Draxton had just been enjoying his daily rest before his nightly shift as a member of Luna’s guard. The key word being had. A loud crash outside of his sleeping champers had woken him as the sound resounded throughout the empty halls. Draxton’s heart was rapidly beating and he was halfway out of his bed before his new training kicked in. Despite working for the princesses for several months now the instincts he had gained as a hunter were still far too ingrained in him.

He stopped and carefully listened for any sounds from outside in the hall.

“Oh come on! I was so close to finally getting to scare him!”

He knew that voice. It was the pony he had volunteered to work for when he had first been brought here, Princess Luna. He stood up and looked towards his window to see what time it was. Judging by the angle of the sun he would have probably have woken up himself in another half hour if Luna hadn’t’ve had her little mishap. Speaking of Luna, he could still hear her talking from outside his door.

“Fowl carpet, you have thwarted my plans at pranking for the last time. I shall learneth ye how to treateth the princess of the night! Thee shalt beest did cast down to the deepest pits of Tartarus f'r this transgression! Thy family shalt nev'r knoweth of thy fate and thy descendants shalt f'rget thee! The whole of cant'rlot shalt feeleth mine own wrath this day and those gents shall knoweth t wast thy offense yond hath brought f'rth mine own ire!”

Well, this was just perfect. If there was one thing he had learned working for Luna it was that when she started to speak in the same manner as ancient texts he had found in the Canterlot library he needed to stop her. The last thing he needed to deal with today was Luna slipping back into her habits from before she had been banished. It had happened once when she had failed to best him at Swenton for the tenth time. He had to tolerate an entire night of her throwing a temper tantrum in an archaic language. Fortunately, she hadn't yet slipped into the Royal Canterlot Voice so there was still hope yet.

He grabbed the outfit he usually wore on guard duty; the Cainhurst leggings and gauntlets, Djuras old hat, and a custom breastplate given to him by Luna to match the armor of her other guards. He could still hear Luna cursing up a storm in the hall over whatever had happened. It was probably best to open the door and see what it was that had set her off.

When he opened the door Luna turned to face him with a raging inferno in her eyes. “Thou! Thou are the foulest entity to grace these brave halls with thy unnatural largess! Thou whom prevents mine desires for m'rriment and dissemble'ry! I shall hast no moe of the woe that thy presence endues to mine own life! Thou shall hereby allow mine pranks to hie forth and not disrupt the planning and execution of the superb japes that I shall devise! HARK ME THOU MISERABLE BEAST, THOU SHALL NOT WRACK MINE ENJOYMENT OF PRACTICAL JOKES ON THIS DAY OR ANY OTHER!”

And there was the Canterlot voice. If he wasn't a man of his word he would have closed the door to the room and gone back to sleep, leaving Luna to sort out her own issues. However, as it stands, he had agreed to guard Luna every night so he was just going to have to accept that tonight was just going to be one of those nights. He could parse from her shouting that she felt he was responsible for ruining one of her practical jokes. He couldn't deny that he had prevented her from pranking him on several occasions by simply being observant. He had told her that he would not stop her from pranking him just that he would tell her if he could see the prank coming.

“Carson a tha e a-nochd tha thu fiadhaich,” He asked, looking into the princess’s eyes intently.

“What?” Luna’s voice had come back to its modern form as he saw her shift on her hooves uncomfortably.

He had learned that his native language was almost entirely unknown in this world so it was his go-to way to calm Luna down when she started to slip. He also knew the ponies of this world couldn't stand it when he looked at them intently and he tended to use that knowledge occasionally to have uppity ponies stop what they were doing. He figured he might combine the two this time to see how Luna would respond. He was glad to know she wasn't too different than her subjects.

He broke eye contact and began looking around, trying to see what had happened. He could see a box that had presumably contained the various fake spiders and decorations that now covered the carpet. He could also see a section of the carpet where Luna had likely come from had not been folded down properly and had bunched up, most likely causing Luna to trip.

“I asked why you were so angry. I’m guessing you tripped.”

Luna angrily sighed. “Yes, I did.” Luna turned to glare at the folded carpet. “I had been planning to scare you today in celebration of Nightmare Night.”

Draxton raised an eyebrow. “Nightmare Night?”

“Yes, it is a glorious holiday filled with frights and sweets. I was hoping to make your first experience of this grand festival a memorable one by being the first pony to scare you.”

Draxton reached down and picked up one of the several fake spiders that littered the ground. They were slightly bigger than his hand but didn't look all that threatening. “And you figured I would be afraid of fake spiders?”

“No, but what about real ones?” Her horn lit up and in a flash the spider in his hand animated and began crawling up his arm. In one swift motion, he grazed his arm across the side of his leg, knocking the spider off his arm and onto it's back.

“I’m not particularly fond of them but I’m not afraid. Besides, I have seen far worse spiders.”

Luna looked at him skeptically. “I doubt you have seen worse spiders than that. I will admit the world you come from makes the scariest parts of ours look like foals play but what spider could be worse than one bigger than my hoof?”

Draxton simply reacher into the pocket on his belt that contained the notebook he kept as a hunter and brought it out. He flipped to the portion of the notes that covered the Nightmare of Mensis. He glanced over the pages until he found his notes on what he had learned were called Nightmare Apostles and handed his notebook to her.

Luna's eyes looked over the pages and slowly became very wide. “This is not true, this must be false. There could not be spiders as big as you, or with heads like yours, or...as big as a house.

“You can use your magic to look into my memories if you want.”

“NO!” Luna had already delved into the twisted memories of the human once before and if this was true she did not need to see any more horrors of his old world.

“Alright then. Since your failed prank woke me up I might as well start tonight early. Am I guarding your chambers tonight?” Draxton had been working on trying to talk more after all four princesses chastised him for his normal methods. He would have preferred to have just asked what he position was tonight and headed there but he wanted to at least try to meet the princesses halfway. Even though it felt wrong to do so many unnecessary things.

Luna lit up her horn and tuned the flipped spider back to a rubber model before magically collecting everything that had spilled out. “Actually, seeing as tonight is a celebration in my name I was planning to visit Ponyville to take part in the celebrations.”

“Is that so?” Draxton watched as the last of the spilled decorations were collected and were sent away in a magical flash. “I’m guessing that you will be asking me to accompany you then?”

“Yes, it will help you integrate into life here. Maybe one day you will find yourself to be just another citizen of Equestria.” Luna began walking back towards the throne room so Draxton followed suit.

“Draxton, I would request you not look at me that way again,” Luna told him over her shoulder, pissed that she still hadn’t been able to overcome that look of his. She was used to dealing with predator dignitaries and none of their aggressive looks even phased her. But Draxton was different. After she had seen the world Draxton came from when she found his dream and saw how easily he could kill, all while holding that same emotionless face she could help but see his stare as that of the most dangerous predator.

“Your sister told me to make sure you keep to modern parlance. It was the best way to stop you.”

Luna puffed up her cheeks. Only he would have the gall to talk back to her, not even hiding that he had been told to do so by Celestia, and make it sound like he had no intention to follow her order. She was about to start chewing him out when she remembered what else she had been meaning to tell him.

“Oh, I almost forgot. A big part of Nightmare Night is dressing up and trying to be as scary as possible. You should go back and change into something really frightening. How about that outfit you were wearing when you first met the elements? Get changed and meet me in the main courtyard, my sister will probably be accompanying us so try to make it really scary.”

Draxton looked at Luna with confusion but turned around to follow her instructions. While her suggestion for the crow garb had indeed scared the elements of harmony he had a better idea. He knew of several items of clothing he possessed that would scare them far more than the crow garb. And better yet, he could bring along one of his weapons if the princesses allowed it to make him look even more horrifying.

Celestia was waiting by her sister's chariot in anticipation of tonight's festivities. She hadn't been able to accompany her sister to a Nightmare Night since she had come back out of fear of what Luna would say to her. While Luna had given her a good lashing about letting the holiday establish itself she had said she enjoyed the nights immensely and did her best to go somewhere new each year to see how they celebrated. Before she could get too deep into thought Luna rounded a corner, smiling and skipping like a school filly as she approached the chariot.

“If this is how happy you are for Nightmare Night I think we should make it biannual,” Celestia told her little sister with a smile.

Luna stopped when she was standing in front of her older sister, but her smile hadn't yet faded. “While Nightmare Night is always good fun this one is going to be extra special.”

“Really now, I take it me coming this year is what is bringing out your inner filly.” Celestia chuckled. “If I knew you would be this happy I would have come quite a bit sooner.”

Luna shook her head. “While I appreciate you coming and have wanted you to do so for quite some time it's something else. I was able to convince Draxton to not only come but to participate in the festivities. Even better, he agreed to use clothes from his old life for his costume.”

Celestia's smile slipped, her face taking on a concerned frown. “Was that really the best of ideas. You saw his world yourself. You told me it was the worst nightmare you had ever helped to end. Won't his costume be a little...much?”

Luna’s smile widened. “That's the best part. Because it’s Nightmare Night ponies will be expecting to be scared. It's all in good fun. Besides, the world I saw was not a reality in the conventional sense, Draxton told me himself. Even then, just how scary could he possibly dress up as. You've seen the clothes he wears when he isn't on duty, what's the worst he could have?”

A scream resounded through the halls of the castle, its source close to the archway Luna had come around minutes prior. When they turned to see what had caused the scream they were met with the sight of just how scary Draxton could be using just the outfits he had brought with him. His head was covered in a rusty orange hood with a white cloth covering his face with dark black circles where his eyes and mouth should be. On his torso was what looked like a griffin butchers shirt, complete with an apron and soaked in blood. But what tied off his gruesome look was the large wheel he was carrying that had a bloodred bist coming from around its circumference.

Both princesses were scared at what they saw. They both knew Draxton was a predator but the fact that he had such articles of clothing was unnerving. When he passed through the archway he reached up to the wheel and gave an outer portion of it a turn. What came next shocked the princesses to their cores. When the outside of the wheel turned the red mist coalesced into the faces of humans, screaming in agony. If that wasn't bad enough the sisters could tell this wasn't just a parlor trick, the faces they saw were the actual souls of humans, trapped in the item and tortured from its use.

Luna, while happy with how scary his outfit was, began to have second thoughts about giving Draxton free reign of choosing his costume. It didn't help that after Draxton had turned the wheel the cloth on his face began to turn red where she knew his wound was.

Draxton slammed the wheel closed, dissipating the red mist. “I take it from the looks on your faces I succeeded.”

Draxton’s voice shook the princesses out of their shock. They knew that Draxton had an uncanny knack for being the most horrifying individual in a room from both the way he talked and the way he held himself but this was something else.

“I think you might have done a better job than I expected.” Luna began walking over to the third member of the ponyville trip when she began to taste iron in the back of her throat. “Draxton. Please tell me why I smell fresh blood.”

“I used some to increase the terror the outfit will provoke.”

And there he goes again, proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that there existed not a single individual that could best him at making anyone uncomfortable. How could he tell them without delay and or a care in the world that he had used real blood on himself?

“At least tell me it wasn't your’s or one of our citizens.”

“It wasn’t.”

And now she regretted asking the question the way she had. She now wanted desperately to know just where the blood came from but she just knew the answer would be more unsettling than she could normally imagine.

“Well, since everyone is here now, I suggest we begin our trip to Ponyville.” the tone of Celestia's voice made it painfully obvious just how uncomfortable she also was at Draxton addition of the crimson fluid.

“Quite.”

After all three of them boarded the carriage, Luna on the left, Draxton ln the middle, and Celestia on the right, the four bat ponies responsible for pulling it began running and flapping their wings. After they had attained a great enough speed they lifted off. Draxton could never quite get comfortable with flying, every time the princesses would take him on one of their chariots the lift-off would remind him of being grabbed by an amygdala.

When the chariot had reached the appropriate altitude the bat ponies leveled off and lessened their wing beats. Draxton reduced the death grip he had on the front of the chariot, both sisters seeing his discomfort, chuckled internally. While neither of them enjoyed seeing one of their subjects less than happy, neither of them could deny it was nice to see Draxton not in full control. It was especially nice after considering the experiences he had given them with his innate ability to make everything he did horrifying.

On the topic of Draxton making things uncomfortable, the blood on his outfit was starting to affect both of the sisters. With Draxton in the middle, the scent of the blood was equally shared between them. Almost in sync, both princesses cast sense suppression spells to stop from smelling the foul odor.

For the next few minutes, silence enveloped the chariot. Not wanting the ride to slip into an uncomfortable experience, Celestia decided that it would be best to strike up a conversation, it wasn't like she could rely on Draxton to end it.

“So Luna, do you have any Nightmare Night scares planned this time around? I know you love to pull them every year.”

“Not this year sister. I had been hoping to ask our friend Draxton earlier this week to help plan a glorious scare, but it slipped my mind until this morning. I don't think it would have been fair to ask him to plan such a scare at the last second.”

Celestia just nodded, she understood her sister's predicament. She had lost track of personal projects on several occasions due to issues of state coming up. She should probably help Luna plan a little something before they arrived to give her sister something to do to keep with tradition.

“If you want me to I will, it wouldn't be too hard.” Draxton’s hard voice broke the silence.

Both sisters looked over to Draxton like he had grown a second head. He had never offered his help freely before unless he saw that somepony was at risk.

“Are you sure? We will be arriving at Ponyville shortly. There isn't going to be a terribly long time to plan anything big.” Luna thought of Draxton as quite competent but even she doubted he would be able to plan out an extravagant scare.

“It isn't that hard. What would be more horrifying than your subjects thinking I had attacked you and won?”

NOW Draxton had officially grown that second head. Was he honestly suggesting that the princesses fake either their deaths or have him carry their broken bodies into town?

“Are you honestly suggesting we fake our deaths to scare our subjects?” Celestia was taken aback.

“To some extent. What would scare your subjects more?”

“While that would scare our subjects, I feel that it is not exactly in the true spirit of Nightmare Night. The night was named after the time I...transformed...into a worse version of myself.” Despite all the time Luna had spent coming to terms with what she had done, the act still weighed heavy on her heart.

“Then transform into a creature from my world.”

Now it was Luna’s turn to be taken aback. “A beast? From your world? Why would I ever do that? We both know how terrifying your world is compared to ours.”

“That's the point.”

Luna was about to respond when the words sunk in. She had just admitted that pulling a creature from his world would make one of the scariest, and most memorable Nightmare Nights on record. She had to admit it was a wonderful idea, there was just one problem.

“While that would be an excellent plan, the problem would be scaring them. While your beasts are worthy of the nightmares that they cause, I don't think one just walking into town would give the proper response.”

“Then combine the plans. I bring your broken bodies into town and appear to force you to transform into a beast of my world.”

Celestia needed to respond. While she liked the idea of a nightmare night scare as much as any other pony, this seemed to be needlessly horrifying. There was no way that this plan could lead to the usual fun and merriment ponies associated with the holiday. The plan sounded like an idea crafted by Sombra to torture the citizens of the crystal empire.

“That’s brilliant!”

Celestia looked over to the smiling face of her sister, floored that she could think that this idea was in any way going to end well.

“No. It's not. If our subjects see Draxton carrying us, bloodied and bruised into town what are they going to think? What's to stop Twilight and her friends from trying to attack Draxton, or worse yet, use the elements on him?”

“We just inform them of what is happening. While I will admit the plan does sound extremely terrifying, if we tell them it's all a big joke the end result won't be so bad. Tell me, how many times has one of my scares been more enjoyable when you learned that others had been in on it?”

Celestia couldn't come up with a response, Luna had a point. Whenever Luna would scare her it always felt better for some reason to know others had been involved. Something about laughing with others about a shared experience just made the experience so much better.

“And besides, this is Draxton's first Nightmare Night scare, and it's not half bad.”

Celestia sighed, her sister always knew just what strings to pull to get her to do what she wanted. “Alright, you win.” She turned to face Draxton. “So what do you need us poor defenseless princesses to do.”

For Ponyville, Nightmare night was proceeding as it almost always did with only a few minor changes. As always, Fluttershy was staying home. However, this year, in an attempt to overcome her shyness, she had elected to give out candy to foals that were willing to go out of their way to knock on her door. The Apple family had elected to hold a whole Nightmare Night party at their farm with dozens of games and activities. Pinkie was out collecting candy as usual, but this year she was doing so with her sister Maud.

For Twilight, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash, the three of them were currently dressed up and accompanying the Cutie Mark Crusaders and Spike through town to collect candy. Rarity and Twilight had taken inspiration from the first outfit Rarity had made for Draxton and had both dressed up as vamp-ponies. They had even gotten a hold of magical contacts that would turn their eyes red and would light up if supplied with magic. Rainbow had elected to go as a windigo and had painted her body, tail, and mane white while also using a cloud to cover up her lower half.

The Crusaders had elected to each dress up as one of the many allies Daring Do had gained in her adventures. Sweetie Belle had chosen to go as Small Hoof, Apple Bloom as Sallinia, and Scootaloo as Dr. Martina Ballarin. Spike was still keeping to his tradition of going as a dragon and this year had chosen to be a lindworm. All seemed to be going well until Spike suddenly burped up a letter from the princesses. Twilight grasped the scroll with her magic and unrolled it.

Dear Twilight,

My sister and I will be arriving in Ponyville shortly. Draxton and I are planning a Nightmare Night scare to end all scares. For our plan to work, you and your friends must act as you would normally, but bear in mind that this will all be in good fun, so don't take our actions too seriously.

Sincerely
Luna

“Oo, what does it say.” Scootaloo was jumping up and down behind Twilight, doing her best to get a look at the letter.

“It just said that Celestia, Luna, and Draxton will be visiting tonight. She wants me and my friends help by playing along with their plan.”

The crusaders each looked extremely excited at the prospect of not only seeing the princesses but the human that the element had found in the Everfree. Each of them began jumping around and hollering.

“While I share your excitement, why don't you head off with Spike and collect more candy. We’ll catch up with you shortly.”

The three fillies and dragon quickly made off towards Fluttershy's cottage. While they knew she wasn't too into the holiday, none of them had a costume that would scare the pegasus, so they figured it would probably be best to get there soon before something happened with other foals that would drive her to call the night early. As they were running off they passed by, and almost ran into, Starlight Glimmer.

“He galls, I saw your partners for tonight heading off without you. Don't tell me you all got too old to keep up with them?” Starlight chuckled as she approached. She was dressed as one of the tree dwarves from an old fairytale.

“Well, the princesses just sent us a letter telling us that they are coming to town and they are going to be playing a Nightmare Night scare ‘to end all scares’. I think they want the four of us should wait here until they arrive, they want us to play along so hopefully it will be a good one this year.”

Fortunately for them, they didn't need to wait long. Suddenly, the moon and stars vanished from the sky, leaving only the lights of houses and the occasional street lamp to provide much-needed light. Fillies and colts stopped their playing and looked up at the pitch black darkness that had consumed the night sky. Most every adult besides Twilight's friends began to murmur among themselves, each asking what had happened and if this was Luna doing her yearly scares. While Twilight’s group knew what was happening, it was nonetheless disconcerting to see a night sky completely devoid of light.

The air suddenly began to cool at an unnatural speed, what should have been a warm summer evening was now a freezing winter night. Many ponies began to shiver at the drastic change in temperature. Foals began to crowd around their parents for both warmth and comfort. A fog had begun to form and roll in from the north, an unnatural direction as the winds of Ponyville would always carry a fog in from the south-west, from the Everfree.

Twilight couldn't help but think that maybe Luna was taking this night of fright a little too seriously this year. While everypony loved to be scared on this night, the removal of the night sky and the sudden changing of the weather was something she had to admit was a little much.

“Are you sure about Luna’s plan here Twilight,” Rainbow’s voice lacked it's usual confidence, “I love a good scare on Nightmare Night, but don't you think she might be overdoing it?”

“I don't know. While I do trust Luna’s judgment... I think this might be too much.” she looked over to some nearby foals, shaking in fear. “Maybe we should-”

“Twilight. I think you need to see this,” Rarity’s voice was quivering. When Twilight turned to where Rarity was facing, she was greeted to a scene straight out of one of her nightmares.

Emerging from the fog several blocks away was what could only be Draxton judging by the thin bipedal form. Only, he wasn't dressed in any garments they had seen before. His entire face was covered and hooded, not permitting them from seeing his face. And instead of the armor they had grown to associate with him over the last few months as a lunar guard, he was wearing the bloodstained garments one would associate with a griffin butcher. In all, the costume he had chosen to wear tonight definitely fit the theme of Nightmare Night. But what really sold the abhorrent look was what he was dragging with both hands.

In both hands, Draxton was gripping the horns of the two sisters bloody and broken bodies and unceremoniously dragging them with him. In his left hand he was dragging the body of Celestia, her usually ethereal mane was now a light pink and plastered to the side of her face by a copious amount of blood. Her wings were broken in several places with bones puncturing the skin like tiny, white, jagged knives.

In his right hand was the body of Luna, but in a far worse state. While Celestia had looked like she had an even fight with Draxton and had only just lost, Luna had been slaughtered. Her mane, while still having its usual night sky appearance, was coated in blood and appeared to have been grafted to what remained of her face. Her lower jaw was hanging open and to the side, obviously dislocated, while the side of her face not covered by her mane seemed to have been caved in around the eye. Looking back Twilight could see that Luna only had one wing left, and it was even more ravaged than Celestia's had been. Her left back leg had the muscles that held the tibia to the femur ripped, allowing the leg to bend backward at an unsettling angle while the lower portion of her back right leg was missing.

“Get the foals away from here!” Twilight's voice was genuinely panicked. She didn't know just what Luna had devised, but this was too real. This wasn't the normal “scare the children with the guise of her evil self”, this was the sight of a true monster coming to exterminate them or declare its dominance.

As she watched parents grab their foals and run home, she noticed that no filly or colt was fighting to stay and watch. Each of them knew they were not prepared for what was to come next. When she turned back to face Draxton, he had gotten close enough that she could make out the details of what should have been his face. What she saw was a cloth mask with black circles where his eyes and mouth should be. However, a red stain had worked itself into the cloth where Twilight knew his wound was. Apparently, it had reopened and was now soaking his mask.

Draxton stopped in his approach when he was within a few dozen meters of her and her three friends. Twilight could smell the blood coming from him and the princesses. She looked around at her friends and the ponies that had decided to stay and watch what was going on. Many of them possessed faces of abject horror at seeing the mangled bodies of the diarchs dragged behind an individual that had been trusted to protect them. She was having serious doubts about agreeing to help sell this.

No, these were not doubts, she needed to stop this right now before it escalated further. While Luna’s Nightmare Night plans could usually scare most ponies, this was on another level. She knew it was all a farce and even her heart was racing. She couldn't even imagine the fear that the towns ponies were feeling.

“While I like a good Nightmare Night scare like any other pony, I think this might be a little far.”

The bodies of Luna and Celestia began to move but quickly stopped when the grip on their horns tightened. Draxton remained silent, staring intently at Twilight. Without warning, Draxton dropped Luna, her body not even bouncing off the cobbled road to show that she was still alive. Before anyone could move to help the princess of the night Draxton spun in a circle and tossed the body of Celestia towards them. Twilight's horn immediately lit up in an attempt to cast a spell to catch the princess, only for a vile memory she had done her best to suppress to resurface.

Twilight panicked, her magic instantly stopped as she dropped onto her stomach and covered her head. The memory of the nightmare was too much for her to properly handle. It was too familiar, too much like that dream. She couldn't bring herself to use magic on her mentor, not if it would kill her like last time.

Starlight, seeing Twilight shut down, took it upon herself to catch the princess. Grabbing Celestia only a few meters before she would have collided with them. She carefully brought her towards the group and laid her down in front of them.

“I know you told me this was just an act, but I can't help but think your friend Draxton didn't get the message,” Starlight told Twilight.

While Twilight was in the midst of her panic attack, a blood-caked white hoof touched her right foreleg. When Twilight looked up she saw the broken body of her former mentor before her. The blood and wounds that covered her body were all too real, she could smell and taste the metallic compound permeating the air. Twilight saw her mentors face, usually so caring and even, now a mask of dread sorrow.

“Run.” the voice was barely audible but the look of genuine fear from her mentor was all Twilight needed to be convinced that this wasn't the prank that Luna had planned. Draxton had actually beat them down and was still out for blood.

“This isn't a prank, we need to get the other elements now! Rainbow I need you to fly as fast as you can to-”

“Tha mi a 'smaoineachadh a-nis gur e deagh àm a th' ann crìoch a chur air a 'chùis seo. Às deidh seo, faodaidh sinn toileachas a thoirt air dè a nì thu air na saor-làithean seo.”

Twilight had been interrupted by the sudden decision of Draxton to finally talk. Only, it wasn't in equish, but the strange language he had told them was only spoken where he had been born. As Draxton spoke the words, he lifted a strange object above his head with both his hands, and in a swift motion, looked to break it in half. When he did so, a red mist formed around where the object had been broken and formed itself into the shape of three screaming human faces. The faces then quickly floated towards the broken body of Luna before impacting with her prone form and coating her in a fine red mist.

As the mist covered her body, a magical aura halfway between Luna’s aura and the bloody mist grabbed hold of Celestia. Neither Starlight nor Twilight were able to respond in time before the broken body of Celestia rocketed towards Luna, screaming in fear the entire time. When the two collided, the collective mass of both sisters was tossed several meters back towards where they had been dragged from. However, instead of the two bodies impacting the way one would expect, the two seemed to merge into one another, turning into an ever-shifting mass of white and blue fur mixed in with entrails and bones.

Twilight didn't know what to do. The only thing that felt real was the need to punish Draxton for what he had done. She shot upright and made a mad dash towards Draxton. Rainbow first tried to stop her, but a quick teleport away had Rainbow crashing into the dirt where Twilight would have been. Starlight tried next by attempting to grab a hold of her, but a feedback spell sent painful spikes throughout Starlights horn, stopping her from continuing the spell. While feedback spells were banned as they were one of the few spells from the School of Unorthodox Magics that had no use in modern times save for offensively, Twilight didn't care. She needed to end this now.

She was running at Draxton with all of her might. She remembered what had happened the last time somepony had tried to do the same move with him, they had wound up in a hospital for several days and had developed a debilitating fear of crows. But at the moment she didn't care.

Draxton for his part did not move a muscle, he was standing perfectly still right in front of her, like he wanted her to attack him. If he wanted to make it easier for her that was his mistake. When she felt she had gotten close enough, she leapt into Draxton's chest with her forehooves fully extended. The two impacted and were sent flying backward, with Twilight riding on top of Draxton like a strange skateboard. When the two of them stopped only a meter away from the mass that used to be Celestia and Luna, Twilight grabbed ahold of Draxton’s shirt and lifted him up, holding him only a few centimeters from her muzzle.

“How could you do this! I thought we were your friends! How could you be such a monster!” Twilight felt like she was about to cry. In one night her old mentor had been killed and she and her sister had been transformed into a terrifying mass of flesh. She needed to see his face, to know if he had any remorse for his actions.

She magically grabbed ahold of his hood and mask and ripped it off. While she knew just how awful his wound looked and how unsettling his gaze could be, right now she was too angry. She did not expect what she saw.

Draxton was smiling.

He never smiled.

In almost an entire year, after all of the good things that had happened in his life, Draxton had NEVER, SMILED. But here he was, with a smile she had only ever seen Pinkie Pie wear plastered on his face. What made it worse was that his teeth were a disgusting shade of yellow. While she had seen his teeth before when he would talk, she had never fully seen just how yellow they actually were. To tie the horrible package together his usually piercing blood-red eye was now clouded over, the red having turned a dark shade of pink and the pupil a pale grey.

Draxton’s words echoed in her head as she looked into that clouded eye. He had told her the symptoms of the old blood taking over but she never imagined she would ever see it. She walked backward off of him in shock. He had become a mindless beast, and there was nothing she could do to stop it.

As her mind was still reeling from the revelation Draxton began to get up, that horrid smile still adorning his face and looking no worse for wear. Twilight knew what needed to be done, but taking another living being’s life was something she felt was unforgivable. But she knew it must be done. Draxton had explained that once one had succumbed to the blood there was no turning back, they were gone forever.

She looked back over her friends and the ponies that had had not yet left the street. Each of them stared at her, Draxton and the writhing mass of misshapen flesh that had once been Celestia and Luna. She knew what needed to be done. With tears in her eyes, she began to charge up an unforgivable spell.

Before she could finish charging her spell, the writhing mass exploded in a shower of viscera. Twilight's spell vanished as she lost her focus as she tried to cover her face from the shower of gore that she was being pelted with. When she opened her eyes, she was presented with a sight her worse nightmares could hardly conjure.

Where the combined flesh of Celestia and Luna had once been now stood an abhorrent monster of distorted flesh and too many limbs. Its face could be mistaken for Luna's if one was able to call a half horse half human fusion of grotesque perversion reminiscent of the late princess of the night. Beside that monstrosity sat what might have been the head of Celestia. It shared her general shape and color but was wrong on every level. Its face lacked any discernible features except for a permanently gaping maw, every centimeter of which was covered in eyes that twitched in random directions and at sporadic intervals.

Its body was no better. It's upper half somewhat resembled that of Draxton except its arms were far too long for its body should have allowed and covered in dense black fur. Its “hands” were each tipped in dark jagged claws that would not look off if they were seen on a dragon rather than on this abomination. Its upper half looked to have been flayed at one point as much of its musculature was exposed and covered in either festering pus-filled blisters or was black and rotting. Despite all this, the lower half might have been the worse part. Like the upper half, the lower half was also partially flayed and rotted but instead of a human-esque structure, it was that of a bloated pony with too many limbs. While the beast walked on four hooves, there were several extra legs, mostly pony, but a few that were likely griffon, that grew from random points on the lower half and would occasionally flail for seemingly no reason. If all of this wasn't bad enough, where a pony would have their cutie mark instead lay a mangled fusion of both the sister's marks, a half moon, reefed in flames, in a night sky.

Suddenly the creature before her released an ear-piercing cry. It was worse than she could have imagined. At first, only the Luna head screamed, it's called halfway between the roar of a dragon and what could only be described as a scream of incomparable agony by the former princess. Eventually, the Celestia head joined in and added it's own half hydra roar, half scream of misery to the cry.

AIl of this was just too much for Twilight. She collapsed on the ground in the fetal position with her eyes wide open and staring unblinkingly at her friends and the ponies that had stayed. Each of the faces she could see was one of immeasurable terror, their bodies rigid and their hooves rooted to the ground out of fear. She couldn't fight the twisted form of her old mentor and her sister when they looked like that. The magic that Draxton had been able to utilize was something far darker than she could have ever imagined. The madness and horror it possessed were beyond anything even Discord could create in his most malicious fever dreams.

Twilight closed her eyes as all of her fears and sorrow hit her at once in the form of tears. She had not only been unable to stop Draxton from assaulting the princesses, she had been one of the ponies to suggest Draxton join the lunar guard to help him adjust to his new life. If she wouldn't have done that, she might have seen the signs of his coming madness earlier and might have been able to stop it. But worst of all, her inability to respond in time had lead to Draxton converting two of her closest friends into a monster. If she would have just responded faster, the miscreation that now stood before the entire town would have never been summoned.

She just wanted this night to come to an end, for something to end the madness and insanity that vile monster that had formerly been Draxton had summoned.

Suddenly a hand touched her on her shoulder. Twilight instinctively tensed up. Every cell in her body was telling her that the monster that had taken over Draxton was about to kill her. Every cell was telling her that this was it, this was how she would die.

“You alright?”

The voice was one Twilight had never heard Draxton use. It wasn't the barely dismissive tone he always seemed to use or the crazed tone she would have expected from a blood-crazed hunter. It sounded... caring... and... concerned.

The plan had gone better than expected. Draxton had watched as Twilight and each of her friends had played their part in the scare he had helped to devised. They genuinely looked like they had no idea that what he and the princesses were engaged in was the scare. He was glad that she had the parents take the foals away when he had come out of the fog, he knew that the scare would more than likely be too much for the younger ponies.

He had watched as Twilight tried to hide herself when he threw Celestia at her. He had overheard Luna talking with her about a nightmare she had on the first night she had housed him. Apparently, in the dream, he had slaughtered almost everyone in town and when she had tried to kill him, he had thrown Celestia into the path of the magic, resulting in her killing her mentor. Twilight had been adamant that she had gotten over the nightmare and she had just been paranoid about him. If she had told anyone about the dream, he figured she would see what he was doing and act like she had not yet gotten over the dream to increase the ponies fear, she did not disappoint.

To top it off, each of the friends she had brought were the perfect ones to sell the scare he had devised. Rainbow, while brash, had avoided him for the first few weeks after she had left the hospital. Twilight had told him that when she found out it was him that had been at the workshop, she had wanted to apologize to him for attacking without reason, but had been too afraid at the sight of him to go near him. This and her temporary fear of crows had become well known around the town. Rarity was known for her ability to act so if anyone could sell the scare it would be her. And finally, Starlight Glimmer. While she had not been with them when the elements had found him, he doubted that the townsponies had not guessed that the elements had told her about how good of a killer he was.

It was disappointing though that Twilight and her friends were not going to sell the scare with the fight he had figured they would have planned. On the bright side, them all shaking in fear of what they saw was definitely having a similar effect as them losing to him would have had. All of the ponies that had stayed looked to be paralyzed by fear, it was perfect.

While he had not expected Twilight to jump him and remove his mask after he had signaled the sisters cast the illusion spell that would turn them into Ludwig, he had still planned for the mask to have come off. He had Luna cast a simple illusion spell to make his eye look like that of a blood-mad beast. Before the mask was removed, he had done his best to recreate the crazed smile he had seen some citizens of Yharnam wearing. By the look of genuine fear on Twilight's face on seeing his, he knew he had done it right.

Twilight looked to be ready to mount an attack before the sisters spell finished and showered the area in the apparition of viscera. When he saw the looks of pure dread on the face of the townsponies he knew the scare had gone according to plan. He turned to look at what he thought would be Ludwig but was met with a hybrid between him and the two sisters. Even he had to admit it looked far worse than the real thing. He would have to congratulate them on that.

When he turned around to face Twilight and her friends to tell them to reveal that the scare was over, he saw something he thought he would never see again. Twilight was curled up on the ground facing away from him shaking like a leaf in a violent storm.

He had seen this position too many times before to not recognize it. Soldier’s heart. There was no mistaking it, and no way to fake it. The scare he had devised had broken Twilight in a way that he had only seen a few men break. It suddenly hit him that the reactions from her and her friends had been too natural, none of them had fully known the extent that he had planned to go. What made it worse was the thought that if he had broken Twilight so thoroughly, how bad had he scared the rest of the town?

Draxton slowly walked over to Twilight and rested his hand on her shoulder. He could feel her tense up at his touch. Looking down he could see tears coming out from between her closed eyes. The sight pulled at his heart, he had seen his older son in this same condition and couldn't help but see him in her.

When he asked her if she was alright her demeanor changed. He could hear the magic of the sisters dissipate behind him as they both rushed towards their fallen subject. Their bodies were still covered in blood as Luna had the idea to really sell the battered look by using the blood cocktails he always carried with him. Without the illusions that they had cast on themselves, everyone could tell that neither princess had been harmed, and the whole event had just been a very elaborate scare.

“Twilight! Are you alright? We are so sorry for what we did. We never meant for it to go this far.” Celestia looked to be on the verge of tears herself.

“My sister is right. It is I who is to blame for this terrible event. I should have listened to her concerns more carefully and realized this scare might have been too much for anypony to bear.” Luna was despondent. No one had seen her this guilt-ridden since the incident with the tantabus.

What shocked most of the ponies that were watching though was the way that Draxton was reacting. The ponies that knew him had almost always seen him holding a calm even face and posture, but now that had changed. He looked genuinely concerned for the wellbeing of Twilight and even looked to be trying to calm her down by slowly rubbing her shoulder. In that singular moment, many ponies saw a side of the human that they thought didn't exist.

Twilight hearing the voices of her mentor looked up from her position towards the two sisters. They were still blood-soaked and their manes were still glued to their faces, but she couldn't see any signs of damage. She jumped up and ran over to Celestia, burying her face into her chest and holding her with her forehooves before she began to weep. It didn't matter to Twilight that she was now being coated in semi-fresh blood, the only thing that mattered was that her old mentor had not been killed.

Celestia sat down on her haunches and wrapped both wings around her former student and tried to console her. Draxton knew from experience that when someone broke that way it wasn't guaranteed they would ever fully come back. He had seen his son lose himself to soldiers heart and knew that there was a distinct possibility he might have inadvertently caused Twilight to head down the same path.

“Draxton, I think the two of us and Twilight's friends should head to Twilight's castle and let Celestia help handle the fallout.”

Draxton simply nodded and stood up. He began walking to Twilight's castle with Twilight's friends following and Luna taking the rear. Many ponies gave Draxton shocked looks as he passed but still seemed rooted in place.

When the group finally arrived at Twilight's castle, each of them had silently, and without looking at each other, decided to head into the map room. While the elements each took their own seats, and Starlight took Pinkies, Luna and Draxton each decided to lean against the walls of the room. The blood on their bodies painting the surrounding crystals crimson

“So, Draxton, how’s Ulysses? Don't think I’ve ever heard of someone taming a Timberwolf before.” Starlight sounded desperate to talk about anything that might take their minds off the topic of what had happened tonight.

“Some of his wood became infected by a fungus recently. Forresters taking care of him at the moment.” Draxton's tone was not what Starlight had grown accustomed to hearing. Draxton sounded regretful and distant, and she could hardly blame him.

The conversations around the table were more dead than they would usually be. Anytime Starlight, Rainbow, or Rarity would try to engage with Luna or Draxton they were met with half-hearted answers. Everyone knew why and hardly blamed them. They had both come up with a fright so horrible that it had reduced Twilight to tears and rendered her a broken mess in Celestia's wings. They had been the architects of a nightmare so vile it could make Tartarus tremble.

When the doors to the map room opened, everyone turned to face the entrance to see if it was indeed Twilight and Celestia. They saw Celestia, still coated in blood with a similarly covered Twilight walking beside her. Twilight's eyes were bloodshot from all of the tears she had shed and her body showed signs of exhaustion. Celestia informed everyone that Twilight had mostly recovered and that the towns ponies, while shook, would likely not suffer as badly as Twilight. Still, Luna would need to keep a close eye on the dreams of Ponyville for some time to make sure that nightmares about what had happened stayed under control.

After several months, Twilight seemed to be back to her usual self. That Nightmare Night had a massive spike in the number of nightmares that had formed in the dream world of Ponyville. Those nightmares continued for almost a week until Luna could finally quash the last nightmare that had formed in response to what several ponies had seen that night. After what had happened that night, a meeting was conducted between each of the princesses to discuss how to prevent such an occurrence from happening again.

It was unanimously decided after that night that Draxton would have four very important rules given to him that he must never break. One, under no circumstances, was he EVER to plan a Nightmare Night scare again. Two, if he wished to participate in future Nightmare Nights, his costume would need to be cleared by all princesses before he could wear it. Three, on Twilight and Luna’s insistence, Draxton would attend bi-weekly classes to teach him proper equestrian manners until they deemed that he had truly learned how not to act like his usual self. And four, at Twilight's insistence, and despite everything that they held dear, he was NEVER to smile by exposing his teeth, EVER, AGAIN.

Author's Notes:

Surprise, a quick non-canon chapter to hold you guys over until I get the actual chapter edited.

fun fact: I spent every waking moment for the last three days when I was not eating or attending my college classes writing this chapter so I could have it published on Halloween.

killllll meeeeeee.