Time is Candy
Vinyl Scratch -- an up and coming DJ in Canterlot -- felt she had chosen an acceptable and fitting costume for her endeavor. Octavia Philharmonica, Vinyl’s roommate, and a talented classical musician, on the other hand didn't think as much.
“Vinyl, you can't just go as a single cardboard box!”
Vinyl glanced down at her costume; the said cardboard box had seemed like a good idea at the time. It was then that her face lit up at a solution to fix the problem.
Octavia sighed, “Adding another box doesn't fix anything, Scratch.”
Vinyl pouted, everypony had always liked her slightly unhealthy obsession with cardboard boxes, and Nightmare Night gave her a chance to use it to her advantage. The only other time it came in handy was when she won the Equis-wide box fort building championship, narrowly beating Griffonstone’s mighty castle with her working drawbridge.
She wanted Octavia to have a good time, therefore she had to find her last resort, something that would be able to stand out next to Octavia in her angelic costume. A few moments later, Vinyl stood yet again in front of her best friend, grinning at her genius.
Octavia looked Vinyl up and down, giving an approving nod, “That's better. I like the combination, quite unique if I must say.”
Vinyl bobbed her head, partially for showing that she was happy that Octavia was happy, but more so from listening to the bass thumping from her headphones.
The duo departed from their abode, leaving behind the many, many pumpkins that littered their front yard. Octavia flicked her head to a path leading to the center of their hometown, “Come on Vinyl, we must get to Lyra and Bon Bon’s before they give out their whole sweet shop!”
Vinyl’s hooves clip clopped in rapid succession as she rushed to catch up, just fast enough to get in hearing range of Octavia, hearing her mumble, “Again.”
Vinyl herself wasn't going to mind not getting candy from their friends, she wanted to see what costumes they had thrown together, especially Bon Bon and Lyra. Octavia, surprisingly enough for a Canterlot-born elite like herself, was more focused on acquiring as much candy that her and Vinyl’s saddlebags could hold.
“I suppose we could stop by Princess Twilight’s castle too, hmm?” Octavia proposed, making a turn to a new pathway.
Vinyl shrugged, prompting Octavia to chuckle, “Yes, I understand that you just want to see costumes and not gather sugary goodness, but time is candy Scratch, and we must not waste it!”
Octavia sped up wholeheartedly focused on her mission. Vinyl, on the other hoof, sauntered along and arrived at the candy shop soon after Octavia had knocked on the door. Coincidently, once Vinyl arrived, the door creaked open revealing… a dark hallway.
“Well, this is somewhat unexpected for ponies of their stature. I wouldn't have expected them to have already given everything away.” Octavia chuckled nervously, eyeing the darkness. “They've most definitely left to do their own rounds of candy hunting and gathering, yes?”
Vinyl rolled her eyes and stopped Octavia from leaving, pushing her into the ominous darkness, rather than away. Octavia jumped when a creak of the floorboards reached her ears. But Vinyl herself was more focused on the scene in front of her, made visible by the light flooding the room.
“Arrrggh.”
Vinyl felt Octavia jump again, “What was that?” The door was pushed open fully, and Octavia released a yelp as she too saw what was unfolding. They both broke apart, but stayed in reach of each other as they shuffled toward the two ponies. One was standing and dragging the other that was latched onto their leg.
The one standing kicked the other in the shoulder; their pink and blue mane was stained with blood, and their leg had the most prominent pallet of red as there was a large chunk of it missing. The pony limped quickly over to the duo; her kicking had slowed down the other pony.
“Octavia, Vinyl, you've got to help me! Lyra’s gone crazy,” The pony gestured to the mint green colored unicorn. “I just said that we could try to not give away everything like last year, and she just started to bite me!”
Octavia looked over to the said unicorn, “Hmm, this is definitely a problem. May I suggest giving it to her in a different way next time, Bon Bon? Say, keeping yourself from covering her in cherry liquid?” She wiped off some of the blood from Bon Bon’s side, smacking her lips after she tasted it. “Not that it doesn't taste good, though.”
Vinyl grinned and poked the injury, tasting the blood. Her smile widened as the liquid turned out to be sweet. She licked her lips, liking the taste of the blood. She went for more, but Bon Bon moved her legs and shook her head.
“How'd you know?” Bon Bon asked in exasperation.
Octavia chuckled at Bon Bon’s response, “It's quite simple, really. For two reasons: there wasn't any other scratches or missing chunks other than the one on your leg, and I could smell the cherry. Sadly, I think you just began somepony’s path to becoming a Vampire.”
Vinyl looked around and stopped at Octavia’s stare and pointed at herself, giving a “Who, me?” expression.
Lyra trotted over to them, stopping next to Bon Bon, “Don't worry Vinyl, I'll support you and your vampire-ness.” She checked out Vinyl’s costume, “You've got the cape and teeth down pat, too.”
Vinyl puffed out her chest and looked confidently at Octavia, who shook her head. “Vinyl, I already said that you looked good, we just cannot afford your slightly cannibalistic intents. Candy isn't cheap, Scratch.” Vinyl grinned. “No, you are not going to actually suck somepony’s blood; they worked hard for it.” She sighed as Vinyl began to nom on her neck.
Lyra chuckled along with Bon Bon, “I think we can work something out…”
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Vinyl skipped happily alongside Octavia, clinking sounds resonated from her saddlebags every hop. Octavia sighed as the clinking sounds continued, “I can't believe those two gave you half a dozen jars of liquid cherry candy.”
Vinyl grinned in response, causing Octavia to roll her eyes, soon after she guided them toward Twilight’s castle, though it wasn't hard to spot it as it was towards the whole town. Vinyl liked how the moonlight reflected off the crystals of the castle and illuminated the whole town. It provided a nice effect to the night, especially for the occasion such as Nightmare Night.
Once they arrived they found that the front was surprisingly sparse of ponies. Octavia glanced around, “Hmm, that's peculiar, usually there's dozens of ponies here…”
Octavia knocked on the gigantic doors while Vinyl took a few moments to take a look herself. One of the doors creaked open to reveal the princess that resided inside. Twilight looked back and forth between both of them in confusion, her rustled and messy hair adding to the expression, “What are you doing here girls?”
Octavia’s face scrunched up in confusion, “Experiencing the thrills and sugary goodness of this fine Nightmare Night? Might I ask what begged the question, Miss Sparkle?”
Twilight shook her head, causing her mane to become even more out of control, “You received the candy I sent last week, right? You should've, I had Spike hoof-deliver them to everyone in Ponyville with a letter on the inside of the wrapper saying that my ‘R and R’ may run past tonight.”
Vinyl had a theory as to what could've happened to the said candy, specifically the candy bars that the princess usually gave out on Nightmare Night. The possible culprit seemed to have the same theory, but they were stalling.
“R and R? Do tell…” Octavia said as she shuffled her hooves in embarrassment.
Twilight’s face lit up, “Reading and Reorganizing, it's quite relaxing if I do say so myself. I only have about three hundred and seventy books left to read and reorganize, so I think I actually should be able to, “ She paused, “what was it? ‘Hang out’ with the girls… yes, I think that's right!” Twilight smiled, most likely proud of her ‘up-to-date’ lingo.
Octavia took a breath to begin a response, but was cut off once Twilight gasped, “Is your costume one of those angelic beings?!”
Octavia sighed inwardly, “Yes, it sure enough is.”
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
“Well, that's forty minutes I will never be getting back.” Octavia sighed once again, then took a bite of her candy bar.
Vinyl raised an eyebrow, also taking a bite of her newly acquired candy bar.
“Yes, yes, I know that she gave us literal loads of candy bars, but who needs to listen to incessant rambling about some mythical society related to them that, and I quote: ‘had a sub-society of cult-like beings that constantly worshiped ponies’? Don't you find that a bit unnerving that there could've even been a species like that?”
Vinyl shrugged, smiling as she whisked her red cape around confidently.
Octavia chuckled, “I'm sure that they would've had whole books filled with tales of your prowess.”
Vinyl nodded in agreement, continuing to munch on her bar of candy.
The two eventually made it to their home, but as Vinyl was taking out her haul and placing it on the counter, Octavia tapped her on the shoulder.
“Care for another round?” She asked, grinning while holding up empty saddle bags.