Thankfully it hadn't taken Twilight long to make it to central control. Finding a working console, on the other hand, was a different story.

When the foundation had abandoned the base they had made sure to smash up as much as they could on their way out. Pretty much anything they didn’t want falling into the wrong hands, which was practically everything. Sure it would all be vaporized the moment the nuke went off, but Twilight knew the organization had enemies to whom a little thing like nuclear fallout would pose no impediment. Protocol was to be overly cautious.

However, it was in that spirit of caution that Twilight knew there would be at least one console still functional, likely stripped any important files, but hopefully still able to issue simple commands. Commands like “abort blowing up the base, plzkthnx”. Now wasn’t really the time for humor, however, as time was short and Twilight could see on the few monitors that were still showing surveillance feeds that the underground facility was rapidly being flooded by the monstrous candy slime creature.

Once Twilight got to a working console, she had spent a lot of time opening and closing blast doors, trying to funnel the creature away from her self and Cadance's hiding spot.

Twilight was a genius, but there was only so much she could do. What she was trying to accomplish would usually be handled by a room full of people working at several terminals at once. Even so, it seemed like her efforts were bearing fruit. She was able to isolate and funnel off parts of the creature.

It was while she was engaged in this that she noticed movement out of the corner of her eye. Without a moments hesitation, Twilight reached inside her lab coat and withdrew a small cylinder that let loose a puff of reddish foam aimed over her shoulder. Starlight Glimmer fell backwards, choking, smashing into the already smashed computers behind her.

“What... was that!?” the teen managed to gasp, despite choking hard as her eyes streamed crimson tears and she fought for every breath.

“Bear mace. The mace they make for bears," Twilight answered without emotion. "Actually a variant formulated to be effective on up to two hundred and fifty-five different variants of cryptid. I never thought I’d end up using it on a regular person. But then I guess you’re not a regular person, are you?” Twilight kept the canister pointed at Starlight while she continued to work with her free hand. “I was wondering what had happened to you. At first I thought you ran off, but then I realized that someone had to have helped the Candy Mare take over Agent Butterfly. I have to admit, I didn’t expect you to come back here. For someone who tried so hard to escape this place, I wouldn't think you'd be eager to come back.”

Starlight was in no position to reply as she continued to thrash and sob in pain. She rubbed her eyes, but that only smeared the burning chemicals around. She staggered towards a nearby eyewash station and fumbled blindly, trying to find the lever or knob to turn it on.

“I suppose this means you were meant to use your ability on us as part of some kind of plan. Unfortunate for you that you decided to attack me first,” Twilight got tired of watching Starlight flail around, and turned the water on for her. “Cadance would’ve made a much more vulnerable target. So why didn’t you go after her?”

Starlight pushed her face down into the two streams of water, letting the cold stream soak her face and run over her eyes. It still stung horribly and was difficult to talk, but she managed a few words, “Plan... wasn’t to control you...” she huffed.

“Oh? So what was it then?” asked Twilight, the can of mace poised to administer another spray of peppery foam, “And please keep in mind that if I see even a glimmer of light in those eyes of yours, I won’t hesitate to spray you again until this canister is empty and your eyes shrivel up like raisins.”

Starlight coughed and sputtered as she let the water go up her nose. She then looked up at Twilight, red eyed and clearly hurting, but grinning viciously all the same. “The plan was to distract you.”

Twilight’s eyes grew wide as she looked back at the monitors. The first thing she noticed was that the slime had completely disappeared. There was no trace of the monster anywhere that she could see. Worse, she could see that the door to the freezer where Cadance and Sunset should have been hiding was wide open. She couldn't see either of them, despite the camera giving a good view of the freezers contents.

“What have you done!?” Twilight whirled on Starlight, but the escaped inmate was already up and across the room. There was something grasped in her hand as well... Twilight’s key card!

“What have I done?” Starlight echoed mockingly with a smirk, before swiping the card and opening the blast door to the control center. “My job!” She bowed deeply, as if expecting applause.

As the massive iron doors rumbled apart, Twilight didn’t know what to expect. She took out her magic radar and checked its readout. It was going crazy! Whatever was coming, it was off the scale! worse, the compact still needed more time to recharge, the tiny light still flashing rhythmically, though more rapidly in the presence of the sudden swell of magical energy.

When the doors finished opening, there was nothing on the other side but a dense, slightly sweet smelling fog.

Then slowly, one by one, lights began to flicker in the mist.

Countless in number, round, orange shapes rose out of the fog.

They were strewn down the hallway as far as the eye could see.

The eerie lights seemed to float... Taking the form of grimaces of pain, hatred, and sorrow.

Pumpkins Twilight realized as cold dread dripped down her spine like ice water. There had to be hundreds... No, thousands of them! The jack-o-lanterns leered at Twilight, and she knew that their presence could only mean one thing...

Before she could finish that thought, however, a child jumped out from the side of the door and yelled, “Boo!”, throwing her hands up high and grinning triumphantly. She must have been hiding just out of sight, waiting for the right moment to jump out.

The child was small and her cloths were filthy rags. Her body was painfully thin, and her skin was cracked and bloated in several places, mismatched skin tones of pink and white blotted her body. Her eyes swirled with madness and her long red and black hair hung limp and dead from her skull down to the floor.

It was that smile, that razor sharp candy corn grin that told Twilight exactly who she was looking at. Not a clone, or a copy, or an illusion or hallucination... But a nightmare given flesh. The titular 'Nightmare' of Nightmare Night.

The Candy Mare reborn.

“A big round of applause for my lovely assistant Starlight Gliimer everyone!” the child chirped, clapping her tiny hands hummingbird fast as she grinned at the still bowing teenager. “We couldn’t have done all this without her!”

“You are too kind, goddess,” replied Starlight, still bowing.

“Goddess!?” Twilight blurted. “You think that monster is a goddess!?”

Starlight raised her eyes to Twilight. The glare she gave her was all the more menacing for the blood shot through them. “Yes, I call her Goddess,” she replied forcefully. “Hers is an existence that transcends death. She is the ruler of worlds. To her faithful, she offers life everlasting after death. What would you call a being such as that if not a god?”

“A virus! A parasite! A worm that burrows into its host and bleeds it dry until there’s nothing left and it has to move on to its next poor victim!” spat Twilight, “She’s the lowest, most vile, repugnant kind of creature there is, and that includes all of the abominations I’ve seen since I joined the foundation!”

“Stop It you two, you’re making me blush!” The candy girl hid her face with her hands as she fidgeted bashfully. It seemed that she took both Starlight’s praise and Twilight’s rebuke as equal compliments.

“Of course you see her that way,” Starlight barked back. “Pawns of the status quo always see true agents of change as monsters! But after we tear this false paradise down, we will bring true equality to the masses! No more class divide! No more haves and have nots! It will be a true utopia!”

“If by Utopia you mean the literal definition ‘no place’, Then I agree with you,” retorted Twilight. “She’s a being of nothing but wanton destruction and avarice. When she’s done there really won’t be any 'haves' and 'have-nots', because there will be nothing left to have! There will be no class divide because we’ll all be dead! Open your eyes Starlight, and just look at your so called goddess! Madness wafts off of her like the stench from an abattoir!”

“What’s an aba... abat.. a-bat-twar?” asked the child, tilting her head cutely to one side.

“A slaughterhouse,” clarified Twilight.

“Oh. Yeah, that sounds about right,” agreed the Candy Mare.

“Stop agreeing with her,” chastised Starlight.

“Okay, okay,” replied the candy child, holding her hands up in mock surrender. “She’s only stalling anyways. I just thought I’d be a good sport and play along.”

“Stalling?” asked Starlight, perplexed. “For what?”

“For this!” A flash of violet fire erupted in the control room, and a winged avenger stood tall in Twilight’s place.

With only that for warning, 'Midnight' Sparkle launched two blasts of magic, one from each hand. The first smashed into Starlight, hurling her back into a nearby wall where she crumpled to the floor. The second enveloped the Candy Mare, sending her hurtling out of the room and scything through the assembled jack-o-lanterns. Pumpkin shell and guts sprayed into the air as corpse lights explode in flashes of blue and green, reacting to the torrent of Twilight’s magic power.

Without hesitation, Twilight smashed the button that would re-engage the emergency blast doors, sealing herself inside the control room. There was no choice now. The countdown would have to be reactivated. Twilight didn’t harbor any hopes that one blast of her magic would be enough to kill the Candy Mare. In case she couldn’t beat her, she’d have to hope a fifty megaton nuclear blast would do the job.

However, as she turned her back on the blast doors there was a loud noise, as if a freight train had smashed into the metal barricade going at full speed.

“Twilight... Oh, Twilight...” rumbled a guttural voice. “Come out to plaaayyy~!”

Even in her empowered form, Twilight had to cover her ears to keep from being deafened as the massive crash repeated itself several hundred times over again in the space of a few seconds. Doors that were meant to withstand a direct hit from an Abrams’ Tank exploded in a shower of red hot shrapnel. Green and orange lightning licked over every surface, saturating the air with magic as it swept across the room.

Midnight Sparkle dodged, warding off the bulk of the lightning with a well timed shield spell. Even so, she was pushed back before the sheer force of the magical discharge.

As the smoke cleared, Twilight’s eyes went wide as something wholly unexpected strode through the wreckage of the control room.

Something that towered over her with a razor toothed grin...

"Trick or Treat!"