Spike was impatiently walking back and forth at the foot of the wooden stairs inside the Ponyville Library. Spike was wearing a rather cartoonishly adorable dragon costume. Tonight is Nightmare Night, the once a year tradition where ponies wear costumes and ask for candy. Normally I'd question Spike's choice in his form of pseudo-dragon inception, but on with the story.

"Ugh Come on Bro." Spike called in an impatient tone. "It doesn't take this long to get in a costume."

"I'm coming down now Spike." Dusk replied.

"So you're going as Batpony again?" Spike said very non enthusiastically.

"And what's wrong with Batpony?" Dusk said,  in his best Batpony harsh voice. It failed.

"Oh please tell me you'll try the voice again." Spike rolled over on the floor laughing.

An embarrassing blush went across Dusk's face. "Spike how many times have I told you-"

"Prepare yourself great, but not so great as myself, teacher!" A very familiar, very arrogant voice sounded from up the stairs.

Spike and "Batpony" Dusk looked up the stairs to see Trixie. She was dressed in a pointed hat and cap, her usual kind of attire. But this time was different. Instead of the purple hat and cape covered in stars, Trixie was sporting a dark and light blue hat and cape, with stars, moons and bell on the outfit.

"Trixie?" Dusk said in surprise. "What are you dressed as?"

"Why the Great and Powerful Trixie is Starswirl the Bearded." Trixie boasted.

"But you don't have a beard." Spike pointed out.

Trixie simply scoffed Spike's comment away. "That is because the Great and Powerful Trixie would never wear such a-"

Trixie was immediately interrupted by Dusk holding her hoofs and a few happy tears rolled down his face. "I am so proud that you read the book on "Obscure Unicorn History" I recommended."

"Oh it was nothing." Trixie gloated, enjoying the attention she was getting.

Trixie then looked around the room, she saw Dusk's Batpony and Spike's dragon within a dragon. But something was wrong.

"Where is Rune?" Trixie didn't want to really know but she felt it was safer to ask. Especially since she was asking about somepony as unpredictable and random as Rune.

Knock...Knock...Knock

"Oh, that must be Rune." Spike said, walking over to the door.

Spike opened the door:

"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Spike's screams were almost muffled by the sound of the chainsaw revving.

"Oh HI SPIKE!" Pinkie shouted over the chainsaw to the fainted Spike.

"PINKIE?!" Dusk shouted. "TURN THAT OFF!"

Pinkie turned the chainsaw. "OH hi Duskie! Happy Nightmare Night!................................SO WHERE'S THE CANDY!!!!"

"Alright alright one minute." Dusk said, he didn't want to question Pinkie. Dusk got a bowl of candy and presented it to Pinkie. "That's a nice costume. Where did you get that toy chainsaw?"

"Toy?" Pinkie looked confused. She then revved the chainsaw, cutting a nearby tree stump clean in half. "It's real."

The look on Dusk's face was a combination of confused, blank monotone and fear. "Where did you get a real chainsaw?"

"Oh well I wanted to dress up as a cute chicken." Pinkie began her quick tale. "But Pinkamena didn't want to go out for candy. So we made a compromise; she picks the costume and I eat the candy. Sooooooooooooooooo we're a serial killer." Pinkie let out a cute but very creepy giggle. Pinkie then pulled out a large bag that looked like it was made out of pony skins. "So time is short, WHERE'S THE CANDY?" Pinkie revved the chainsaw again.

Dusk just took the candy bowl and dumped all of it into the bag.

"YAY!" Pinkie dropped the still running chainsaw on the ground. "Duskie is the bestest ever!" Pinkie held Dusk in a very tight embrace, almost suffocating him. Pinkie's eye started to twitch. She simply dropped Dusk, and grabbed her sack of candy. "Time for more candy. I'll see you later Duskie." And Pinkie was off like a thief in the night, with her chainsaw revving and waving in the air.

"So..." Dusk said to Spike and Trixie. "Since we're out of candy, let's see of everypony is doing."

"What about Rune?" Spike asked.

"The Great and Powerful Trixie is sure he will show up." Trixie stated.

.............................................................................................................................................................................

Rune sat on top of a large boulder, his legs cross and his eyes closed. Pacing in the air around him was Princess Luna.

"Now are you sure you can do this?" Luna asked, pacing back and forth. "What you attempt may be too extreme, too dangerous for thy. If you cannot control your desire, it can kill thy."

"I can do this." Rune responded, his eyes glowing white. It appears that after a few weeks of practice and almost dying, Rune has been able to master his connection to the moon.

"Very well." Luna replied, she began to quietly mumble some faint words. As she mumbled her words, her horn glowed along with Rune's horn.

Instead of small stars shooting out of her horn, Luna was spewing a dark cloud, like muddy water that drifted in the air. This dark substance slowly circled around Rune, his unblinking gaze fixed on the water which covered him, starting with his horn and down to his flank. As the water washed over Rune, his eyes closed, Rune was now covered in the muddy water. The water sloshed and stirred around Rune's body, until it became still. It was not still for long, the water became gel and the gel hardened into a shell, almost like a large black egg.

"We hope this was the right choice." Luna said, as she flew off into the night.

...............................................................................................................................................................

Dusk/Batpony walked along the dark streets with Spike the "Dragon" and Trixie the Non-Bearded, all of them watching the many young fillies and ponies running around, dressed in costume and asking for candy. At the town square, Applejack:

was in charge of various games such as Apple Bobbing, Throw the Spider on the Net, and Hay Rides with Big Macintosh.

"Oh hey Sugarcube." Applejack greeted Dusk. "Nice Batpony costume."

"Thanks Applejack." Dusk replied. "See Spike, someponies think my costume is alright."

Spike simply rolled his eyes. "So enough of that, I'll go play some games."

"I shall try tossing the Spider." Trixie exclaimed, as if anypony cared. "What of you Dusk? Dusk?!" But Dusk was gone.

In the distance, away from three figures:

ran along the street with a large sack being supported by all three of them.

"Cutie Mark Crusader Dusk-nappers!" The three shouted, running to the Carousel Boutique.

After bursting through the front door, the three little fillies dropped the sack upon the ground and made off into the night; they want to go trick or treating too. Dusk struggled out of the sack with no problem. At this point he was used to being captured by others. Looking around the room, Dusk saw blurred shadows, the room was dark, only a low black smoke hugged the ground, not even ankle high.

"Why hello Darling." Said a sexually charged voice, a voice Dusk was all too familiar with and knew what this meant.

Looking around to where the voice, a bright light flashed from the back of the room. Out of the light came a figure, a figure Rune didn't want to see, but was curious what she was wearing on this night.

..................................................................................................................................................................

Luna returned to Rune, to take a break from her duties and to see his progress. Well she was in quite the shock when she saw the black egg was not only still there but to make matters worse, it was cracked open and Rune was missing.

"Rune? RUNE!?" Luna looked within the egg to see it is in fact empty.

If Rune died, his corpse would be in the egg so he must of survived. Where is he?

.................................................................................................................................................................

"Now Darling, just relax." Rarity cooed as she made her way to Dusk, shaking her sexy flank with each strut.

Now Dusk tried to back himself into a corner, cover his nosebleed and conceal the boner growing in his suit, but it was failing; Rarity noticed it.

"Oh, is my outfit to your liking?" Rarity cooed again, pressing her body against Dusk's. She could feel something hard rubbing against her stomach. "Oh, I see it is."

Dusk was getting nervous, why did hie body have to be so easily aroused. "It's...uh...well-"

But he was interrupted by the pressing of Rarity's lips against his and her warm tongue hugging his.

"Don't worry darling." Rarity was confident in her plan. No pony knew where Dusk was, save the Crusaders, but she paid them off good enough; enough candy to keep them quiet. "Now just lay back darling while I-"

BBBBBBBBBBBBOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMM

A loud explosion shook the Boutique along with the rest of the town. Rarity was furious that she was interrupted but she wanted to know what. Looking out the window, Rarity saw that there was a large crater in the ground. Turning back to face Dusk, hoping to reignite the mood from before, only to see that Dusk was gone.

Running out of the Boutique, Dusk ran towards the crater, seeing an dizzy Pinkie Pie sitting in a daze.

"Pinkie?" Dusk said as he slid down the crater to see if Pinkie was okay. "Pinkie?" Dusk gently shook Pinkie back and forth.

"Duskie?' Pinkie said, her eyes were starting to tear up. "It's all gone. All my hard earned candies are gone."

"What happened?" Dusk asked, looking around the crater, it looked like something big hit the ground, but there was nothing around but himself and Pinkie Pie.

"Well I was trotting merrily with my candy, having a few bites." Pinkie explained, one or two tears coming down her face. "When out of nowhere some blue object hit the ground besides me, took my candy sack and flew off."

"What could do that?" Dusk asked aloud, the story was farfetched even for Pinkie but he couldn't deny the fact that there was a large hole in the ground. Something hit the ground, but what?

"It was most likely Rune." Answered Princess Luna as she slowly landed herself to the ground above the crater.

"Princess Luna? Rune?" Dusk was confused, what did Rune do this time?

"Yes, it was Rune." Luna explained. "Rune has learned a dangerous spell and he cannot control himself."

Dusk heard Luna's words, but Pinkie didn't hear them, she was infuriated.

"Rune......Rune.....RUNE!" Pinkie's eyes filled hatred. "I'll KILL THAT MOTHERBUCKER!" Pinkie stabbed the chainsaw into the ground, sat upon it, revved the engine and rode off in some random direction.

Dusk and Luna stood, watching Pinkie ride off on her chain saw; normally they might question this, but now wasn't the time.

"Why would Rune attack Pinkie?" Dusk asked.

"Well the spell he learned his powered by his imagination and his desire." Luna explained, closing her eyes and raising her horn. "So whatever he wants, he'll go after. He can't control himself." Her horn glowed a bright orange flash. "He's this way." Both Luna and Dusk ran off into the direction Luna's horn pointed.

"So where would Rune go with a large bag of candy?" Dusk asked, this behavior was strange even for Rune.

"Probably in search of more candy." Luna suggested, both her and Dusk were now running towards the Everfree Forest. "Why do you suppose he would flee to the forest?"

"I don't know." Dusk responded, trying to think of Rune's reasoning, as hard as that was. "There's nothing out here." Dusk turned his head towards a distance location he had in minds. 'Even Fluttershy's house is in the other direction.'

"Are there no other ponies that live out here? Or any reason Rune would come here?" Luna asked, even after her time with Rune, she never asked much about his personal life.

"Nopony." Dusk answered, but then a thought hit him hard. "Nopony except Zecora."

"Zecora?" Luna asked, she has never heard Rune mention a Zecora.

"She's a zebra that lives in a hut in the forest." Dusk quickly explained. "Rune would come to her when he needs help and didn't want to bother you during the day when you were asleep."

"But why would he go to Zecora?" Luna asked. "What's Rune's feelings towards Zecora?"

"I don't know." Dusk replied. "Rune likes to keep secrets."

In not time at all, Luna and Dusk arrived at Zecora's hut; it was in shambles. The door was ripped open, walls were torn and broken and the inside looked like a storm hit. But Zecora was no where to be found.

"Zecora?" Dusk called, but go no reply. Dusk looked back at Luna, to see the blade of a still running chainsaw fall mere inches from himself, imbedding itself into the ground. "Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!!!!!!!!"

"Oh sorry Duskie." Pinkie apologized as she fell from a tree, landing on her hooves. "I was hunting Rune but when I got here I saw there was nopony around, so I waited for him to show up. But he didn't come back."

"Maybe you can aid in our search." Luna asked Pinkie, the more help the better after all.

"Okkie Dokkie." Pinkie agreed, using the chainsaw to give a salute.

Raising her horn again, Luna tried to search for Rune. Flashing orange, Luna pointed away from the hut.

"Quickly, follow the trail." Luna said, starting to run in the direction.

'This can't be right.' Dusk thought to himself, following behind Luna. 'This direction leads to ..Oh my Celestia...this leads to Fluttershy's house!' Dusk started to run faster, catching up to Luna. 'Please be all right.'

It wasn't long before the group made it to Fluttershy's house, the door looked like it was torn open. Dusk's fear was realized as he ran to the door.

"Fluttershy?!" He called out, but no answer. All of Fluttershy's animals were no where to be seen.

"Oh no." Pinkie said looking around. "Not Fluttershy."

"Why would Rune take Fluttershy?" Dusk asked out loud, his voice cracked as if he was about to cry,

"Rune is a slave to his desire." Luna reminded, wrapping her hoof around Dusk to try and comfort him. "He would never harm her, we are sure of it. We will find her."

"HEY DUSK?!" Shouted a voice from above the group. Landing in front of Dusk was:

"Rainbow Dash?" Dusk asked. "What are you doing here?"

"Well I was doing some awesome pranks when Rarity came to me." Dash explained. "She said you were looking for Rune, so I flew around until I saw you here. Where's Fluttershy?"

"We don't know." Luna responded. "Rune must of abducted her."

"What would Rune want with Fluttershy?" Dash asked, scratching her head.

"We don't know....." Dusk had a lot to consider, what Rune would want or what would he do with both Fluttershy and Zecora. "Dash, I need you to get both Rarity and Applejack, and meet us at the library."

Rainbow Dash saluted and flew off.

"We trust you have a plan." Luna said, a little skeptical.

"Of course Princess." Dusk said confidently. 'I hope I have a plan.' Dusk thought to himself.

Back at the library, Dusk, Pinkie and Luna waited for the other three to arrive. It was no time before Rainbow Dash and Applejack to both arrive.

"Where's Rarity?" Dusk asked, fearing the worse.

"We looked around her house." Applejack explained. "But we couldn't find her anywhere."

"Rune must have gotten to her." Luna quietly whispered.

"Would somepony explain what's happening?" AJ asked confused. "Rainbow Dash only told me to come here, so what's going on?"

"I'll explain." Dusk assured AJ. The explanation only took a few minutes.

"So Rune learned some new spell." Applejack paraphrased what Dusk explained.  "And now he's out there ponynapping?"

"Only Zecora, Fluttershy and Rarity so far." Pinkie answered. "Maybe they're doing some big party?"

"Pinkie." Dusk turned towards Pinkie to explain. "I doubt Rune would jus-" But Pinkie was gone.

"What that?!" Everypony was startled.

"Where did Pinkie go?" Dusk asked, looking around the room. Everypony shook their heads, Pinkie Pie was gone, disappeared.

Dusk was about to ask everypony to search the house but then, with a flash of lightning, the room went dark.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA" A faint laugh chuckle came from somewhere in the library.

Everypony looked around for the source of the laughter, it wasn't Pinkie's usual laugh, that's louder, no this laugh was different.

"Up there!" Dash shouted, pointing to the stairs.

Everypony looked up the stairs and saw a pony:

"Rune!?" Luna asked the ghostly pony.

"AHAHAHAHAHA!!!" The pony laughed, charging at the group, splattering against the floor like dark mud. Before anypony could move away, the ghostly pony wrapped around Applejack.

"What in tar-nation!?" Applejack struggled to get free but the muddy water proved too much, carrying her away through the nearby window.

"Applejack!!" Dusk shouted, trying to grab hold of Applejack. "Dash, go after them!"

"On it!" Dash saluted, almost making a Sonic Rainboom trying to catch up.

"How could Rune do this?" Dusk asked, he was about to have a panic attack.

"We are sure that was Rune." Luna said, not really helping the mood but, being realistic. "We never would of guessed Rune would loose this much control over himself."

"We have to stop him." Dusk suggested. "Any ideas?"

Before Luna could answer, Rainbow Dash crashed through the broken window, breaking it more.

"Rainbow Dash? Did you catch them?" Dusk asked, trying to have some hope.

"No." Dash melancholics answered. "No matter how fast I flew, I lost Rune in the Everfree Forest."

"The Everfree Forest?" Luna replied. "Aside from Zecora, what else would be in that forest that Rune would want?"

"Maybe he has a place for his victims." Dash suggested.

"Don't say that. And how would you know that?" Dusk asked.

"I have a large monster movie collection." Rainbow Dash blushed, this wasn't something she confessed often.

"Somewhere to house victims." Luna pondered. "Or somewhere to dwell when he isn't on the prowl."

"The Old Castle Ruins!" Dusk concluded. "We have to hurry!"

Quickly running down the road and towards the Everfree Forest. Upon their arrival, the ghostly pony appeared. Walking back and forth at the forest entrance, the ghostly pony was almost trying to insult the group, to which Rainbow Dash fell for.

"You think you're faster than me!" Dash defiantly fell for the silent insults, even being so bold as to fly in the pony's face. "I bet I can out race you!"

The pony nodded at Rainbow Dash and in a flash ran into the forest, leaving Dash in the dust, to her surprise.

"Come back here!" Dash flew off after the ghostly pony, leaving both Dusk and Luna alone.

"Should we not of stopped her?" Luna asked.

"Possibly but Rainbow Dash can out fly anypony." Dusk assured Luna. "She's now giving us a chance to find the others."

Upon entering the forest, an idea struck Dusk.

"Couldn't we use our magic to teleport to the Ruins?" He asked.

"We cannot." Luna responded, showing that her horn could only produce sparks. "We are both unable to produce magic right now. I tried to teleport us back at the library, but Rune somehow is stopping us. So we must hurry."

Only a few more feet and they near the rope bridge, their destination in sight; out of the sky came in the ghost pony.

"Rune!" Dusk shouted, angry that this pony was stopping him. "You need to stop all this!"

"Now Dusk." Luna said, walking in front of Dusk. "Rune? If you can hear us, you must regain control over yourself."

The pony made no reply, only vanished ad if it simply evaporated away.

"Quickly." Luna suggested. "While he is gone."

Both Dusk and Luna made their way across the bridge and reached the Ruins of the Old Castle. The main doors of the ruins were sealed shut. Before Dusk could touch it, the door slowly cracked open, dark green smoke spewed out of the door, then a bright light flashed, slightly blinding Dusk and Luna.

"Oh Dusk and Luna welcome. Do come in." Spoke a very familiar voice. "The others are waiting within."

Dusk's and Luna's eyes adjusted to the bright light when they saw:

"Zecora?!" Dusk was amazed to see she was alright. "What's going on? Are you okay?"

"Never you worry." Zecora reassured. "But come inside, do hurry."

Both Dusk and Luna were escorted into the Ruins. Despite the bright flash of light, the inside was pitch dark.

"What's going on Zecora?" Dusk asked but saw Zecora was gone. Looking towards what he assumed was the center of the room, Dusk tried to figure out what was happening. When suddenly the room ignited in light:

"SURPRISE!!!!!!!!!!!" Shouted Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Applejack and Rainbow Dash, who were hiding behind some rocks, that were decorated in carved pumpkins.

"What the BUCK!" Both Dusk and Luna asked.

"I..Um...Guess who." Said a calm, very gentle mare's voice who placed her hooves over Dusk's eyes.

"Fluttershy?!" Dusk answered, relieved to hear her voice again. Dusk turned to see if it was her:

"Fluttershy!" Dusk was so happy to see her alive. "What's going on?"

"WHY IT'S A PARTY!" Pinkie jumped in with the answer. "When Rune got each of us, he told us his plan."

"His plan?" Luna asked.

"Yes a plan from his twisted brain." Zecora answered. "But it is better for Rune to explain."

Descending from the broken ceiling was the ghost pony, it was Rune. The difference this time was that Rune's eyes were not burning orange, and he had a large black bubble behind him.

"So what do you think of my party?" Rune laughed.

"Party?" Dusk asked, who was now looking around the room. The room was covered in orange and red streamers, black and blue balloons were tied to small stones, there were lit pumpkins, each with twisted faces, and there were several tables, covered in food, snacks and drinks.

"So let me try to understand all of this." Dusk tried to clarify. "You acted like a monster from some bad story, captured our friends and scared me close to death, just to throw A PARTY???!!!"

"Yes." Rune bluntly answered. "Was that not obvious?"

"But what of the spell?" Luna asked. "Are you to tell us that you succeeded in controlling the spell?"

"Yes." Rune bluntly responded, just not as bluntly as when he answered Dusk. "For the first couple hours, I couldn't control myself but I was able to stop myself. I don't understand why but it worked, so now I can use the Moon to turn me into 'NIGHTMARE RUNE'."

Princess Luna, along with everypony there replied by face-hoofing each other. That has got to be the worst thing Rune could of thought up that night.

"So if you have everypony." Dusk asked. "Where's Trixie and Spike?"

"Oh yeah." Rune laughed a little. "I almost forgot about those two." Raising his horn towards the bubble. The bubble popped and out came both Trixie and Spike.

"The Great and Confused Trixie demands to know why you abducted us Rune." Trixie demanded.

"Oh it's nothing important." Rune patted Trixie on the shoulder. "I only pony-napped all our friends for this awesome party."

"What?" Trixie was agitated, but then looked at all the food and candy. "Well i guess I can forgive you just this once Rune."

So the party went on..........Pinkie gorged herself to twice her size on candy, Fluttershy sang with the night birds, Applejack and Rainbow Dash competed to see who could eat the most food, Rarity and Trixie both competed to see who looked sexier for Dusk, who was constantly running away from them, Spike ate almost as much food as Pinkie, and finally Rune, Zecora, and Luna looked at the stars and the large Moon.

"This was a lovely party Rune." Luna complimented.

"Yes even I cannot deny." Zecora added. "It was funny to see everyponies big surprise."

"It was a good idea wasn't it." Rune proudly stated. "Plus it was so fun being the monster, that spell really helped out."

"Oh is it you were able to control yourself after you lost control?" Luna inquired.

"Because I wanted to I guess." Rune quietly laughed, rubbing the back of his head.

"Explain if you could." Zecora asked.

"Well I remember that Luna said this spell is powered by imagination and desire." Rune explained, he was getting to over-confident. "So when I was learning the spell, I learned it because I wanted to. Then my desire was candy, so I attacked Pinkie Pie for her candy, it was the biggest stash of candy I could find. Then I thought, 'Why not a party?' so I grabbed Zecora, who could help me find a place, then we went to Fluttershy's, and thanks to Zecora explaining, Fluttershy agreed to help."

"But what about the others?" Luna asked.

"Well I went to Rarity next, figuring that she might see through my 'monster act' too quickly so I got her help, saying that I'd owe her one." Rune was almost done explaining his plan. "The I captured Pinkie, seeing as she might give a way the surprise. As to Rainbow Dash and Applejack, i told them nothing, Dash might spoil the surprise as well and Applejack is too honest, so they both thought they were taken by a monster."

"That's quite an incredible tale." Zecora complemented. "But without myself or Fluttershy, couldn't your plan have failed?"

"Oh definitely." Rune said, hugging Zecora in thanks. A very faint blush went across the zebra's face, but it went unnoticed. "Without you two to set the stage and mood, the plan would of sucked."

"You are welcome Rune." Zecora replied. "But I must return home very soon."

"We as well." Luna responded. "The dawn is coming, we must lower the Moon."

As the other ponies gathered as Luna departed to the starry sky, they could hear her shout:

Happy Nightmare Night!!!