19. Wars of Scare
Outside the Castle of Friendship, bats flew and wolves howled, setting things up for the spookiest night of the year: Nightmare Night. Inside the castle, Evergeen and Yellow Bright were comparing their costumes.
"Evergreen! What do you think of my headless horse costume?"
"Very classic. It's basically stuffing yourself in a pony body costume bigger than you, so you can hide your head in the neck part of the costume, plus see where you are going without any creature seeing your eyes." Evergreen answered.
"There's actually more to it than that..." Yellow Bright stated, holding up the head of the horse, which was separated from its body.
"Your costume has a head?" Evergreen asked.
"Actually, the body is separated from the head, so it would make every creature who don't understand the magic behind the looks, think that the head fell off! And is moving on its own without the body!" Yellow Bright explained.
"That is a wickedly amazing idea! And yes, the only reason I said that sentence, which is a sentence I normally will not say, is because, I am a witch this Nightmare Night." Evergreen said in a cunning tone.
"A witch?! That's nothing compared to a Dracula!" Falcon Dive claimed, flying down towards his non-flyer friends.
"I thought you were going to be a vampire tonight," Yellow Bright told the griffon.
"Vampire, Dracula, whatever!" Falcon Dive sarcastically replied.
Organ music suddenly started playing, as Sunshine Rays' alter-ego made her appearance down the castle's staircase.
"I'm Moonshade Fright, and I am here to spread chills tonight," the pegasus said in a somewhat villainous tone.
"Sunshine. You dressed up as your alter-ego many times outside of Nightmare Night! Are you sure you don't want to try something else? Like, the ghost of the future?!" Falcon Dive asked.
"What's wrong with being Moonshade Fright? In case some creature does something wrong, I will never have to change my costume," Moonshade Fright pointed out.
"Every creature, you need to do something! Alkali has gone mad!" Nature Bloom, dressed as a black cat, panicked.
"Actually, I never gone mad. I was just practising an act as Alkaline, my self-created alter-ego inspired by that fanfic about Acid becoming Acidic. I figured that if Acid's and my places were switched, I would become Alkaline, my corrupted alter-ego," Alkali explained.
"So, should we call you...Alkaline for the whole of tonight?" Evergreen asked.
"Well, I'm alright with eater way!" Alkali cheerfully answered, a second before Volcano came out of the room, dressed as a mad scientist.
"Hey every creature, what do you think of my costume this year?" the dragon asked.
"Totally mad!" Falcon Dive made a pun.
"That's a pun because you know what I'm dressed as, am I right?" Volcano asked.
"Indeed it's a pun." Falcon Dive quickly answered.
"Make way for an ogre!" Krona roared, as she smashed like a yak, making her entrance.
"Wow! That is what you call an entrance on Nightmare Night!" Yellow Bright commented.
"Thanks. This is actually Krona's sixth time of dressing as an ogre on Nightmare Night." Krona admitted.
"She dressed as an ogre on her fist Nightmare Night, when she was three, then an ogre again on..." Buffer began listing, before Krona cut him off.
"Buffer doesn't need to tell every creature all that."
"Sorry...I thought that they would ask!" Buffer replied.
"Anyway, your costume looks epic, Buffer! Even though it's a pumpkin! Something that should be easy to make." Alkali commented.
"And, since you're a scary ogre tonight, how about we scare immoral creatures together? If they were unwilling to stop their immoral acts after we tried talking with them, that is." Moonshade Fright asked Krona.
"Krona and Sunshine...Krona meant, Moonshade Fright...scare together? Krona not sure..." Krona stumbled, a second before Luster arrived at the scene.
"Hey every creature, what do you think of my costume this Nightmare Night?" Luster asked, seeing her best friends' shocked expressions.
"Luster...I can..." Evergreen started, before being cut off by Yellow Bright.
"Barely recognise you!"
"That's because I'm dressed as my mentor when she was still a unicorn, a long time ago." Luster figured.
"About that...are you sure it's alright to dress as her?" Nature Bloom asked.
"I asked her for permission the last time I saw her before tonight, and she agreed that it is alright for me to dress as her when she was about my biological age." Luster explained, "She figured it will be like...'like mentor, like student', something she holds dear."
"Trick or treat!" chanted creatures outside of the Castle of Friendship.
"Oh great, one of us has to stay behind to give out candy?!" Falcon Dive sarcastically asked.
"So, who should it be?" Krona asked.
"Well, I most likely wouldn't be too scary, so maybe I should...stay..." Nature Bloom whimpered.
"Looks like you can use some company..." Luster figured, seeing her changeling Best Friend whimper.
"Fine! As some creature selfless, I abandon my desires to go trick-or-treating tonight to keep Nature Bloom company here, giving out candy to those kids!" Falcon Dive declared.
"Thanks, Falcon Dive." Moonshade Fright thanked.
"Now what are we waiting for, every creature? This year's Nightmare Night awaits!" Yellow Bright announced.
"Wow, Nightmare Night is really hot outside the School of Friendship! I mean, look at every creature who participates in it!" Luster could not help but say her thoughts out loud as she strolled throughout Ponyville.
"It's not getting so warm..." Krona responded.
"What Luster meant is Nightmare Night is popular!" Volcano clarified.
"Intersting costumes, Heroic Ten!" Rarity commented, as she bumped into the heroes.
"Thanks, Madam Rarity...what are you dressed as this year?" Alkali thanked before asking, noticing that Rarity was currently in he usual clothes and not anything else.
"It's a surprise!" Rarity answered in a singing tone.
"Surprises, Falcon Dive will love to see something like those!" Moonshade Fright commented.
Back at the Castle of Friendship, Falcon Dive was doing loop-de-loops as he waited for quick visitors alongside Nature Bloom.
"I'm bored...got anything we can do while waiting?" the griffon asked the changeling.
"Well, we can play boardgames, as long as they don't get us too distracted..." Nature Bloom figured.
"Anything better than wait for ages for the next creature to come and..." Falcon Dive began, before his incomplete sentence was interrupted by creatures outside calling, "Trick or treat!"
"Finally!" Falcon Dive cried in happiness, as he raced to open the Castle entrance.
To the griffon's shock, a monster was on the other side of the gate, and one look at it made him scream and faint, "MONSTER! AAAH!"
"Sorry, that was just my first self-made costume." the Earth Pony dressed up as the monster took off his mask and revealed his true face appearance.
"Right...I knew that..." Falcon Dive nervously chuckled.
Meanwhile, Luster was getting briefings from her best friends about Nightmare Night as they strolled throughout the streets like earlier.
"Now Luster, I know that Nightmare Night is known for the trick and treating, but there is way more to it than just that!" Volcano explained.
"Yeah! It's a social tradition!" Alkali added.
"And the dressing up!" Krona added.
"All for fun and getting together with friends!" Buffer resumed.
"Just like most of the other festivals and celebrations in Equestria..." Evergreen went on, before being interrupted by the sound of screams.
"Only, Nightmare Night is way scarier than all the other festivals and celebrations there are!" Yellow Bright commented.
"Scary is my thing whenever I scare some creature into doing the right thing, so I'm not surprised to hear or see others scared or terrified!" Moonshade Fright declared.
"Lucky you..." Volcano responded.
"Whooooo's ready for some ghostly white Nightmare Night booze?" Pinkie Pie asked, dressed as a witch selling some Nightmare Night themed pastries and meals outside of Sugar Cube Corner.
"As if I was scared!" Buffer responded to hearing what Pinkie said.
"I think those pastries and limited meals are quite fit for the night!" Evergreen commented.
"And since they are limited..." Yellow Bright remarked.
"We should get them before we have to wait for next year..." Luster decided.
"Great! So, who's got the bits?" Krona asked excitedly.
No creature responded to the yak's question, causing them to realise something unpleasant.
"We did not bring any, did we?" Volcano sarcastically asked.
"It was Krona's idea to get snacks, so Krona should go back and get our bits!" Krona figured.
"But what would the rest of us do while you make your trip back and forth?" Luster asked.
"Sit here and block other creatures' way? Obviously not!" Alkali declared.
Before one of the other Heroic Ten members could respond, lightning struck and thunder flashed right above the eight creatures, startling them.
"Gotha!" a teenager pegasus mare dressed as a raven laughed.
"For the first time ever since I was Moonshade Fright, I was scared!" Moonshade Fright could not help but say out loud.
"That was too easy practice!" the teenaged mare burst out laughing, "Wait till those losers hear that I scared not one, but eight adults!"
"We're young adults!" Yellow Bright corrected.
"Most of us are chronologically young adults, that is..." Luster corrected.
"Anyway, we are not just any young adults, we are the newest heroes and protectors of Equestria, who saved every creature from the latest threat!" Volcano stated.
"Who cares? Scaring you is what I had to do to get better!" the teenaged pegasus flew off, leaving the heroes as fast as she could.
"Is she out of her mind?!" Alkali asked.
"And what do you think she meant by 'scaring us is what she had to do to get better?' " Evergreen asked.
"I don't know, but one thing I can infer, is that is nothing good!" Moonshade Fright declared.
"Our Nightmare Night snacks are going to have to wait!" Luster announced.
The teenaged pegasus flew back to where she came from, unaware that she was being spied on and followed by the eight creatures whom she scared earlier.
"Looking around from all directions, seems like she is suspecting company..." Moonshade Fright figured.
"And we are that company!" Evergreen added.
"Because she scared us earlier?" Volcano asked.
"Shh! Keep quiet or she'll hear us!" Alkali reminded, causing all of them to stay low in the bushes where they were hiding.
"This way," Luster instructed, after ensuring that the pegasus whom the heroes were chasing, could not see them from where they were.
"Hey Charla, how's your scaring practice?" a teenaged female Earth Pony dressed in spy gear, asked the teenaged pegasus who scared the Heroic Ten earlier.
"Great, Tricks! I scared eight times more than one!" Charla answered.
"That's what we need here!" Tricks grinned.
"Is it just me, or is this really happening?" Luster whispered to her best friends.
"I don't think that it's just you..." Evergreen answered.
"Those teenagers surely don't seem to have any good intentions tonight..." Moonshade Fright claimed.
"But it's Nightmare Night!" Krona reminded.
"And?" Buffer asked.
"Whenever it is Nightmare Night, scaring others is the number one thing they do!" Krona remarked.
"But who do you think they want to scare so badly?" Yellow Bright asked.
"It better not be any elderly, otherwise they might risk becoming murderers as they would risk literally causing a heart attack!" Moonshade Fright stated.
"You're...lucky that Nature Bloom isn't around to hear what you just said!" Evergreen informed Moonshade Fright.
Back at the Castle of Friendship, Nature Bloom was preparing a fresh batch of treats for the creatures who visit the Castle's door just for trick and treating.
"I know that Nightmare Night may be all about the fun of scaring, but it has the fun of giving as we give out these treats!" the changeling said her thoughts out loud, as she took another batch of cookies out of the oven.
"I wonder what the others are going through, hopefully nothing too adventurous that will make me upset for missing out!" Falcon Dive replied to what Nature Bloom said, as he flew over to get the new batch of treats.
"Those boys are so going to scream and run home to their mommies when they see what we can do!" Tricks laughed, causing her friend Charla to laugh alongside.
"Boys?" Buffer asked, while staying low alongside his best friends in the bushes.
"Hey girls, so how are things going on your side?" a teenaged female unicorn dressed up as Nightmare Moon approached the two female ponies.
"Even better so far!" Charla answered.
"They're going terrifyingly well, Irony!" Tricks replied while making a pun.
"I'm doing just as good too, and I can't wait to see those faces when they happen!" Irony grinned.
"What do you think that they're up to?" Yellow Bright could not help but ask his best friends out loud while still whispering to prevent them from being spotted.
"I don't know..." Evergreen answered.
"But I still don't think it's something good!" Moonshade Fright added.
"Just keep up the process, maybe we'll learn what we need to know!" Volcano suggested.
"What process?" Alkali asked while whispering.
"The process of observing them." Volcano plainly answered.
"Not bad kids!" a familiar voice could be heard saying, catching every creature's attention towards its owner.
"Madam Rainbow Dash! She's judging for the Nightmare Night scary decoration haunted houses this year?" Luster asked.
"You meant one of the judges. There are a few of them..." Buffer corrected.
"Falcon Dive would love to judge as well, but too bad, he and Nature are back at the Castle, and we surely don't have the time to decorate it, so we are obviously not participating in the decoration competition!" Evergreen stated.
"Something for him to complain about!" Moonshade Fright remarked.
The conversation halted as the eight creatures focused their attention on Rainbow Dash and the teenaged female ponies.
"Wow! Your haunted house is so totally awesome and terrifyingly surprising!" Rainbow Dash complemented, "And I thought that the guys' house was the scariest!"
"We thought so, too, but they will never think that boys are always better than girls once they see the final results!" Chala confidently claimed.
"I don't know about that, because I've heard that they aren't finish with their house." Rainbow Dash informed.
"Neither are we," Tricks declared.
"Then get it finished before midnight, when the contest is over and the judges make the final decision." Rainbow Dash informed, before flying off, "This pony's still got lots of other houses to judge!"
After Rainbow Dash was out of sight, Ivory approached her best friends, "Well, those boys sure won't be winning once they...AAAAAH!"
Her scream startled the other two teenagers, causing them to turn around to face what she was looking at: A huge inflatable mummy that towered over them!
As the girls screamed, laughing could be heard before the mummy shrank down and revealed its owner, a teenaged male Earth Pony dressed as a skeleton.
"Tyke, we should have known!" Tricks growled.
"You girls so should have had a mirror to see your faces in back there! I can't believe that you kept having such a 'girl power' motto!" Tyke laughed.
"I believe it!" Alkali responded to hearing the conversation, earning a shush from the others.
"Oh yeah, the Council of Friendship who rules Equestria are all girls! And they saved the kingdom a million times!" Ivory reminded.
"Don't forget that Royal Advisor Spike is not a girl, and he saved the Crystal Empire twice!" Tyke remarked.
"Some creatures really learnt their history!" Volcano commented.
"As if saving the Crystal Empire twice was more than all of Equestria!" Charla argued.
"She has a good point!" Yellow Bright could not help but comment, causing Luster to pull every creature down.
"Let's just don't say anything until we don't have to spy anymore."
"Back to the main point, just because it is girls who saved the kingdom all those times, doesn't always mean that girls are best at everything!" Tyke confronted, "Wait till you scream like girls to see how scary me and the guys' house is!"
"You'll never be as good as ours!" Tricks growled.
"Then how do you expect yours to be scarier, when you are already scared of one of the newest things in mine?" Tyke asked.
"ENOUGH!" Krona yelled, stepping out of the bushes.
"AAAH! An ogre!" the teenaged ponies screamed.
"Not really an ogre," Buffer corrected.
"That's just Krona dressed as one for this Nightmare Night." Evergreen explained.
"And I assume that you teens know who we are," Moonshade Fright plainly said.
"The Heroic Ten! Newest heroes and protector of Equestria and Beyond!" Yellow Bright answered to Moonshade Fright's latest line.
"That line was for them to answer?" Moonshade Fright informed her Earth Pony Best Friend.
"Sorry, can't help it!" Yellow Bright sheepishly replied.
"Anyway, we heard what you were saying, something about making your houses scarier..." Luster approached the teenagers.
"To scare the girls!" Tyke harshly stated at the same time the girls claimed, "To scare the boys!"
"Oh boy..." Alkali groaned.
"Rivalry between the opposite genders...I'm not surprised, it's pretty common for all ages if you must know." Volcano commented.
"My boys and I are going to make a way better haunted house than these girly girls are!" Tyke claimed.
"As if!" Tricks retaliated, "You haven't even seen half of it!"
"Why are you so focused on being better than the other? The contest is just a friendly game if you ask me!" Luster asked.
"Because the contest is a friendly game! Made into a contest to raise the spirits!" Krona explained.
"And since it's a friendly game, shouldn't we care less about who wins or loses?" Evergreen asked.
"I don't think so!" all the four teenagers in the area protested.
"Wow, being famous heroes sure don't have any impact sometimes!" Yellow Bright could not help but say after seeing how strong the teenagers' protests were.
"It happens to my mentor and her friends, too!" Luster informed.
"Anyway, you teens shouldn't be so competitive! You're acting like little kids in this rate!" Moonshade Fright informed.
"Says the one creature who uses scaring to make others do what is right! And find it amusing!" Ivory protested.
"Only because there' no other effective way to get them to never do bad things again!" Moonshade Fright barked.
"Then, there's no other effective way to show these girls that girls are not always the best by scaring them!" Tyke figured, before using a smoke bomb to disappear, releasing a swarm of bats that flew into the mares' faces.
"Wait and see, Tyke!" Charla angrily shouted.
"We're going to scare your heart out of your body!" Tricks declared in anger.
"What?! Are you sure?!" Buffer asked.
"Well, it's Nightmare Night...the event of scaring others while dressing up and trick-or-treating, so...scaring each other is a real deal..." Volcano explained.
"Something Nature Bloom probably will never like..." Evergreen commented.
"I'll look for where that Tyke has gone, let him know that he's gone a little too far with that bomb!" Moonshade Fright declared, before flying up into the night sky.
"I'll fly up there too, I substituted for Falcon Dive's lookup job when he was injured!" Alkali announced, "I probably will get a hang of it by now!"
"Go for it!" Luster instructed.
"Finding that one pony in a crowd that can have a few creatures dressed as the same thing he is dressed as?! Should have known that this is not going to be easy!" Moonshade Fright complained.
"Maybe we should find where his haunted house is! If you can't find who you're looking for, finding where they most likely will be is good enough!" Luster called.
"We already know where it is!" Charla grinned.
"Then can you take us to it? We hav got to have.a talk with them!" Evergreen asked.
"If you help us beat them..." Ivory stated.
"WHAT?! No way!" Krona protested.
"She's right, we are not here to be on either team's side, we're here to set things right!" Volcano explained.
"Then you're not going to see that haunted house!" Tricks scoffed as she turned her back away from the heroes.
"Still go to that house, Charla, we got to know what the boys are up to..." Ivory whispered to her friends' ears.
"No good, too difficult to find!" Alkali called.
"Say, where's Ivory going? And by the way she's walking, I think she's up to something..." Moonshade Fright asked Alkali.
"I'll continue looking for the boys," Alkali figured.
"While I'll ask Luster whether I should follow you-know-who or not," Moonshade Fright responded.
"Do you have to say it like that?" Alkali asked, gaining a glare from Moonshade Fright as a result.
"Or...whatever..." Alkali sheepishly smiled.
"So, did you find them?" Luster asked Sunshine Rays, as the pegasus flew down.
Sunshine Rays went close to Luster, in order to whisper something into the unicorn's ear. Luster then whispered back into Moonshade Fright' s ear, and the two nodded to each other, a second before the pegasus took off.
"What are the rest of the Heroic Ten going to do?" Krona asked.
"Get back to their original Nightmare Night plans?" Yellow Bright asked like Pinkie Pie would.
"Sorry, but I'm afraid this Nightmare Night, we're going to have to change plans..." Luster apologised.
"Well, at least we're still together!" Evergreen pointed out.
"We are," Luster confirmed, "Together to make sure that this competition does not go out of control!"
Meanwhile, Moonshade Fright had followed Ivory to a small shed that was decorated with many evil-looking pumpkins, skeletons, zombie faces, cobwebs and sharp, pointy twigs.
"I can't believe every creature is always scared of my performances!" Moonshade Fright could not help but say when she saw how terrifying the haunted house made out of the decorated shed was.
"Good news, boys. This inflatable mummy balloon scared those annoying girls out of their dreams!" Tyke told his friends, as he approached them.
"All of them are boys...and they do not seem to like those girls,...so they must be the boys the girls were talking about!" Moonshade Fright whispered to herself, as she hid on the rooftops.
"Oh Tyke, you're just making me wish that I was there to see their faces!" the teenaged pegasus dressed as a goblin responded.
"Chartreux, that doesn't matter! Just wait till we make them see how scary our haunted house is!" the teenaged unicorn dressed as a mummy, told his friend, revealing the later's name to the spying Moonshade Fright.
"Illumine, have you done enough practicing while reserving enough for the show?" Tyke asked., revealing the teenaged unicorn's name.
"Totally! And I can't wait to do the finishing touches!" Illumine answered.
Moonshade Fright remained quiet as she watched from the roof tops, and found Charla sneaking into the shed, causing the former to ask herself, "What is she up to?"
"Those girls are so going to regret claiming that they will beat us!" Chartreux claimed, a second before Charla's loud screams of fright could be heard, as she herself came running out of the shed.
The teenaged boys could not help but laugh at the terrified female pegasus, as Tyke mocked, "Told you girly girls that you don't underestimate the power of boys!"
"Power? The is so children's stuff!" Moonshade Fright told herself as she watched the events unfold.
"Ha! As if you boys thought I was the only creature now to have a scare..." Charla smirked, as she revealed that she had stolen several of the boys' decorations with her sack, including some eyeballs, teeth, bones and cobwebs.
"Give those back!" the three teenaged boys angrily commanded in unison after gasping.
"No way!" Charla responded, flying off into the sky.
Monshade Fright managed to hide from the teenaged ponies' sight by ducking down. She then chased then from far behind to avoid getting spotted.
In the mean time, Volcano and Buffer were looking at the other haunted houses like tourists, stopping by to observe every one.
"Look Buffer, this one really makes use of science, using lights and shadows!" Volcano called.
"You always love that trick!" Buffer could not help but say.
"Couldn't help it, especially when you're an inventor and scientist, and.a science teacher..." Volcano answered.
"Anyway, no crazy competition so far, I mean, no creature seems to be very determined to outdo some creature else here, unlike those teens..." Buffer informed.
"That's good news, and we can even take a longer look and see the science behind their work!" Volcano exclaimed.
"Volcano! We're not here to be fans of anything!" Buffer reminded, "We are here to check on things!"
"Oh, right. Sorry, I just can't help myself..." Volcano apologised.
"Come back here, you pest!" Chartreux's voice could be heard shouting, catching Volcano and Buffer's attention.
The teenaged boys wee sill chasing Charla throughout the streets, and they ran right pass the two heroes seconds before Moonshade Fright caught up to her best friends.
"Volcano, Buffer, I saw Charla sneak into the boys' haunted house...I mean shed...I mean, their shed decorated to be made into a Haunted House for Nightmare Night!" the pegasus informed.
"A shed? Made into a haunted house?! That won't be much work within one little space!" Volcano commented.
"But the main point is, she stole things that don't belong to her! And stealing is something obviously not right!" Moonshade Fright reminded.
"And it never is!" Buffer added.
"Actually, there are certain exceptions when heroes have to steal keys from villains to free innocent prisoners whom the villains imprisoned, but in this case...it's not right to steal some creature else's decor!" Moonshade Fright stated, before the three of them raced off.
Back at the boys' shed, Ivory checked the surroundings before proceeding to her part of her team's plan. In a nearby trash bin, Evergreen was spying on the teenaged unicorn and witnessed the latter going into the shed and coming back out with a sack that was empty before the entering.
"That sack was empty before going in, and most likely full after coming out, can this mean..." the Kirin gasped after she told herself her thoughts out loud.
After Ivory was gone, Evergreen used her Kirin magic to open the shed's door and took a peek inside, finding the shed completely empty.
"Uh oh..."
Luster was still at the teenaged girls' haunted house, trying to reason with Tricks, "Come on, it's just a game, nothing much!"
"Those boys just always go too far!" Tricks argued.
"Only because you think that much!" Luster figured, "Plus, Nightmare Night is a social festival! Not meant to be a contest!"
"Come back here and return those decor!" the teenaged boys' voices could be heard shouting.
"Luster, they stole the decor!" Volcano shouted as he flew towards the unicorn while chasing behind the teenagers.
"And this kind of stealing is wrong!" Buffer added.
"And you know I don't like it when the wrong thing is being done on purpose!" Moonshade Fright ended.
"What?! Teens, this is getting out of hoof! Stealing is cheating in a contest! Return the stolen stuff to its rightful owners right away!" Luster scolded the teenaged girls.
"Don't worry, we are going to give the stuff right back! We didn't actually want these any way..." Charla smirked.
"Then why else would you..." Volcano began, before figuring it out as he thought, "Uh oh, I think I know why the stuff is stolen!"
"What?" Buffer asked.
Charla led the boys right into the girls' haunted house, while the heroes remained outside to watch things from a far and presume that the boys got a huge fright from seeing what was inside he girls' haunted house, coming running out of the small shelter within seconds, screaming at the top of their lungs, and sounding somewhat like girls as they screamed.
"My guess that Charla stole the decor from the boys' haunted house is to lure them to where she wanted them, and that guess is correct." Volcano explained.
"Why didn't I think of that?" Buffer asked himself.
"You boys are hilarious!" Tricks laughed, "Who's the scary-rats now?!"
"And here's your stuff back. Thanks but no thanks!" Charla sarcastically added as she dropped the box of stolen decor onto the boys with the intentions to do so.
"hey! That's stealing, frightening, and hurting all on purpose! And all together they cross the line!" Moonshade Fright scolded.
"Ha! Way a go girls, now you got yourselves scolded by the queen of scares!" Tyke sarcastically complemented.
"I am not the queen of scares!" Moonshade Fright roared, "I just use scaring to scare those unwilling to stop their wrongdoings into stopping their wrongdoings!"
"Calm down now, Moonshade." Luster approached, before turning to the teenagers, "Now teens, what she meant is your taking your competition too far by doing all this! You have to stop!"
"She's right you know, there are many history stories saying that a competition led to war and deaths and destruction and total chaos that wouldn't even happen if it weren't for the competition in the first place! Like the 3 millenniums ago before the foundation of Equestria story about..." Volcano began, before being interrupted by Buffer.
"Volcano, we don't need all that extra information."
"Whatever." Volcano plainly replied.
"So you have got to stop the competition and sop scaring and playing tricks on each other like this and everything you did all night!" Moonshade Fright told the teenagers.
"No way!" both boys and girls protested in unison and parted ways.
"Luster! Moonshade!" Alkali called as she landed right beside the two mares.
"What is it, Alkali?" Luster asked.
"Evergreen told me that she witnessed Ivory stealing everything in the boys' haunted house, leaving it empty!" Alkali informed out loud, to the point that the teenaged boys could hear.
"What?! You girls are worse than girls, you're robbers!" Illumine angrily lashed out at his rivals.
"Actually, the correct word is 'thieves', because thieves steal things without their victims' knowledge, while robbers threaten their victims into giving them things. Some other words that usually got confused with thieves are pick-pocketers, burglars..." Volcano explained, before he was cut off from his explanation.
"Volcano! Those are unnecessary extra information!" Alkali informed.
"Whoever." Volcano plainly replied once again.
"Stealing crosses the line! You all must stop your competition at once!" Moonshade Fright announced.
"You can't get us to do that! You aren't even one of the judges!" Chartreux argued.
"I can just tell the judges everything that you teens did, taking the competition too far! I'm sure they will understand!" Moonshade Fright confronted.
"As if, queen of scare!" Illumine responded, before dropping a smoke bomb that left the grown-up pegasus coughing.
"Moonshade! Are you alright?!" Luster asked, running up to her Best Friend.
"My health is, but not the whole of me..." Moonshade Fright answered.
"Then, what parts of you are wrong?" Buffer asked.
"I need to get something back at the Castle. " Moonshade Fright informed, preparing to take off.
"What is it?" Alkali asked.
"A little something to scare them into stopping!" moon shade Fright answered.
"What?! Are you sure using scare works this time?" Luster asked.
"What do you mean 'this time'? Scaring is always the effective tactic that works!" Moonshade Fright claimed.
"But those teens were scared by each other, and they didn't give up." Buffer reminded.
"And they are still not giving up..." Volcano added.
"So I'm going to have to be extremely scary! Scary enough to get them to change their ways!" Moonshade Fright announced.
"But are you sure fighting scare with scare works?" Luster asked.
"She has a point you know, just like 2 wrongs do not make a right, and fighting fire with fire...doesn't always go well." Volcano explained.
"But we tried reasoning with them, got 0 effects! It's time to bring up the fright and do something that will bring effects!" Moonshade Fright declared.
"What do you think, Luster?" Buffer asked.
"Well...since no creature else have effective ideas...maybe we should try..." Luster decided.
The clock soon struck eleven, the hour before midnight. In the Castle of Friendship, Nature Bloom whimpered at the thought of the clock striking 12.
"I'm glad that I'm staying here in the Castle, and not outside, but what kind of exciting scary tricks are out there?" the changeling asked.
"When will these trick and treaters get their bags full, anyways?! It's been hours and we're still giving out cookies!" Falcon Dive complained.
"I'll just go get some more cookies to give out..." Nature Bloom figured.
In the night skies, Luster rode on Alkali's back as they searched for the last of the teenaged ponies that they were confronting that night.
"Can you find her?" Alkali asked.
"Trying my best....this scanning spell is actually tricky..." Luster answered while struggling to keep her horn lit up as she scanned the surroundings.
"Come on, Luster! You've learnt a hundred of different scan spells! You can do it!" Alkali cheered.
"Found Ivory! By those houses!" Luster reported.
"Then that's our next stop tonight!" Alkali announced, automatically diving down to the streets to give chase to Ivory.
"I'm warning you creatures, what I'm doing is none of your business!" Ivory called in an annoyed tone.
"You are unwilling to stop what you were doing! And we won't stop until you do!" Luster declared, teleporting herself to the exit spot that was right in front of Ivory, before teleporting them both to where Moonshade Fright had a performance for them.
"Got the last of them!" Luster exclaimed, as she brought Ivory to the back of the Castle of Friendship.
"Good thing Luster back, teens are hard to keep under control!" Krona claimed.
"I even had to try every thing Madam Pinkie Pie and her hiusband Cheese Sandwich ever taught me as their helper!" Yellow Bright added.
"And now that all the guests are here, the performance can start." Evergreen calmly said.
"I am Moonshade Fright," the pegasus said as she made a dramatic entrance walking through artificial fog made by Volcano's latest invention.
"And I am here to show you the consequences of scaring each other constantly, all for a competition!" she went on.
"We're lucky that Nature Bloom isn't here..." Evergreen commented.
"Number one bad thing: You are scaring each other out of wanting to! There's actually no need to scare each other for competition! A competition isn't even one of the most important things in the world!" Moonshade Fright explained, "Bad thing number two: Scaring can actually cause heart attacks, literally! Although it's rare, the chances are not 0! "
Time flew and soon, it was 11.20, when Moonshade Fright finished her performance, "So you better change your ways! And not scare each other for fun, nor competition!"
"So you're saying that scaring is something bad?" Ivory asked in a somewhat scared manner.
"Exactly!" Moonshade Fright answered.
"Then, why do you always use scare to make creatures do the right thing?!" Illumine asked, putting Moonshade in negative light as the six teenagers started to express dislike for her.
"I kept telling you, I had no other choice! Reasoning with them doesn't work, so I had to use scare!" Moonshade Fright replied.
"I don't think so, if some creature moral like you do it, there's no reason we shouldn't!" Tricks declared, and the six teenagers raced away.
"Well that worked..." Volcano sarcastically commented.
"Uh, you know it didn't work, right Volcano?" Alkali asked in a concerned tone.
"Of course I know it didn't work! I was being sarcastic when I said 'well, that worked'." Volcano explained.
"I don't understand, scaring always worked on those who are unwilling to change, why didn't it work this time?" Moonshade Fright asked as she paced around.
"Maybe it's because you were fighting fire with fire," Evergreen figured.
"Um, Evergreen, I don't see any uses of fire around." Yellow Bright responded.
"Fighting fire with fire doesn't literally mean using fire against fire." Krona pointed out.
"Krona's right. It's not the literally meaning when we say it, so fighting fire with fire means fighting an opponent with what they use against you." Luster explained.
"Since the six teens have been using scaring all nigh, scaring them will be using the same strategy, or in this case, the same action, against them." Buffer figured.
"I can't believe I made them think that it's alright to scare others just because I use scaring!" Moonshade Fright cried.
"Sunshine...I mean, Moonshade...or whatever..." Luster shook her head before resuming, "We all know that you scare others for a good reason, to sop them from doing more wrongdoings, so your scaring is actually not as bad as scaring others for fun."
"We all know that!" Alkali chimed in.
"But this time, scaring is not the answer, as its fighting fire with fire," Luster explained.
"And there's a wise saying that fighting fire with fire is not always the best idea." Evergreen contributed.
"Which in this case, it's pretty true." Volcano commented.
"Moonshade tried scaring the six teens into stopping, but that motivated them to be even scarier!" Krona declared.
"So scaring them into stopping is out of the question and off the list!" Yellow Bright announced.
"But what else can I do?" Moonshade Fright asked.
"We tell the judges, because at the end of the day, whoever wins the competition will be decided by them!" Luster figured.
"In case you hadn't noticed, it's night!" Yellow Bright reminded.
"At the end of the day is how they usually say it, Yellow Bright." Evergreen informed.
"I knew that!" Yellow Bright quickly responded.
"If Yellow Bright knew that, why would he say 'in case you hadn't noticed, it's night'?" Krona asked and quoted what her earth pony Best Friend said.
"Guys, we don't have time! We got six competition-addicted teens to stop!" Luster snapped every creature out of the distraction conversation, leading them back to town.
Meanwhile, the six teens' might against each other had worsened; both teams were scaring each other, and stealing each other's things, resulting in chaos.
"I can't believe I'm saying this, but this is total chaos going on here." Buffer commented as he watched the teenagers fight.
"Without Discord to complete the dessert." Volcano added, "And what I said was an idiom, so the meaning is different from the literal meaning."
"We know that idioms are like that." Buffer quickly replied.
"This competition really got them carried away!" Evergreen stated.
"Not for long!" Moonshade Fright announced, as she led Rainbow Dash to the scene to witness the events.
"You...are...not...kidding..." Rainbow Dash uttered, unable to believe what she was seeing.
"I cannot believe it at all!" Rarity, dressed as a vampire, said out loud.
"So that's what you're dressed as that is meant to be a surprise?!" Volcano sarcastically asked upon seeing Rarity in her costume.
"They got carried away, wanting their haunted houses to be scarier than the others!" Alkali claimed.
"Which turned into scaring each other!" Krona contributed.
"And even worse, stealing from each other!" Yellow Bright added.
"And in this case, stealing is very wrong..." Moonshade Fright stated.
"That gets them disqualified!" Rainbow Dash claimed.
"Absolutely!" Rarity added.
"Sorry, teenagers Charla, Tricks, Ivory, Chartreux, Tyke, and Illumine! But you've gone too far, and did many wrongdoings!" Rainbow Dash shouted.
"And because of all that, both of your team are disqualified from this year's competition!" Rarity declared.
"WHAT?!" all six teenaged ponies asked in unison.
"Sorry, but you've gone too far, and therefore, you're disqualified." Rainbow Dash plainly informed.
"And scaring each other for the fun of it?! That is absolutely horrid!" Rarity remarked.
"And you got no creatures to blame except for yourselves!" Rainbow Dash went on.
"Because you yourselves did all the actions that led to this happening!" Rarity continued.
"And every creature is equally to blame." Moonshade Fright finished, approaching the scene herself, with her Best Friends behind her.
"Moonshade right! You got the judges to disqualify us?!" Tyke angrily asked.
"We all did." Luster corrected, as she and the rest of her best friends leapt closer to Moonshade Fright behind the latter.
"Because fighting fire with fire doesn't solve the problem. So I can't...I mean, we can't use scaring to get you to stop, because your desire to scare each other is what caused the competition to get you carried away, so we got the judges to see your wrongdoings themselves, in order to get you to stop." Moonshade Fright explained, "Because getting you to stop fighting and scaring each other is what has to be accomplished."
"And make you realise that fighting fire with fire usually doesn't end well!" Evergreen contributed.
"Look at how much damage it caused!" Krona went on.
"You went on in a continuous fight!" Buffer added.
"And stole and scare and could have gotten some creature hurt if it goes to an even higher level!" Luster added.
"Maybe you all should go to the School of Friendship to settle down?" Volcano suggested.
"What?! NO! We love our school!" the six teenagers protested.
"Then all six of you should get along with each other, and stop being rivals." Luster declared as she stood perpendicular to the middle of the two opposing teams.
"And look at it this way, once ou put aside your differences, you'll have new friends!" Alkali cheerfully told the teenagers.
"And lesser enemies!" Yellow Bright concluded.
"Well, when you put it that way...we might want to stop being rivals..." Illumine spoke up.
"And we might like a team of six friends, so we can experience something like the friendship between the Council of Friendship..." Ivory stated.
"And we might like to get to be part of a big group of friends like you, Heroic Ten!" Tricks went on.
"We wouldn't say big, we mostly will say large." Volcano corrected.
"Anyways, if you want to try getting along, we'd like to help you with that." Luster added.
The scene changed to show the six teenagers getting along with the Heroic Ten members nearby, as Luster narrated her letter for Princess Twilight Sparkle.
Dear Princess Twilight Sparkle,
This Nightmare Night, my best friends and I came across six teenaged ponies who would like to tell you what they have learnt on this year's Nightmare Night. Fighting fire with fire does not usually end with good results, which is quite true as their constant scaring and stealing and trying to beat each other efforts just kept n worsening things and taking their competition war level up higher and higher until we got the judges to see how carried away they got, and disqualify them to stop their competition. My Best Friend Sunshine Rays, as her alter-ego Moonshade Fright, learnt the same lesson that fighting with fire usually does not solve the problem when she tried to scare the six teenaged ponies into stopping, since scaring is what the six teenagers were doing that is wrong, scaring them cannot be the solution. Although there might be a few cases where fighting fire with fire works, we cannot let that make us think that it is the solution to our problems.
Signed, your faithful student,
Luster Dawn
Soon, the eight creatures returned to the Castle of Friendship, while commenting on what they knew from their recent escapade.
"It was great to see that those two trios made peace with each other!" Moonshade Fright commented.
"And share a little trivia about themselves..." Alkali went on.
"And who knew that Chartreux was named after his dad's favourite breed of cats?!" Krona added.
"And we did another heroic deed, as we did what was right!" Luster ended, as she opened the castle doors with her magic.
"You're back!" Nature Bloom greeted.
"Yes we are." Evergreen replied.
"And we can really take a nap." Yellow Bright yawned.
"So, hw was Nightmare Night for you guys? Nothing too exciting nor out-of-the-ordinary for a common Nightmare Night every year?" Falcon Dive asked, causing the eight creatures to gulp.
"Well, it can be very different from last years..." Buffer answered.
"But maybe we can get Head-mare Starlight and Vice Head-stallion Sunburst to be in charge of giving out goodies next year! So you and Nature Bloom can join us, and we'll have all ten out of ten of us having fun!" Volcano suggested.
"That will be epic, but I'm still wondering what I've missed..." Falcon Dive replied.
"Should we tell him?" Luster asked the others.
"Well, if we didn't, there's still some other creatures who could, so..." Krona plainly said before the scene changed to show the outside of the castle of Friendship a little while later...
"WHAT?! I MISSED AN ESCAPADE DEALING WITH FIGHTING TEENAGERS?! AND ALL THE ACTION, ROUNDING UP, LOOKING OUT FROM THE SKIES, AND SNEAKING AROUND?! HOW CAN..." Falcon Dive complained loudly.
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Sorry Falcon, better luck next time.