It was a dark and stormy night...
Fear
“…and when she looked back, she saw her best friend smiling at her…with no face! BRAAAAAHHHHHH!”
Outside, a crack of thunder bellowed in the night. Rain assailed the walls of Friendship Palace like irate army intent on breaching the wall. They were the only sounds following the conclusion of Scootaloo’s Nightmare Night story.
Lowering the flashlight, Scootaloo waited for a reaction from her best friends. Sitting across from her, both Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom looked at her with bemused faces.
“Nothing?” The small pegasus asked. “Nothing at all.”
“How can she smile if she has no face?” Asked Apple Bloom.
Rolling her eyes—as if it were obvious—Scootaloo replied, “Duh! She still has face muscles. Only her skin is gone.”
“When did that happen?” Asked the little earth pony.
“After Skinny Minnie got her,” Scootaloo huffed. “Weren’t you paying attention to the story?”
Apple Bloom thought on it. “So…Skinny Minnie got her and took her hide…when?”
“Before they escaped the bakery! Sometime before they got out, Skinny Minnie captured Winnie Hoof and,” Scootaloo stopped when she saw Sweetie’s face. “What?”
“Your story had a lot of plot holes.” Her brow furrowed in thought, Sweetie Belle recounted what she thought were the most poignant points. “Okay, I get that Skinny Minnie liked to skin her victims, but it’s never explained why. Was there some traumatic experience in her past that made her psychotic? Was she possessed? Did she escape a lunatic asylum?”
“Yeah. And what’s the deal with the muffins?” Apple Bloom asked. “Ah was real curious to find out the meanin’ behind that.”
Her face turning back and forth between her friends, Scootaloo spread her hooves in defeat. “It’s a story.”
“Not a very good one,” Apple Bloom said.
Taking insult, Scootaloo said, “Oh, and I suppose Pumpkin Horn was a better one?”
“What?” Feeling sheepish, Apple Bloom rubbed her arm nervously. “Pumpkins are scary.”
“A unicorn with a pumpkin for a horn? Seriously?”
Looking at Scootaloo directly, Apple Bloom said, “But ya had yer face covered the whole time when Ah told ya that story.”
“That’s because I was trying to stifle my laughs. I almost lost it when Billy Bone Hoofington farted when he was being eaten alive.”
“That’s because ya loose yer bowels when yer dyin’!” Apple Bloom told her. “It’s a common fact, not like bein’ alive after ya had yer skin taken off ya.”
“And least mine was original.”
“Ya stole the whole premise from another story!”
“No I didn’t.”
“Guys!” The fillies jumped as Sweetie Belle’s high-pitched voice called them to silence. Outside, the storm bellowed and the windows rattled as if someone were trying to break in. Someone, or something.
With silence finally overcoming the room, Sweetie Belle took a deep breath. “Look, let’s face it. We’re not very good storytellers.”
“Ah beg to differ,” Apple Bloom complained. “Tall Tales runs in ma family!”
“Obviously. We met him last Apple Family Reunion, remember?”
Glaring at Scootaloo, Apple Bloom said, “Ah mean tellin’ Tall Tales! And ya knew what Ah was gettin’ at, Scootaloo.”
“Please don’t fight,” the pretty young unicorn begged. “This Nightmare Night has been bad enough without us bickering all the time.” Sighing, Sweetie Belle looked up at the window. The room they had chosen to tell their “Cutie Mark Crusaders Spooky Awesome Creepshow Story Palooza” was sparsely furnished. As most of the rooms in the immense palace were uninhabited, it mainly consisted of draped furniture and unopened boxes. Princess Twilight had gracefully offered them any room of their choice, so long as it wasn’t her bedroom, the throne room, the kitchen, the basement, the solar, or her private study to tell their stories before heading off to Canterlot on some important meeting with the other alicorns.
This year’s Nightmare Night turned out to be a terrible evening. The storm hit late into the evening, cancelling much of the beloved festivities that fell on this beloved holiday. That meant no trick-or-treating, no hayrides, and no visiting Nightmare Moon’s statue on the outskirts of town to pay tribute to the fallen she-demon.
The Cutie Mark Crusaders had gotten all ghouled up for the evening. Sweetie Belle was dressed as a vampire princess, Scootaloo as the god of thunder, and Apple Bloom as an undertaker. They’d really gone all out for their costumes in preparation of going out for some candy. Their very first stop had been Friendship Palace to scare the scales off of Spike, but no sooner had they arrived when the storm hit, forcing them to take shelter. Princess Twilight, dressed as a pirate for some reason, had welcomed them into her home, but an emergency call from Canterlot had forced her to leave immediately. She left Spike in charge of the girls before sending a message to their big sisters to let them know that the fillies were okay.
Spike had locked himself up in his room, terrified of all the pranks and scares the girls would subject him to. With no pony to torment, the Cutie Mark Crusaders had decided to tell scary stories so they found a room that looked ghoulish enough to begin the tales. The one good thing about the storm was that it lent a sense of ambiance as lightning flashed and thunder boomed. One would think it would be the perfect setting for telling Nightmare Night stories.
Too bad all the stories were a bust.
The trio let out a collective sigh.
“Sweetie Belle’s right,” Apple Bloom said. “We do suck at tellin’ scary stories.”
“I thought my story was kind of scary,” said Scootaloo, fiddling home-made hammer, which was really an actual hammer with a lightning bolt sketched on the handle. “Though I guess it sounded better in my head.”
“It’s not easy,” Sweetie Belle said. “Fear is a powerful emotion. It takes more than blood, gore, and death to make a story terrifying.”
“Those always creep me out,” Apple Bloom admitted.
“Each pony has something that creeps them out. For you, it’s pumpkins. For Scootaloo, it’s getting skinned.”
“And spiders.” The pegasus shivered as if one had just crawled up her back.
“And spiders. Though come to think of it, I don’t like spiders either. And I really don’t like going to the dentist. Something about all those teeth going chitt-chitt all the time just gives me nightmares.” Sweetie Belle pulled her vampire cape in close, as if cold. “The point is it takes more than an imagination to make really good scary stories.”
“Right!” Scootaloo said as she fixed her helmet on her head. “You need a good monster.”
“Don’t ya mean a bad monster?” said Apple Bloom.
“Uh-huh. And someplace creepy. A museum. A haunted house. An abandoned zoo.”
“A castle!” Apple Bloom exclaimed.
“Or a dentist office,” Sweetie Belle shivered.
“Okay,” Scootaloo began, now excited. “So we’re in a spooky castle in the middle of a storm. What kind of monster lives in it?”
“Scootaloo!”
Scootaloo regarded Sweetie Belle. “What? We gotta relate to the story, right? So what better way to do that than to put ourselves in the story? Right, Apple Bloom?”
The red-haired filly nodded. “Yeah. How about…a ghost?”
“Or a spirit?”
“That means the same thing, Scootaloo,” Apple Bloom deadpanned.
“No! No! I mean those spirits that like to haunt places. They’re called, um, weights?”
“Wraiths,” Apple Bloom corrected.
“Yeah. You can’t see them, but they’re always there. Shaking bookcases. Moving chairs. Giving you nightmares.”
“And saying things backwards.”
Apple Bloom and Scootaloo regarded Sweetie Belle with raised eyebrows.
“What?”
“Or,” Apple Bloom continued, “How about some kind of Boogey Mare. Ya know, the kind that eats kids?”
“Like candy?”
“And laughs when she’s doin’ it.”
“Sick!”
“Guys!” Sweetie Belle shivered. Outside, the storm bellowed.
“What about changelings?” Scootaloo suggested. “They’re pretty scary. Think about it? They can be whoever they want.”
“Yer right, Scoots. They can be your own family and ya wouldn’t even know it.”
“Which meant you can’t trust anyone.”
“Not even yer best friends when they come a knockin.”
“Begging you to let them in.”
“Guys!” Scootaloo was on her stomach now.
“How about the return of Nightmare Moon?” Scootaloo began. “Only she wasn’t gone to begin with.”
“Nah,” Apple Bloom added, “Her spirit was just trapped somewhere. Only to be released by a couple fillies,”
“who should have kept their noses out they didn’t belong,”
“but didn’t listen to the warnins’,”
“so that when they did release Nightmare Moon,”
“she followed them back home,”
“where she remains to this day,”
“like some unwanted guest,”
“who’ll never leave!”
“GUYS!” Even the rainfall was drowned out by Sweetie Belle’s voice. Angry, she stood on all four legs. “All you’re doing is making up monsters. That’s not how you write a scary story.”
Both fillies looked at one another, then back to Sweetie Belle. It was Apple Bloom who asked, “Well then, how would you write a scary story?”
Before Sweetie Belle could answer, the window to their room burst open, sending wind and rain pouring through. The fillies screamed. Sweetie Belle was the first to bolt as a crash of thunder boomed like some angry beast who finally had its way in. Her two friends followed her as she fled the room, screaming all the way. They didn’t know how long they’d been running, only that they were out of breath by the time they finally slowed down.
“Okay,” Scootaloo rasped. “Now that…was scary.”
The hallway they were in was well lit by glowing sconces. Still, every now and then a sconce would flicker, casting weird shadows across the hall. Still catching her breath, Sweetie Belle said, “Let’s not…go back in there.”
“Why?” Apple Bloom said with a smile. “Didn’t ya’ll want to be scared?”
“Not like that!”
“Hey.” Both turned to Scootaloo. “Where are we anyway?”
“Ah don’t know. Ah got turned around after that fifth hallway.”
With their breathing finally under control, the three fillies suddenly realized how quiet it was. “Does anyone know where Spike’s room is?” Sweetie Belle asked as they began to walk.
The light played weird tricks on their shadows. Given that they were all wearing costumes made the shadows appear distorted, less pony-like. The trio traveled to the next corridor, searching for signs that would lead them back to someplace that seemed familiar. Granted none of them had been in the palace enough times to get to know the place, but surely they would have seen something by now that would ring a bell?
“Ah think we’re goin’ around in circles,” Apple Bloom said after turning a corner.
“How can you tell? The walls all look the same,” Scootaloo said.
They kept looking for signs, directions, anything. They should at least have run into the foyer by now. It was the largest room in the palace next to the throne room.
Apple Bloom groaned. “How in the blazes does Princess Twilight find her way around here? It’s like some kind of factory.”
“Where all your fears and horrors come true,” Scootaloo muttered.
“What’s that, Scoots?”
“Nothing.”
When they turned another corner they spotted an open doorway. Poking their heads in, slowly, they found it to be a rather large room filled with rows and rows of books.
“Great,” Scootaloo sulked. “Of all the rooms we’d have to find the library.”
“Beats runnin’ around those halls all night.” Apple Bloom noticed a candle burning at the far end. It was situated just below a large window whose drapes were pulled shut. “Now why in tarnation would Princess Twilight leave a candle burnin’ all night? Don’t she know that’s just askin’ for a fire?”
“Maybe it’s a magic candle.” Scootaloo approached the candle, which was situated beside an open book on a raised dais. “Think that’s a spell book?”
“You guys!” Sweetie chased after them. “I don’t think we’re supposed to be in here.”
But her friends ignored her. While Scootaloo approached the dais, Apple Bloom was regarding the room itself. “Ah’ll bet there’s a ton of scary stories in here. We could learn a thing or two.”
“How about we just leave?” Sweetie Belle protested.
“How about you guys help me?” Scootaloo was trying to push a step ladder closer to the dais. Her small frame could barely budge the contraption. Only with the help of her friends did the ladder finally prove mobile and they pushed it against the dais. Once there, Scootaloo hopped on up and began to read.
“Well,” said Apple Bloom from below. “Is it a book of spells or ain’t it?”
“I don’t think so.” Scootaloo kept reading without regarding her friends. “It’s definitely Twilight’s writing. I recognize it from all the homework she used to give us.” Scootaloo turned the page. “Huh?”
“What huh?” Said Apple Bloom.
“She’s writing about some kind of creature.” Reading a little further she added, “Something that’s not from Equestria.”
“A monster?” Apple Bloom asked with piqued interest.
“Maybe.”
Beside the dais, Sweetie Belle began to cower. The room was large and very dark. Aside from the candle there was no light that didn’t come from the hallway and even that seemed to be getting dimmer, like the scones were being blown out one by one. “I really think we should keep looking for Spike.”
“Hold on,” Apple Bloom looked up at Scootaloo. “What’s it say, Scoots?”
“It’s about something that walks on two legs,” the pegasus said. “It has a small, flat face with rows of tiny teeth, and beady eyes.”
Below, Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom tried to picture the creature that was just described. “That sounds,” Sweetie Belle began,
“Creepy,” finished Apple Bloom.
“Get this, you guys. This thing doesn’t have fur anywhere on its body expect for the very top of its head.”
“Now that’s the funniest-looking monster Ah can think of. No fur? Beady eyes? Small teeth?” She chuckled.
That ended just as soon as Scootaloo said, “That eats the flesh of other animals.”
Silence filled the room.
“Wh-What?” A nervous Sweetie Belle asked.
Gulping, Scootaloo read a passage, “Using their talon-like appendages, the two-leggers fashion crude devices to hunt and kill animals, usually of the four-legged or winged variety. They then take them back to their homes where the bodies are butchered, drained of blood, and skinned before cut up into edible pieces prior to consumption. The remnants of these poor, defenseless animals are then served to their children, allowing them to increase their numbers and multiply to the point where they’ve overrun their world. I fear that should these carnivorous bipeds ever find a way into Equestria…”
Scootaloo couldn’t finish. She didn’t want to finish. She was too busy imagining those “things” Twilight mentioned hunting her down, using their talon-like appendages to render her to pieces before serving her to their children. The stair ladder began to shake because of her.
“G-Guys?” Sweetie Belle squeaked. “I’m scared.
Apple Bloom shivered. “Yeah. Ah don’t think Ah ever want to run into one of those things.”
“It’s…nothing,” Scootaloo stammered. “It’s just a story, right? Just a stupid made-up story about a monster. We shouldn’t be scared of things that don’t exist. That’s what Nightmare Night is for. To make fun of those things. To not be afraid of the monsters.”
The candle…blew out.
Sweetie Belle screamed and backed into the stairs, causing Scootaloo to lose her footing and come crashing down atop her friends. Huddled in a frightened ball, the Cutie Mark Crusaders heard something approaching them. From the dim light that seeped in through the hallway, they spotted a shadow that peeled off from the darkness. It moved not on four legs, but two. Its arms, if that’s what they were, were longer than its torso, swinging in wide arcs that ended in four, razor sharp claws. The creature moved deliberately toward the fillies, gawking at them with its beady, glowing eyes. Opening its mouth, it’s wide mouth, they caught the glint of light off its rows of sharp teeth.
“That east the flesh of other animals.”
“I…I am afraid of the monsters,” Scootaloo whimpered right before the creature sprung on them.
Screaming, the Cutie Mark Crusaders fled the room. Never had three such small ponies moved so fast in all their lives as they somehow, and finally, discovered the foyer that led to the main entrance. The trio burst through into the night, their screams drowned out by a powerful clap of thunder as if the night itself were taking joy in their plight. They kept running, not once looking back, or they would have seen the monster watching them go from a certain library window.
Lighting another candle with his fire breath, Spike easily dispatched himself from the stilts he used to stand seven feet above the ground. Removing the rakes he used for arms took some effort, but it wasn’t long before the dragon was back to his original height and feeling quite accomplished with himself. Taking a moment to chuckle, Spike regarded the spot where he last saw the fillies run.
“Silly girls,” he said. “Don’t they know it’s not the monsters or the stories that fill us with fear?” His reptilian eyes glinting in the candlelight, he smiled, showing rows of razor-sharp teeth—perfect for rendering flesh off of animals.
“In the end, the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
Happy (Early) Nightmare Night