> Ponyvania
>  by Slycoopertr
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From the Beginning
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Pinkie seriously, who are you talking about?”
Applejack woke up to a muffled scream from downstairs. She tumbled out of bed and raced out of her room to find her sister, Applebloom, with a sword through her back and a live humanoid shaped skeleton behind her taking up most of the hallway. Fear first took her, and then anger. She galloped as hard as she could and broke the skeleton in half. The orange pony turned to find her sister only to see that the top half of her enemy was crawling after her. Using most of her strength her bucked the head off of it. It was still moving.


“Dagnabit, stay dead!” Applejack yelled out and slammed her hooves on the last torso of the creature before her.


When she was convinced that it was finally not going to move again she went over to her sister and mourned. Then she heard a deeper voice voice cry out in pain followed by a older, weaker one moaning in agony. Almost stumbling downstairs she saw another three skeletons that were after the last of her immediate family. Granny Smith wasn’t moving much and Big Mac wasn’t looking too good and had an arrow in his left foreleg. Two of the skeletons had bow and arrows Applejack noted before charging in and taking out the only one without a sword. Dodging a few arrows, she bucked the other two archers and surveyed outside noticing that there was smoke coming from outside.


Going back to her family, she was mortified at how much blood was on the ground below Big Mac. He was shot again before she could take out the last archer; it was in his chest. She found a towel and tried to stop the bleeding, but the arrow had gone in too deep, most likely had nipped his heart. He didn’t say anything, but he did bring his hoof up to his sister with a goodbye look and tried to smile before death took him. Granny smith next to him wasn’t moving and a hoof was to her heart. Applejack knew she should’ve made her take her heart medication last night. She couldn’t take it anymore, Applejack fell to the ground and cried.


Fire could be seen from her house that came from Ponyville. Getting her hat from the barn, she made sure to lock it, in case some other creatures came after her stuff again. Applejack stormed through Ponyville to find that it was being overrun with demons and skeletons. Knowing that she take them all, she Fought through the hoard and reached the library to find any sign of life, but it was in vain as she kicked open the door to find Twilight and Spike lifeless in the blazing background. Going through three deaths already, she almost became immune to sadness, but still shed a tear for her friend.


Going through the town was as if going through a nightmare with no end. Every street was filled with creatures; every house was engulfed in flames, and not a pony to be found. Every pony she had looked for was, as all the others, on the ground fill with arrows and swords or burned (they could however, be recognized by their cutie mark or lack thereof), all but Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Rarity and Fluttershy. They were nowhere to be found. She found a group of werewolves that were having a friendly meal until they saw Applejack. They stopped what they were doing and began to slowly close up on her. Applejack knew she couldn’t take them all and didn’t know what else she could do. Daylight, the only friend Applejack had left, started reach across the land. The creatures vanished into the Everfree forest with a smile and individual howls, joyful over last night’s raid.


So, the light of day’s what’s frightens ‘em, huh? She thought.


Looking around her town, she saw nothing but ash, burned buildings and dead ponies. She did another 15 minutes of searching through the ghost town before heading back to her place. Since the barn was locked, she figured that was the better place to stop and rest than the rest of her house. Exhausted, she fell on a stack of hay and immediately fell asleep. She had no dreams that night.


When she awoke it was still daylight, her eyes hurt to open to that evil ray of sun. Getting up was hard after what happened, she practically used the rest of her strength to make it back to her own barn since it was about a mile away.


“Damn sun.” Applejack muttered. “Why are y’all always blockin mah vision. Can’t see anything round here. Not door outta here, or the hay I’m sitting on or that ghost of…”


Twilight was floating next to Applejack. She had all of her features, but they were faded and see-through. She was in a laying down position in the air when Applejack saw her.
“TWILIGHT!” Screamed Applejack. She jumped at Twilight only to go through her and hit the floor. “Wha- What’s goin on? Why are y’all…uh not there, but there?”


“Applejack, don’t freak out, but I’m dead and-” Explained Twilight


“How in Equestria is that possible?” Applejack interrupted.


“I was putting a revival spell on Spike when those creatures attacked him. I was in the middle of the spell when a skeleton archer shot me. The spell was still active when I died but only halfway, the spell was put on me instead, but now only my ghost can be used.”


Accepting the explanation, one thought went through Applejack’s head, it’s magic, just forget it.


“Do you know where we can find the others?” asked Applejack.


“I didn’t see any of our friends when floating around, maybe they were taken?” Twilight logically thought.


“Well ah did notice that those…things headed off to the Everfree, let’s try there first”


Applejack was almost to the barn door when Twilight shot out in front of her. “HOLD IT” Twilight exclaimed. “Going out there with no plan and no weapons is just stupid! You’ll end up like all the rest, dead and gone!” Twilight could feel herself getting teary eyed.


“Now Twilight don’ be silly, I got my rope n’ hat don’ I?” Applejack said trying to cheer her up


“That won’t do” Twilight said feeling better but more serious. “You need protection”


At that moment Twilight jumped at Applejack and burst into small light increments that surround Applejack. Applejack jumped back to see her friend gone “Twilight?


“...”


“TWILIGHT!”


“Yes?” Twilight said casually and in an echo-y voice.


“Where are you?!” Applejack said in a worried and confused voice


“In your brain”


“But I can’t see ya anywhere…and you sound like yer everywhere”


“I combined my otherworldly self to you to give you a chance at defeating those things, in other words, I’m in you (not in that way) in order to protect you. I sound weird to you because of that telecommunication thing I was telling you about earlier. By the way look down”


Applejack did as she was told to find that slightly glowing green leather armor with a white trim that complemented the hat she wore had appeared all around her except for her head, hind legs and tail.


“I had found a book in my library that had to do with making armor, tele-communication and weapon making, and it worked!” Twilight squeed.


Applejack sighed, “If one more thing happens to me I’ll… WHERE’S MY ROPE!”


“On your right shoulder”


Applejack looked to find not her rope, but a whip rolled up on her shoulder on a little hitch to hold it in place. The whip was placed just right to grab the handle with Applejack’s mouth. When she grabbed the whip she noticed that it felt just like her old rope. She rose up and snapped the whip hard at a stack of hay wrapped up next to her. The attack cut the hay in half horizontally. Applejack felt good, not for the way the whip came natural to her, but to the fact that she was about to get revenge. The rope magically rolled up and jumped back on her shoulder when tried to bring it back to her.


“What in the hay?” Applejack asked.


“It’s another one of my spells on the whip. Makes it easier to be on the go” Twilight explained.


Applejack shrugged learning by now to just accept whatever else Twilight had in store for her. She looked around the barn she wondered if she would ever see this old place again then shut the barn door and made sure to lock it, just in case.


“Alright, let’s get going” Applejack said, raring to go.


They approached the Everfree Forest to find that there was no sun whatsoever over the forest. It was also dead silent and all that was visible was fog, trees and the Everfree path that seemed to stretch for miles.


“No sun” Applejack noticed. “Would explain why they all came here to hide.”


Hmm, Twilight hasn’t spoken for a while. I wonder if she’s still shocked…Tartarus, I’M still shocked. Applejack thought to herself.


“I’m fine, don’t worry” Twilight said in that ghostly voice.


“I was just wor-“ Applejack began until she realized something, “how the hay did you know what I was thinkin?”


“I told you, I’m in your thoughts. I know what you are doing, how you are feeling and what you are thinking”


Applejack was a little nervous believing that her privacy was being broken in half. “Uh, well can you stop it?”


“Nope”


“Great” Applejack thought in a sarcastic tone.


Almost unwillingly, Applejack started to walk through the forest path knowing that this was not going to be fun.


“What was that?” Twilight asked.


“Oh, uh NOTHING, nothing” Applejack said hoping she would buy it.


Before Twilight had time to form a rebuttal an arrow shot 3 feet in front of Applejack. She jumped back to find that a skeleton archer was about 20 yards away. As though through pure instinct now, Applejack rushed to the archer. She grabbed the whip, jumped in the air and brought the whip down on the Skeleton causing it to burst into black mist. Applejack tugged on the whip causing it to jump on her shoulder. “I’m a really startin to like this thing”


In Applejack’s praise for her new favorite toy, Twilight screamed as she saw another skeleton with a spiked mace came up beside her and smashed its weapon onto Applejack’s back. Applejack looked around her, thinking that a small branch just fell on her when she noticed the mace. She gave a yelp and, in a spinning motion, swung the whip and split the skeleton in half then crushed it’s torso with her hooves. Wide eyed and breathing hard, she looked around to make sure that nothing else was trying to kill her.


“T-Twilight” Applejack stuttered still shaken from the event


“…Yes?” Twilight said as calm as she could muster.


“Thanks for uh,” She cleared her throat to give her a second to calm down. “Thanks for the armor”


“Uh…no problem”


Applejack reached behind her and grabbed the mace handle with her mouth, pulled off the mace and threw it aside.


“Why did it explode into that black stuff?” Applejack asked Twilight. “The others didn’t do that when I killed them.”


Applejack stopped and wondered why killing things was just a common thing now, then continued.


“Well, I’m not really sure.” Twilight said. “Are you sure the others didn’t do that?”


“Just look at the one I just destroyed back yond…er?” Applejack said as she saw black mist float up into the sky. ”Huh, guess it just takes awhile for some”


A few moments of tense silence later, Applejack believed it was safe to keep going without being hit from behind. After what seemed to be 20 minutes of walking, they came across a small village of goblins with tents in a circle along the main path. A group of goblins were dancing around a bonfire with a pink, puffy haired pony tied to a spinning pole over it.
Pinkie pie was doing her normal business of talking up a storm to the goblins; it was almost as if she was oblivious to the fact that she was being cooked alive.

“Oh my gosh!” Twilight said. “So our friends WERE taken, there’s still hope of saving them!”

“Yes, but for now we just have to worry ‘bout saving this one” Applejack said, but was still happy to see someone else alive.


“I LOVE DANCING!” Pinkie started” You know one time I was throwing a party and I got the whole place to start dancing, we started to do the conga line and the tango, and even a few free style sessions. Well everyone except Twilight who could use a few lessons from Rainbow Dash. She is a party monster! The only one who could compete with her is Spike, but I don’t think-“


Twilight heard the name and Applejack could hear the sniffing in her head. They both had enough of seeing this charade go on any longer and Applejack was ready to fight.


Applejack ran in and bucked the nearest goblin she saw into the fire. Grabbing the whip she wrapped the end of it around the enemy to her right, tossed it over her and into the one on the left. She started counting the rest when the number 5 came up in her head. “Thanks Twilight” She thought, then began her rampage on the rest of the goblins.


After the last Goblin had thrown into a tree and smashed into his own tent, Applejack turned to Pinkie. “Howdy there, Pinkie” She said in a relieved and refreshed voice.


“OH MY GOSH, that was amazing!” Pinkie started “there were like a bazillion of those things and you came in and was all lik-“ Before she went on any longer there was a hoof in her mouth.


“How about we get you down before you get burned?” Applejack said in a warming tone.


After Pinkie was cut down, she gave Applejack a hug and explained to her that she was taken prisoner by the goblins because they thought she was made of candy. When they realized she wasn’t the next morning they thought they could use a snack. Then they came to her rescue.


“By the way, how is everypony back in town?” Pinkie asked.


All Applejack could do is look away.


“Oh, well then let’s get the rest of our friends”


Applejack stared at her “what do you mean Pinkie?”


“Didn’t I tell you in my story? Nice conveyance writer” Pinkie sa- HEY!


“Oh stop whining” I’m not whining I’m complaining…oh just finish it “Okay doki Loki,”


“Pinkie who are you talking to?” Applejack asked.


“Oh nothing, it’s like Twilight in your head”


“Pinkie how did you know I was here?” Twilight asked using tele-communication to find that it worked with multiple participants and did a light squee.
“Duh, cause I read the last couple pages” She said tossing away a scri- Oh come on.


Applejack gave a very confused look at Pinkie Pie, but then brushed it off thinking I was probably because of her Pinkie sense.


“But you didn’t know about the villagers?” Twilight asked.


“I skimmed” Pinkie explained


Applejack’s head was starting to hurt “Anyway.” Applejack said rubbing her frontal lobe.


“Anyway, I wasn’t the only one who was captured, I saw Dashie, Fluttershy and Rarity taken to the middle of the forest” Pinkie explained. “I also made a friend with a wolf in the forest while I was being carried by the funny dancers. But he wasn’t very nice because he jumped at me and cut my hoof with his teeth, so I guess I never made a friend with it, I thought I did but I guess I was just in my mind. He must not have been a normal wolf; I mean he WAS really big. The dancers scared him off after he attacked though. Didn’t I tell you that too?” She said staring at m-… space.


“Wait what kind of a wolf was it?” Twilight asked almost worried.


“A big one with red eyes, sharp teeth and-“ Before she could finish her somewhat odd tale something appeared on the main path to the middle of the forest, something big.


On the path was a Ogre the size of Applejack times 7 and had a club of and least 3 yards long. Eyes glowing red and teeth gleaming in the moonlight, it was indeed a monster Tartarus bent on going after whatever was in its path and Applejack was right in front of him.


The monster roared and threw his club down; Applejack dodged left then jumped on the club and raced up its arm. She jumped up, took her whip and cracked it on the monster’s eye and leapt behind him. Crying out in pain, the monster turned around and started swinging his club violently. Applejack avoided the club with a back-step and rushed under his legs and met up with Pinkie.


“Pinkie” Applejack said talking to Pinkie, “Ah need you ta distract em”


“OKAY” Pinkie happily said.


After rubbing his eye the giant goblin turned around again to find the pink pony he found earlier.


“HI” Pinkie exclaimed, “I never introduced myself before, I’m Pinkie Pie. Wow you big, almost bigger than Sugar Cube Corner back at Ponyville”


Applejack took advantage of the monster being confused and came up behind him, turned around and bucked as hard as she could, giving him a Charley horse. The Goblin went to his knees barely missing Pinkie who bounced away down the path she was on. Taking the whip, Applejack jumped on his back and threw the whip around the goblin’s neck. The giant thrashed around, but Applejack had a steady stance around the top of his back, refusing to budge. Eventually the Giant slowed down from lack of oxygen giving Applejack a split second to jump onto his right shoulder turn around and pull hard on the whip and hear a loud snap around the goblin’s neck that could be heard for half a mile.


The Huge goblin fell to the ground with a loud thump and threw Applejack a couple meters. She hit the ground a few times and slid a bit, giving her a mouthful of dirt. Pinkie help her up while she spit the dirt out of her mouth, grabbed her whip, walked over to the bon fire and sat down to rest.


“THAT WAS AMAZING!” Pinkie shouted.


“It truly was Applejack, but how did you know what to do?” Twilight asked.


“The writer made her because he thought it would’ve been cool and it WAS!”


> Impact of Friendship
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The forest was nothing but a foggy maze with no end. Pinkie pie was no help to the problem due to her consistent talking. The trees around them seemed to close in tighter and tighter going into a tunnel formation. Applejack could feel herself almost going insane until Twilight pointed out something ahead of them in her head, making Applejack rub her eyes in reassurance that it was real.
The opening at the end of the tree tunnel revealed a huge castle on the edge of a cliff over a silver lake surrounded by a wall of trees that stood higher than Twilight’s library. Bats flew in the air and the only light was that of the full moon. By itself the castle gave off a tone of despair; anyone could feel it, alive or dead. They could see an open area just before the castle and started walking towards it.
“I wonder if this is the old castle of the pony sisters” Twilight thought to herself.
“But how’s that possible?” Applejack asked, “That there castle was old and broken down, this one looks as if it was just built, not to mention there was no lake or cliff”
She was right, this castle looked fairly new, but the landscape around it felt strange and cold. Unlike the forest that was foggy and cramped, the scenery seemed to completely change. There was no fog anywhere except the lake and within the trees; the ground was also light gray instead of the brown they were walking in before and the whole area was wide open like the inside of a bubble stuck in time.
“Well I’m not entirely sur-“ Twilight paused for a sec. “You heard my thoughts?”
“You were thinking?” Applejack asked.
“Apparently I didn’t think this whole combine myself with you thing”
Applejack grinned a bit at the fact that she could use Twilight’s own trick against her, but got back on track.
“Anyway, the only thing that could change a large enough area like this would take an advanced level of magic, dark magic.” Twilight explained.
“Well, come on guys!” Pinkie yelled bouncing towards the castle
Applejack chased after Pinkie and stopped her warning her that anything could be in there, not seeing that they were close to the castle by the time they caught her.
A rectangular stone bridge covered a small gap between the area of land they were standing on and the entrance to the castle. On each of the corners of the bridge sat a stone gargoyle. All the gargoyles had sharp claws that hung over the pillars each of them were sitting on and eyes that stared off in the distance. They wore armor on their torsos that seemed fused to their bodies and had a symbol of a bat on it. Applejack and Pinkie started to walk (and bounce) across the bridge when the statues sprang to life, attacking immediately with no warning.
Applejack avoided the barrage of attacks from the three beasts that were after her with ease, Pinkie had no such luck. The last of the Gargoyles cornered Pinkie against the right pillar closest to the forest. With one swift swing of its claws, the gargoyle slashed pinkie on her right side causing a gash that was half a foot long. Pinkie screamed in pain as her blood started dripping down.
Applejack heard her and panicked knowing that Pinkie was in trouble, but couldn’t get away from the beasts that were already after her. She did a turnaround and swung her whip around the gargoyle to her left and pulled to the right causing the one to crash into another and burst in the cloud of familiar black smoke. Twilight noticed the monster behind them and ordered Applejack to buck “now!” Trusting in her friend she immediately lifted her back legs and destroyed the beast behind her with a blind kick.
Pinkie had tears going down her eyes from the pain she felt, and then she looked at her wound and saw the blood slowly going down her back and on her mane. She turned to the monster in front of her then at the moonlight above her…and stopped. Her eyes went wide as she continuously gazed into the glistening object. She could feel her body change from a pony into…something, but still had her eyes on the moon. Her teeth got sharper, her coat got darker and more shaggy. Paws grew on her hooves and both her mane and tail went straight. She turned back to the creature and glared at it with memory of the slash it had given her. The gargoyle knew its chances were slim and tried to fly away. Pinkie launched after her prey with her powerful legs and caught it almost immediately after liftoff; the gargoyle struggled trying to get away until Pinkie crushed its head mid air making the body disappear in the usual black smoke.
After Applejack saw that the third gargoyle was gone for good she looked over and saw another…thing with dark pink hair and wild eyes that were searching for prey. Her first reaction was to attack, but a voice in her head told her to stop.
“Applejack stop, I think that’s Pinkie pie!” Twilight yelled after noticing the mane.
“Twilight there is no way that’s pinkie, she’s hurt over th-“Applejack started, but when she looked over there was nothing over there. “But, it can’t be”
“THE WOLF!” Twilight yelled suddenly “The wolf that pinkie found in the forest! It must have been a werewolf!”
All Applejack could think about was the giant beast in front of her until she saw Pinkie’s mane. It had been dark and straight before…only the teeth, eyes and paws weren’t attached to it. Applejack stood in her place and looked back at Pinkie, who was breathing hard at the ground. She started walking towards Pinkie (against her better judgment) wondering if she could do anything to help. Pinkie turned to Applejack and snarled, making Applejack jump a bit.
“Uh, Pinkie? Are you okay?” Applejack asked feeling awkward.
Pinkawolf growled at Applejack and got into a pouncing position. The next thought of Applejack was run, but Twilight wouldn’t have it.
“Let me try to reason with her” Twilight said.
“And how do you suppose you’re going to that?” Applejack asked.
“I would need you to jump on her back so we can calm her down by magic. Because I’m with you my magic isn’t as effective unless its close range.”
“You can still you use your magic?”
“Almost, I can’t really do much for the moment”
“Which is why y’all couldn’t block anything with that shield you can usually make?”
“Precisely, now hurry!”
Without another thought Applejack rushed Pinkie, but Pinkie used her giant arms to smash Applejack back where she was before only on the ground. She got up and tried to get behind her time and time again in vain.
“She’s too strong!” Twilight yelled
“Oh gee you think” Applejack muttered sarcastically.
Pinkie looked ready to attack again when something burst out of one of the castle windows from the right side.



Rainbow Dash had been taken into the castle and thrown into a stone jail, alone. Nothing was getting her out of that jail, not yelling or bucking or flying. Life almost seemed gone, until one of the guards jumped back after being bucked at and dropped the keys to the cell. She noticed the keys after 30 seconds of silence. Luckily they were almost right next to the cell she was in. After sliding the keys into the cage with her wing, grabbing them with her mouth and unlocking her cell door she started flying through the large corridors of the castle trying to find her way out.
There was no end to the castle. Everything felt the same no matter where she was. She had looked everywhere (everywhere that included what she could see going 30 mph) and couldn’t figure out where she even was. She thought that going back to her cell would at least give her something familiar to look at, but thought better of it since she couldn’t remember how many hallways she went through. After a few more turns she stopped and cried out in frustration. This was getting her nowhere and why did all of these halls look the same? She looked around her and noticed that there was a trap door on the ceiling. She flew up and went through it to reveal a different looking corridor with a window up high. FREEDOM, it was so close, she flew as fast as she could towards it and was almost there, but she didn’t notice the rock the size of her head coming towards her…fast. The rock had come from one the rock golems of the castle, masters of the earth with relatively good aim apparently. Rainbow Dash was struck by the rock on her left side slightly grazing her wing causing her to lose balance and speed. She rammed in the wall on her left (something she was used to). Sliding down the wall to the bottom, she, slightly dizzily, turned around and faced her enemy.
Rock Golems are giant earth beings that can crush most anything with a swing of their arm, and Rainbow had one right in front of her. Rainbow gave an angry stare at the huge pile of human shaped rubble, half of the stare was given to cover up the fear she was feeling. She was so close to being out of this place and something much bigger was keeping her from doing so. Thoughts ran through her head about what to do. Run? Fly? Fight? It didn’t seem worth it, how do you beat moving rock? It did seem pointless until she noticed glowing spots around the shoulders and knees of the monster, weak Spots.
Rainbow rushed the golem at a blinding speed and ran into the monster’s left shoulder, the glowing spot burst and the left arm came off. Rainbow, thinking the monster had had enough, rushed the window again. The golem wasn’t letting Rainbow go without a token of remembrance from him. It aimed its arm to where Rainbow was going and shot another one of its rocks. Rainbow was hit again with a rock in the stomach; she crashed through the window with the rock and started to lose altitude while out of breath



Applejack got up from being hit and saw the familiar rainbow mane falling from one of the high windows in the castle. Realizing who it was, she quickly forgot about Pinkie and went after Rainbow Dash running fast in order to save her dropping friend. Pinkie lost interest and let the small thing run along till she saw the brightly colored chew toy coming down. Applejack saw Pinkie rushing towards her, eyes fixed on Rainbow; she couldn’t let Rainbow get eaten by her own friend. She turned around to face her but was tossed aside by the rampaging beast. Pinkie was right under where Rainbow was falling and was about to get her toy when she looked into the eyes of Rainbow Dash at the last couple seconds.
Images of her friends rushed through Pinkie’s head. The times when she was happy with them and sad, but they were always with her. She knew that worried look on everypony’s face when they were scared and she tried to cheer them. She then remembered her name what she was doing…and Rainbow Dash was falling right towards her!
Pinkie Pie let out a roar and shrunk back to the size she was before with a worried look on her face. She adjusted herself perfectly under Rainbow and caught her on her back. Pinkie’s tail twitched and she jumped out of the way before the rock slammed into the ground. Pinkie let Rainbow down to finally catch her breath and exhaled with relief. Applejack trotted over to find both her friends okay.
“Rainbow!” Both Applejack and Twilight yelled as Applejack jumped on the Rainbow manned daredevil.
“Ouch. Still hurting here” Rainbow mustered with a laugh after being jumped on.
“What in Equestria happened?” Twilight said out loud.
“Well,” Rainbow started to explain “It was an epic battle of-“She stopped suddenly. “Twilight?” she asked,” Where are you?”
Applejack had almost forgotten that Twilight was unseeable. But before she started to explain what happened, Twilight jumped in and started to explain herself using tele-communication (in the middle of her story she thought that tele-com would be easier to say and started using that instead).  When she was done, Rainbow’s mouth was open and she was staring at Applejack, when she noticed what she was doing she quickly got rid of her look.
“We still haven’t heard your story Rainbow” Applejack remembered
Rainbow Dash’s face lit up as it was her turn to talk. She explained the jail, endless corridors, her “expertise” at finding the hidden trap door and fighting the rock golem (with a few details added in about throwing a rock back at the golem and making him run into the wall) and crashing out the window because of a “cheap shot”.
“Well we could use your help on getting Rarity and Fluttershy back if you’re still okay to keep going” Twilight told Rainbow.
“Count me in, I can never leave a friend behind” Rainbow said in a brave voice. “But there is something I don’t understand”
“What?”
“I still don’t know how you can talk to us when you’re still a ghost”
“Just because I’m a ghost doesn’t mean I can’t use magic to send my voice to your head. It’s just that sometimes if I get startled or excited, I send my voice to everypony around me using tele-com”
Rainbow eventually accepted it since magic was involved. The Ponies, after getting caught up with everything took a second to rest and talk for a while. Eventually they were relaxed and ready to continue. The group walked over to the stone bridge ready for anything else that might jump out.
An abnormally large metal gate blocked the entrance to the exceedingly menacing dark castle. An engraving covered most of the gate, almost like a seal.
“How do we get past that huge big door?” Pinkie asked, “Its looks like it’s locked up good.”
“I’ll just fly through another window and unlock the door from the other side” Rainbow said.
At that moment, as though the castle heard her, Metal bars appeared on all the entrances.
“Oh that’s just not fair” Rainbow pouted.
“This door doesn’t look like it’s barred at all actually” Twilight said, “Applejack, could you move closer to it?”
“Sure I guess” Applejack said with a shrug.
Taking a closer look at the seal Twilight came to the conclusion that it needed to be removed in order to get the door open.
“Applejack, hit the seal a few times with your whip” Twilight said
Rainbow Dash was interested to see her friend in action. Applejack took her whip and cracked it against the seal. For a second the huge door shook and almost seemed to explode on the inside causing Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash to back a bit before the next attack. Once again, Applejack leapt up and struck the door and the shaking seemed to be worst this time. Trying with all her might this time, she cracked the whip on the door causing the door to burst open with a violent force revealing a lobby that appeared much bigger on the inside than what the castle could seem to hold.



> Stayin' Alive
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The Ponies looked around the lobby to find that it was completely unlike the outside of the castle. The interior revealed a white, shining floor with marble pillars on the sides leading to a red carpeted staircase that split left and right at the top. The walls were filled with tapestries and windows; the ceiling above them seemed to stretch on forever.
“Are we in the same place?” asked Rainbow Dash.
“You mean it doesn’t look like this in the rest of the castle?” Twilight asked to Rainbow.
“Not really, when I was flying through everywhere was dark and eerie…and had rock golems I swear”
“Well that is definitely strange”
“Oh I wouldn’t say it’s that bad” Said a smooth voice coming from the stairs
All attention was now towards the stairs as they saw a light gray pony casually walking down the top of the stairs from the left.
“I find it rather enjoyable myself” Another voice said in a much darker tone.
Another pony with bright white fur started walking from the top of the stairs from the right. Both Ponies stopped at the intersection of the stairs.
Twilight felt like something was off. She knew the ponies, but they had an aura of twisted evil around and in them. She remember reading a book during the last Nightmare Night about a creature that flourishes in the night and has strange powers of dark magic and mystery. Most of it was addressed under myth, but now she was taking everything in account as true. Well, expect the sparkling part. Even if that was true she didn’t want to believe it. The name swam around in her head before she remembered it.
“Everypony listen” Twilight whispered “Those aren’t the ponies we know, they are monsters incapable of feeling mercy or love anymore…Vampires”
“Vinyl!” Rainbow yelled happily to the bright white pony not listening to Twilight at all “And Octavia!”
Rainbow flew over to the ponies at the top of the Stairs.
“You guys really had me worried; I thought those freaks back in town-“Rainbow began, but she couldn’t say another word because Vinyl floated up and seized Rainbow Dash by the neck from behind her with her front leg.
“I don’t know who you are my frisky flyer” Vinyl said, “But you do look…delicious”
Rainbow Dash looked in all different directions wondering what she could do, and then she saw the teeth of her holder on her right. She could feel the intensity of the situation she was in and the breath of her captor that was behind her.
Vinyl started to lean closer to bite down, but let a scream of pain instead, releasing Rainbow in the process. She turned around to see Applejack with her whip out and glaring at her.
“You’ll pay for that you little-“Vinyl began but was cut off by Octavia.
“Don’t be too hasty” Octavia warned to Vinyl. “We have better things to do than start a fight here; we might get the floor dirty”
Vinyl considered attacking anyway, but decided against it and went back to Octavia. Rainbow flew back to her friends while Vinyl joined her partner.
“Besides, let’s let them meet the good doctor’s friend first” Octavia said with a grin.
Before any of the four ponies had time to wonder what she was talking about the two vampires put out a hoof and created a red, misty force field at the top of the stairs.
“Why those no good, dirty varmints” Applejack said. “NOW how are we supposed to get to them?”
“Hey AJ, just hit the thing with your whip” Rainbow Dash suggested.
“Well, worth a shot”
Applejack walked halfway up the stairs, took her whip, jumped and stuck the shield with a crack. When she did an electrical current went through the whip and zapped her. She fell down the stairs onto the white floor. Rainbow Dash flew over and helped Applejack up.
“Do you have any more bright ideas?” Applejack asked sarcastically to Rainbow Dash.
“Well, you didn’t have to do it” Rainbow retorted.
“I was just trusting in your judgment”
“Guys stop fighting!” Twilight yelled intervening. “It’s getting us nowhere and we have bigger things to worry about.”
Applejack and Rainbow Dash looked at each other in that guilty face you get when you’re lectured.
“OOOhh, this is almost as intense as the time that one guy fought the lion colossus in that one game; something about shadow” Pinkie interrupted...at least try to keep the wall only halfway broken.
The three ponies all look at Pinkie in confused look (Twilight even more confused and curious on what game she was talking about) but went back to the problem at hand. The previously arguing ponies looked back at each other for a second before talking
“I’m sorry” Applejack and Rainbow Dash said to each other.
Both surprised each other and jumped a bit, then laughed it off.
“Maybe Twilight could use her magic?” Rainbow asked.
“Well there is a ‘dispel magic’ spell, but I still can’t use my magic too well” Twilight explained to Rainbow “Wait, Pinkie, didn’t you say a while back that you saw Rarity being taken through the forest with the others?” Twilight asked hopefully.
“Hmm, I can’t remember, hold on a sec”
Pinkie pulled a stack of papers out of nothing it seemed and began reading the story again…Hey, that’s cheating! After reading through the papers she tossed the papers to her left making them disappear.
“I DID, I DID SAY THAT!” Pinkie shouted while bouncing around the group.
All Ponies stared at Pinkie Pie hoping that she hadn’t gone insane.
“Twilight, You were sayin?” Applejack Asked to Twilight trying to drive attention from what they all just saw.
“OH, right” Twilight said “Rarity is a unicorn so she can learn the dispel magic spell”
“How are we going to find Rarity in this huge place?” Rainbow asked.
Everypony pondered for a second until Pinkie hopped over to the left of the staircase.
“I think she’s over here; my pinkie sense is telling me that I’m going to meet old friends through this door” Pinkie stated. She probably read ahead too.
On the wall to the left of the staircase was a small, old, wooden door with a sign to the right labeled “Laboratory”. It seemed to not go with the rest of the lobby they were in due to the look and size. After a few moments of silence the other ponies shrugged and chose to go with Pinkie’s judgment: Due to their past experiences with Pinkie’s sense they knew to not go against it.
Rainbow Dash flew over and opened the door revealing a dark, narrow staircase lightly lit by small, dim candles leading down into seemingly nothing. Applejack walked over and saw the path, then went past the other two ponies and started walking down. She paused for a second noticing that neither of the two ponies at the top was following her.
“Come on guys” Applejack said to them. “We can’t pull a Fluttershy right now, we have to-“
She stopped realizing that she just said the name they were all trying to avoid hearing. Fluttershy was the nicest pony in the world that you could come across ever. She would always try to help whenever she could…as long as it didn’t involve dragons. The three ponies were quiet for a second, but suddenly gained new found confidence in the mention of their friend they needed to rescue.
“Then let’s get going!” Rainbow Dash shouted out.
“Okie doki loki” Pinkie said agreeing.
The Ponies were almost racing down the stairs
“I’m going to save all of my friends” Applejack thought intensely.
“And we’re going to help you” Twilight thought in reply.
The pathway wasn’t too long and a faint light could be seen. The Ponies found another door at the end of the staircase, similar to the one they found at the top. Applejack reached for the door, but Pinkie stopped her saying that she got a combo of ear flop, eye flutter, and knee twitch. Applejack stepped back and the door in front of them burst open creating a dust plume. When the dust cleared away a huge, human shaped monster stood in front of them.
“RUN!” Twilight yelled.
They obeyed and jolted up the stairs not even bothering to look behind them. Applejack was the first to reach the top and the first to find that is was locked. The others caught up; hearing the news of the door their faces winced in fear. Footsteps could be heard, but not seen. Each step could be heard a little bit more. After 30 or so steps they saw the face of their attacker, a jumbled mess of stitches could be seen on his face, arms, hands and eyes. After another step its neck was visible and revealed a metal bolt on both sides that gave off little sparks of electricity.
Twilight noticed the stitches on the eyes and formulated a plan in her head.
“Applejack, take your whip and wrap it around its legs” Twilight said as calm as she could. “Rainbow dash, I need you to rush him as fast as you can and knock him down the stairs”
The plan couldn’t have gone more perfect. Applejack threw her whip around both of the legs causing the monsters to stop in place. Rainbow shot off leaving behind a small rainbow and smashed into the monster.
After being hit square in the chest the human shaped creature groaned lowly and fell down the darkened stairs. The ponies were breathing heavily as the sounds of the monster’s crashes grew more and more silent until they could no long hear them anymore.
A minute later, Applejack started down the stairs with a bit of curiosity; the others followed. They reached the bottom of the stairs; when they got there, they were relieved to see a dead and bleeding monster just outside the door frame. All the ponies walked over it with caution, just in case it decided to get up again for no reason.
Through the door was an array of cords and wired that seemed to connect from anywhere to everywhere. The room was rather larger than what they expected, but unlike the rest of the castle any of them had seem so far, it was dark, but you could see bit and pieces of the whole area from the flashes of light and sparks flying from unknown technology. Along the sides of the walls were containment units filled with green liquid; a few of the containers had blobs of what looked like blue goo floating in them.
In the distance all the ponies could hear faint noises, like orders being given. At the other end of the room from where they were coming from they saw a door similar to the ones they passed down there. Sounds of frantic footsteps came and went from behind the door. Unable to take the suspense, Rainbow Dash flew to the door and pulled it open.

Rarity had been captured before, but it was underground. She found herself trapped in a steel box resembling a jail cell with a single lock on one of the sides. Blinding lights were shining on her making the rest of the room pitch black in all directions that she looked. After a minute of looking around and thinking about what was going on she heard a series of tiny clanking noises. She tried to see through the darkness around her to see what was making the mysterious metal sound; a door opened, and she got her answer.
T.A.M. was engraved on the robot’s front silver plate; the name was the first thing that Rarity noticed after looking to where the sound of the door had come from. Above the plate was a head made of one big red, robot eye. It had no arms, but two rope-like tentacles coming from its back.  It looked like an upside-down cone with an eye at the top and wheels on the bottom. The Robot rolled around the room checking on weird devices and equipment.
“Hello?” Rarity asked it.
The Robot didn’t seem to hear anything and just continued its work.
“Could you do me a favor and release me?” Rarity asked in a formal voice. T.A.M. ignored her again. It seemed to be working on something. Rarity left the robot alone for a while, talking was not working and the robot wasn’t really doing anything besides waving its tentacles around like a mad man. After a minute of rolling around the room the robot turned to Rarity and stared at her with its one red eye. The robot grabbed a scalpel with one of its tentacles and moved towards Rarity. Technical Autopsy Machine was the words Rarity read under the engraving on its plate.
“Stop right there!” Rarity said loudly but firmly.
The robot paused. Everything that it had cut had never yelled back at it, only scream and it was used to that.
“What in EQUESTRIA do you think you are doing?!” Rarity asked
T.A.M stared at Rarity in confusion and fear. The Robot backed off a bit.
“I demand that you release me immediately!” Rarity…demanded.
Without another pause or clank the robot quickly removed all of the straps. Rarity walked out of the box and straightened her hair that had gone frizzy from lying on the bottom of the box too long. She took another look around the room and saw an assortment of a typical autopsy room; needles, sharp objects, medicine, lasers, entrails in tubes of pinkish red liquid, the normal things. T.A.M. was still wondering what was standing in front of it.
“Sorry to judge, but this place is just a bit too scary for me” Rarity said turning back to the robot. “I suppose I’ll have to spruce it up a bit”
T.A.M. was still staring at Rarity with its huge, red eye in confusion.
“I will require some helpers if you wouldn’t mind” Rarity told the robot.
T.A.M. almost jumped up off the floor after being spoken to again. The robot regained it thought pattern and sent a signal, almost like a whistle. After 5 seconds 10 miniature robot dogs at around 1 ft. tall ran into the room in a straight line.
“Aww, they are so cute” Rarity cooed to the dogs.
The dogs barked in joy and appreciation at the comment.
“Right then, I need you all to start taking of these…devices out of here and into the garbage.” Rarity ordered.
Immediately, as if a button was pressed, the dogs started going around the room and taking all sorts of objects out of the room.
“You too, come on” Rarity said to T.A.M.
T.A.M looked at Rarity and became angry thinking that the orders were now ridiculous. Why was she in control? It was the only thing that had power around this god-forsaken place! The robot took Rarity by her legs and held her upside-down. Rarity screamed and the dogs came in growling and barking. T.A.M. swatted at the dogs with its free tentacle. One of the dogs caught the flailing tentacle and the rest went after the body.
The robot dropped Rarity and she was caught by three dogs under her. She was brought the one side of the room away from the chaos that had started. T.A.M. was flailing about with ten dogs all over it. In 5 minutes, T.A.M. was dismembered, never to work again.
“Well” Rarity said. “I guess some people don’t know good taste. Come on everyone, we still have much to do”

The ponies gathered around the door to see a well-lit purple room through it. Walking in the room they saw a familiar face lying down on a pillow in behind a round table. 10 tail-wagging, sitting robot dogs were around Rarity bouncing around and having fun.
“Rarity?!” The group of ponies called out.
“Oh, hello girls” Rarity said casually “How are you?”
Confused, they walked over to Rarity with caution making sure that it wasn’t a trap.
“Pardon me, I’ll get more pillows.” Rarity said. “Percy” she said in a singing voice.
A blue robot dog came out the pile of dogs and onto Rarity’s back.
“Be a dear and get three more pillows won’t you?” She asked in a loving voice.
The dog barked happily and rushed out a dog door. Almost as soon as it left it came back with three pillows on its back. Each of confused ponies took a pillow, put it on the floor next to the round table.
“Rarity, we need to get out of here and rescue Fluttershy” Twilight said out flatly.
“Fluttershy? She’s in this weird place as well?” Rarity asked shocked. “Then let’s get goi-“
Rarity paused.
“Twilight? Where are you?” Rarity asked looking around the room.
The three ponies on the other side of the table were silent and Applejack looked down. Twilight explained all the events that had happened so far (Rainbow told her story in the middle) and was met with the same look she always got from everypony; an open mouthed shocked expression.
“There is one other thing we need to continue” Twilight said after a moment or so of silence.
Rarity cleared her throat, closed her mouth and shook her head. “Y-yes?” She asked
“How fast can you learn a spell?”
	
> Propane Nightmares
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Rarity looked at the black, misty wall in front of her. Her face was calm, yet inside she could feel just how nervous she was. She bent her head slightly and took a deep breath. Her horn started to glow faintly, then burst with lights and sparks going everywhere. The other four ponies stood in the main lobby looking at the force field. Rarity was getting anxious; learning new spells wasn’t her specialty, fashion was.
“Alright Rarity.” Twilight said. “Remember, focus on a clear mind and the spell. When all is calm in your head, release the spell.”
The ponies began to back off, afraid that they might get hit. A few moments later a beam of white light shot from Rarity’s horn to the field.
The beam seemed to have no effect on it for a while, but then multiple bright, white cracks appeared on the wall and then disappeared into it. The wall burst open and then left a giant cloud of white smoke that didn’t vanish.
“That was SO AWESOME” Rainbow Dash yelled.
“Yes well” Rarity said almost breathless “I do believe that I need to sit for a second”
“Not yet” Twilight warned “we still need to get Fluttershy”
All ponies almost twitched at the name.
“Then what are we sittin’ around for?” Applejack asked “let’s get to it!”
With the thought of Fluttershy in their heads, the ponies started up the stairs. At the top of the stairs was a hallway going across. In the middle, in front of the stairs, was a ginormous, white door with what looked like blue and gray mist coming out the sides. A small, gold plated sign said “Ballroom” in silver letters next to it.
“Want to go another way?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“What do you mean?” Applejack replied.                                      	
“Well, I mean there is obviously something behind that huge thing, but why not go around or something?”
“What’s the matter, scared?”
“NO! I’m just…cautious that all”
“Doesn’t matter” Pinkie interrupted.
All eyes were on pinkie. My eyes as well.
“There are more fields on both sides of the hallway, we have to go in the door. These ones you can’t break through.” Pinkie Explained. I swear I got rid of that outline.
Applejack walked over to the door in front of them, then started walking right. After walking the right of the hallway she slammed into an invisible wall. She bucked it once and tried to use her whip a few time, but nothing happened.
“What the hay is going on here?” Applejack asked confused.
“You can’t skip a boss battle silly” Pinkie Pie explained.
Everypony had been with Pinkie long enough over the years to just go along with whatever she had going on in her head, even though most of the time it never made sense to them. She really hadn’t been wrong before and questioning her methods just made you wonder about your own sanity.
“Then let’s keep going!” Rainbow Dash said trying to break the silence that swept around them and started flying towards the door.
“Hold up sugarcube” Applejack Warned while grabbing Rainbow’s tail and holding her back. “We should probably think of a plan first”
“For what? It’s not like we can’t handle anything”
Before anypony could say anything against or for the matter Rainbow flew up to the door in front of them all and slowly opened the door. Peeking inside she didn’t really see anything yet and opened the door enough to walk through. A cool breeze came from it that sent a chill up Rainbow’s spine. The same breeze reached the others causing the same reaction.
“Do we really have to go in there?” Rarity asked already knowing the answer.
“Come on Rarity! It could be fun!~~” Pinkie sang jumping through to door.
Pinkie was the first to enter, Applejack chased after her followed by the other two. The inside was completely dark and quiet. The only light that was there was the light coming from the door they just came from. Rarity suggested that they head back and find a torch or something that gave out light. Twilight was about to tell her to use an illumination spell, but the door closed behind her and the room around them lit up dimly.
The ballroom was like walking into a darkened version of the Canterlot one. There were giant windows that took up most of the walls around them, yet all that could be seen through them was darkness. If there was a ceiling, no pony would have ever found it; there was only black and mist above them. On the other side from where the group of ponies stood was an organ playing lightly with the sound of electric drums accompanying it. The organ was massive, almost covering the whole opposite wall, almost seemed like half of it was just for show. The drums were not to be seen.
In the center of the ballroom was a dirty white, floor with two ponies that were ballroom dancing in the middle. It almost seemed like they were ignoring the group of friends that just walked in.
“Glad you could join us” Octavia said causing all the ponies to jump a little. “We were wondering where you ran off to. Oooh and it looks like you brought a friend with you”
“What have you done with Fluttershy?!” Applejack shouted out.
“Who?” Vinyl asked with a grin. “ OH, you mean that shaking, worthless thing we found trying to protect her precious bunny? She’s in the castle with a buddy of Lord Dracula’s.”
“Lord who?” Applejack asked.
“Simpletons, they don’t even know who’s causing all the chaos” Octavia said with a smile. “And they won’t be able to when we’re through with them”
The dancing ponies floated in the air and towards the organ. The organ stopped playing and all eyes were now on Octavia and Vinyl. A cello appeared by Octavia and a turntable burst from the ground in front of Vinyl.
“They look like they could use a rest” Octavia said after grabbing the cello. “Let’s give them a lullaby.”
The Group of ponies had a puzzling look on their faces, they all looked at each other, nodded, and all rushed the musical duo. They got halfway to their enemies when they all heard a calming tune that made them stop and stare at the air around them. The tune was calm and hypnotizing; a light bass line continued in the background as the cello played, a perfect combo. Almost like a switch had been flipped, the ponies dropped on the floor.

Applejack got up from her bed panting and sweating. She was in her old room, free from any burns or destruction. She got up and trotted over to a window, Sweet apple acres was there, apples just waiting to be bucked and eaten.
“Applejack!” yelled a familiar voice.
“Granny Smith?” Applejack pondered.
She walked across the hall into the living room…living room? Her bed was on the top of the…Maybe she slept on the couch again.
“Come on lazy, sit your butt down and eat already” Granny Smith said in a very demanding voice.
“Uhh, Howdy Granny. What’re we doin tod- “Applejack started but was cut off right after.”
“Eat your food so you can go help Mac with the work load.”
Applejack saw the “meal” that was in front of her, it looked like Sweetie bell made it. She decided to skip breakfast today and just walked out to her orchard. When she walked to outside, she noticed that the sky had been unusually cloudy and dark, the pegasi must be having a storm coming…a really big one. Before she could think any more about the matter she saw Big Mac next to a couple apple trees.
“Howdy Big Mac, how are you-“Applejack started.
“Oh I’m just fine thanks, just enjoying the sunny weather and reveling in the wonderful day of working. I do believe that today will be quite fascinating and joyous. Oh, this is so much fun!” Big Mac rambled.
Applejack had enough of this, something was definitely off. Before she had to hear what else Big Mac had to say she rushed off into the center of Ponyville. The area was dead silent and there was no sign of life anywhere. Not to mention everything seemed grayer. She started walking through the town glancing at everything. All the doors were locked and windows shut, it was a ghost town devoid of everything but the buildings.
“Applejack?!” A voice called out in the distance.
She turned around to find Twilight in the distance. The two ponies dashed to each other and hugged.
“I thought I was the only one here” Applejack said
“Well Spike’s here, but something is different about him, he hides in the corners with an evil stare and won’t listen to me.” Twilight said.
“My family back at the farm is messed up as well”
“Something is definitely wrong around here”
“Well I’m not sure what to do, I can’t find anypony else besides you, my family and this deserted place. I wonder why the weather is acting up too.”
“Must be a storm coming… wait, what day is it?”
“Tuesday? Hay I don’t know”
“Well, let’s find a calendar then”
Walking around they eventually go to the middle of town and found a calendar on town hall with the dates crossed out in order except for the 23 of June.
“So it’s a Wednesday” Twilight saw. “But that doesn’t make any sense. Last time I talked to Rainbow about the Weather patterns she said that Wednesdays are either clear or Rainy all day. Come to think of it, the clouds are moving on their own.”
Applejack looked up at the sky and agreed; the sky really was moving on its own…and orange.
“How the hay is that even possible? I mean, where are we?” Applejack asked in a panic.”
“Everything is not the same as we remember, yet is in the same world, or pseudo-world.”
“Twilight?”
“Yes?”
“Why do ah get the feelin that nothin is making sense? I just wish we had a ghost of a chance to figure out what’s goin on.” Applejack sighed.
“Yeah, but the- wait what did you say?”
“Nothin is makin any sense?”
“After that!”
“We ain’t got a ghost of a chance t-“
“THAT’S IT!!!”
Applejack jumped back in surprise.
“This is a dream” Twilight explained.
“How do ya know that?” Applejack stared pondering.
“Well it makes sense if you think about it, somepony must be creating false dreams from our memories.”
“But how come you’re in my dream?” Applejack asked.
“Because I’m in your head, remember?”
“Oh, right. But how do we get out of here?”
“We have to do something that would wake us up”
“Like what?”
Asking that question was a really bad idea in Applejack’s mind as she found herself on top on her barn with Twilight standing next to her.
“Remind me why I’m going to die again?” Applejack asked
“You’re not going to die, this is a dream. The shock will just wake you up that’s all”
“And if this doesn’t work?”
“Then you’re going to feel a bit of pressure everywhere”
Twilight reminded Applejack of her doctor when he told her of the pressure she would be feeling from the needles.
“Well, maybe we could try something else, you know in case we-“
Before she could say anything else she felt a sharp pain on her rump as Twilight kicked it and jumped off after her yelling in the process of falling.
Applejack found herself on a cold, hard floor staring a set of white teeth.  She immediately grabbed her whip and, in a spinning motion, swung it, hitting a light gray mare knocking her back into a wall. Octavia fell to the floor her body lifeless, when she hit it; she burst in a cloud of black and red smoke that didn’t go away. Looking to the left of her, Applejack saw Vinyl with her mouth open and staring at her.
Vinyl and Octavia were PFF’s, inseparable, willing to do whatever for each other, and now Vinyl was alone. The anger of the white mare was unknown Applejack when Vinyl rushed her, but it did not matter. A well timed swing shot Vinyl into a wall; she landed next to the cloud of Octavia’s and burst into a cloud of black and blue. The clouds connected and combined into a white and purple cloud that floated up towards the ceiling. The Cloud hit the ceiling of the ballroom and burst in a white light, destroying the darkness around the ballroom. She had to close her eyes from the light; when it faded away she saw a beautiful white ballroom with columns around the area and windows showing the still dark sky outside.
“Nice job, Applejack” Twilight said.
“Twilight! It’s good to hear your voice again.”
Applejack realized that her other friends were still on the floor behind her. She walked over to Pinkie and nudged her a bit, but she didn’t wake up. Thinking for a bit she came with an idea that Twilight didn’t really like. Applejack turned around and kicked Pinkie in the stomach.
“I ONLY HAD 6 CUPCAKES!” Pinkie shouted waking up. “Oh, hey guys. What ha- oww my tummy hurts.”
Applejack walked over to Rainbow Dash and did the same thing.
“BUT I’VE BEEN TRAINING FOR YEARS YOU CAN’T TURN ME AWAY!” Rainbow Dash Yelled panting. “Uh. Oh um hey what… ow, I’m in pain”
Applejack continued on to Rarity, but instead of kicking she flipped Rarity over.
“BUT THEY ARE ON SALE!!!!!” Rarity seemed to scream out more than Rainbow and Pinkie Combined. She turned to her friends and blushed a bit. “Well they were”
When all the ponies were told what happened they were a bit shocked, when they saw the amazing new ballroom they were astounded by the beauty. Applejack couldn’t help but feel sad for Octavia and Vinyl; two souls that weren’t meant to live their lives in darkness. Their clouds had faded into the ceiling, but they seemed too solid to be another piece of black smoke like the rest had been. Maybe they were still in the castle, just being contained.
For a moment, all was quiet, and then the organ began to shake. The shaking was slow, but after a couple seconds it was rambling around making loud sounds like old gears working together. It did this for a minute then stopped; the middle of the organ split in two, revealing a secret tunnel going up into another part of the castle.
“Well, are you all just going to stand there, or are we going after Fluttershy?” Rarity Asked.
All of the ponies reacted in the same way, a smile and walking step forward.
“HOLD IT” A demanding voice said behind them. “None can escape the great and powerful Trixie!”
Applejack could feel Twilight facehoof. Dealing with Trixie wasn’t ideal on Twilight’s list. They had seen Trixie before, gloating and trying to make fun of everypony for her show. Trixie had obviously been turned into a vampire due to her sharp teeth and black hat/cape combo, but she still had that way to gloat about everything she did.
“Applejack, can you please get rid of her?” Twilight asked almost groaning.
In almost one motion Applejack jumped in front of her friends, took her whip, wrapped it around Trixie, and threw her out one of the windows. Rainbow Dash saw that the window was open and flew straight for it, ignoring her friend’s warnings. The window seemed to stop for a second and all the glass pieces gathered back to where they originally were. The multicolored mane Pegasus crashed straight into the glass but instead of going through it, she stopped like she hit a wall.
“Apparently only things connected to the castle can leave it.” Twilight said scanning over the window.
“Yeah…I noticed” Rainbow Dash said sarcastically.
After getting Rainbow Dash the ponies headed for the tunnel. Twilight sighed.
“Somethin wrong sugarcube?” Applejack asked in thought.
“I just remembered that I was in a body in that Ponyville dream.” Twilight reminisced. “It felt good to be walking around again.”
“Don’ you worry non, we’ll find a way to make you whole again.”
“But will that bring Ponyville and its residents back?”
Applejack was silent.
> Confusion, Evil, & Chaos
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I’m telling you NO!
“Oh come on, it would be fun!” Pinkie said hopping up and down.
Giant robots and explosions do not make a good ending, besides how can there be those things when you ponies don’t have technology even close to that stuff?
“Then how about a love scene?”
THAT DOESN’T EVEN MAKE SENSE!
“Neither does Twilight turning into a ghost”
Oh come on that was perfect. At least I can explain it...wait a minute. This is- PINKIE, please get out of my thoughts.
“Fine Grumpy McGrumperton”
“Pinkie you have been hopping with your eyes closed for a while now, what can you possibly be thinking about?” Twilight asked the bouncing pony.
“Nothing…still doesn’t make sense” Pinkie mumbled. And yes it does!
The ponies were walking in the tunnel that had appeared in the ballroom and had been trotting for 10 minutes. The tunnel looked like it was carved out and smoothed, reflecting a dim, black and blue light from an unknown source. All that could be seen in front and behind them was the ground, the curved walls and endless path.
“We’ve been walking this for 10 minutes, this castle is big, but it shouldn’t be this big. What the hay is going on?!” Rainbow shouted out.
“She’s right” Rarity added. “We would’ve come across something if we were walking in a straight line”
“Hmm, I have an idea” Twilight said “Rainbow, can you fly ahead?”
“Of course!” Rainbow said, ready to stretch her wings.
Rainbow trotted in front of the ponies, leapt forward and started flapping her wings fast and sped off. Right after Rainbow flew off at her usual dashing speed Twilight saw a small blip above her, at first she thought it was just the tunnel’s reflective light, but the blip stayed there for a while longer than any normal reflection. After 10 seconds of flying, Rainbow came across three figures in the distance. She picked up her speed to catch the objects only to find a bright pink hopping towards her before she could slow down.
“HI DASHIE!!” Pinkie yelled slamming into Rainbow Dash.
The two crashed into the ground near the rest of the ponies. Applejack trotted over to the two moaning ponies with rarity to help them up.
“I feared this would happen” Twilight sighed. “Girls, we have dark magic at hand and we aren’t getting out easily.”
“Well, now what?” Applejack asked groaning with a scowl.
“Easy there AJ, no need to get upset.” Rainbow said comforting her friend. “We’ll get out of here in a dash”
Pinkie pie looked above her. “Really?” Well I thought it was funny
Applejack still had a scowl on her face.
“Twilight, how do we get out of here, I think this tunnel is getting to all of us.” Rarity asked.
Applejack hung her head down.
“Yeah, I reckon I’m not helpin’ much neither” Applejack admitted, but then brought her head up in a jolt with new found confidence.
Twilight, ignoring her friends for a while, began thinking of every different possible way to escape the endless vortex. Then she remembered the blip in the tunnel just after Rainbow Dash took off. It couldn’t be a…could it?
“Alright, so how ARE we getting out of here, Twil-“Applejack began to say.
“I GOT IT!!!” Twilight shouted with glee. “Rainbow, come over here quick!”
Everypony jumped a bit at the sudden outburst. Rainbow did as instructed. But stopped for a second.
“Wait,” Rainbow asked. “Why should I? You’re just using your…uh tele-whatsit?”
“Oh, just do it. Makes me feel better anyway.” Twilight mumbled to herself.
Twilight explained her plan, giving in depth detail at first then dumbed down her intellectual speak to something that Rainbow would understand better if not at all.
“Twilight, are you sure this is going to work?” Rainbow asked.
“In truth, I really don’t know, but would you rather just stay here?” Twilight countered
“…fine”
Everypony besides Rainbow stood by the walls around them leaving a bit of wide area in the middle of the tunnel. Rainbow took a deep breath then looked straight in front of her, eyeing the bluish darkness intensely. Her mind focused on the tunnel and she took off flying straight in the middle of it. After a few seconds she saw her friends reappear and disappear. She started gaining speed and seeing her friends come and go faster and faster. She could feel the strain on her body and the stale air resistance growing larger. 20 seconds (or what felt like 20 minutes) later she saw three things happen very fast, the cone, the boom, and a small portal that broke open. She aimed for the portal on her next go around and shot through it landing head first into a bloody stone wall. The cyan Pegasus was out at soon as she hit it.
The small portal that Rainbow made started to expand over the tunnel slowly getting rid of the darkness around Applejack, rarity and Pinkie pie (and technically Twilight as well). Within a minute the darkness was gone and the tunnel revealed two exits; one going back to ballroom and the other to a cold area that reeked of blood and death. Three ponies exited the tunnel to find a knocked out Rainbow on the ground and a single hallway going left. The hallway (much like the tunnel) was darkened and seemed to go on forever only with a multitude of bones scattered around the floor and in the walls.
“How in Tartarus did you know that was going to work?” Applejack asked Twilight
“It was easy once I saw it was an alter-portal. See, when an alter-portal attracts too much energy from something too fast it can cause a minor crack in its structure. Once that crack is made, one can use the amount of energy accumulated, in this case Rainbow’s sonic rainboom, to destroy the portal system completely “Twilight noticed the confused faces and complete silence. “What?”
“Twilight dear, that’s very interesting, but how did you know what to do?” Rarity asked.
Twilight mentally face-hoofed and gave a groaning “never mind”.
“Well if you’re all done there we have a problem on our hooves” Applejack said walking over to Rainbow.
“Oh, right” Rarity said giving an embarrassed smile. “How do you suppose we carry her?
“Ah’ll take care of that” Applejack said almost proudly. “Rarity, umm, a little help?”
“OH OH, I WANT TO HELP TOO” Pinkie shouted out. She hopped over to rainbow, got under her and threw her on Applejack’s back perfectly. “Alright, let’s get to it!” Pinkie shouted while bouncing down the hallway leaving two dumbfounded ponies and one knocked out one.
Applejack and rarity followed Pinkie down the bone-filled walkway noticing that the skeletons were beginning to grow in numbers…and move.
“Pinkie, would you mind slowing down a bit? My hooves are getting achy” Rarity complained.”
Before Pinkie could reply a horde of Skeletons came to life around them. Applejack set Rainbow down telling Rarity to protect her then took her whip and immediately began her onslaught. Applejack wasn’t too used to smaller areas yet and almost hit rarity once or twice. Pinkie Pie also helped by shooting everything near her with her signature party cannon…where in Equestria does she keep that thing?
“I told you I never leave home without it” Pinkie said plainly…Yes I know that but…you know what forget it, and no more fourth wall breaks, the readers are already getting sick of them.
Pinkie began to cry for no reason after blasting a pack of three skeletons into a wall. Rarity noticed and galloped over to her
“Pinkie Pie! What’s wrong? Are you hurt?” Rarity asked concerned.
“The author is mean!” Pinkie said through sobs.
“I’m sorry who?”
“He won’t let me have any fun”
“Darling really, those voices aren’t anything”
“And I didn’t even want to be a werepie!” …sigh…sorry pinkie it just fit the mood “Nah I’m just kidding, I just wanted to talk to you again”…Daww thanks…break ALL the fourth walls!
Pinkie immediately jumped and yelled out in excitement and continued bouncing on skeletons. Rarity still had no idea what was going on.
The battle ended with the final skeleton having its spine snapped with Applejack’s whip. Seeing that there were no more enemies, Applejack put Rainbow on her back with the help of Rarity and continued walking down the hallway along with Rarity and Pinkie Pie.
“I don’t feel too well” Twilight thought.
“What’s wrong sugarcube?” Applejack asked in her thoughts walking slightly ahead of the others for privacy.
“Something about this place is…weird.”
“What do ya mean?”
“Well, I felt the dread and pain of others as soon as we starting walking down here. But it’s not just that. There is magic everywhere here.”
“But you’re full of magic and the magic over at the tunnel didn’t make you sick.”
“This magic is different, it fills the air with a sense of hopelessness. I’ve never read anything about this in any of my books.”
“That probably just means that we have to get going faster” Applejack thought with a grin. “Besides whatever’s out there doesn’t stand a chance against…Did it just get cold?” Applejack said that out loud turning to her friends.
“Not really darling” Rarity said with a confused look on her face. “Although I must admit that I’d prefer…oh” She walked closer to Applejack and felt the cold sweep over her. She shivered a bit, both at the cold and the shock of the sudden change.
“I want to try!” Pinkie said bouncing over to them. “Oooo it’s like an alternate universe!” Pinkie bounced behind. “This is hot and this is cold. Hot, cold, hot, cold, hot, cold” Pinkie said bouncing from one side to the other. She gasped. “What if I stand in the middle?” She did so. Her front portion was cold, the back was hot. “I feel like a hay pocket” Pinkie giggled.
“Pinkie, ‘nuff with your shenanigans we got work to do.” Applejack said chuckling a little.
“Oh let her have her fun.” Rarity said. “I mean at least she isn’t singing another one of her-“
“Hey girls, you know what this reminds me of? A son-“ Pinkie started only to have an orange hoof in her mouth.
“Not now Pinkie” Applejack said in a calm and serious voice.
“Ookie doki loki!” Pinkie replied happily.
The hallway led into a dungeon that had a rather large open floor with what looked like cells on the right. On the wall in front of them was a giant picture of a graveyard. Applejack could almost feel Twilight cringe under the amount of dark magic in the room. Applejack felt something move on her back.
“Well, look who decided to join the party” Applejack said with a smirk.
“PARTY?! Where, where???” Pinkie Pie asked excitedly while hopping around.
“Where am I” Rainbow groaned taking a look around the room. “I feel like I just went to one of Pinkie’s after parties.”
“Well you flew out of the portal area and set us free dearie” Rarity said intervening. “You also flew straight into a stone wall.”
“Oh, is that all?” Rainbow asked sarcastically.
She lifted herself off of Applejack’s back and slumped to the floor which brought her face to face with a skeleton head. Rainbow left out a yelp that filled the room.
“Hello? Is anyone there?” A small and feeble voice asked from a cell on the right.
Everypony knew that calm and squeaking sound. They rushed towards the cell and saw a yellow Pegasus with long, pink hair lying on the ground with tears in her eyes.

Fluttershy woke to find herself in a tight, enclosed and dark area. The only light that could be seen was that from dim torches scattered around the outside of her cell. Fear was all she could feel as she looked around her imprisonment.
The cell itself had nothing but stone walls and a small patch of hay. For Fluttershy, it was rather small, but big enough to stand up in and turn around. In front of Fluttershy were steels bars going vertically…no lock. Fluttershy turned around to see another cold, soulless wall staring at her, mocking her. Escape was impossible, thinking there was just gave her false hope. A moth flew by her muzzle.
Looking closer around her, she noticed that there were a small amount of bugs looking at her. Fluttershy was happy to see other living creatures; knowing she was not alone gave her a small amount of courage.
Fluttershy spent her time seeing an arrangement of ants, moths, flies, spiders, and one rat. Being a pony whose special talent that had to do with animals included insects as well. None of the insects or rat attacked her, if fact they seemed to be trying to calm down her fears. The yellow Pegasus was happy for a split second forgetting she was in a cell at all. Then a cool breeze sent shivers up Fluttershy’s spine, all the insects disappeared right after, she was alone again only cold and crying with nothing to do but lay on the floor. Then she heard voices in the distance.


“Fluttershy!” Everypony shouted out. They saw Fluttershy look up.
“Girls?” Fluttershy meekly asked. Her eyes widened in realization that most of her friends were there. “Girls!” She shouted (in a soft voice) and stood straight up.
All the ponies were talking at once happy to finally have everypony back. Fluttershy stood next to the bars with hooves hugging her, their warm embrace calmed her crying. She closed her eyes hearing all of the voices of her friends: Applejack, rarity, Pinkie Pie, Twilight and Rainbow Dash. She opened her eyes and saw all of them: Applejack, rarity, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash…That didn’t add up.
“Umm, sorry for interrupting everypony, but…” Fluttershy started. All eyes were on her. “Where’s Twilight”
Once again the happy faces turned to frowns and were facing the floor. There was a long silence, before anypony even stirred. Rainbow started to open her mouth, but a chill met her spine, and by the look on everypony else’s face the chill found them as well.
“I’m glad you got here so fast” A voice in the shadows said “Although I must admit I was expecting someone…taller”
All the ponies turned to face the cold voice, but saw nothing.
“Where the hay did tha-“ Applejack started but was cut off by the voice.
“Oh I’m sorry, I haven’t fully introduced myself yet. You may call me Death.”
The large painting started shifting left and right rapidly. In the middle of it grew a swirling, purple and black vortex that covered most of the picture. A figure in a black cloak slowly emerged from it holding a giant silver scythe. Death had a skeletal face with deep red in his eye sockets.
“You free Fluttershy right NOW!” Rainbow Dash shouted.
“Temper, temper, you need to have more patient blue one” Death said calm, but mockingly.
Applejack stood by Rainbow with a scowl on her face. She didn’t have use words.
“Oh, and what are you going t-…that whip you have, where did you get it?” Death asked almost fearful.
“From a friend, who wants to know? ACK!” Applejack was grabbed by a skeleton hand and forced up into the air by her neck.
“Funny, this whip is different. There is no sign of any Belmont at all.” Death said almost with a relieved sigh.
With nothing to fear he threw the orange pony across the room into the others. Rainbow stared at her friends then back at death that had turned around to go back to the vortex. By instinct, Rainbow charged, only to be hit and fly straight into the cage Fluttershy was in, destroying the bars in the process.
Fluttershy shrieked as she saw her friends on the ground in front of her. Rainbow lied in next to her right forearm, bloody and unconscious, but alive. Her other friends were on the unforgiving floor unable to get up. Emotions ran through her as her eyes scanned the scene; fear, worry, pain…hate.
“You…MONSTER!” Fluttershy screamed
Death reared his ugly head to find a yellow Pegasus stared at him with eyes that could pierce your very soul. All he could do was float in the air and see those eyes flying towards him.
“You think that you can just push ponies around like they’re tools to be played with? You have no right to be a bully and no one, and I mean NO one pushes my friends around!”
Death could only stare and mutter “But…but I”
“Don’t you ‘but I’ ME mister.”
The red in Death’s eyes were getting smaller and smaller with each word.
“But that rainbow one was just asking for it”
“I know, and no one blames you, but you could’ve hit someone else in the process” Fluttershy pointed out “You just need to be with friends who can be with you”
“What?”
“Would you like to join our little herd here and come back to Ponyville with us?”
“WHAT!” Applejack yelled. “Fluttershy are you NUTS?! Y’all can’t just bring a floating demon with us that not only threw me around, but threw Rainbow Dash at you?”
“He probably had no choice” Fluttershy said calmly
“He is a monster”
“Is he ready for a PARTY???!!!!” Pinkie said jumping (literally) into the conversation.
“Pinkie dear, don’t you think that you’re interrupting a very important argument?” Rarity butted in.
“Oh Rarity, I’m just trying to not be forgotten about by the possible audience that we still have.”
Death’s mind raced. This was all so sudden. His sense said no…but the eyes said yes. NO, what was he thinking? He couldn’t just leave…could he? He thought for a while, about the things keeping him from leaving. There was only one thing. In the confusion and silence that took place shortly after Pinkie’s comment, Death finally spoke again.
“I will go with you…if you slay my master.” Death said in a very serious matter.
“What the hay do you mean” Rainbow asked roughly. “What possible good could come from you helping us?”
“And here I thought you wanted to help your magical, purple friend.” Death slyly said.
“How do you know about me?” Twilight said.
“Oh please, I could feel your energy the moment I grabbed the orange one.”
“The name is Applejack, ghost.” Applejack cut in.
“My name is Death, haven’t you been reading the chapter?”
Pinkie gasped.
“You can do that too??? YAAAAY” Pinkie yelled. What have I done?
Applejack and Rainbow weren’t going to let Pinkie take control just yet.
“Now wait a minute, how do you plan on helping Twilight?” Applejack said with almost a feeling of hope in her voice.
“I am Death, I choose who lives and dies, but my lord uses me as a guard to deal with unnecessary scum.”
“You never answered my question.” Applejack sneered.
Death rushed over to Applejack and grabbed her by the neck (again) with his bony hand and levitating up 5 feet in the air. With his other hand, Death pressed his finger onto the forehead of the struggling pony. A mist of white and black light came from the connection point causing Applejack to hang loosely in Death’s grip. The mist started turning pure white and increasing in growth. After the mist covered most of the floor, it began to fade and out of Applejack’s forehead flew a purple light, lightly shining. When it emerged, the armor Applejack had been wearing vanished in an instance. Death touched the light and it began to expand into veins and a bone structure that resembled a pony. The muscles began growing around the bones along with the pink skin that stretched over the body. Finally the hair grew from the skin revealing a sleek, new Twilight Sparkle.
She opened her eyes, looking around she saw her friends staring at her with mouths wide open. Pinkie bounced towards her and gave her a huge hug.
“I KNEW the author wouldn’t kill off a member of the mane 6 permanently!” Pinkie shouted.
Everyone was too busy gaping at Twilight to notice Pinkie being Pinkie. The rest of the group ran up to Twilight to join in the hug. Applejack squeezed harder than even Pinkie.
Eventually they broke the hug and Twilight looked at Applejack, noticing that her armor was gone. She addressed the issue, but the work pony shrugged it off saying that it was better to have the old group back again than to have some magical armor. In truth she felt a bit naked without it and a bit more vulnerable, but she told herself to get over it, and she did (mostly). Rarity complained a little saying that leather definitely suited Applejack and demanded that she would go to carousel boutique to get fitted for a new set. The orange pony groaned a bit, but agreed because she liked the idea of being protected again.
After Filling in Fluttershy about the recent events, the mane 6 was ready to leave, that is until a looming figure stopped them.
“Don’t forget our bargain little yellow one.” Death warned. “The stairs are over there in the center of the portrait.”
“Thanks you.” Fluttershy said endearingly with a smile. “We won’t, I promise.”
	
> Nightmare Night
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Stairs. Were there a fouler thing?

After following Death’s path of unholy ascend the mane 6 found themselves on a wide, semicircle look-out high above the castle. The floor was red… deep red. Why? Applejack preferred not to ponder too much and Rarity just complained that it was not “fashionable” compared to the other parts of the castle. Below the look-out lay a layer of clouds that phased out the ground and only the forest could be seen for miles. At the end of their balcony was (of course) more stairs leading up to a slightly blacked out tower shape that screamed evil. Given the layer of solid ground they were given, the mane 6 decided to lie down and rest for a while and chat about a various amount of subjects.

“-and the bugs and critters comforted me, until he shows up again.” Fluttershy finished explaining.

“Ah still can’t see that after all you went through, you still managed tah be nice to the varmint” Applejack said, given Fluttershy a confused glance. “Then again, you are the element of kindness”

“And a SUPER DUPER FRIEND” Pinkie blurted out hugging the shy Pegasus.

“Well,” Fluttershy said shying away a little from her friends. “Everyone needed a friend and a little compassion”

“Huh, de’ja vu,” Twilight said lost in thought. “Haven’t we seen through this before?”

“What? Demons, monsters and stuff?” Rainbow asked cocking her head.

“No, the overall concept of our apparent situa-“ Twilight remember she was talking to Rainbow and dropped the subject. “Uhh…nevermind”

“Yeah, so…Fluttershy! I swear there was this huge rock creature thing an-“

“Yes Rainbow, you’ve said” Applejack said in a bored voice.

“But she hasn’t heard it yet” Rainbow said with a smug

“Well umm…actually yes you have said” The yellow Pegasus said sheepishly. “Three times.”

Rainbow stared for a bit before turning away grumbling about party poopers while the rest shared a chuckle. Applejack was the first stop laughing, and then she looked towards the castle.

“So, who all knows who or what we would be dealing with here?” Applejack said addressing her friends.

“I hope whatever or whoever it is has a place with decent décor. Or maybe even a spa!” Rarity hoped.

“Oh sure, let’s go ask the previous master of Death to get gussied up and clean.” Applejack let the sarcasm flow from her mouth like a raging river. “Maybe it’ll have a personal grooming set that you can use”

“OOH, you think?!”

Applejack facehoofed with a smile on her face as she glanced to her other friends; Pinkie was trying to jump around rainbow and twilight was concentrating on the ground.

“Hey, you alright sugarcube?” Applejack asked lying next to Twilight.

“Oh, it’s nothing really. Just feels great to have a body again.” Twilight said picking up one hoof and examining it, her mind flowing into a stoic gaze.

“You sure?”

“Positive”

“Nothing is eating at you”

“Not a thing”

“Not even spike?”

The name cut Twilight deep in her heart. She had been trying not to think about her faithful baby dragon. Turning away to hides the starting tears was all she could do at the mentioning of her beloved assistant and closest friend. He had been all she could ask for; loving and with her to the end.

Twilight was fighting off the creatures that were attacking her home, and couldn’t save Spike from the arrow that flew at him. Knowing that he could still be saved she quickly began casting her spell, but had not been watching the door…or the skeleton archers that previously had gotten the baby dragon. In the midst of her spell she had been shot 3 times: one in her left foreleg and twice in her chest, penetrating her heart. The spell she had been casting took a lot of condensed magic leaving her horn still glowing after being shot. The lavender light surrounding her horn seeped into her, but only half the spell was cast, leaving only her soul to take the revival magic. Twilight tried over and over to revive her faithful friend. Her magic could only do so much what with being dead. She could only lay next to him weeping over his lifeless carcass getting consistently more depressed.
It wasn’t until dawn that she decided to leave to seek out others, which was fruitless. All of the shops and homes were burned down leaving stone pillars with blood spots splattered on every other one. Any creature still alive had run off, she assumed, and any one that stayed had been killed or ripped apart. After searching for a while in all of her close friend’s houses, the hospital, the park, Ponyville square, and even back to her old home she found nothing in Ponyville.
Roaming around aimlessly she remembered something, all of her friends in Ponyville aren’t here. None of the bodies that she had seen (whole or not) still had their cutie marks and not one of them had any of her friends individual insignia. But what about other places outside? As soon as the thought came to her she rushed over to the nearest house near Ponyville, Sweet Apple Acres. The Barn had been in surprisingly good shape except for a few scratches on the locked door to the barn. The house…not so much. She contemplated how she was going to get through the door till she remembered that she didn’t have a solid form. After phasing through the door she found a familiar face unconscious on the ground. After seeing that she was breathing a flood of relief spilled over twilight. She no longer had to be alone. But what if they were attacked again? How could she, a ghost, do anything but observe. She couldn’t just do nothing, more research on ghost needed to be done.
“So you’ve just been turned into a ghost and want to protect people,” Twilight was planning a while back to get rid of this way back when she first got it, something about the title made it seem, useless and unreadable. How ironic that she found everything she needed from tele-communication spells to making one’s being into armor or other objects into permanent weapons at the cost of blood. Regrettably, making the whip was something she knew she had to do. Applejack had always been good at using her rope and the only weapons she found she could make from the book were a whip, a spear, a short sword and a Gatling gun with unlimited bullets (but that one required an immortal fragment). Using the blood of the village ponies (begrudgingly) from the stone pillars she created Applejack’s whip and added her own little touch with style using Applejack’s cutie mark as a design for part of the handle. Going back to the library she found her book again and opened to page 394 where it gave more instructions on binding one’s self to a pony and spawned armor around said pony. What an amazing book! She took a gander at the binding to find ”Yusuke” as the author with co-writers of “Hachikuji” and “Nappa”.
With everything set she went back to Applejack’s barn sneaking a peek back to her dragon assistant in some hope that he would suddenly spring to life and tell her everything would be okay…he didn’t. Instead he laid there and she began to journey back to Sweet Apple Acres. As expected she found Applejack still unconscious, the only thing she could do was wait unless the orange pony woke up. It didn’t help that the fire from last night has dimmed the sky into a light gray and the smell of burning flesh still hung in the air. Before she could figure out how she had the ability to smell she heard a stir on the ground.

“He was the best assistant…is the best. When this is over we’ll find some way to bring them back, right?”

“Right, don’t you worry none, we’ll be done before ya know it” Applejack let out a confident smile and wink. She never lied and she didn’t. They would find some way to help out the town.
Twilight and Applejack got up and joined the others as Rainbow finished her story about the rock golem she had continued regardless of what anypony else thought; Fluttershy didn’t want to interrupt and Rarity was still looking around for a mirror. When she was done the rest of the mane 6 got up and stood in a line staring at the tower’s silhouette against the gloomy sky. With a group nod they began walking up the stairs.


There was a metal door big enough for a full dragon at the top of the stairs, the design on it was that of a human-shaped demon with its wings spread out on each side of the door. Each side was old and faded, but clear enough to see the small details. Applejack pushed the door open feeling cold on her hooves that shot up threw her legs and down her spine.

“Guys, I’m not so sure ‘bout this” Fluttershy said with worry.

“Oh come on Fluttershy” Rainbow said giving an annoyed sigh. “It’s just a giant big metal door with creepy drawings on it high atop a doom and gloom castle that’s caused us an abnormal amounts of pain. What ELSE could possible happen?”

And just like that a misty black tendril sprung from the metal doors as they opened suddenly and grabbed Applejack by her back hooves. It swiftly dragged her behind the doors allowing her only one yelp before they slammed shut.

Darkness

Swirling darkness with hints of electricity flowed all around her like she was inside of an angry storm cloud. Applejack awoke after something had knocked her out. Where was this place? Where were her friends? Where is the ground? Her eyes looked below her as she noticed that all she was floating in a pit of despair. She was alone with her thoughts, torture for some who don’t want to think about their past events. She had attacked countless monsters, left her friends helpless and was now unable to do anything. A single tear left her eye. Only then did she realize that she couldn’t give up, not now. They were so close to being done; she had to get out.

“HEY!” She shouted. “Whoever done put me here, come out an’ fight!”

Her words reached emptiness and never returned. No echo. A while after she felt a rumbling around her. But, that was impossible. No amount of fancy mathematics can change the fact that she was floating.

“APPLEJACK! Oh how splendid it is to see you again. Tea?” Said a voice in the deep darkness. 
Wait, she knew that voice, it was vague and long forgotten, but familiar in a way. “Oh come now, you can’t possibly tell me you’re not happy to see me. You can’t lie to me.”

Wait what? Who in tarnation…lie?

”Discord?” Applejack whispered.

“Oh ho, right you are my little pony.” A flower burst out of her hat. “So what brings you to this wonderfully empty space?” The draconequus asked.

“Trying to get out.” She said with a sneer. “What are you doing in this place anyway?”

“Sight-seeing of course. Why? Does that seem weird? Oh hey Big Zam” The flower burst into flames and was transformed into a ten gallon water container wearing a Gatsby hat and Big Zam floated aimlessly behind them..

“Coming from you? No. But why don’ ya show yourself? I know you ain’t here for fun. You’re trapped here just like me.”

Discord let out an audible sigh and popped into existence on Applejack’s back as tiny as a puppy with an annoyed expression.

“Very well you caught me. Oh woe is me! How my heart doth ache for companionship and conversation!” Discord said with sarcasm dripping from his snaggletooth.

“Oh quit it! Now really, what are ya doin here?” The orange pony said scowling at the creature laying down on her back like one of those French mares.

Discord frowned. “Fine.” He teleported away from her with a pop and reappeared in front of her in a hammock. “I was imprisoned here by the prince of darkness. He promised to release me from that stone state if I would help him out as well. After I was free I was brought to this endless abyss because I turned his little room into an area I thought fit much better. Turns out the Count doesn’t take too kindly to flying pies and a chessboard for a floor. Oh I do hope my cotton candy pillars are still there...”

“That still doesn’t explain why I’m in here. Couldn’t that there Count whatever just face me himself?”

“Ah, Count Dracula has had some…skirmishes in the past that he would prefer not to repeat…again. It’s a rather funny sight actually.” Discord was suddenly holding her whip. Applejack looked to her side to find it missing. “He’s been dealing with the Belmont family (his long time vanquishers) and their prized possession for so long he thought he might try a new tactic.”

“An’ what would that be?”

“Getting rid of the person (or in this case pony) before he had to fight them. Such as throwing them in a place with no way out”

“How in Equestria do you know all this stuff?”

“Oh please Applejack, did you honestly think I would just sit around all day? I’ve been reading his mind since I got here, just like I did with you.” He mused flicking her forehead. “I may have also shown a few images of his dear friends from the past a few times. I may not be able to leave, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have any influence on what’s going on in here and sometimes with him.”

“Alright, so how do we get out of this here place?”

“Ah ha, now there is the question I’ve been asking myself for a while now.” He examined the whip closely then took it. “You know, this whip has got a bit of magic in it.” Applejack lightly coughed, wanting her procession back. He ignored her. “It’s just a theory but, why not give it a go? I’m up for a little fun.”

Discord raise Applejack’s whip into the air and brought it down. The crack brought forth a wormhole that swirled a little faster than the area around them. He started making his way through it before a voice caught his attention.

“Hey! Y’all get back here and get me outta here!” Applejack yelled at the draconequus. “He’ll probably just send you back here anyway!”

He stopped and pondered that a bit “Oh, fine. But you fight him”

“What?”

“TOO LATE”

Discord grabbed the cowpony and flew through the portal without another word.




“Oh you just HAD to say it, didn’t you?!” Twilight shouted at the cringing, rainbow colored Pegasus. “EVERYPONY knows that sentence means instant karma!”

“How was I supposed to know that Applejack was going to be taken by…things?” Rainbow asked looking away from the others to hide her face.

“Please, darling. Shouting isn’t getting us anywhere.” Rarity interjected. “We need to help Applejack, not dispute myths.”

Twilight looked down in shame. “I know, but we already tried everything on those doors. It must need a key or something.”

“Uh…excuse me?” Fluttershy spoke daintily getting nobody’s attention.

“Actually, I don’t even see a keyhole here.”

“I may know of a way t-“

“Who in Equestria makes a door without an-“

“Please listen!” Fluttershy yelled (or actually went up to normal speaking voice volume) then blushed at her own retort. “Why don’t we get Mr. Death to help us?”

“Twilight pondered a moment then asked Fluttershy, ‘do you think that’s a good idea? Do you even know if we can trust him?’” Pinkie said, reading off my page…HEY!

Fluttershy just went with it. “I trust him. Besides, he’ll be with us for a while.”

Twilight sighed in acceptance before giving any more resistance; how can you resist Fluttershy and her sad eyes? You can’t. Begrudgingly she followed her other 4 friends back down the stairs and only looked back once in worry for her lost friend.



“I thought that would be the case, although I would’ve preferred not to open that accursed chest again. The last time it just sprayed that fool’s blood over the floor. But the reaction of the prisoners trapped here was quite amusing.”

After finding their way back into the dungeon, the mane 5 found Death idling his time, sharpening his scythe. They explained the situation and asked Death for any possibilities on getting past through the doors.

“You mean another pony tried to get into that part of the castle?” Twilight asked.

“What? Oh, no. You see one day I was bored so I decided I would offer ‘freedom’ to anyone who was foolish enough to take it. I didn’t tell them they had to fight what was inside that chest. I only did that once…or twice...probably more. It just makes the whole place look terrible when blood flies everywhere.” Death explained as if telling someone about their day.

“What’s in the box? Can’t you just…I don’t know, give us whatever we need?” Rainbow asked.

“Now how would that be any fun?” Death had hints of mischief in his voice.

“Please Death?” Fluttershy asked staring up at him with puppy dog eyes.

Death quickly looked away knowing he would lose if he glanced to slow at his new master. “That creature has what you need; you must kill it to find your companion.”

Rainbow got ready to fly at the floating angel of death, but was pulled on by her tail before she had the chance. “Rainbow, don’t start any more fights than we need to” Twilight disciplined. “We have to save our energy.”

Rainbow huffed, but obliged. “So where is this stupid thing anyway?” Rainbow said sounding very annoyed.

“Over there.” Death pointed his scythe to the corner of the room as he said his words.

The tip of Death’s scythe started gathering electricity and producing sparks. Death held his weapon out sideways as the sparks grew. Clouds started forming over the ponies and the rumbling of thunder was heard. As the tip overflowed with discharged it eventually enveloped the whole blade, but leaving the shaft alone.  

BZZZZT!

A bolt of lightning charged down from the clouds, reflected off the blade and crashed in the corner of the prison creating a plume of dust unable to look through. The mane 5 just stared until the dust cleared. The only thing visible was a golden chest laden with an assortment of jewels. Rarity was the first to react.

“*Gasp* It’s gorgeous!” She exclaimed rushing over to the chest and holding on to it for dear life. “And It’s mine ALL MINE!! MWAHAHAHAAAAaaaaa…..”

“Uh…something you want to discuss Rarity?” Twilight asked a little hesitant.

“I mean…we need to get this box so we can save Applejack” She let go of her treasure and walked away slowly back to her friends with an Applejack lying face on.

Trying to ignore her, Twilight switched the subject. “Alright girls let’s do this, but be careful, we don’t know what evil, demonic creature lay inside that chest.”

They walked (Pinkie bounced) towards to chest, the clouds above them clearing. Rainbow flew over and reached the chest first.

“Rainbow wait” Twilight warned.

“Oh come on Twilight” Rainbow shrugged,” I’m pretty sure we can beat anything right now”

Rainbow thrust open the container and became wide-eyed. Her horrific nightmare came back to her. The creature that stared at her had caused her grief and turmoil for years. Now, she knew that there were more days where she couldn’t sleep at night. Before her stood a foot-tall, fluffy-tailed bunny that was glaring at her.

“ANGEL!” Fluttershy yelled.

She scooped up her best creature friend and hugged him tightly. Rainbow groaned as the memories came back to her of all the times she hung out with Fluttershy only to wind up in some bad situation because of that thing. Fluttershy was absolutely giddy having her old bunny back.

“Oh I’m so glad to see you again. But, Angel, how did you end up here?” Fluttershy asked.

The bunny on his part began doing a series of movements that no one could understand, but he was going for something like “After our little village became a wasteland of forgotten ash, I followed where you were going. After I found this area I was discovered by  a minion outside the castle who I had to slay. More of them came and I fought with heart and courage, but alas I was captured and brought to this floating, cloaked skeleton that stuck me in this containment unit. I was let out a total of 5 times; each time I had to fight what seemed like a prisoner and each one tried to get inside the box. I would’ve let them if they each hadn’t have tried to kill me first. I did what I had to do to survive. Every time I tried to escape I was forced back into that thing. In all truth, I believe that killing 5 creatures in an hour is not bad if I do say so myself. There was also this odd shaped crescent stone that consistently glowed.” To which Fluttershy responded with:

“You must be hungry after being trapped, did you at least have something to do?”

Rats, she still can’t understand me.

“Hey girls, there is a sort of…thing in here.” Rainbow pointed out.

“OOOH, is it candy?” Pinkie asked. “Oh I love candy. All types of candy really. You know like chocolate, butterscotch, apple, grape, mahogany and pies. OOOH PIES, you know Soarin really likes pies? He does, I know. Applejack can make good pies but when it comes to cakes the Cakes really take the cake on that one. And SPEAKING of cake-“Pinkie thusly had a hoof shoved in her mouth by Twilight.

Using her magic, Twilight lifted up the object and observed it for a bit. It was a crescent shaped stone that illuminated a faint blue. “That’s all?” Twilight asked.

“That’s all” Death said, still a little hurt that there was no blood splattered on the wall.

“That’s Disgraceful!” Rainbow pouted.

“Would you rather had a boot to the head?”

“Uh…no?”

“Then I suggest to get moving before someone or somepony does” Death twisted his scythe as the edge of the blade sheened.

“Y-Yes sir” Rainbow rushed over to the exit.

“The rest of you should be on your way as well…and take that infernal thing with you, I’ll find something else to kill this lot with than that fluffy bunch of annoyance.”

Angel shook his paw at Death.


Applejack woke with her face on the ground. She could hear giggling in the background as she looked up and stars circling her.

“BWAHAHA! Oh you should look at your face!” Discord yelled producing a mirror and shoving it in front of Applejack’s face.

“Get that away from me.” Applejack said as she hit the mirror away. “Now where are we?”

Looking around she could she a sort of throne room lit by candles on marble columns that were placed with the rectangular room. Behind her was the door she was pulled through, she assumed, because it has the same design. There was a red carpet that stretched from the doorway to a stair dais. On top of the platform laid a coffin painted pitch-black with red trimming and a luminescent, purple bat symbol on the lid.

“So is this here where…uh, that guy is?” Applejack asked.

“Dracula and yes, my little pony, it is.” Discord answered

“Well, where is he?”

She was answered with a deep voice above them.

“Right here, you incompetent fool.”

A Human shaped figure appeared above them and slowly descended down towards the coffin. He wore a black and red 1800’s trench coat type suit with an overlaying black cape that covered most of his body except for his head. His face was pale white; eyes were blood red. He gave an expression that he was looking at two beggars fighting in the street for food, almost pitying. As he descended down waves of fear and anger flowed through Applejack. Who was this guy really? He gave a sense of hate unlike she ever knew. His feet touched down and he glared at the two with a smug look.

“Aaah, if it isn’t the draconequus…and partner. You should have stayed in the darkness where you belong.” The evil tyrant spoke with a distasteful and silver tongue.

“What are you?!” Applejack yelled out.

“Forgive me, where are my manners? Allow me to introduce myself. I am Vlad Tepes Dracula” He said giving a slight, sarcastic bow. “And who may I inquire as to you are, creature?”

“The name’s Applejack” She said through teeth. “Now DIE monster! You don’t bel-“

Before she could finish a fireball shot in front of her sending her flying into the metal door.

“Forgive me, but I will not have the past repeat itself.” Dracula sneered. “Better yet, I might as well end this now.”

Dracula aimed another fireball at Applejack and fired. The flaming ball rushed towards the pony. Right as the attack closed in, the ball turned into a fluffy puppy doll and smacked into Applejack, it smelt of elderberries.

“Don’t leave yourself open you silly pony, death shows no mercy.” Discord warned.


Death looked around for a second. He had a feeling that he was needed for something and slowly started floating towards his previous master’s keep…maybe after he figured out how to get Cerberus in a chest and another “key” to his master’s door. Or at least, previous master. He wondered if his new master would want a secret keyhole on her door. Cerberus is still needed he guessed, then made a quick trip to Tartarus before heading to the keep.


“Alright,” Twilight said confidently,” Let’s get this door open and save our friend!”

The other mane 5 cheered.

“Now, how does this work?” Twilight asked.

Twilight raised the tablet in curiosity hoping something would happen…silence.

“Maybe it’s broken” Rainbow suggested.

“Ancient, dark tablets just don’t break darling.” Rarity argued.

“How do you know?”

“It’s magic, I do not have to justify my knowledge”

“Umm, Twilight?” Fluttershy asked.

“Uh, yes you do!” Rainbow shot back.

“You can only know magic if you can use it dear and I don’t see a horn on you” Rarity explained.

“Twilight, Pinkie has the tablet” Fluttershy pointed out.

Before the others could take in what Fluttershy just said, she heard a big THUMP behind her. Turning around she saw that Pinkie took the old relic and threw it against the metal door. The tablet broke into multiple pieces and fell to the ground. A dark shadow exploded out of it and a quiet scream was heard; the door opened slightly.

“Fixed it!” Pinkie yelled.

“Buh habba suppa wha WHAT?????” Twilight didn’t have words. “How in EQUESTRIA did you know that was going to work?”

“I didn’t”

“Pinkie…you know what? Forget it. The door is open, let’s get Applejack back.”
Twilight did her best to handle the frustration in her and headed towards the door with her friends behind her. The door led to a giant, centipede, dragon creature with blood soaked eyes in a desert area with darkness surrounding them. The door to the light shut behind them.

***Earlier***

Applejack got up on her feet after being pummeled into the door. The weariness of recent events was finally catching up to her. Her vision blurred a bit before she saw a clearer vision of her adversary who was now shooting dark, void spheres at the draconequus. The spirit of chaos dodged each attack and turned them into clouds of cotton candy spilling out chocolate rain. With each attack, the lord of darkness grew slightly angrier. Seeing an opportunity at hand, Applejack grabbed her whip and rushed him. She cracked the whip at his feet, but nothing happened, like his body was made of obsidian. She tried to attack him three more times before being swept away by a gust of wind.

“You fool,” Dracula said. “How can you kill something that’s already dead?”

He leaned down at the orange pony to express point.

“You are worthless, nothing you do can-AARGH” He yelled out in pain.

“Looks like your head isn’t so dense, or is it?” Applejack smirked after bucking him between the eyes.

“Looks like my attitude’s rubbing off on you Applejack” Discord winked while drinking out of a cut in half cup of tea.

“Insolent pests; I grow bored of you antics. Time to die!” Dracula yelled.

Dracula drew in power around him and unleash a wave of red energy from mid-range. Applejack managed to duck under it while discord ballerina hopped over it.

“Oh this is such a fun game we play. Should we take a 10 minute break or just push + to continue?” Discord asked snidely.

“ENOUGH! Time to show you what real power is!” Dracula yelled out.

The room dimmed and soon darkness was everywhere. A sudden wave of exhaustion hit both Applejack and Discord and they were both out cold. It was a dreamless sleep and everything was cold.

Applejack awoke to find herself in a desert with a sandstorm blocking any vision of the horizon and black above her. She turned around and saw a Giant Dragon Creature staring at her. It had scale-y arms and claws with the body of dragon, scaled torso and centipede lower half that was curled up. Its head was shaped like a demon with horns and shape teeth. Applejack could only gape in awe and fear of the creature. Dracula surely was the epitome of all evil.

Without another second Dracula let out a roar and send strands of energy after Applejack. She galloped quickly to escape only to have the strands go into the ground and created a massive explosion. Before she could even wonder how that happened she spotted three balls of energy floating at her. Not taking a chance, she sprinted to her right and avoided it; one of the balls hit the ground and also created a huge explosion, only this time sending her about 50 yard away. She got up with difficulty and reached for her whip which was, thankfully, still there. Using all of her strength she had left she tried attacking the nearest ball of energy which bounced off her attacked and flew into the other ball creating a loud KABOOM and shockwave. Applejack was sent flying again.

“This is imposs-“ Applejack began, but was interrupted by Dracula throwing his hands in the ground a shoot two waves of energy at her, of which both whooshed past her.

“Ah can’t even get near him.” Applejack looked upon the creature and saw more strands of energy coming towards her. “Ah can’t keep doing this”

Her body refused to move as the light strands came at her. She remembered her home, friends and family. She’d let them down, all of them. The darkness began to enclose her as fate came at her.

“I just-“

“Don’t give up” Death called out.

With one swish of his blade, the light strands vanished.

“Death? Why y’all even here?” Applejack asked weakly.

“I was just in the neighborhood.” He answered. “You’re not just fighting for friends or family and I refuse to take your soul unless you keep going. Like it or not it’s time to get up.”
Applejack smirked while getting up. “Y’all are evil ya know that?”

“I get that a loAAAAAARRRGGH!”Death yelled as he was trapped in Dracula’s hand.

“Betray me will you?” Dracula growled. “Maybe it’s time to find a different servant.”

Death kept getting crushed between Dracula claws, being dead didn’t mean pain didn’t factor in. Applejack panicked and tried striking Dracula in the side. The result was a light “ding” that didn’t do anything. She kept whipping as the sound of Death’s scream filled her head.
Light shown above Applejack almost blinding her. She could see faint splotches of color in front of it.

“Applejack!” She heard before exhaustion fully hit her and she blacked out.

“Hey girls it’s Applejack!” Twilight shouted to her friends after the door closed behind them. “Let’s get going!”

“Um, twilight” Fluttershy said flapping her wings. “What are you standing on?”

Twilight pondered this for a moment and rubbed her chin with her hoof for a moment. “I really don’t AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH Ompf”

Nearly falling to her death, she was caught by Rainbow while Fluttershy got Rarity. Pinkie bounced by them on her tail like nothing happened.

“Still got that problem with falling don’tcha?” Rainbow asked.

“Oh, shut up and WHAT IN CELESTIA’S NAME IS THAT???” Twilight yelled as she saw Dracula’s true form.

“And Applejack is right of there!” Rarity told them while running towards the orange pony. “She’s still breathing I think, but unconscious.”

“Oh NO! Death” Fluttershy screamed. “You leave him alone!”

“I don’t like traitors, you weird creature.” Dracula said. “Speaking of, I believe it’s time for all of you to die.”

Swinging his massive hand he knocked both the Pegasi out of the air and near where the others were then sent three more energy balls near them.

“Applejack you have to wake up” Twilight yelled at her unconscious friend. “Applejack? APPLEJACK!”

In Applejacks mind she was having a light tea party with a couple of doll friends on a nice summer evening. Everything was peaceful until the sky began shouting at her. Each time it shouted it got louder and louder and she was eventually sucked in the sky itself.
Applejacks eyes shot open as she looked around her to see her friends all looking at her minus two pegasi still on the ground. With Applejack awake, Rarity and Pinkie went to check on the other two before they were hit.

“Quick! We need the elements of harmony!” Twilight shouted fast. “It seems to be the only way we can beat him!”

“But I didn’t bring them with me” Applejack protested.

“We ARE the element of harmony remember? We can just use our power together.”

“Well, it’s worth a shot anyway.”

The mane 6 gathered together and focused their energy. The balls of energy raged towards them and Dracula sent out the faster light strands after them as well. Ironically, instead of shooting their usual Rainbow light at their enemies, 5 of mane 6, excluding Applejack, began to fade into different shades of colored light and then were sinking into Applejack. A feeling of wellness and strength washed over her as the combined energy of her friends filled her up on the inside. A burst of energy exploded from her and the attacks from Dracula were dissolved into nothing.

Looking at herself, she had a different kind of armor on, it was more comfortable, but black with red lining. The whip was now glowing seven colors of the rainbow and gave off a light illumination. Even her hat was changed into a black desperado style. The last thing she noticed was a dragon that was about to get his butt handed to him on silver platter.

She rushed Dracula and cracked his arm with her whip cutting it clean off and releasing Death. The arm fell to the ground with a loud thump and the own roared out in pain, blood flowing out of his stub. Not given him a chance, Applejack took her whip and cracked it right across Dracula’s chest three times then galloped over and buck him in the chest, she heard the scales break and grunt from the devil spawn. Lastly, she readied her whip and cracked straight in the spot she bucked and the tip stuck in. She yanked hard and a black heart burst from Dracula’s chest. It pulsed a few times before exploding into black mist that surrounded the ground around The vulgar monster.  Blood spewed freely from Dracula as he cried out in pain.

Applejack landed on the ground and the armor broke apart sending her friends to land on the ground hard. Seeing his final chance at vengeance, Dracula grabbed Pinkie with his good arm and laughed in glee.

“You have still failed orange one. None of your…What?” He asked. “What is this madness?”

He looked again and saw that he was holding a larger, meaner looking creature that seemingly represented the one he was holding. The monster began slashing at his hand in vain, seeing that Dracula didn’t seem affected by it. Then the pink creature clawed at its own chest releasing not blood, but the small pony he had been holding originally. Using her alternate side, Pinkie gave up her powers to be sacrificed instead of her.

“Oh so that’s why the author made me into a werewolf.” Pinkie said. “I bet he made that up at the last minute when he realized that it tied in to another part of one of the games” Hey! Uh…yeah.

“Either way, one day I will be revived and will seek revenge on all of you, mark my words.”

The black mist that had been around Dracula begun to swallow him as he was still roaring with agony. It slowly swallowed him in until he disappeared completely. There was silence for a while and the mane 6 got back together. They looked at each other and gave a big group hug. It was over, finally over.

“YYYYYYEESS” Rainbow shouted out. “That was sooo awesome!”

“Hoooiieee, ah have to agree with ya on that one Rainbow.” Applejack smiled.

“I’m just glad everyone’s safe.” Fluttershy said. “Even death didn’t get hurt too much.”

“Don’t celebrate just yet.” Death warned. “The writer isn’t done.”

“Huh?” Pinkie asked. “But there isn’t any more of the script left.”

I BURNED IT~~~

The desert around them shook and rattled, the sandstorm becoming more violent. The ground beneath them fell like quicksand and the entire mane 6 fell into darkness.
Pinkie was the first to wake up and gaze upon the crumbling castle. A shield left evaporated as Death released his spell. The mane 6 had appeared on a cliff overseeing the lake and castle they had just been. She looked around to see the others beginning to arise and look towards the castle. All the parts of the architecture started to fall and break apart, crashing into either  the castle grounds or the lake below that was now cloud free. Eventually the side of the cliff broke off and the entirety of the old castle fell into the lake never to be seen again. Their job completed, the drowsy mane 6 schlepped their aching bodies back to their home through the Everfree Forest.


Ponyville was still in shambles. Most of the buildings were burned down or just plain eradicated. Applejack’s barn seemed to be the only standing building that wasn’t hurt too badly. The mane 6 began searching through each of the buildings to find any possible survivors…none, just like when Twilight or applejack first searched. Bodies of ponies, stallion or mare, were scattered randomly across the town, dead or ripped to shreds, just as Twilight remembered it.

“This isn’t a town anymore,” Twilight analyzed. “It’s a graveyard.”

With that the group of friends gave one group sigh and stared into the distance. All seemed lost for the differently colored ponies. Where would they go now? Canterlot most likely. They could explain the situation to Celestia and move to Manehatten or los Pegasus. Then a thought occurred to Twilight.


“Wait, graveyard? That’s it!” Twilight shouted. “Fluttershy, do you know where death went?”

“I haven’t seen him since we left the lake area. But maybe he followed us back here” Fluttershy stated softly.

“You rang?” Death said behind Fluttershy making her left out a small yelp. “And I already know what you want purple one, the answer is no.”

“I’m lavender and come on” Twilight pleaded. “Think of how much this could help out our town, we could rebuild.”

“You can’t just bring people or ponies back from the dead without consequences. A debt must be paid.”

“You brought me back”

“You were necessary to defeating Dracula”

“Well why are you even here then!” Twilight shouted a little more than she wanted to.

Death floated a while before answering in a business-like tone. “I follow the yellow one. I ferry the souls of the living and obey my master when needed.”
“Then do this for me please, I mean if you wanted to that it.” Fluttershy squeaked.
Time felt like years as he pondered this for a while before Death gave his final answer. “I will do this on one condition.”

“Yes ANYTHING!” Twilight answered desperately.

“I need an assistance.”

“What?” The mane 6 answered.

“It takes quite a bit of work to ferry souls and if I am needed be the yellow one than I need someone to complete my tasks for me. So who will it be?”

The group of friends looked at each other. None of them wanted to lose each other, not to mention they needed the elements of harmony for dire situations. Before any of them could say anything they all heard a very familiar voice.

“Fools! You think that you can get rid of the Great and Powerful Trixie just like that? I may not be a vampire anymore, but I will still defeat you, MWAHAHAHA!” exclaimed Trixie in her usual show tone voice. “Prepare to b-“

“Hey Trixie!” Twilight shouted as she ran over to her formar rival followed by rest of her friends. “Wanna help us out by saving the town?”

“And why, pray tell, would I do such a condescending thing like that?”

Twilight looked over at the death angel. “Death, this job, does it include housing and food with a nice bed?”

“And a lounge chair with scented pine wood for breaks.” He answered. “We are non-union though, but I think it’s better run that way.”

“What do ya say Trixie? We’ll visit too if you want.” Twilight looked to the show pony with great earnest and puppy dog eyes.

Trixie had been in a spot of bad luck before the events had taken place. After being defeated Twice by Twilight (one was technically Applejack) she wasn’t in too much of a mood to help them. Sure she had learned a lesson the second time around however, she still hold a little bit of resentment towards her superior unicorn for being just so much better. She tried to make it in life by trying to perfect to magic tricks which got better, but not amazing. The reason she wanted another fight was to learn from the magic being thrown at her. And yet. Even after all that she had tried to do, she was being offered a home and food with a job that made her seem like someone important. Plus, now she would have friends that wanted to visit her. It wasn’t something she decided too slowly.

“I-I, uh, ahem, very well, The Great and Powerful Trixie will agree to this. Isn’t Trixie so nice?” Trixie asked boastfully.

Trixie hadn’t had anything to eat in a couple days before becoming a vampire either. Besides, whatever she had to do can’t be that bad.

“Also, what will Trixie have to be doing?” Trixie asked forgetting that she agreed to a job that she knew nothing about.

“Oh nothing,” Death cut in. “Just ferrying souls from the living to the afterlife for an eternity with me.”

“Oh is that all? Wait, WHAT?”

“You make souls wait till you say they can go and you get a scythe for yourself”

“Hmm.”

“And you can make people be like an audience as they watch you.”

“Hmm.”

“There is also pinecones and a deck of cards in the break room”

“DEAL!”

“We have a contract. Now for your task, purple one.” Death said, turning to twilight.

“My name is Twilight” Twilight said a little aggravated.

“OOOH, and my name’s Pinkie Pie!” Pinkie cut in and began introducing everyone there. “And this is Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity and Fluttershy!”

“Be quiet pink one or you’re next on my list of people to kill.” Death said glaring Pinkie.

“OKAY!”

“What have I got myself into?”

---One month later---

“Y’all better hurry up with those planks a’ woods Apple Fritter, we still got a lot more work to do.” Applejack shouted to her cousin and she continued monitoring the repairs on the small village.

After Death had broken a few laws of time and space then argued with a pony coming out of blue box, everyone that had been murdered during the raid was back to life. Upon being asked what happened, mane6 said that a mysterious magic swept over that land that destroyed their village and put everyone to sleep. At the mention of magic, most earth ponies and pegasi just went with it. Some became skeptical, but pretty much kept it on the down low.  Death was not mentioned, but continued to follow Fluttershy when she needed the help (although he mainly just helped her get heavy things).

Applejack walked around the town before hearing a familiar voice.

“Oh come on Twilight, please?” Spike asked riding on Twilight’s back. “I only want to say hi”

“Maybe after we’re done Casanova” Twilight said with a smile. “Besides, weren’t you going to help her out with her dress-making tomorrow anyway?”

“Yeah, but tomorrow is all the way over there. Rarity needs a dragon to be vigilant and always watching for anything that could happen now.”

Applejack chuckled to herself and continued walking through the town.

Walking down a way she found another two familiar looking ponies. Vinyl Scratch and Octavia had also been turned back from being vampires, although Vinyl was still suspected for a while after because of her night life. They had to remake their house and rebuild their life with the haunting memories that clouded their brain.

“You remember when we were clouds in the air, right Vinyl?” Octavia asked.

“Yeah, what about it?” Vinyl responded.

“Do you remember a dream where we were both…creatures?”

“YEAH, it was awesome!”

“If that ever happens, promise me you won’t go solo and try to kill that silver pony by yourself like in the dream.”

Vinyl contemplated this for a second then replied with “Nah. Besides, I can’t be a vampire and there are no werewolves around here.”

Octavia sighed and looked at vinyl and froze for a second thinking she saw a sharp tooth from her mouth. She then started to think of why they hadn’t had anything with garlic in it recently.


Most of the ponies had returned to their normal lives aside from the few that still were building their new houses and workplaces. She had to call in her family to help with some of the repairs. Even Rainbow dash was helping out with repairs by bringing material from other towns at lightning fast speeds and occasionally taking a nap whenever she felt like it, such as right now on a cloud above her. Seeing that things were in progress in town she decided to see how her barn and house was doing. Finally, everything seemed to be going to normal, albeit now everything was equipped to battle dangerous monsters. Everyone and they’re mum had a silver sword or two stashed away somewhere. Plus, the town started practicing the way of the sword (or bow if somepony was a unicorn).

While her barn was still the same, the Apple family’s new house was larger, stronger and better. Her close family chose to build their new house by themselves after helping out some of the others, yet it was finished way before anyone else could get theirs done; Big Mac’s strength and Applebloom’s design’s made sure of that. With nothing much else to do for the moment Applejack decided to spend some time in the barn. It looked like nothing much had changed except for her whip that hung on the side of the wall. Memories of that day flooded into her brain with a hint of nostalgia. She took the whip off the wall by the handle and turned around to face the hay she sliced way back when. With one quick and sudden movement she cracked her whip at the hay slicing it horizontally and sending the two sections to opposite sides of the barn.

“Heh,” Applejack said. “Still got it.”