Not a breath of wind stirred in the stillness of the Canterlot Gardens.

Normally at this time of morning the grounds would be alive with the chirp of crickets and the soft rhythmic song of small tree frogs, before fading in the coming hours as bird song would herald the coming of daylight. But beneath the waning moon, a thick layer of candy covered all the now dead vegetation that would have attracted such creatures, even if they too hadn’t been wiped out by the rain of deadly sugary sweets. The world had become entombed in candy, and now only silence reigned in the sugar-dusted wasteland. Night too, it seemed, stretched on unnaturally with no royal princess to raise the sun.

Even so, in Canterlot Castle the lights burned bright, though not as many as before. The few remaining survivors had traveled here in hopes of finding some way to escape this suddenly barren world through one of the legendary mirrors of Starswirl the Bearded that they had been quickly told of before the old mage had began inscribing the spell that ultimately saved their lives. Failing that, at least they hoped they might discover a way to raise the sun once more and end the eternal night that had inadvertently fallen across the land. Such a device, they knew, had been in possession of Princess Twilight Sparkle as she had prepared to assume leadership. It was hoped that, perhaps, the rays of the sun might melt away the terrible cursed candy and in time restore life to Equestria.

But it was not only the living who had traveled to Canterlot with hope in their hearts. Those in the castle took no notice of the circle of candlelight in the royal gardens, as it flickered to life around a single statue that clutched a flag of victory.

“Is this all of them?” croaked the familiar voice of the Candy Cult leader, coming from a limp figure bound in a hastily salvaged wheelchair.

“It better be, as long as it took to haul them here,” grumbled Rainbow Dash, her voice raspy and dry as dead leaves.

“Cheer up Dashie, pretty soon we’ll be back to our good old selves again!” exclaimed Pinkie, though her words were sharp and brittle as her smile.

“Our old selves,” murmured Fluttershy dreamily, as something thick and red dripped from the corner of her mouth, along with a few dislodged teeth. “I wonder what that would be like?”

In a semicircle the few surviving Candy Cultists stood around a small pile of stones gathered around the base of the statue. They had seen better days, but each of them had been invested with enough of the Candy Mare's own essence that they could survive, albeit temporarily, without basking in her presence . Each of them seemed to be smaller and slightly misshapen under their billowing crimson cloaks. The robes themselves were streaked, stained, and torn. In the dim candle light, what little of their faces showed beneath their hoods glistened wetly, tattered flesh hanging limply from the brittle candy beneath. Without the sustaining power of the Candy Mare the cultists were all skinless, rotting things, much like the human turned pony Starlight, who herself seemed even worse and weaker than she had been before. Each of them were barely held together and living on borrowed time.

The stones they had gathered had also seen better days, for it seemed they had all once been part of larger statues. Here was a hoof, there a head, and here a hunk of flank. Notably each piece seemed to come from the same kind of statue, though they were all clearly from different copies of the same piece of art. From the stone in the shape of a head the visage of Nightmare Moon leered up in the moonlight, the eternal night she had longed for at last achieved though not in the way she had dreamed, though her fierce expression seemed rather pathetic in the dirt beneath the statue of victory.

“I can’t promise it will be like old times,” croaked Starlight. After all, for her, ‘old times’ might mean having the humanity she had rejected the moment she allied herself with the Candy Mare restored. It might mean being sent back to a world where the magic that sustained her life as it was now would be in precious short supply. But even if that were a possible risk, it would be better than the fate that awaited them if they didn't do something. The long, slow decline as their bodies decayed into nothingness that awaited the living dead without their master was not a destiny to even be contemplated. “I can't promise you anything really. But hopefully it’ll keep us from falling apart.”

The few candy cultists who remained were the ones who were least composed of candy. Other members who were closer to the Candy Ghouls, like Discord and Twilight, had ended up frozen in time. At first none of the cultists understood what had happened, but it didn’t take long for them to realize that they had lost their master. With the Candy Mare locked away in a timeless limbo, the army that was an extension of herself had also become frozen, like insects caught in amber. The cultists had even watched in horror as some of the living who had survived had set about smashing the frozen candy monstrosities to pieces, and had to hide as the living took up hammers and torches, hunting down cultists and shattering their suddenly brittle bodies likewise.

Though they had done their best to escape, the candy enhancements sloughed off of their bodies along with their rotting skin, like the liquifying shell of an overripe pumpkin. Between the angry mob and their own rotting forms, it was a wonder that any of them had managed to get away. It had taken all their efforts just to drag the bits and pieces of themselves together again so they could form some kind of plan. With no way to return to the un-life sustaining realm of the Candyverse, and no knowledge on how to free their master, they had little choice in how they might proceed.

It was the fear, not of utter destruction, but of being forced to experience it to its utmost extent that drove them. The idea not that their un-lives would end, but that they would only fade as they decayed, being eternally conscious of the pain of their dissolution. Even if they failed in what they were about to attempt, exhausting what little magic sustained them, surely that would be preferable to such a fate?

“Stand back,” groaned the cult leader as the unicorn heaved herself bodily out of the wheelchair and onto the ground. With her now useless and broken limbs, she still managed to inch her way into position and raise her head to the sky above to begin her chant. As she did, her horn began to glow a soft green as the statue fragments began to rise into the air in the nimbus of the forming spell. Slowly, tendrils of orange magic rose from the cultists and was syphoned into the fragments of stone.

Starlight's eyes should have been closed in concentration at this point, and they would have been if she still had eyelids, but instead she stared at the statue of victory. The sculpture within which was hidden the largest hunk of the body which they were trying desperately to resurrect now. The stone began to crack and crumble as bits and pieces of the shriveled, dried corpse emerged from the fragmenting rock. At last, a spiderweb of green light erupted from the cracks within the still standing statue, and it exploded in a shower of dust that send the flag of victory spinning away as the form of another pony entirely took the place of the avatar of victory.

There was a loud thump as something soft and dry landed in the soil. As the dust cleared, the gathered cultists could see by the glow of flickering candlelight the shape of a tiny corpse. She was more than a filly, but one that after many centuries had at been made whole by their power once again!

If they still needed to breath, they would have held their breath in that moment, and then breathed a sigh of relief as the corpse slowly twitched to life and started to move!

“Bring forth the offering!” cried the cult leader manically, her voice cracking.

Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie struggled to drag a large burlap sack into the mystic circle. As they drew close to the child's corpse they bowed reverently, before lifting the bag and dumping its contents onto the struggling creature. Candy showered down over her, a small heap of the stuff, more than enough to completely conceal the fledgling undead. These, of course, were cursed candies that Fluttershy had produced in her cottage. Though much of the magic of the cursed candy was suspended along with the Candy Mare, it was hoped that it still might serve a protective sheath for the newly reborn pony.

Sure enough, the cadaver slithered beneath the pile of candy, sweeping back and forth with a rustle of crinkled candy wrappers and a low moan. Piece by piece, the candy took shape, and at last rose up into the form of a familiar figure crouched on the earth. The ghoul hunched low, her face concealed by long strands of red liquorice that served as her mane. “Wh... Where?”

“You’re in Canterlot, in Equestria my mistress,” croaked the skinless Starlight, not missing a beat as she squirmed her way towards her new master. “You have been sealed away for some time. But fear not, those who did this to you have been punished!”

“B-by who?” whispered the corpse, her eyes palely glowing behind two blue and pink swirled lollipops.

“By you! Sort of,” chimed in Pinkie. "Well, another you."

“Shush! Let Starlight explain it,” chided Rainbow Dash.

“By us,” corrected Starlight, glaring at her subordinate. “We are the Candy Cult. We exist to serve you. We were formed by a version of you from another universe. Unfortunately she was... defeated. Locked away, much as you were. But with your rebirth, we can free her! You can empower us and we can gather new flesh and souls for you to feed on! Once you have claimed the height of your powers, the barriers between dimensions will be nothing to you! Worlds without end spread out like a lavish feast before you!”

Her fiery oratory had roused the cultists into a frenzy. Already they could feel new power flowing into their ruined bodies from their new master! Already they could taste the despair of the survivors as they would soon be confronted by a new Candy Mare, a revived Candy Cult, ravenous and ready to punish them for the audacious crime of continuing to live! The cultists shrill voices raised to join Starlight's as they chanted ‘Candy Mare! Candy Mare! Candy Mare!”

The only one oddly unmoved by the cult leader's words was the 'Candy Mare' herself.

The newly awakened filly darted her glowing eyes back and forth, around the circle of cheering cultists. It was unclear, in that moment, what she was thinking when she muttered, “Hungry...” the cultists continued to chant, raising their hooves in the air thinking this was their master finally joining in their revelry, when the undead child suddenly growled louder, “Hungry!”

“Of course, of course,” soothed Starlight with a nervous chuckle. “Shall we go get you someone to eat?”

The creature shook her head, and again muttered “Hungry.” Her loyal cultists didn’t seem to understand her meaning, until she smiled wide and bright and fierce. The grin of a predator. She rose to her hooves, and looked over Starlight’s crippled form. “Don’t want to be fed. Want to hunt. Want to kill. Want to scare!”

Chuckling even more nervously, the cult leader shivered under her mistress hungry gaze. “Of course, but we can help mistress. We can-“ but her 'mistress' cut her of.

“Pumpkin Patch doesn't want to share...” seemed to be her final word on the subject, said with all the petulance of a stubborn child. Then the candy corn grin suddenly returned to her face as she clapped her hooves madly and sang. “Nightmare Night, what a fright. Give me something... Sweet. To. Bite!”

If the survivors in Canterlot heard the despair choked screams of the cult members, they probably dismissed them as some lingering echo of the nightmare they had lived through. By the time one of the unicorns found the device that allowed them to raise the sun, all that remained of the Candy Cult were a few candle stubs and blood soaked rags strewn about a pile of rubble where a statue had once stood.

Of Pumpkin Patch, there was no trace, save for a few tiny hoof prints and four shattered pumpkin shells.