The chase through Ponyville was a maddening thing.

Starlight tried to get ahead of Flurry Heart’s kidnapper by teleporting, but each time she did the cloaked figure would dash off in a new direction and they would be lost to the crowd. Matters were only made worse by bystanders who seemed to actively get in the way of Starlight and her friends, closing in to block their path at every turn.

What was with everypony? Not only did they ignore Applejack and Rarity’s cries of "Stop! Thief!” and “Foalnapper!", but they also seemed to block any bolts of magic Sunburst or Starlight aimed at the fleeing figure at the most inopportune times. More than once, Sunburst nearly blasted a pony right in face, causing the little trick or treater that was with them to start sobbing wildly, thinking they were being attacked.

There was no time to slow down or to ask questions or find out why, if they took their eyes off the criminal for even a moment there was a good chance they would lose them entirely. Fortunately, Flurry Heart’s giggles, high and shrill, gave away the red robed menace any time they slipped out of sight or tried to hide. To the Alicorn toddler this all must have seemed like some fantastic game of tag, or hide and seek.

Houses and Nightmare Night decorations blurred past as the pursuers flew through the crowd of trick or treaters. Finally, after what seemed like an agonizing amount of time, the crowds thinned and there was no longer anyone for the kidnapper to hide behind. It had seemed like they had been led all over town but now, finally, but now with no readily available cover the Princess's foalnapper turned and instead seemed to be heading toward... the Everfree Forest!

Starlight grit her teeth, well aware of how dangerous the woods were at night. Worse, there was a very real chance that the densely packed together trees would allow the child snatcher ample cover to make their escape! Trying to track them through the dense undergrowth would have been no easy task even in daylight. If they were going to put a stop to this, they needed to overtake them now.

Without warning an Alicorn suddenly reared out of the darkness! Her wings were spread wide and front hooves pawed at the air. The hooded pony skidded to a halt and cringed before the imposing figure, giving Starlight and the others time to surround her. Only then did the crimson robed child thief seem to become aware of the mistake they had made. The looming Alicorn was not real. It was only a statue of Nightmare Moon, the self same that trick or treaters all over Ponyville would be visiting later that night to leave their traditional offerings of sweets!.

As Starlight and her friends closed in on the foal napper, she suddenly straightened and shouted,”Trick or Treat!”

With only that for warning, the cloaked pony tossed the bundle containing Flurry Heart, still laughing and squealing, into the air with careless abandon. As all eyes turned to the imperiled infant, the child snatcher took the opportunity to vanish in flash of magic!

“Ah got her!” cried Applejack.

“No, I’ve got her darling!” assured Rarity.

“Well, somepony get her!” cried Sunburst in alarm as all three dashed forward to catch the tumbling toddler.

It should have been predictable that only moments later all three would collide with one another and end up in a tangled heap on the ground.

Fortunately Starlight had maintained her composure, using her magic to gently levitate the young princess safely onto her back. For her party, Flurry merely laughed excitedly and cried "Again! Again!"

Starlight breathed a sigh of relief and wiped the sweat from her brow, “We got her back guys! Good job!”

The pile of ponies gave a weak and rather dazed ‘Yay,” as the trio, groaning, disentangled their limbs and shackley got back on all four hooves.

“I wonder who that pony was though. That magic they used seemed so familiar...” murmured Starlight as she began to unwrap the swaddling cloth to make sure Flurry Heart was unharmed. As soon as she peeled back the cloth, the unicorn gave an ear splitting shriek, dropping the bundle onto the ground!

“Starlight, no, the baby!” Sunburst exclaimed, horrified.

“That ain’t no baby,” Applejack drawled, a look of disgust twisting her face.

“Oh good heavens, what is that!” Rarity gagged.

All four ponies could see clearly why Starlight had reacted to the sight of ‘Flurry Heart’ the way she had. What they had thought was Twilight’s niece turned out to be a severed head bundled up with a few random pieces of gore smeared candy!
It would have been more accurate to call the thing a skull since most of the raw, wet flesh had been stripped away from the bloody bone beneath. Even so, the half melted spectacles and the shock of grey hair, with pink roots just starting to show were something of a dead give away.

“Is that... is that Mayor Mare?” whispered Sunburst.

As if mentioning its name were a magic word, the skull began to laugh and squeal. The sound was high and manic and shrill, but disturbingly not at all unlike the burbling cries of an infant. They had been fooled!

The sound of hideous laughter joined that of the skull, briefly, before a bolt of dark magic shot down from the statue of Nightmare Moon and shattered the severed head like an overripe pumpkin. As the four ponies looked atop the statue, they beheld the robed figure, balancing perfectly on the tip of Nightmare Moon’s horn.

“Trick, Trick, Trick!” She cackled, “I do hope you don’t mind, but everypony is entitled to one good trick on Nightmare Night!”

“Who are you!?” shouted Starlight.

“Tell us where to find Flurry Heart!” demanded Sunburst.

“Tsk tsk! Such impatience!” The robed figure began to twirl on one hoof like a ballerina, turning and twirling slowly on the tip of the statue’s horn. With a mad little giggle she continued, “All will be revealed shortly. Or longly, if you prefer?”

“What we would prefer, would be for you to speak plainly you... you, robbing hoodlum you!” Rarity stomped for emphasis, puffing out her chest.

“Oooh you think I’m just a common criminal! How cute! I admit I’ve done my time in the big house, but now I’m free, free, free!” The crimson clad pony ceased her dancing and instead reared up on her hind legs and began to flap her long loose robed forelimbs. “Free as a Bat! Or is it a bird? Animals were never my strong suit.”

“Whatever manner of varmint ya might be, spare us the bad comedy if ya don’t mind,” chastised Applejack as she glared at the mysterious pony. “Let’s have it- In order! Who are ya? What have ya done with Flurry Heart? And no more of this dancin’ around and actin’ a fool! Speak plainly afore Ah introduce ya to Bucky McGillicuddy and Kicks McGee!”

“You want to play?” The hooded pony suddenly froze and turned serious. “Fine, let’s play! You’re all invited anyway! Just look behind you and you’ll see we’ve already rolled out the red carpet to welcome you! Heehee!”

The four ponies glanced back towards Ponyville and gasped. The town was awash in flames!

A line of houses, one across the street from the other, ran in parallel lines that spiraled through Ponyville and back towards the center of town. They could smell the smoke and hear the screams of panic and alarm from here. They sounded strangely faint, however, as though muffled. Stranger still they could see more red clad figures moving along the winding path as though the flames were not there, walking calmly towards the middle of town. Belatedly, the four ponies realized the path of destruction was the same as the path they had followed as they had chased after what they had thought was Flurry Heart. Was this the ‘red carpet’ the foalnapper had spoken of?

Of course, when they turned back she had vanished again.

“Ah can’t believe we fell for that,” groaned Applejack.

Suddenly a clap of thunder drew all eyes to the sky. Where night had been blossoming as the stars had winked one one by one, now suddenly there was a golden glow that seemed to spread over all of Ponyville. As they watched in awe, the radiant energy fell over the town and spilled down to the ground, enveloping everything in a large and glowing bubble.

Before the others could recover from their shock, Applejack squinted at the shimmering energy and rubbed her chin“Wait... Ain’t we seen something like this before?”

Rarity gasped, “Of course darling! Shining Armor and Cadance’s shield spell!”

“Oh no, no, no!” panicked Sunburst. “I recognize this magic too! That must be why they abducted Flurry Heart! Someone’s using her to generate a shield spell to keep everypony out while they do who knows what to Ponyville!”

“I'm not so sure... She did say we were invited...” Starlight reached out a hoof to the glowing golden shield. Instead of meeting with any resistance, she passed right through. “Ah, I thought so...”

Starlight reached through the bubble as if t wasn't there. As she tried to draw her hoof back out, however, she met with resistance. She tugged and strained, but no amount of force would allow her to withdraw her foreleg. As Starlight's horn began to glow with an attempted spell there was a loud pop, like a juicy bluebottle fly smacking into a glowing bug zapper, which echoed inside the bubble and sent Starlight crumpling to the ground. Grimacing, a wisp of smoke drifting from the scorched tip of her horn, Starlight slowly stood back up, her hoof still stuck halfway inside the bubble.

“It seems like this shield is designed to keep everypony in, not to keep anypony out." She gave another experimental tug, and then cast her gaze upwards to her still smoking horn. "It’s even suppressing my magic.”

“That can’t be good,” observed Applejack.

“I don’t understand. Why create a shield around Ponyville and reverse how it would normally operate?” asked Rarity.

“Because something bad is about to happen in Ponyville, and whoever or wha ever is behind all this doesn’t want anypony to escape,” answered Starlight grimly.

“You’ve got to find a way out of there Starlight! We should all go get help,” suggested Sunburst. “Whatever is going on it’s clearly too big for us to handle on our own!”

“I agree with you. You all should go get help,” replied Starlight, turning her back towards the glowing barrier. “Even if I could pull myself free, there’s no way I can leave until I save Flurry Heart. As long as she’s in that crazy pony’s clutches nopony will be able to leave Ponyville. I’ve got to find out what’s happening and put a stop to it! You three just-“

But before she could finish what she was saying, Starlight felt a comforting forelimb wrap around her shoulder from both sides. “Sounds like a plan Starlight, there’s just one teensy change Ah think we’re gonna have ya make...”

“We’re going with you,” finished Rarity, simply. “After all, it is our friends and family who are in danger. We couldn’t possibly expect you to shoulder the burden of their safety and well being on your own!”

With a nod and a smile, the three ponies stepped forward the rest of the way through the glowing dome. They turned and waved to Sunburst, showing they had passed through okay.

“You three are crazy!” Sunburst looked like he was about to have an aneurism. Or a heart attack. “You need to get out of there now! We have no idea what we’re up against!”

“You’re right Sunburst, but it’s not like we have a choice now,” Starlight hugged Rarity and Applejack back before turning back to her oldest friend. “You need to go find Twilight, or Celestia and Luna. Or, heck, go find Shining Armor and Cadance! If anypony will know how to take down this shield from the outside, it’ll be them.”

“Meanwhile, we’ll do what we can from the inside,” added Rarity.

“We’ll just have ta hold down the fort till help arrives!” finished Applejack.

“But what if something happens to you!?” wailed Sunburst, eyes locked with Starlight.

“It’ll be okay Sunburst,” was the unicorn’s reply. “Just go. I can take care of myself.”

For his part the, scraggly bearded unicorn still seemed conflicted. His hooves pumped in place, as his body vacillated toward and away from the boundary that separates the inside of the shield from the outside. Finally he seemed to reach a decision, “just be careful! Don’t get hurt! I'll be back with help as soon as I can!”

Starlight smiled warmly,”You be safe too, Sunburst. Be careful!”

With a nod, Sunburst turned and galloped off into the night.

“Parting is such sweet sorrow,” swooned Rarity dramatically, raising one hoof to her brow.

Starlight blushed.

“If’n y’all are done bein’ romantical, Ah’d like to remind ya that the town is on fire and there’s a bunch of freaky ponies in robes and hoods that appear to be congregating in the middle of town. Ah reckon they might have somethin' to do with that princess stealin' kook we've been chasin'.”

“Right!” blustered Starlight. “Let’s get down there and get some answers!"

---

As the girls made there way back into Ponyville, their gallop suddenly slowed to a trot.Without any of them so much as uttering a single word to one another, all three took in their surroundings and found them... Strange.

Something was seriously wrong with Ponyville, beyond merely being on fire. The town seemed completely abandoned. Not just that, but the shops and houses were all in run-down and dilapidated states of disrepair. While fire ravaged the buildings, the flames didn’t really appear to be doing any damage. In fact, many of the Nightmare Night decorations that the city had hung up were still fully intact, despite being engulfed by the blaze.

Starlight reached out a hoof, and sure enough, it passed right through the fire without so much as singeing her fur. “That is so weird,” was all she could say.

“Is it some kind of illusion?” guessed Rarity.

“If it is, it’s not magic. I’m not sensing any kind of spell,” replied Starlight, perplexed. “It’s almost like...”

“Like ghostly flames...” finished Applejack. “Ah heard tale of somethin' like this, though usually it's only somethin' ya get on the high seas before a storm. Fire that blazes bright but don't burn. Look over there.”

Applejack’s friends looked where she was pointing and they were surprised to see someone moving through a blazing store front. Illuminated by the flames, they could see what they could only describe as three skeletal ponies, drifting back and forth as though slowly dancing inside conflagration. They looked up, as though they sensed being watched, and stared eyelessly at the trio of ponies outside the shop window. Then their forms wavered and evaporated like smoke, drifting away on an unfelt breeze.

“Alright, I’ve seen some fairly strange things on Nightmare Night, but this doesn’t just take the cake, it takes the entire bakery!” exclaimed Rarity.

“Speaking of, look over here,” Starlight said sadly. Walking further up the street, she had stopped beside a pile of rubble that had once been a building. The sign for Sugarcube Corner blazed merrily, without actually burning, though it did seem to have broken in half when the bakery had fallen down. “What do you think happened here?”

“Ah can’t rightly say,” admitted Applejack. “All’s Ah know is Ah don’t much like the looks of these jack-o-lanterns.”

That drew the other two ponies attention to the round glowing pumpkins that were almost lost in the flames. Like the rest of the building they didn’t seem to be any worse for being on fire, but internally they blazed with a strange glow that made the miserable faces carved into their flesh seem to twist and move.

Having noticed them, the girls could now see similar jack-o-lanterns lined up and down the street, in front of houses and stores, and those that didn’t have them seemed to be infested with the same strange ghostly skeletons they faded in and out like wisps of smoke.

“I’m detecting a huge amount of magic inside these pumpkin shells, but it’s unlike anything I’ve ever felt before! Like the fire, I’m not sure what we are seeing is actually what is really there.” Starlight nudged one of the jack-o-lanterns with her hoof and the orange gourd rocked back and forth gently at her touch. “I don’t think we’re going to be able to figure out what any of this means just hanging around here. We should head for where the hooded ponies are gathering.”

Rarity and Applejack nodded in agreement, and they resumed their trek, passing more homes and businesses that looked as if they had been abandoned for years, as well as those buildings that were burning brightly against the night sky. Or was it night? With all the smoke and flames it was hard to tell, but the sky didn’t look how it should for this time of day.

“Starlight... darling...” worry choked Rarity’s voice more than the smoke, “What is wrong with the sky?”

Behind the screen of smoke and the golden glow of the shield spell, the sky seemed to shine a mysterious blue. Not the blue of a sunny day, but an almost bioluminescent color that was swirled with pink clouds that seemed to glow from within. The sky was churning, never still, swirling around a central point that sat over the middle of the town.

“I’m not sure,” admitted Starlight. “It might just be an effect of all this strange magic clashing with Equestria’s natural background of thaumic radiation. It seems to be creating some kind of vortex above Ponyville.”

“It seems to be?” questioned Applejack, not at all pleased with the uncertainty of the answer, or the situation.

“Yes, it seems to be!” snapped Starlight, losing her temper a bit. “It’s not like I’m anymore familiar with what is going on than you are. I may have studied magic for years, but I did that on my own. It’s not like I went to some school for 'Gifted Unicorns' like Twilight and Sunburst. The best I can give you is my self-educated guess.”

“And that’s all anyone expects of you dear,” Rarity said soothingly, playing peacemaker to try and mollify the situation. “I’m sure if you knew more you’d tell us.”

“Of course!”

Though what Starlight didn’t say was that the vortex looked a lot like a portal of some kind. One large enough to engulf all of Ponyville that was getting larger by the minute. But the kind of magic it would take to rip time and space a new hole was beyond anything she could imagine, so for now she was dismissing it as a side effect of what they had seen thus far. Her friends didn’t need to know any of this, as it would just needlessly worry them. Starlight was plenty worried enough for all three of them.

“I should be able to give you a clearer answer once we reach...”

The center of town.

As Starlight, Rarity, and Applejack laid eyes on it, each remembered times in the past that they had enjoyed the little public space around Town Hall. Parties, festivals, market days... there were so many memories of picnics, flying kites, and spending time with friends and family.

They’d never be able to look at the place the same way again after tonight.

It looked as if a bomb had gone off. Dead bodies lay strewn on the ground as far as they could see. Many were grown ponies, but most of the bodies were tiny... Scraps of their Nightmare Night costumes still clung to their broken and bloodstained bodies.

No buildings still stood in the immediate area, though on their charred frames banners of raw red flesh snapped and twisted in the heat from the still raging flames. At the center of all this destruction, an army of red robed and hooded figures swayed as they chanted and sang, bowing in worship to a pit where Town Hall used to be. Drowning out their droning were the screams and cries of terrified children, colts and fillies of all ages who were surrounded by the crowd who had pushed them to the very edge of the pit.

Around the pit, and the circle of ponies, were inscribed complicated geometrical shapes and magical glyphs. They had been meticulously gouged into the earth and stained a rich, dark red. It didn’t take much thought to figure out where the red coloration had come from, as the coppery stench of fresh blood saturated the square.

The happy little stream that had once flowed through the center of town now ran red, choked with gore and other strange and unsettling things. Jack-o-lanterns, apples, and even pieces of candy bobbed along in the filthy stream. It was a strange sight, to see all the colorful confections merrily floating along amid the tiny white skulls of murdered ponies. A particularly small skull, which must have once belonged to a very young foal indeed, lolled to one side as it was caught in an eddy, and turned at just the right angle to show the glazed eyes still embedded in their sunken eye sockets.

Away from the stream and at the far end of the pit a massive sculpture made of candy rose. It was clearly meant to be in the shape of a pony, or some demonic pony-like beast. The thing had crazed eyes made from lollipops and a mouth locked in a wide predatory grin made of thousands of pieces of candy corn. The rest of the body was a riot of mixed up sweets, with red and black liquorice hair, peppermint dimples, taffy skin, and butterscotch freckles all mixed in with confections of every color and hue of the rainbow. The sculpture was in a position as though it was laying on its stomach with its hooves held together in front of its face, as though it were holding something before it's mouth about to be devoured. Or perhaps waiting for something to fall into its greedy clutches?

Indeed as the girls watched, stunned, a line of what could only be described as cultists walked in somber procession up cleverly hidden steps to stand on those hooves. It was clear this served as some holy kind of holy dais, and a profane alter to the horrifying creature that was the object of their worship.

It wasn’t long after that the first child, a little unicorn colt dressed like some sort of superhero, was dragged in front of the pit. He squirmed and fought, his tiny horn discharging tiny sparks of feeble magic all the while, but his captors seemed unfazed. As the child was forced to stand at the very edge of the pit, the central hooded figure drew close to him, offering him a single piece of candy. When he resisted, it was forcefully shoved into his mouth... which was then held closed as he was forced to swallow. Once this was done, the apparently lead cultist brandished a long, wavy bladed ceremonial dagger so that it caught the fire light just right to cust it's ruddy light over the crowd.

Before that cruel blade could descend, a single word, “STOP!!!” thundered across the square. The crying children all fell silent as the hidden faces of the cultists turned to the source of the interruption. For her part, even Starlight seemed momentarily shocked by the volume of her own voice. But that moment quickly passed as she said authoritatively, “Do not harm that child! Release him!”

The knife wielding cultist tilted its head to one side, as if considering this. Then, without so much as a word, shoved the child off the edge of the dais and into the pit below. His tiny, shrill scream ended in a splash. The screams quieted, only to become louder, shriller, and more insistent as a geyser of blood exploded from the depths of the pit and showered everypony in a rain of gore! The screaming went on for some time, before a bloody carcass flew out of the pit and landed with a soft splash in the nearby stream.

What could only be described as a ‘burp’ echoed from below.

With that, the five figures who stood upon the candied dais removed their hoods. Three of them were ponies; Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy, all grinning without a shred of sanity between them. The fourth was, of course, Discord. He grinned just as manically and gave Applejack, and Rarity a little wave.

The fifth and final figure who had removed her hood, and apparent lead cultist. was hard to make out. She seemed to be a unicorn, but her face was a mass of scars, held together by rough stitching. It was clear that she was rotting, as sticky black liquid and pus oozed from the wounds in her face. Even so, her broken grin was just as mad as those around her, and her eyes burned with an intensity that would put the fires of hell to shame.

It was only when she spoke that Starlight and her friends recognized her voice. “Welcome! Welcome! Welcome to our bright and glorious feast! Here, on this hallowed ground before the eyes of the all-devouring one, know that you are welcomed by the Candy Cult!"This was the same pony who had led them to the edge of town.

"So glad you accepted our invitation!”

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