Chapter 12

Nightmare Night

Tonight was the night that everypony celebrated their favorite spooky holiday, Nightmare Night. This was going to be a fun night for everypony except Twilight, Applejack, and Rarity. After the events from last night's "duel" Twilight and her friends couldn't get the horrific image of the three-headed dog out of their minds. That was more terrifying than anything else that could happen tonight.

The three friends hoped that today's charms class would help keep there minds off their frightening experience. The teacher for charms was Professor Spot. He was a diamond dog just like the ones at the bank, except he was much smaller and had brown fur. As soon as class began, Professor Spot stood on a tall podium. "Today we are going to learn how to levitate objects! It's a technique I like to call the swish and flick!" he exclaimed. "I want all of you to point your wands at the feathers on your desks and say, 'Wingardium Leviosa.'"

Everypony struggled with this lesson as their feathers didn't even move an inch. Applejack had the most trouble with the lesson because she was repeatedly mispronouncing the spell. She eventually got frustrated to the point where she violently shook her wand. "Honestly, Applejack. You are never going to get the spell right if you are that forceful with your wand. Besides it's pronounced Leviosa." Rarity explained. "Then, you do it if you think you're so clever!" Applejack complained. "Very well." the unicorn complied.

She casted the spell on her feather and slowly raised her wand. Everypony watched the feather in awe as it floated in the air as if it was blown by wind. "Look everypony! Rarity did it! Well done, Rarity!" Professor Spot praised. Applejack, however wasn't so thrilled at being lectured on how to perform spells. Everypony continued to work on the spell until a loud explosion erupted startling them. One of the students tried too hard on the spell causing her feather to blow up. "I think we need another feather, professor." Twilight stated still in shock by the filly's setback.

Once class ended, everypony started to head back to their common rooms to get ready for the Nightmare Night feast. As Twilight and Applejack made their way through the courtyard, the farm pony started to complain about what happened in charms class. "I can't believe Rarity just showed me off like that. Who does she think she is to lecture me on spells? It's no wonder she doesn't have any friends!" It was at that moment when the certain white unicorn rushed passed Twilight and Applejack with tears in her eyes. "I think she heard you, Applejack." Twilight pointed out. This caused the farm pony to hang her head in shame, regretting what she said.

In celebration of Nightmare Night, the Great Hall has been decorated with all kinds of spooky decorations. There were lanterns in the shape of jack-o-lanterns and spiderwebs decorated on every table. Even the ceiling's night sky illusion was changed to a stormy night with black clouds and lightning. The feast was going great, but Twilight noticed that somepony was still missing from the table.

"Hey Fluttershy, have you seen Rarity anywhere?" Twilight asked. "I heard that she was crying in the mares' bathroom." Fluttershy explained. "Poor Rarity must be really upset about something." Twilight then glared at Applejack who was avoiding her gaze. After a few moments of eating, the doors to the Great Hall swung open revealing Professor Discord. He rushed through the hall gasping for breath as if he just ran a marathon.

"Manticore in the dungeon!" he screamed. "There is a manticore in the dungeon!" The entire hall became silent with everypony staring wide-eyed at Discord. "I just thought you should know." Discord said before fainting from exhaustion. The Great Hall was soon filled with ear-piercing shrieks and screams from the students. They attempted to flee for there lives, but stopped when Professor Celestia got their attention by summoning a bright light that lit up the hall.

"Calm down, everypony. The professors and I are going to the dungeon to sort out the matter." Celestia announced. "Meanwhile, I want the prefects to take the students back to the dormitories." "Gryffindors follow me!" Braeburn instructed. The Gryffindors were the first to leave the hall, followed by the rest of the houses and the school staff. All of the professors made their way to the dungeon except for Flintheart, who sneaked to the third floor.

"How can a manticore escape from a dungeon?" Applejack asked Twilight as they followed Braeburn. "Manticores are too stupid to escape on their own, so somepony must have let it out." Twilight's hoofsteps came to a halt as she realized something. "Applejack, wait! Rarity doesn't know about the manticore! We need to warn her!" Both ponies managed to sneak away from Braeburn and raced back up the stairs.

As Twilight and Applejack reached the first floor corridor, they spotted the creature they were hoping to avoid. The manticore roamed through the halls, unaware of the two ponies watching it. "Oh no! The manticore is heading straight for the mares bathroom!" Twilight gasped. "We have to save Rarity!"

Meanwhile in the bathroom, Rarity came out of one of the stalls when she finished crying. She only took a few steps before she looked up to see the beast right in front of her. It was a lion with bat wings and a scorpion tail. Rarity was paralyzed with fear as the monster gave a low growl and raised it's scorpion-like tail. The tail missed Rarity by an inch, but destroyed the stalls in the process.

At that moment, Twilight and Applejack rushed in and called for Rarity. "Help me!" Rarity screamed as the manticore crept closer to her. "I have a plan!" Twilight stated. "Follow my lead!" She grabbed a piece of rubble and threw it at the manticore. Applejack did the same thing and the duo eventually got the beast's attention.

It charged and tried to swipe at the ponies with it's claws. Twilight desperately tried to think of a spell that would calm down the manticore, but it swiped Twilight's wand away from her leaving her defenseless. She was backing into a corner feeling more afraid. "Applejack! Do something!" Twilight shouted as she ducked to avoid the monster's tail. "Like what?" Applejack asked. "Anything!" Twilight said dodging the tail again.

"Use the swish and flick!" Rarity advised. Taking a deep breath, Applejack cast the spell on a huge piece of rubble. Despite how heavy it was, the farm pony managed to levitate it with ease. The manticore raised it's tail once again only to feel the heavy object land on it's skull, knocking it unconscious.

The trio of ponies cautiously approached the knocked out monster. "Is it dead?" Rarity asked. "I don't think so. It's only knocked out." Twilight explained. Everypony finally relaxed now that the nightmare was over. "Hey Rarity." Applejack spoke up. "I'm sorry for what I said about you after charms class. I know you were only trying to help me with that spell." The farm pony then took off her hat in shame. "Can you ever forgive me?" "Of course, Applejack!" Rarity said with a smile. "I'm lucky to have you and Twilight as my friends. Thank you for rescuing me."

At that moment, the professors entered the bathroom to investigate. They were shocked to find the knocked out manticore and the damage it caused. "Somepony explain what happened here!" Cadance demanded. Rarity couldn't let her friends take the blame for what happened, so she decided to speak up. "It was my fault, professor!" she said gaining confused glances from her friends. "I learned a lot about animals from my friend, Fluttershy. I thought I could tame the manticore myself, but I was wrong. If Twilight and Applejack haven't come to rescue me, I would have been dead."

Cadance glared at the unicorn for a few moments. "Rarity, I'm disappointed in you. You should know better than to search for a manticore on your own! For that, I have to take 5 points from Gryffindor!" The pink alicorn then faced Twilight and Applejack. "As for you two, I have to say that I'm surprised. Not many first years are able to take down a manticore and live to tell the tale so I decided to award you five house points each." The trio gave sighs of relief. At least tonight didn't end so badly for them.

"Now that this incident is over, please go back to your dormitory." said Cadance. As the ponies were leaving, Twilight took a look at her potion master and found something unusual. There was a huge scratch mark on Flintheart's front hoof. His wound was so bad, he had blood dripping down his leg. He looked as though he was attacked by a wild animal. Flintheart then covered his wound with his cloak, preventing Twilight from observing it any further. This made Twilight suspicious, but she didn't say anything and followed her friends back to the Gryffindor common room.