By the time it was all over, Twilight and her friends were all soaked scarlet. Twilight's once white lab coat was a lost cause, dyed almost completely crimson by the stinking fluids that had gushed from the Candy Mare...and from her friends dead and broken bodies. She, Pinkie, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle returned to the library together, the ordeal rendering them silent as they walked like robotic automations through the streets. The mayor had snapped out of her trance long enough to assign a few ponies to gathering up the remains of the dead, helping the injured to the hospital, and cleaning up the town square. After giving out orders she immediately broke down into hysterical laughter and was lead away by a few kind ponies. Twilight suspected they would be electing a new mayor soon. She thought about that as they trudged through the dark street; about who might be the next mayor, about the library, about anything really, anything at all. Anything to keep from thinking about what they had seen, what they had done, and the sad, hateful little monster that had hurt so many. She had to distract herself, lest she too would need some kind ponies to guide her away.

The rest of the town seemed relatively untouched by the slaughter that had happened in their midst. It was likely that many were not even aware of what had occurred. Fillies and colts still went from house to house, trick or treating. Spike waved cheerfully to them as they came closer to the library. Without saying a word to one another, the four ponies decided to go around to the back entrance and hose off before going inside. Twilight dumped her costume into the trash bin before opening the backdoor and entering her home. The library was still decorated with bats. Twilight found herself unconsciously counting them over and over. She didn’t want to think about what she had to do next. The letter she would have to write to Celestia. What lesson had she learned from all this? Was it even a lesson worth learning? This is what she contemplated as she guided the two exhausted children upstairs.

After everything that happened she couldn't dream of sending them home just yet. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle could spend the night tonight. Grabbing a few towels for herself and the shivering pair of friends, Twilight dried herself and the two fillies off thoroughly before tucking them into her bed. If need be she'd sleep in the guest bed tonight. Right now all that mattered to Twilight was that she hold the girls tight as they vented their emotions. They wept over having witnessed so much carnage and the loss of so many friends. Twilight could feel tears building at the corner of her own eyes as she at last allowed herself to think about what had happened. What she had done. What they all had done.

Technically they weren't guilty of cannibalism, but it was close enough that she feared many would be scarred for life by participating in that alone. Thinking about the faces of all those that they had surely...tasted on that cursed candy. Twilight bit her lower lip until it bled to try and hold the sobs in check. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle managed to cry themselves silently to sleep. Perhaps their thoughts were the same as her own. Twilight didn’t want to wake them with her own sobbing. Before she might lose control completely, she left her bedroom and went downstairs to where Pinkie Pie sat, the head of her puppy costume sitting sadly next to her on a low table. There was no removing the blood stains from around its mouth, but the pink pony seemed loath to part with it.

“How are they holding up?” asked Pinkie Pie immediately. Then after taking a good look at Twilight, “How are you holding up?”

“They’re sleeping now. I wish they could wake up and this would have all just been a bad dream. I wish we could all wake up...” Twilight's words failed her as she tried to gather herself. It was getting harder each time. “As for me, I... Don’t know how I’m doing. I want to be strong. I need to be strong...but I’ve never seen or heard of anything so terrible in any of my studies in my entire life. Not even the chaos of Discord was half as horrible as...as this.”

“I know,” was all that Pinkie said as she wrapped her forelimbs around Twilight in a tight hug.

“How can you be so strong Pinkie?” asked Twilight. “When the rest of us were watching that...thing, try to piece itself back together you just...took care of things.”

Her friend just shook her head, “No, no shh." She squeezed her friend tightly as she said, "Twilight, you were the strong one. When all I could think to do was tell everypony to run, you actually stood up to that monster! All I did was eat a few pieces of candy.” Pinkie gave a self depreciating smile. Her words made Twilight feel a little better, but she knew it would be a long time before she would ever feel like she had done anything worthwhile. “I’d better head back to Sugarcube Corner soon to check on the Cake’s. Will you be alright on your own?”
Twilight nodded, though she wasn’t at all sure she really would be. She could feel fear gnawing in the pit of her stomach. More fear than she’d felt when she was facing the Candy Mare down. Facing a monster was somehow easier than facing the consequences of ones own actions. As she guided Pinkie to the front door, the fear seemed to grow inside her. She was about to tell Pinkie that she wouldn’t be alright, that she didn’t want to be left alone, when Spike opened the door and stumbled into the pair of ponies.

“T-T-Twilight...” stammered Spike. The front of the baby dragons costume was soaked with blood. His sharp teeth were bared in a horrible grimace, though there was no other expression he could make. His lips and most of his face had been ripped off. He hissed through his bloody teeth as he said, “I think there might be something wrong with Rarity...” before collapsing on the spot. Just outside, a single smiling jack-o-lantern lit the dark foggy night. Twilight didn't remember carving any pumpkins. The orange glow washed over a white, ghostly figure that stood on Twilight's front stoop. The thing chewed casually, callously, blood trickling from her mouth as she slurped down purple dragon flesh. The spider ornament in her hair was quiet fetching, though the rest of her body was oddly warped and swollen.

“No! Rarity, what are you doing!?” screamed Twilight. The white unicorn’s head tilted at her name and she began to walk slowly inside. As she entered the library, her skin began to brown, and then blacken. A smell that reminded Twilight of campfire’s tickled her nose. That was when she realized why Rarity looked so strange and puffy. Her body was nothing but marshmellow. The creature that had been Rarity made a strange keening moan and slunk back into the shadows. The lights inside the library began to flicker off and on as a wind rose out of no wehre. “I don’t understand. What’s going on? Why is this happening!?” Twilight turned to Pinkie, desperate for answers.

“I...don’t know, Twilight. But I...don’t feel...so good.” The pink pony doubled over in pain, clutching her stomach as she retched up a gout of blood and candy. She collapsed into her own vomit and began to writhe on the floor in agony. “It hurts! Oh it hurts so bad! Twilight...help me...please help me!” To her horror, her friends skin began to crack, blood seeping from the fresh wounds and Pinkie’s eyes and ears. Her big, blue, blood-shot eyes were forced out of their sockets and hung by their nerve endings as she gurgled, “MAKE IT STOP! MAKE IT STOP! MAKE IT-” Her screams were choked off as her own intestines began to rise from her mouth, spilling with a wet slap on the floor of the library. At last, Pinkie Pie's body popped like a gore filled balloon, splattering viscera all over the library. Something new slowly stood where a pink party pony had once been. It still looked like her, after a fashion.

Darkness engulfed the library as every light died, save the harsh orange glow coming from the pumpkin on the stoop. Even by that dim light, however, it was plain that the pink pony's flesh had taken on the consistency of bubblegum and her mane and tail were now as cotton candy. In the sudden darkness, there was silence in the library.
It didn’t last long.

A susurrus of voices whirled through the books, flipping pages and flapping the wings of the fake bats. From Pinkie's former flesh something white and shiny began to move, began to piece itself back together. A shattered skull took shape, rolled and turned so that the empty eye sockets gazed up at Twilight. A spine began to wriggle from the base of the thing as it giggled and squealed "TRICK! TRICK! TRICK!" over and over as it rolled around in what was left of one of Twilight's best friends. Already, the Candy Mare was coming back.

“Nightmare Night...” a voice giggled. A new jack-o-lantern flared to life just below the Pinkie monstrosity's grinning face. Her teeth were pink needles of rock candy. “What a Fright...” another voice joined in as the thing that had once been Rarity came inside and politely closed the door behind her. As the door clicked Twilight ran, stumbling in a panic in the dark. She had to make it upstairs, she had to save the children, if nopony else! She wouldn’t let them be devoured in their sleep. As she clambered up the stairs, the twisted monsters that had once been her friends came calmly, if jerkily, behind her. As she made it to the landing, two small, grinning pumpkins awaited her. In their dusky light, Twilight could see it was already too late. Two pairs of gumdrop eyes glistened at her from a single gelatinous form that writhed amid a mire of blood and tangled sheets. In death, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle had fused into a single grotesque entity. Perhaps it was better that they had gone in their sleep. “Give us something sweet to bite,” their twined mouths gurgled as one.

Twilight could hear somepony hammering at her front door. She wanted to shout, “Run! Get away!” However, even as she filled her lungs to scream, she realized there was no hope. The fear churning inside her guts began to spread, filling her with pain beyond imagining. She could feel her skin stretching, her bones popping, and something living moving beneath her flesh. It was like thousands of tiny mouths biting her, eating her from the inside out. What was worse were the thoughts and images playing out behind her eyes. So much death, so much pain, and the endless darkness of a moonless existence one could scarcely call night. But she could see the fire lit circle of life, and that bright light and heat pained her deeply. All life must be extinguished if she were to know the peace and safety of the dark. If she were to escape the fear that now replaced every fiber of her being.

Twilight writhed on her bedroom floor, not even noticing the blood seeping from her every orifice. She just wanted it to stop. She just wanted to die. When the toothy grins of her former friends drew close to her pain wracked body, she didn’t resist. "At least this way, the end will be swift," she thought. She wouldn’t become like them. The creatures that had been Rarity and Pinkie Pie started to eat her with gusto, beginning with her stomach. They buried their faces deep in her bowels and chewed and slurped her flesh and fat from the inside out. Sadly, even as they ate her Twilight could see a fifth jack-o-lantern flare to life. It was her own pained and sorrowful expression carved into its orange surface. She could tell instantly, with her eyes trained to see magic, that it was no ordinary candle that burned inside that shell but the light of her very life. A life that was being taken from her. The flicker of its flames were the last thing Twilight saw before the light faded from her eyes completely. Something new rose from the tattered ruin of what was once the Element of Magic. Something giggled as it saw the world through blackcurrant candied eyes. Something whispered...

"...Hungry..."

A knock on the palace main entrance thundered through the halls. It was very strange, thought Luna. The Nightmare Night Ball that had been thrown in her honor had ended hours ago. Her poor, sweet sister Celestia had already stumbled to bed quite some time ago, giving leave to most of the servants to take their rest as well. Luna suspect she might have to raise the sun in the morning in her sisters stead, not that she minded. It had been one of the most wondrous nights Luna could remember. It was true she had ended up having to scrap her plans to visit Ponyville as she had promised, but she was sure that the children would understand.

It was the dead of night now, however, the moon having long ago set. Usually only herself and the Night Guard were active at these wee morning hours. In fact it was odd that one of the guards hadn’t answered the knocking that threatened to wake the whole palace. Though it was their lot to patrol the night, the Night Guard did take on the duties of Palace Guards when Luna was in residence. Where were they?
Striding quickly, yet gracefully, Luna went to the grand door in the main hall and used her magic to unlock and raise the ponderously heavy portcullis. With that done, she winced as the knocking sounded once more, louder this time. With a little less exertion, the Princess of the Night opened the golden double doors, preparing to demand what exactly was going on. The words turned into a gasp of shock. She knew what had happened to the Night Guard now.

The drawbridge had been left down and the gates to the castle walls were open as usual. A sea of ponies teemed and undulated as far as the eye could see. Each grinning face was lit by a jack-o-lantern that sat glowing cheerfully at their hooves.That was disturbing enough, but what was worse were the dead bodies broken and half eaten piled at the palace door. Standing atop the pile of bodies, mouth twisted into an expression of almost painful joy, the Candy Mare grinned hungrily down at Luna... The one pony who had ever managed to slow her down. As the mare's candy corn grin parted, the sound of her childlike voice echoed in unison from the army of candy ponies.

"Trick or Treat?"