A Nightmare night soiree is going on at this very moment. This party is being held in a majestic ballroom. The theme of the party was an elegant masquerade. So instead of being scary, all the costumes were fanciful and graceful.
All Canterlot nobility was here, chatting up a storm while haunting classical music played. Behind a black curtain unseen by anypony. Rarity poked her head in the room. She was trying to scout out the room. She frowned kind of not wanting to
be here.
As much she loved parties like this, she would rather spend it in Ponyville. She was spending too much time in her store and was getting homesick.
However, this was for business, that and she did design some of the costumes that ponies were wearing in the party. She figured since it was the eve of Nightmare night.
If she caught the train she could make it back in time to celebrate Nightmare night with her friends. 'I'll just showed her face for a few hours and sneak out.' she thought to herself
"Alright here we go" Rarity said to herself letting the black curtain close. So the party continued until Rarity made her entrance, by slamming the doors open.
Rarity was wearing a red shimmering jacket with long tailcoat reaching to her gaskin. Underneath was a black and white striped leotard and fishnet stockings. She also had a black tutu like skirt, as well as a matching red sparkling top hat.
She finished off the look with black boots, a black tie around her neck and hair with red and black jewels in it.
Rarity's mask was a little different as well instead of being wore it was painted on her face. There some ponies that were impressed, some that weren't and some who couldn't care less.
While Rarity had their attention with her magic she twirled a black cane with a rose made out of a pink gemstone on top of it. A nearby Fancy Pants looked at an impressive grin on his face.
“Well, well how fascinating. You're suppose a ring master am I correct?” She smiled and showed Fancy pants the secret compartment she made in the ring master's coat to put away the cane. So only part the cane that showed was the rose.
Fancy Pants smiled widen “You really have outdone yourself Miss Rarity”
"Well I don't want the cane to get the way, while I am" she intentionally paused “dancing” Rarity said with a wink.
Fancy Pants' face redden at that “Would you care to dance?”
“Of course” She answered.
And so time passed. When the clock struck midnight Rarity cursed herself she was supposed to leave early. She got too caught up in the dancing, talking about fashion... 'and...a few martinis.' Rarity sheepishly thought to herself
Rarity did feel a little buzzed but nothing that will slow her down. She looked around to see if anypony was looking and causally went to the bathroom.
However, it was a ruse to try sneak out through the bathroom. She managed to get out of the window and what she didn't realize is that outside the window was a story drop.
So as she went out the window she fell into some prickly bushes. Rarity had little to time recover because she heard some guards shout “Who's there?”
She covered her mouth with her hoof to stop herself from screaming in pain. With cry run down her face Rarity ran out sight before they could find her.
Rarity now out sight of the guard began take out some the thorns with her magic. Luckily the jacket she was wearing shielded most her skin from the thorns. But there was also a huge tear in it.
'Oh no!' she mentally sighed 'oh well ....wait IDEA! I'll recycle this costume and go as the black swan from Swan lake'
She started walking to back to her boutique. Hearing only her own hoofsteps Rarity did not need her magic to lit the way, because street lamps did that job well. She took a little time to admire the sight of Canterlot at night. A sight she hasn't yet gotten tired of. She stared moving slowing back getting distracted by a moon reflecting in the pond.
She was amused by the sight because she was thinking of Swan Lake at the time. 'I wonder if I turn into a swan, who would be my Prince Siegfried?'
Then she heard a loud hoofstep behind her, making her jump in surprise.
As a result her heart started racing.
She laughed finding silly it, that it scared her.
Rarity assumed it was another pony from the party, she looked around and saw nothing. “Ok, maybe I'm hearing things” she said to try to reassure herself.
She took a step and something toke a step as well.
Step
Step
Rarity started to walk faster and faster the hoofsteps kept pace with her. She dared not to look behind her.
Rarity learned from the last Nightmare night and made a point to make her costume elegant and practical this time.
So all she had to was twist the tail coal to the opposite side of the jacket. Wrap the ends around her and tie it. So now she could move freely without the costume tripping her. She started to blindly run. And so did whatever chased her.
She suddenly heard nothing, stood perfectly still.
Then suddenly felt something breathe down her neck. She let a scream and did a back kick just started bolting. Looking back for a second, when she turned back she saw Sassy Saddles run towards.
“Sassy... thank Celestia you're here”
“Come let's go to the shop” Sassy suggested
And so they went back to the shop Sassy fumbled with her keys and slammed the glass door. When Rarity looked through her windows into the darkness and saw no pony was there.
Rarity went to her fainting couch to regain her composure started breathing heavily, in and out. She finally started to calm down.
“You ok? I saw you left early from the party, after little bit. I decided to leave and then I saw you running” said Sassy
“Did you see? Something was following me!”
“I don't see...wait following you...and it's after midnight on Nightmare night eve... the legend is true?!”
“I mean heard there were sightings but I always dismissed it as a rumor”
“Legend? What legend?”
“The ghoul of Canterlot, every Canterlot designer knows that tale”
“Well I don't” Rarity said with a huff
“Many rumors surround the ghoul of Canterlot, but all of them have one thing in common the ghoul goes after the poor soul it deems the best designed costume”
“What?! That does not make any sense”
“Why would only Canterlot designers know about it?”
“Because it only goes after designers, it knows if the designer made that costume themselves.”
“Darling! How would it know that?!”
“Don't ask me! I always thought it was a butch of malarkey. There are ponies who say they saw it. But everypony dismisses it”
"I mean it does come out only the dusk of Nightmare night. Not many ponies dress for Nightmare night at that time."
Rarity facehoofed herself “ And I had to be the one suggested the party to be at Nightmare eve.” Sassy was just about say something when there was crush of a window.
They both started screaming. They garbed anything that could be used as a weapon, and ran towards the noise. Rarity led the way lighting the path with an illumination spell.
They both see the back of a figure but it was too dark to see it fully. It turned to light. Causing the both of them to drop the weapons they were holding with their magic.
It was a rotting corpse was in front of them. Almost half of it was bone with small bit of pony flesh sticking to it. It's mane were strands for hair. It was whatever remained of an earth pony. Mostly the rest was maggot infused with all kind of terrible awful bugs crawling around it. They could see the organs inside it, they were rapidly decaying and full of insects feasting on them.
An indescribable awful smell waffled from it. They want to throw up at the sight of it
All they could do was stare at it. It slowly lumbered towards Rarity
Rarity screamed again grabbing the cane out of her costume. She whacked it hard to try to keep it away.
“GET AWAY FROM ME! YOU VILE CREATURE!!!” Rarity shouted on top of her lungs.
The force of the hit made it's head turn and let out a growl . Sassy was completely frozen in freight not even moving an inch.
Rarity angrily yelled “Oh come on! Now?!”
Rarity saw the ghoul did not really pay to Sassy it was after her.
“You want me ghoul! Come get me!” she called out Rarity ran trying to lure the ghoul towards the design room.
The ghoul as planned went after her and followed her closely She ran into the room and when it came inside. She took a random roll of fabric off the shelf. She used it to quickly mummify the ghoul, to try to distract it.
She locked the door with her magic. Huffing and puffing she wasted no time and tried to barricade the door with a heavy chest. Unfortunately the chest was too heavy for her to move with her magic.
“Sassy snap out it and help me !” Rarity demanded Sassy came back to her senses and helped block the door. Both of them tried to catch their breath. Rarity quickly stripped of her costume and tossed it on the floor.
“What...what do we do now?” Sassy asked
“Um....call the guards?”
“What is a guard going to do about a ghoul Rarity?” She couldn't really come up with an answer.
Then there were sounds of something being throw against the wall. Rarity thought the was odd, she would think the ghoul would try to ram to door to get out. Instead, it wanted to smash the walls...why?
After that she heard something bounced off the wall. It sounded like something was spilling out of it.
Rarity realized the ghoul had opened the chest of jewels she left in the room. She heard the sewing machine begin to run Rarity admitted that she didn't know much about ghouls.
However, she was pretty sure that this behavior was way too strange for a ghoul.
Sassy looked at Rarity “Oh no, oh no, oh no” Sassy said as she shook her head
Rarity proceeded to unlock the door her curiosity getting the better of her.
“Are you crazy Rarity?!”
“Sassy aren't curious as to why would a ghoul want to run a sewing machine?” Sassy sighed and agreed that she was curious.
So she helped moved the chest blocking the door and opened the door. The ghoul in the process to put a ruby jewels all over it's rotting flesh, and looked like it was in the process of making dress.
Sassy and Rarity just gawked at it unsure as to what it was even doing.
Sassy gasped
“Rarity it's a girl”
“Wait what? How can you tell?”
Sassy pointed at the exposed bony hips of the ghoul
“Don't you remember health class? Females have a more rounded pelvis”
Rarity just give her a blank stare
“What! I liked health class...and it didn't help that the teacher was kind of cute so I remembered everything they taught me...”
“SASSY!”
“Sorry, sorry”
The rubies placed on the ghoul fell into her rib cage and onto the floor. The ghoul let a growl of
frustrated.
The dress the ghoul made did not turn out well, and made her more mad. She then saw Rarity and it Sassy went towards Sassy this time, it's mouth try to bite her.
“Stop!” Rarity commended She obeyed “What are you trying to accomplish?Because you haven't eaten of us so far”
She looked around the room and garbed some and some crayons and a sketchpad from a nearby table. Rarity had put that there for the foals waiting for their parents fitting.
The ghouls started to draw pictures, even though the pictures were crude they were easy to understand.
The pictures told the story of an earth pony mare designer. They were not even giving a chance by the citizens of Canterlot. The earth pony business failed, the sadness of losing business drove her to get a deathly illness. The earth pony knowing the end was and being a huge fan of Nightmare night. She wanted her last act on this world to be to look nice in a Nightmare night costume when they buried her. However, she passed on Nightmare night even before she could finish her last costume. To make matters worse they don't even bury her with the unfinished outfit. They just buried her in a poppers grave without even a coffin.
“So the hatred made you rise from your grave, to get revenge on innocent designers?” Sassy pointed out
The ghoul roared in angry and pointed with her hoof at a drawing of a citizen of Canterlot.
When the ghoul roared Sassy and Rarity saw she had no tongue.
“Oh you're saying they deserved it after what happened to you. But that's not very fair” advised Rarity
It pointed to itself “Neither is what happened to you” Rarity interpreted
“But I don't understand. Why won't you rise on Nightmare night isn't that when supposedly the is veil thinner or something?” Sassy asked
"It is the day of Nightmare Night technically so she could rise. However, there many ponies out on Nightmare night but not so much on Nightmare night eve, she would have been overpowered and destroyed”
Sassy sadly sighed
“Well darling I know exactly what you need”
“You do?” Sassy questioned her
“We need to make you a costume, simply fabulous one”
The ghoul cocked her head. She wrote in the sketchpad 'You'll do that?'
“Of course” Rarity chirped “What you need is some generosity”
So she pushed the ghoul into the fitting room. Rarity then came up a design and showed to Sassy and she nodded. Sassy took a roll of white fabric, floating some nearby scissors cutting them in strips.
Rarity hoofmade made a long pillow placing it by the spine,tying it in place with the strips of the fabric. She covered the rest of ghoul with strips making the ghoul into a mummy.
'A mummy? Really?' The ghoul wrote
“Ah, ah not just any mummy dear, the mummy of Clopatra. Don't worry it will look good. You are in our hooves” Rarity reassured her.
Now Sassy started put rare and expensive gold fabric out and cut that to strips The ghoul tried to protest, it knowing full well the cost of it.
“Darling, as a designer you know not to get in a designer way. Especially when they are in the zone” Sassy told her voice imitating Rarity
Rarity just gave Sassy a glare but knew it wasall in good fun, so she let a short giggle.
Several hours later
The ghoul look at itself in the mirror her costume. It was a mummy costume but much more fancy. The wraps were a gleaming shiny gold covering her whole body.
Her headdress was full of rubies and silver lining. Her skirt was a see thought silk with an obelisk black gem belt around it. It was the most stunting thing the ghoul ever seen.
The ghoul wrote 'I wish I could cry tears of joy but I can not. Thank you so much Rarity and Sassy'
“You are welcome” they both replied The ghoul opened the door and walked outside. The sun was barely peaking out on horizon.
Sassy and Rarity watched from inside the shop seeing that the ghoul was staying in the shade.
The ghoul a took a long look at the beautiful sunrise, she held the sketchpad towards them saying the words 'thank you'.
It's grudge finally over was able to pass into the afterlife. So as the sun rose got more and more bright blinded both of the shopkeepers making them cover heir eyes.
The sun then stop shining so bright and everything went back normal and there was no ghoul in sight. Just a sketchpad lay by itself, where the ghoul was.
“Wow Rarity, generous to even the undead” Sassy said impressed
Rarity smiled, happy she helped the ghoul out. She quickly turned and walked to towards the bathroom.
“Where are you going Rarity?”
“To take a long bath darling, I did touch a corpse”
“Oh good idea" said Sassy and she agreed to do the same in a nearby spa.
Author's Note
Believe it or not this idea came a story told from one of the contestant in this year Halloween wars (yes really). It was from one of small scares challenges. That and it's fusion of another story I was going to write for Halloween but couldn't.
Also yes I am aware that ghouls tend hang out at graveyards.
Clopatra= Cleapatra if it wasn't obivous