"Ugh...At last," groaned Mayor Mare, stretching as she left behind the confines of Town Hall, "I can finally call it a night."

The hour had indeed grown late and the night had darkened as clouds swallowed up the moon and blotted out the stars, leaving only the fitful light of street lamps to illuminate the dirt roads of Ponyville. The warm glow of the thatch roofed cottages had long since subsided as ponies had long ago blown out candles and snuffed the lights of lanterns for the evening and gone to pursue a good night's sleep. If only Mayor Mare hadn’t worked so late, she might have been numbered among them.

As it was, it was an unseasonably warm and muggy night as the mayor of Ponyville stepped out into the gloom. For the night before Nightmare Night, it was particularly odd that it should be so warm, but then a storm was clearly boiling on the horizon and it was likely all this warm air was being pushed before it. The public servant couldn’t help reflecting for a moment that in Detrot they had taken to calling this night 'Tirek’s Night', and played destructive pranks on one another. Mayor Mare imagined that tonight was about as hot as it got in Tartarus, so for once the name for the fiendish night seemed appropriate.

The air was so thick she could practically taste it. As the dampness on the wind curled her mane, she hurriedly turned back to the main entrance of town hall and firmly locked the heavy double doors. Usually this would be her assistants job, but Raven Inkwell had been absent from work that day, which was why the mayor herself had to work late in the first place. Still, securing the old building wasn’t that much of a chore, even for a mare as blessed with years as the mayor, though it did give her a little time for reflection as her mind wandered to the whereabouts of her missing assistant.

It was unusual for Raven to miss work. The Earth Pony was very dedicated to her job, and would often suffer through the very worst that allergy and flu season had to offer just so she could be at work bright and early to greet the mayor on her way into the office. Thinking about it, Mayor Mare decided she’d have to drop by and visit her tomorrow morning before work and make sure everything was alright. It wasn’t like the municipal leader of Ponyville had been lonely or anything, what with all the extra work to keep her busy. Sure, as late as it was,getting home and out of the clammy air was first and foremost on her mind, but Raven wasn’t just a valued employee she was also a friend. Friends need to watch out for each other, the mayor thought to herself. "But I'll deal with that in the morning."

Double checking the doors and windows were secured, the public servant gave a satisfied nod and set out into the damp , dripping evening. To the Earth Pony it felt like the air was a second layer of skin, moisture clinging to her coat and making her mane droop with the additional weight. It wasn’t just her hair, but every object seemed to have a thin layer of condensation gleaming on its surface. The street lamps were practically shining and everything dripped wetly under their orange light. To say she felt uncomfortable would have been something of an understatement. As a few flickering flashes of lightning overhead strobed in the sky her already unsettled expression deepened into a frown. It seemed the storm might just overtake her before she made it to the safety of her home. It was bad enough to be out on an unpleasant night like this, but she didn’t relish the idea of being caught in a sudden downpour as well.

Looking around, the mayor realized there was no pony out on the street but herself. Perhaps Rainbow Dash had warned everypony ahead of time about the coming storm and Mayor Mare, cooped up in town hall all day doing the job of two ponies, had just been left out of the loop? Of course it wouldn't be the first time that the rainbow maned weather pony had 'forgotten' to give proper notification before a scheduled storm. Then again, maybe it was simply later than the mayor thought and the weather pony had assumed that everypony would already be off the streets and tucked away in bed. Not really an unfair assumption, but one that made the Earth Pony grimace. Normally she would have long since slipped between cool cotton sheets and layers of warm quilts, as opposed to trudging through abandoned streets, laboring under layers of humidity just to trot home.

As the distant grumble of thunder drew closer, Mayor Mare noticed wisps of sickly green fog drifting in between the thatch roofed houses. They reminded her of nothing less than ghosts, lost spirits wandering the night in search of long dead loved ones. Or perhaps, seeking revenge! The thought came dramatically, and Mayor Mare chuckled at herself and her overactive imagination. She had always had a flair for theatrics, and had considered auditioning for Bridleway before she had gone into politics. It was hardly a surprise that she would be in such a frame of mind of course. Nightmare Night was tomorrow, one of her favorite holidays, and one of the few times a year she got to dust off her acting skills to entertain young trick or treaters and party goers. It was entirely predictable that her imagination would be occupied by at least a few ghouls and goblins given the circumstances.

Despite being more than capable of laughing at her thoughts, she was still somewhat unnerved by the situation. After all, she might be the important and gifted Mayor Mare walking the peaceful streets of Ponyville... But she was also a mare who was all alone on a dark and apparently soon to be stormy night. Already her imagination had started to populate the darkness with seasonally appropriate specters and night terrors. Many a campfire tale had started with just such a scenario, with a mare walking home alone, oblivious to the terrors that awaited her before the stories abrupt and shocking conclusion. It was ridiculous to obsess over such make believe, but with nopony else to talk to, no distractions for her imagination, it was hard for her not to dwell on just what horrors might lurk around every corner.

"Hahaha!" laughed the mayor, a somewhat lonely sound on these empty streets. "You're not a filly, old girl, no need to go spooking yourself!"

Of course such musings were just as silly as imagining the patches of fog were ‘ghosts’. It didn’t matter that the mayor’s hoof-steps echoed forlornly in the empty sleeping town, or that the lamp light only served to deepen the pools of shadow that lurked just beyond the edge of her vision. It didn’t matter that the humid air caused her glasses to fog up so that she had to pause every few steps to wipe them off on her ascot or risk walking headlong into a tree. It didn’t matter that she felt, at those times when her vision was blurred, like she was being watched very closely by hidden eyes.

It didn't matter that she was oh so very alone, and if anything was out there she might not see it until it was too late...

A clap of not so distant thunder made the Earth Pony jump, and she would have laughed at herself again for winding herself up like a little filly, but she realized the reason the air was so very heavy was that the storm she thought distant but moments ago was just about to break. There were prudent reasons to quicken her pace beyond the ghouls and goblins that her imagination was populating the shadows with. Yes, she needed to make it home before the storm broke. She couldn’t afford to be caught out in such nasty weather and run the risk of falling ill herself. The town couldn’t run if both the mayor and her trusty assistant were out of office for an extended period. She had plenty of reasons to run, almost none of which had to do with the very real anxiety that was building in her heart.

"Perhaps I should just... Hurry on."

Mayor Mare quickened her pace, galloping down the street as fast as her hooves would take her. She wanted to get indoors as fast as possible. That was why she had ducked into a blind alley to take a shortcut. She wasn’t running to get home. She didn’t feel like there was some malevolent thing out there in the darkness stalking her. She couldn’t feel her heart racing and her breath coming in ragged gasps as panic gripped her heart. That was all just her imagination. The walls weren’t really closing in on her.

But, with a start, Mayor Mare realized she was no longer alone anymore. As she came around a corner she nearly barreled into another pony. So startled was she that she actually let out a brief scream before getting ahold of herself enough to apologize.

“Oh, I’m terribly sorry,” she began to say, “I was just on my way home and I was trying to beat... the storm... when...” her words trailed off and faded to a whisper.

Mayor Mare knew something was wrong right away.

In the middle of her path stood a pale figure hunched over in a circle of lamplight. Though she stood on all four hooves she was bent over at an odd angle, so that her long dark, unkempt mane hung limply in front of her face. Her matted hair hid her features, save for her muzzle which was cracked open in a long, silent moan. Every now and then, a soft clicking or rattling noise would drift from that impossibly wide stretched mouth, as though the other pony was trying to scream or cry, but couldn’t quite manage to make a sound.

At first the mayor thought this must be some sort of Nightmare Night prank. That was why it didn’t dawn on the earth pony immediately that she actually knew the poor soul in silent agony before her. It wasn’t until she glanced at the poor souls cutie mark, a quill pen and inkwell, that she realized who the pained pony was crouching in the street.

It was her missing assistant, Raven...

“Oh, Raven, what happened to you?” concern flooded the mayor's voice. She felt compelled to rush forward and embrace her friend but, at the same time, she also felt inexplicably repelled. It was as if her every instinct was screaming at her to stay away, to run far and fast, and to not stop at all despite wanting to do anything she could to relieve her friends suffering. These conflicting instincts and emotions left Mayor Mare paralyzed with indecision.

Friends needed to look out for one another, but what did you do when all of your senses were assuring you that the one in front of you was no ‘friend’?

That was when three ponies stepped out of the shadows, surrounding her. They each wore long crimson cloaks and hoods that hid their features, but the mayor could feel their gaze as they stared eyelessly at her. As intimidating as their sudden appearance was, it was Raven that held the mayor’s rapt attention. As she watched, her friend and coworker began to twitch and jerk back and forth on her hooves as though she were experiencing a sudden seizure. Her bones cracked and her spine bent at an awkward angle as droplets of moisture shook free from her humidity drenched body. There was something unnatural and repulsive about her as she flopped about on the ground, squirming on the damp back alley cobbles like an animal carcass full of maggots. As Raven threw back her head to wordlessly howl it was only then that Mayor Mare caught a glimpse of the full horror unfolding before her eyes.

She wasn’t looking at one pony, but two!

Raven's face was split, with two muzzles poking out of her face! One grinned madly, smiling far too wide in an unhealthy and unfriendly way as it’s eyes rolled and spun in what could only be pleasure. The other side of her ‘face’ seemed to be half submerged, and sinking fast into the flesh of the other pony, melting and fusing together with the madly grinning mare! The look of full terror and pain in the poor filly’s eyes as she struggled to try and pull away, leading to the strange and distorted writhing of her limbs, told the mayor everything she needed to know about the agony she was in.

It was with a sinking drop of her stomach that Mayor Mare realized that Raven was trying to pull her mouth free from that ghastly grin so as to speak... Or maybe just to scream. With a slow, sickening rip the mare managed to dislodge her head at the cost of the flesh of half her face, revealing slick pink muscle and a swollen ‘third’ eye that had already begun to partially liquify. Her jaw hung slack on one side, the tendons long since dissolved, but even so she managed to choke out two words through the pain...

“...R-run...mayor.....”

Presented with such a sight Mayor Mare did the only logical thing she could do.

She screamed!

Or at least she had wanted to scream.

She was trying to scream.

Instead, as soon as she opened her mouth one of the cloaked figures pounced on her, and wrapped their forelimb around her mouth. Rather than the air she had tried to draw in to give voice to her horror, she instead inhaled the pony’s foreleg. No, rather it seemed to pass through the soft flesh of her cheeks and gums and embed itself in her face. The hapless mayor tried to part her lips, to spit out the offending appendage, but the cloaked figures hoof was stuck fast inside her mouth. Worse, she could feel it starting to fuse with her teeth and tongue!

As the earth pony struggled to pull her mouth free she could feel the thick strands of melting skin as they stretched thin and then snapped back with elastic force. The realization of what was happening to her caused the mayor to vomit, but with her mouth sealed as it was there was nowhere for it to go, so she was forced to swallow back down her stomach's contents. Mixed with the rancid bile was a sickeningly sugary flavor, and the cloying scent that drifted from the pony who was invading her body flooded the mayors nostrils. The sweet, sour stench of rot and decay drove her mad, and she tried desperately to back away, to peel herself free from the bizarre and horrifying pony who seemed to impassively watch her struggles the way a cruel child might regard a fly after it had torn off its wings.

Planting all four of her hoofs and giving a mighty wrench of her head, a surge of Earth Pony strength she hadn’t felt in years flooded Mayor Mare! She thought she’d black out from the pain as she felt her teeth suddenly wrench out of their sockets, but with a load pop she was able to rip herself free!

Or so she thought...

It was not her flesh which had given way with her panicked application of strength, but rather the foreleg of the cloaked pony. The mysterious and silent figure didn't so much as groan in pain, didn't whimper or show the least signs of discomfort. Still that beguiling scarlet hood regarded her eyelessly, but not blindly, as it's soul searing gaze bore into the earth pony’s mind. Something writhed and twisted in the cloaked pony's now empty sleeve. Without so much as a whisper, a new limb took shape, gleaming wet and new as it regrew from the stump of the one the pony had lost!

And what of that lost limb? where had it gone? Looking down in horror, Mayor Mare could see that the limb was still attached, dangling and twitching from her mouth, the exposed bone of the long leg scraping the cobbles as she stumbled backward in horror and revulsion... And right into another cloaked pony.

All three of the frightening figures closed in around her now. The crimson clad creatures began to chant, slow and sad and menacing. “Nightmare Night...What a fright...” They didn’t attack, they didn’t need to. "Give us something sweet to bite..." As Mayor Mare turned wildly back and forth between them, spinning in a circle as she tried desperately to find some way to escape, some way to run... the limb hanging onto her face suddenly exploded, shards of broken bone bursting from the pale sickly, sweet flesh like a bear trap closing in reverse! Blood spurt in every direction as the ‘teeth’ of an enormous makeshift mouth sank into the mayor’s neck from every angle, engulfing her head!

Mayor Mare stood unsteadily for a moment, hooves clip-clopping back and forth, before her body realized her head was no longer connected. She slumped down on the back alley cobbles, rivulets of blood spurting like a waterfall over her ascot, dying the blue material purple.

Only now did their chanting rise from something more than a whisper. Something more like a primal cry, a plea, a call to arms! "Nightmare Night...What a fright...Give us something...!”

A featureless fleshy bubble occupied the space where Mayor Mare's face once had been. Eyeless, mouthless, the gorey sack writhed and stretched with the sound of grinding teeth and pulverized bone. At last, three slits opened as if cut in the sickly flesh; blood, spit, and other effluvia spilling out as new eyes appeared in the fresh sockets and new sharp teeth and a long black and orange striped tongue emerged from the larger hole.

'Mayor Mare' herself, rising once more to her hooves as the crimson cloaked ponies backed away, joined in with the final words of the chant. "Give us Something Sweet to Bite!"

Next Chapter: Mirrors Estimated time remaining: 2 Hours, 57 Minutes