All she could see beyond was darkness.

That was odd. There were so many stars out that night, and she had a clear view of the sky from that window. Where had that darkness come from?

From out of the dark, a glint of yellow let her know what was happening. The wolf-thing was looking in through the window.

Fluttershy made no movements. She didn't even breathe as all the animals around her shivered in fear of the monster outside.

The wolf-thing moved away from the window, and the starry sky was seen once more.

Fluttershy listened intently for the monster. But, there was only silence. Not a step. Not a breath. Nothing of the wolf-thing was heard, as if had disappeared into nothingness.

There came a rattling from the door.

Fluttershy was gripped by fear when she saw her doorknob turning, and the door shaking against the locking bar.

It was a new level of terror for the pegasus. Whatever this monster was, it knew how to open doors. And it was trying to get inside to eat her.

The whole house felt like it was shaking. In the rafters above, the smaller animals held tightly to one another, for fear of the house coming down.

Fluttershy hugged the animals that were with her closely, hoping that she would find a way to protect them once the wolf-thing found a way in.

Suddenly, somewhere in the distance, there was a noise like a shrill whistle, and the door stopped rattling.

Outside the door, a low huff was heard. The next noise Fluttershy heard were heavy footfalls that ran from her door.

The pegasus quickly crawled out from under her table, and looked out the window. There, she saw the tail of the monster go over the fence next to the chicken coop, and disappear into the Everfree Forest.

She ran outside to console her frightened chickens, all the while wondering how even the Everfree could house anything like the monster she had seen.

---

Twilight was busy at her desk with her nighttime studying material. That night, she had gotten a stack of books from the history section for ideas on what to do for the upcoming Nightmare Night festival.

As she looked through them, she learned things that she never knew before about the origins of the traditions that happened during the holiday. For instance, she learned that jack o' lanterns were lit as a way of scaring off evil spirits, and guiding the good ones along their way. And that the name came from the folktale of a pony named Mean Jack who was not allowed to the afterlife when he died, and was given a hooffull of embers to light his way. After being given those embers from Tartarus, Mean Jack placed them into a lantern that he had made out of a turnip.

"Maybe carving turnips this year instead of pumpkins to honor the roots of the tradition?" Twilight thought to herself as she looked up from her book.

It sounded like a good idea. But then again, ponies would definitely miss the familiar pumpkins that they loved carving so much. That, and pumpkin farmers looked forward to the surplus of sales that time of year. But, maybe have a turnip carving contest? That might work.

Twilight wanted it to be as authentic as possible, and wanted to know what kinds of turnips the ponies used back in those days. She looked through her stack of books, but found no titles that would enlighten her.

"Owloysius? Could you go to the shelves and find a book about the culture in ancient Chlaughplin?" she called to her pet and nighttime helper

She waited a few seconds, but got no response from the owl.

"Owloysius?" she asked again.

She turned in her seat to see what her bird was doing.

What she saw was Owloysius staring out of one of the windows, as if he was looking at something that had caught his attention.

"Owloysius, are you alright?" Twilight asked as she approached him.

"Hoo."

"You."

"Hoo."

"Y--"

Twilight gasped sharply after she looked out the window to see what her pet was looking at.

Outside her window, sitting on a branch, she saw the largest owl that she had ever seen in her life. At least she thought it was an owl. The sheer size of it alone was enough to make her think that it might have been a pegasus who was perched on her home. But, the fully feathered body and the round, red eyes were nothing that a pony had.

The thing shuffled closer to the window across the branch, lending itself to be more easily identified.

As it walked, Twilight saw that it walked on two dark legs with black talons gripping the branch. It had two large wings, which were folded against its body, and its chest was speckled with white dots that stood out against the rest of its grey body.

What Twilight thought were ears turned out to be two tufts of feathers that jutted outwards, and reminded her of the appearance of a great horned owl. Its beak was also wide and took up most of its lower face, as opposed to Owloysius's tiny beak. It almost looked like it had a mouth like a pony's.

All this and more made Twilight feel nervous and afraid, making her back away from the window as the thing came closer.

The creature was right at the window, and it pressed two more talons against it that Twilight hadn't noticed. Looking closely, she could see that the two new talons came from the wings of the thing. She realized that the wings stopped at the thing's elbows, and past that, it had very short forearms with wrists and talons at the ends.

The monster looked at Owloysius, as if it wanted him to be outside with it.

"Get away from the window!" Twilight fearfully whispered to her pet.

But the owl didn't listen to her. Instead, Owloysius started flapping his wings and pecking the glass, seeming to want to challenge the monster that threatened his pony.

Twilight wouldn't have it. She quickly flared her magic and pulled the blind down over the window, so that the thing outside couldn't see in anymore.

As soon as she had, Owloysius flew to the second floor and began furiously scratching at the window there, waking Spike up as he did.

"Alright. Calm down already," Spike grumbled as he opened the window and let the owl fly out into the night.

Twilight tried to stop him with her magic, but she was too late.

She ran upstairs and looked helplessly out the window as her beloved pet flew out into the night. In moments, the monstrous bird flew beside him, swallowing up the owl's silhouette with its wingspan.

"Spike, I need to go out after him!" Twilight said.

"Why?" Spike asked.

"Something's out there! And I need to save my bird! If I'm not back by morning, send a letter to Princess Celestia, and tell her what happened!" Twilight hastily explained as went back downstairs.

"But what happened?" Spike asked.

Twilight had already ran out the door.

Tired and confused, Spike decided to call it a night, and carry out Twilight's request in the morning.

---

High above Ponyville, Rainbow Dash was beginning to wake up for her early morning flying practice. She did so at such an early hour so that she could cram in as much practice as she could before she went to work. Then again, she didn't do much work anyway, instead opting to catch up on the sleep she missed out on.

Dash passed by the other bedroom in the house and peeked inside to see Scootaloo sleeping peacefully. In all their time together, Dash had grown fond of the filly, and after learning that she had no family, she took it upon herself to adopt her and make sure she had the upbringing that she deserved. After seeing that she was safe and fast asleep, the pegasus went about her business.

Once she finished her warm up stretches, Dash stepped outside into the night air.

She always wondered why ponies said that there was something different about the air at night, as opposed to the air during the day. Personally, she had never noticed anything, other than a change in the temperature. But, there was something about the weeks preceding Nightmare Night that always felt different to her.

It always felt like something that was always there had slightly faded and changed in some way. It sounded weird, but that was the only way that she could explain it. Sometimes, the change felt strange and uneasy, other times, it was plain terrifying.

The reason for this was never clear to Dash. But tonight, the only thing she felt was a twinge of unease.

It was when she spread her wings to take off that things got worse.

"Scootaloo..."

Rainbow Dash paused. It may have only been the wind, but she was sure somepony had called out Scootaloo's name. In fact, it was so faint she almost wasn't sure that it really happened at all.

"Scootaloo..."

That time, she clearly heard a voice behind herself.

Turning around, Dash saw nothing. Then something happened to her front door.

At first, the middle of it began to bulge, as if it was being pushed against from the other side. Then something began to take shape on her front door as the bulging waned.

As Dash watched, she could see it take a more familiar shape. Could those two shapes be eyes? And was that a mouth forming?

Slowly, the shapes on the door moved to assemble a face of a mare. The face on the door looked right at Dash, staring at her blankly, and made not a single motion, though its mane drifted about in the breeze of the night.

Dash wasn't sure if what she was seeing was real. She inched closer to better examine the face, though she didn't recognize who it belonged to. She was nearly nose to nose with the face when it melted back into the door.

Dash was stunned by what she saw, but couldn't stay put. Whatever it was, it called Scootaloo's name, and had disappeared into the door. Whatever it was, it was now in the house. And it was looking for her foal.

"Not on my watch!" Dash said as she burst back into the house.

She saw nothing in front of her, but at the far end of the room she could see a shadow moving up to the second floor.

The pegasus wasted no time hurrying up the stairs with all haste. When she reached the landing, she found nothing that wasn't normally there. There was no sign of anything or anypony who shouldn't have been there.

That didn't ease her worry. For all she knew, the thing may have been in Scootaloo's room already.

Dash charged to Scootaloo's door and rushed in to protect her from the shadow. When she arrived,the room was completely empty of any intruders. The only ponies present were herself, and Scootaloo, who turned in her bed so that her sleeping form was facing Dash.

Dash waited in silence, and not a thing happened. Despite that there were no intruders, she only became even more wary of what was happening. She quietly walked to the door, and closed it slowly to deter any more intruders.

Before she completely closed the door, she heard hooves quietly walking up the stairs.

That made no sense! There was only the mare's face on the door, and the rest of her going up the stairs. But, when Dash went up she passed nopony. Now, whatever it was, it was coming up the stairs.

In a flash, Dash closed the door and stood protectively at Scootaloo's bedside, ready for the thing when it came.

She could hear the hoofsteps coming down the hallway and closer to the door.

The pegasus crouched low, ready to trash whatever came into the room. But when it did, she didn't know if she could handle what it was.

It came right through the closed door as if it were never there at all, and stopped to stare at Dash.

This pony was different than the one at the door. It was a stallion, whose mane was lank and gray, and whose coat was pale green.

Most striking of all was that Dash could faintly see the door behind it through its body. She hesitated to use the word 'ghost' but that was all she could think of to describe the thing.

The ghost shifted its gaze to Scootaloo in her bed.

Whatever it was going to do, Dash wouldn't allow it. She protectively stood between it and Scootaloo's bed.

"G-Get away from her!"

She tried to sound aggressive, but the idea of facing a ghost wavered her courage slightly.

Even so, it seemed that her bluff had worked.

The ghost exited back out the door, never once taking its eyes off of Scootaloo.

After it had gone, the pegasus looked back at the orange filly, who was still sleeping peacefully.

Shaken by what had just happened, and worried for Scootaloo's safety, Dash sat down next to the bed and kept a close eye on her filly for the rest of the night.

---

A loud clatter happened in the kitchen of Sugarcube Corner, awakening all the ponies present.

The Cakes, Cup and Carrot, stayed with their twin children, Pound and Pumpkin, to console the crying babies after they were woken up by the din. Meanwhile, their single employee, Pinkie Pie, volunteered to investigate the kitchen.

Pinkie quietly made her way to the kitchen, and slowly poked her head through the double-hinged doors.

The entire kitchen was a mess.

Everything that was loose was thrown about. Spatulas, trays, spoons and the like were all strewn about; plates and bowls were shattered on the ground, making Pinkie step cautiously around the broken shards. Not even the ingredients were spared from the chaos.

The entire floor had flour spilled all over it, with sprinkles dotting the white blanketing. Eggs were thrown at every wall, cabinet and counter, creating a dribbling mess that mixed with the flour on the floor to create a sticky sludge.

Sugar and candy was scattered everywhere. Normally, such a thing would make Pinkie squeal with glee. But, not when they were thrown with such force that the candies broke against whatever they hit.

Pinkie suddenly became aware of a smokey smell in the room and turned her attention to the oven.

The oven was billowing black clouds of smoke, and was quickly filling the room.

With a gasp, the party pony rushed to the oven and turned it off. After taking a deep breath, she opened the oven and was greeted by a cloud of black smoke that blew right in her face.

As she coughed, Pinkie could have sworn she heard quiet laughter somewhere. But, she couldn't focus on that. Not when the oven was stuffed full of finished pastries that were all burnt to a crisp.

It was a like something out of a murder mystery. Cakes and pies had been sliced open and had their fillings oozing out of them. Cookies where broken and crumbled as if by careless hooves. But, worst of all was how the cupcakes had been smashed flat, and wiped of their frosting, which was smeared all over the inside of the oven.

Pinkie heard the laughter again. Still very faintly, but it was definitely a malicious cackling. Like somepony had just played a cruel prank.

"Who's there?" she called out to the dark.

To aid her search for the culprit, Pinkie tried to turn on a lamp on the wall. When she did, the flame from the lamp shot high to the ceiling.

The mare shrieked as she turned the lamp off. Shrouded back in darkness, she heard the laughter grow suddenly louder. The phantom cackling echoed through the room with a bone-chilling 'vweeheeheehee.'

Under other circumstances, Pinkie would have laughed along and made the scaries go away. But, this was no laughing matter. The kitchen was a total mess, and there were dangerous pranksters somewhere in the room.

Pinkie picked up a wooden ladle and held it at the ready.

"Okay, you cupcake killing meanies! Time to face the music!" she said as she stepped around the kitchen, ready to give the prankster what-for.

As Pinkie looked behind an overturned table, the cutlery that was thrown about began to float in the air on its own. Each blade pointed themselves directly at the back of the party pony's head.

It was only her Pinkie Sense that saved her, prompting her to jump over to the other side of the table and use it as a shield.

The knives all stuck into the surface of the table, and pierced through the other side, barely missing Pinkie. The point of one blade barely touched the tip of her nose.

"Sweet Celestia, that's sharp!" Pinkie shouted as she jerked away from the knives.

After she finished, the laughter in the room continued cackling.

Pinkie came out of her cover to see if she could find the culprit. All she could see was the Cake family standing in the doorway.

One look at the adults' faces, and Pinkie knew that they had seen what just happened.

"They're--"

"--Here."

The twins said one after the other.

Nopony knew who 'they' were, or why they were there. But, one thing was for certain: none of them were going to spend another second in Sugarcube Corner that night.

They all hastily left out the door and made their way to the nearest hotel to ride out the rest of the night.

---

At the Carousel Boutique that night, things were peaceful for a change.

Rarity had visions of what costume she would design to dazzle the populace on Nightmare Night dancing through her head.

She was in her display room, and first had a vision of gallivanting through the streets as a dark beauty. Frightening, yet entrancing to behold. Then she had the vision of a vampiric seductress. Voluptuous, sensual, and dangerous to approach. Either one would be marvelous.

Then it came to her. She would do neither one of those. She was going to become the queen of the night. The populace would gaze in awe of her regal mystique and her ominous, yet bewitching and attractive aura.

Despite this, Rarity could not see herself wearing that costume. The other two were so clear, but the last one was a mystery to her. But, even though she could not see it, she knew this costume was guaranteed to capture the hearts of all who saw it.

And it seemed that she had already succeeded.

The doors of the boutique opened wide, and the breeze drifted in.

With the gentle wind came leaves and a thread of mist that would surely add to the appearance of her costume, if she could have seen it.

As the mist came in, it became thicker and thicker. Through it, the fashionista thought she could see the shape of somepony. Then, through the fog, drifted in the most stunningly handsome stallion she had ever laid eyes on.

He was tall, well groomed, and impeccably dressed in the sharpest suit Rarity had ever seen. He had a face that looked like an artist's masterpiece, perfect in every way, right down to the fact his eyes complimented the color of his mane and coat. He was such a sight to behold, he made Rarity forget all about her costume troubles. It became an even more distant problem when she realized how taken he was with her, and not her costume.

It was like something out of a romance novel. The perfect stallion entered her room in a heavenly fashion, and was immediately casting his love gaze to her.

Rarity couldn't help herself but stare at him in all his perfection. She soon found herself drawn towards him, feeling as though she were not in control of her actions. Sooner than she knew, she was face to face with her dream stallion.

No words were spoken between the two, but Rarity felt as if she knew everything about him. Their life together would be wonderful, spent in the company of one another for all time. Her friends, her family, her customers, all of them would cease to matter as she got lost in her lover's perfect eyes.

Then she noticed something in his eyes that was very wrong. The mare reflected in them was not herself.

The mare reflected in his eyes was old and haggard with deep wrinkles, and her mane was gray with age. Her eyes had dark bags underneath, and her mouth was stuck in a despaired frown as though she regretted never being beautiful a day in her life.

Rarity's eyes darted to the mirror behind her dream stallion, and she saw the same reflection as the one in his eyes. After a fearful step backwards, she could now see her dream stallion in full. Only he was no longer there.

In his place was a monstrous stallion with the most grotesque face she hoped she would never see. His face was now large and deformed, with bulging eyes and wide, flaring nostrils. His mouth was missing its upper lip, which bared his pointed, yellow teeth in a disgusting parody of a smile that sickened Rarity.

The demonic suitor opened his mouth, and in a hoarse voice beckoned Rarity, "Come to me, my dream amaranthine."

Rarity's eyes darted between the suitor and her reflection, and she didn't know which was more terrifying. It all seemed like a horrible dream to her, which she desperately hoped it was.

She looked at her hooves, to see them the same as they ever were. In a second, they became wrinkled and feeble, the same as her reflection. Her gaze drifted back to her suitor, who reached out for her.

With a scream, Rarity's dream ended, and she was alone in her bedroom, shivering and sweating in her bed. She hugged her pillow, taking solace in the warmth of its touch, which let her know she was in the waking world.

With a shuddering sigh, she sat up in her bed, only to come face to face with the demonic suitor from her nightmare.

After loosing another scream, he disappeared, and in his place, Sweetie Belle flinched backwards.

"Rarity!? Why are you still in bed? You promised you'd walk me to school today!" Sweetie reminded her, slightly shaken from her sister jolting awake and screaming in her face.

"School?" Rarity repeated, still in a daze from her dream.

She realized that the sun was up, meaning it was morning. But, did that mean the horrors of the night were gone? After a short look around her room, Rarity was not quite convinced that she was in the waking world yet.

"Sweetie Belle, please pinch me," Rarity requested.

Without any hesitation, Sweetie pinched her sister's foreleg, maybe a little too hard.

"OW!"

Now Rarity was sure she was awake.

"Are we done here? You said you'd walk me to school, and I'm going to be late if you stay in bed any longer," Sweetie said, nearly on the verge of pushing Rarity out of bed herself.

"Y-Yes, yes. Come along," Rarity said as she hastily left her bedroom, eager to put the events of the night behind herself.

Author's Note:

That story that Twilight reads: that's another real story, about the man named Mean Jack (or Stingy Jack, or Horrid Jack, depending on the version) and how he was denied entry to the afterlife, so he was given a handful of embers from hell that would be used to light his way as he wandered the earth for all eternity. Also true is how he used a turnip instead of a pumpkin as a lantern.
And that name Claughplin is pronounced Cloplin. It's supposed to be a pun on Dublin, and spelled using Irish grammar. I hope it's correct, I'm not exactly a scholar on Irish culture.

Comments

[Artist]

This is awesome.