Alright, now what to do? Discord’s occupied, Luna is off being cool, and I’m not sure if Twilight’s taking Spike trick-or-treating or staying home tonight.

I mean, I could check that party Pinkie’s throwing but that’s not until later. I like the holiday, but when I’m pretty much the center of attention the whole year round it loses something. Oh well, there are games to play I guess.

Well, there’s the bobbing for apples thing, but that’s just too easy. A few games of chance like on Hearts and Hooves but re-themed. And then... wait, what?

I walk closer and... what? They’re just... launching pumpkins. They’re using catapults so you can’t exactly miss, what’s the point? Just... launching something so hard that it splatters? That’s a death trap waiting to happen and they call me violent? All it would take is some stupid kid to get the bright idea to climb in and the next thing you know there’s more than just pumpkin guts all over the place.

Sighing, I turn to survey the other possibilities. There’s a mare in a spider-pony costume, running an arts and crafts station. There’s about four foals there, and they’re all working on things like large trick-or-treating buckets, or a few new accessories for their costumes. I blink when I see that the spider-pony mare is actually weaving something from her spinnerets, dexterously weaving into some ‘yarn’ to knit. I ogle a bit when I see it’s a straight-jacket, which gets passed off to a stallion in a ‘psycho’ get up, with some sort of ‘zombie’ theme going with it. I can see organs, ew.

Discord did a damn good job with the ‘costume’ things. This might not be so boring after all. That said, a lot of the children’s outfits aren’t that scary or interesting. I mean, you have all the standard kid stuff. Pirates, ghosts, all the generic halloween costumes.

I do see one thing that makes me shudder though. The CMC still dressed as Lock, Shock, and Barrel. Ohhhh man, this might not end well. If they start singing ‘Kidnap the Sandy Claws’ I’m having Discord pull the plug on this thing. I look at Noi and through a small tear in her Oogie-Boogie costume, she’s trailing bugs, worms, and tiny snakes. Okay, that is pretty awesome.

I continue on and see more ‘real’ costumes, and they do add a spark to the holiday. The monsters are definitely the highlights. Fluttershy, who took a lot of convincing to participate, actually seems to be having a good time. Keeping with the theme of Nightmare Before Christmas, I suggested she dress up as a character from the opening sequence, she took quite a shine to the ‘talking gallows tree’ for some reason. Granted the skeletons are replaced with large bats, but still, it’s pretty interesting.

Fluttershy plus Tree costume makes her look like some kind of druid or ent, but a pony. She’s being trailed by a bunch of her animal friends who have itty-bitty little costumes of their own and it’s super adorable. Except Angel. He’s dressed as... I can’t tell from here.

I get a closer look and the little bunny has a shine to it. A pair of literally glowing red eyes glare at me, and I recognize the miniature endoskeleton. Now I have to figure out who talked about the Terminator movies around him, and in such detail. And why Discord let him have a super-cool costume, too.

Oh well, as long as he doesn’t pull out a gun or something it should be alright. He’s just practically indestructible.

After a few minutes I see Rarity go by in a long, tattered blue dress, her body fading into a freezing-cold fog, as she floats rapidly away, hooves pounding the air as she ‘gallops’ away on a sheet of fog. Curious as to what has her ghostly self spooked this evening, I see a large stallion, painted yellow and chasing Rarity down, chanting ‘Waka-waka-waka!’

Well that was... random. Okay, I’m just gonna spend the rest of my time scaring the crap out of people. Not sure if Discord used his magic on me, or if it even worked. I mean, I put on my Rorschach outfit after he enchanted the town. Also, I’m kinda dressed as a human in a mask, so I’m not sure there’s any changes that could happen there.

Still, I do look pretty intimidating. I’ll just bide my time and scare folks until the party. Some foals are pulling random pranks on each other, and just having fun with their costumes. After a bit of watching, I see Clark, looking strangely normal, other than both his arms looking both demonic and a bit sleeker than I remember. As well, there’s an odd split to his lower lip, and he’s eyeing a stallion who has an evil glint in his eyes and a slingshot armed with a small durian. Oh geez, that’s a bit far for a prank, the foal could lose an eye!

Before I can react, the stallion fires the spiny fruit at one of the foals, thankfully missing. I’m going to teach him a les- wait, Clark’s moving to him, though the stallion is oblivious and loading another durian into his slingshot.

“Hey, buddy. Shouldn’t you be finding something less... hurtful to use?” Clark asks the pony, who finally looks up.

“That kid dropped a live spider into my trick-or-treat bowl! I nearly had a heart attack.” He says, as if that justifies potentially injuring a little kid.

“Too bad, it’s just a harmless spider. Leave the kid alone.” Clark steps forward, and I can see the ever-so-slight shimmer indicating some sort of spell on him. I’m guessing he’s got one of Discord’s costumes on, then.

“Not everypony likes spiders. I’m just informing the brat of my displeasure.”

“I guess you didn’t hear me. Allow me to rephrase. Fuck off.” Clark suddenly does something, and he sort of... splits down the front. His face splits open into a triangular maw of meat and teeth, one arm becoming a mass of reaching, bony talons, and his ribcage is just an over-the-top gorefest of red meat. It looks like something out of the theater arcades, like House of the Evil Dead, or something.

The stallion screams and runs away as Clark hisses, glaring red eyes visible inside the mouth, an utterly ridiculous placement for eyes. the stink of ammonia fills the air, and Clark folds back up, looking like himself again, and he snickers. The foals turn to look our direction, confused by the low noise and the resulting scream, but there’s nothing scary here now.

“Nice one!” I give Clark a high five. “So you’re going as a demon... That’s almost as bad as Spike putting ‘dragon’ on his list of possible costumes. I’m not sure that’s a good idea though, I mean, you’re trying to prove you aren’t all evil.”

“Pfft. It’s Halloween. Or, close enough, anyways. Besides, it’s all just a costume; Discord set it up. Also, nice concert, looked really cool.” He smiles broadly, the split in his chin disappearing as he takes off the glove on his left hand.

“Eh, just trying to do the source material justice.”

“Heh, well, you shoulda had me do Skellington. I’m tall and wiry enough for it.”

“Yeah, but you don’t look as sexy in a flaming Jack-O-Lantern.” I give him a playful punch on the shoulder.

“Says you. Have you ever been in a flaming jack-o-lantern and nothing else? You’d be surprised how many ladies you can get.”

“Pffft, all the ladies around here already want me. Gets kinda annoying, but they’ve gotten the hint that I’m not interested... though I still notice when they look at me.” As I say this a nearby mare immediately puts on a ‘who me’ face and looks in a random direction. “Yeah, like that.”

“Ah. Been doing some ladykilling, then? Never took you for the flirtatious type.”

“Flirting? Heck no, they’re ponies. I mean, yeah I guess there’s not a lot wrong with it but... I’d prefer a girl with at least some human features, y’know? Besides, I already got two in the running. What would I need a third or fourth for?”

“Cold nights?”

“Eh, Myrna and Anne are already pretty darn snuggly. It’s a teense worrisome in Myrna’s case but I don’t have a huge problem with it, just afraid that her ‘hugs’ might break something.”

Clark nods. “So... what’re you doing this evening? I’m trying to keep the ‘pranksters’ from going too far.”

“I hear Pinkie is throwing a ‘late night’ party. Since the parties I usually attend that she hosts are the kind with balloons, streamers and polka music, I wonder what she considers more mature. Assuming that’s what’s meant by ‘late night’ party.”

“Pinkie... that’s the nice one with the giant crush on you, right?”

“Crush? Whaaaaat? Pfffft, please, she doesn’t have a crush on me. Maybe at one point but I’m pretty sure we got that settled.”

“Uhm... sure you did.” Clark assents, and changes the subject. “Well... is there any chance you could let me use the sound stage or whatever you used to play that music? I kinda want to give it a try.”

I hand him the lyre, but with a warning. “This, like the sword, is another one of those artifacts. I’m sure you’ll be safe with it and all, just, y’know, it’s a really really big deal.”

“Wait... how does a harp do all that music?”

I shrug. “It’s an artifact of creation. I could just say ‘it’s magic’ but with the way Twilight acts about them I get the feeling they are way more than that. Anyhow, you just think of a song and start playing. Pretty simple really.”

“Huh... I need to go ask Discord for a favor, then I think I have the perfect song to play.” He waves for a sec, then turns and walks away. Oh, I probably should’ve warned him about ponies weird music tastes and reactions.

Eh, he’ll probably be fine. I mean, I play dark stuff all the time. What he picks couldn’t be any more panned than my songs.

Oh well, time to scare more children!

I use my intangibility to great effect, making me a really convincing ghost. Of course, any of the ponies wearing their own ghost costumes can do the same, but they don’t quite understand the finer details of being scary.

To prove my point to them, I look for a new target. A couple of grown ponies are walking along, a couple by the looks of it, given they are wearing complementary costumes. I walk up behind them slowly and sink down into the ground like before. It’s still a weird sensation, but this will be worth it.

I tap one of them on the back of the leg.

“Huh? What was that?”

“What was what?”

“I swear I felt something.” They continue on and I follow, repeating the process.

“Okay, you can stop now.”

“Stop what?”

“Oh come on, there’s nopony else here. You’re just trying to creep me out.”

“No I’m not.”

I give the guy another tap, clearly being able to see that his marefriend isn’t doing anything.

“What the-”

I grab his leg and pull it down into the ground and then let go. He pulls his foot out of the dirt and he and his mare run off screaming like banshees.

“And that’s how you do it!” I look around and realize they were right. Nobody was around to see that awesome trick. I wish I had a video camera.

I feel something tug on the back of my coat, and I absolutely don’t scream in fright. Besides, I was only mildly startled, not scared. I turn around, and see that it’s only a little foal. “That was cool, mister Anthony!” He’s dressed as a wizard of some kind, but with wings. I can’t see a horn under his hat, though.

“Thanks kid. I’m pretty good at scaring people. It’s an art that few take the time to master.”

“Well, I hope you have a happy Nightmare Night, mister Anthony! Seeya later!” He runs off, probably to raid more candy stashes.

Maybe at some point I’ll explain the subtle important parts of inducing fear to these ponies. Next Chapter: Chapter 154 Estimated time remaining: 11 Hours, 5 Minutes