The Twelve Nights of Nightmare Night

One year ago, in a world far but close,

A wise young ghoul realized what she dreaded the most,

That her holiday was stagnant, there was no room for growth,

Until a trip to the real world changed doom to hope.

From then on the new had come to this land of ghosts,

Games and joys that they never had host,

Yet despite it all their true purpose received many a toast,

And though she has changed inside and out...

In this area - my young Lich Queen could find no new boast...

Twilight Soulshard sat upon the dusty, termite-infested floor of her library, flipping through the pages of an overly-large textbook simply labelled: A Nightmare's Inspiration. She grimaced from time to time, winced at others, but mostly, simply uttered the words:

"Nonono! That won't do..."

She groaned, flipping to another page. Upon it was the image of a horrific, cracked skull screaming towards some terrified victim.

She merely rolled her eyes.

"Seriously? Shrieking skulls?! Been there, done that! Ugh - I know that maybe it'd be a new ideas for younglings, but this thing is supposed to be for ghouls new and old!"

The Lich Queen thought to herself for a second, then whimpered slightly. "Wait... I'm not even that old, either.... am I?"

She shook her head, quirked her head towards a nearby, cracked and cob-web hooked mirror (with a slight, horrific snapping sound emanating from her neck). A pale furred, mid-decayed face staring back at her - complete with two, pupiless, piercing white eyes.

She shrugged, smiling to herself. "Na - I still have looks."

The Lich Queen then sighed, however, before facing her book. "Do I just have too high of expectations? I don't think I do... Ugh - I'm supposed to be the leader of Nightmare Night yet I'm referring to his night-awful book..."

She then gulped, glancing out her window and towards the Everdead forest. In the distance, a gleaming, onyx obelisk hung over it: the Temple of the Doors.

The only gateway to the other holiday realms - and the real world.

"Oh no," she whispered. "What if my time on other side has tainted me more than it should have? What if my... my creative drive has somehow been altered? Perhaps I'm not getting enough inspiration - I have been slacking on the horror department lately." She then nodded reassuringly to herself. "Only one way to solve this: all night study session! I'll read all the classics! The Invisible Mare, the Legend of Sleepy Hayllow, Justin Beiber's biography! Bam! My mind will become an instant horror factory!"

Upon another thought, however, her smile became as dead as her face.

She closed her eyes in dread. "Or what if- what if it's true what I think? What if I'm trying to step it up because I know, I know now that Ponyville knows all about us - it'll be twice as hard to scare them! We're friends with them, for the night's sake! The greatest thing to fear is the unknown... and now we're known! Ugh!"

Finally, her head collapsed on her book. "Uggggh! I'm freaking myself out! I need some-"

"Black Soul Tea?" a voice chirped from the kitchen.

Twilight furrowed her brow, before shaking her head in disbelief. "No... it can't be."

"Oh Twilight..." the voice giggled, growing deeper and darker by the second. "You of all ponies should know... Death has a way of sneaking up on you."

Suddenly, as Twilight rolled her eyes, a brilliant puff of smoke billowed in front of her...

Yet nothing was there.

"H-Huh?"

She stood, puzzled at what was usually an indication of a certain ghoul's teleportation...

Before the same voice whispered in her ear:

"Boo."

"ACK!"

"HOOOOHAHAHAHA!"

She twirled about, her white eyes glaring upon the blackened, bemused ones of Rainbow Death.

"Seriously?!" Twilight snarked. "Shock horror?! You've really lost your edge..."

Rainbow Death merely smirked sarcastically. "I've lost my edge, huh?" she chirped, before twirling a newly sharpened scythe at blurring speeds. "I still got my edge, Twili. Dunno what you're talkin' bout. I totally got my first scare of the season on the LICH QUEEN! HOOOHAHAHA!"

Twilight narrowed her eyes. "You didn't scare anyghoul."

"Your mouth says that, but your fur says otherwise," Rainbow giggled, sticking her tongue out.

Twilight lowered an eyebrow in confusion, before glancing at the same mirror as before. Suddenly, she realized her fur was sticking up on end.

"ACK!" she squealed, beginning to pat it down. "Alright - fine, ya got me - happy?! Happy to have embarrassed me?!"

...

Rainbow slowly raised an eyebrow, giving her a worried look. "H-Hey... sorry, I didn't mean anything by it. I'm just practicing, ya know? This is going to be our first Nightmare Night out spooking together, and I want to make it good!"

She glanced away from her, sniffing slightly. "Yeah... if I even go out this year..."

Rainbow furrowed her brow, before walking over to her side. "Hey... are you OK? You're not um... feeling the same way you were a year ago, right? I mean - not that that's a bad thing..." She simpered slightly. "Er- is it a bad thing? H-Heh?"

Twilight took a deep breath, before smiling slightly at her. "No... no it's more um - more 'normal' Nightmare Night related business..."

Rainbow blinked. "Like what? Did you lose Frostmourne or something?"

She frowned slightly. "No... it's in the closet where it belongs. Spike will be up in time..."

Rainbow continued to prod. "OK... are some of the town-ghouls giving you crap or something? I know some of them were kind of upset about last year... the douchey ones...." She then grinned, flying into the air with her single, black wing, and swinging her scythe. "Does Death need to guillotine a motha bucka?"

Twilight managed a painful chuckle. "No, it's just-"

"Ooo. Ooo. I know!" Rainbow bounced. "You're worried that I'll kill somepony this year again! Totally not going to happen! I'm planning on bringing a non-sharpened staff - all it'll do is possible leave a deep gash... which totally won't make them bleed out... cus... cauterization! I swe-"

...

Suddenly, Twilight took a deep breath and-

"I'M JUST HAVING TROUBLE FINDING INSPIRATION, OK?!"

• Interrupted her with her patented 'demonic' voice.

... "Er, yeah," Rainbow grunted, fixing her pale mane. "Do I really need to be the one to say that this is a library?"

Twilight bowed her head in shame, before giving her an apologetic, sad look. "I-I'm sorry... I lost my temper. I guess I just-"

A hoof was brought over her mouth by a smiling Deathie. "Ya got stressed out? It's alright - scat happens. You're the leader of this sector of Nightmare Night - of course you'd be frustrated over this."

Twilight slowly returned the smile, as Deathie set a comforting wing over her.

"You're a lot more empathetic than you act like, ya know that, Ms. Reaper?"

"Pffft - yeah," Rainbow moaned. "Just don't tell anyghoul... or anypony for that matter. I get enough souls begging 'gimmie my body back' or 'd-don't you feel anything, Death?'... oh, and the best one 'blah blah should had died instead of me! He's a douche!' Every one in five reaps are like that. It's friggin' annoying - especially when they actually think there's a hell."

Twilight glanced at her curiously. "Between you and me... um... is there?-"

"Nope," Rainbow said, shaking her head. "Pisses me off, too. That's why I got into the whole locket business. You should always get what you deserved in the end... temporarily or permanently..."

She then gave a wicked grin, glancing down at her locket.

"Well... some of them do," Deathie cackled. "Cus I ain't just a reaper, I AM KARMA, BABY! HOOOOOHAHAHAHAHA!.!.!"

Soulshard rolled her piercing, white eyes. "Yuh huh- what do you even do to punish sinners besides lock them away, though?"

Deathie shrugged. "I eat them."

Twilight raised her eyebrows. "That's it?"

Rainbow put on a defensive look. "Well... it isn't really the most pleasant experience for them, you know. Heh - I remember there there was this one guy I reaped in the human mirror world, Adolf Reichstar or something... most evil bastard I ever had the displeasure of absorbing..."

Twilight glanced at her curiously. "Wait - what?"

"Huh?" Rainbow blinked. "Oh - he was the Chancellor of Germany - or dictator... I can't remember."

Twilight rapidly shook her head. "Nonono... what's this about the mirror world?"

Rainbow furrowed her brow. "Wait a minute - you mean you don't know about it?"

"Well, I know a little about it," Twilight explained. "Twilight Sparkle sent me a letter detailing her experience there. It was pretty interesting, but..." She gave Rainbow a baffled look. "Exactly how many worlds do you reap souls in?"

She glanced at Twilight curiously. "Just two, really. I was filling in for the human world's reaper at the time. I think she was on tour as a guest-guitarist for this band called Dethklok or something." She then chortled slightly. "Hehe... Dethklok... Death. Very funny, you jackass."

"So... you don't like him?" Twilight asked.

"It's a her," Rainbow said, groaning in annoyance. "I guess it's good for me, but fate seems to prefer having female reapers - ya know, it's more comforting to souls or something? Pffft - honestly, it's like the universe itself is kind of sexist! Or at least my boss is..."

"But what about her though - what's she like?" Twilight asked eagerly.

"Well - um," Rainbow said, puckering her lips in thought. "We don't really hang out that much - I mean - she's cool and all - but we're both extremely busy. She does the whole Halloween thing, too - their version of Nightmare Night. I think she's a native of Halloween Town, actually."

"Halloween Town?" Twilight said.

"Oh, come on, Twilight!" Rainbow groaned. "You've met Jack Skellington! He told you that story of his... you know the one about him stealing that Christmas holiday and stuff. The one where he sang the really catchy songs (that totally ripped off our's)!?"

"I know about that," Twilight whispered. "I just... he made it sound like Halloween was no longer going on."

"Na, he was just doing that for dramatic effect," Rainbow chuckled. "Halloween's still kickin' on the other side of the other side, baby. He still leads them like he does every year. Honestly, I think he's been around even longer than us."

Twilight slowly nodded, an odd twinkle in her eye. "Around longer than us, you say, huh?"

Rainbow nodded. "Yeah - Halloween's been goin' on a long time in one shape or another in the human world. It may not have always been 'Halloween', but those guys like being scared almost as much as ponies!"

"You don't say..." Twilight said, a scheming smile on her face.

"Of course I say! He's the friggin' Pumpkin King. Even Nightmare Moon draws inspiration from him, and she's like - a thousand years old!"

"So you're saying," Twilight said slowly. "He's honestly one of the foremost masters of fear anywhere to be found?"

"Well, I mean-" Rainbow said, scratching the back of her head. "He may not be as good as me, I am Death after all, but-"

Her eyes widened as she suddenly realized Twilight was no longer there.

"Woah - hey! Where are you going?"

"Expedition!" Twilight gasped, quickly creaking open the rotting front door and galloping out of it. "Come on - this will be exciting!"

"Wait... what?!" Rainbow said, her eyes widening as she fluttered to the Lich Queen's side. "Oh no! Please don't tell me you're thinking what I thinking you're thinking.... cus that's not thinking! That's um... well it is thinking - but it's bad thinking!"

"Oh come on, Rainbow! It'll be fun!" Twilight smirked. "We've never gotten to spend time on the other side together, yet!"

"I can't spend time on the other side with you, I've got my friggin' mile-long list to do! And I'm not exaggerating! IT'S A MILE-LONG!" Rainbow pouted. "I have two-hundred and forty-three thousand souls to reap with on a 450% slow down of temporal mechanics in my necrotic pocket dimension allotted to me!"

Twilight screeched to a halt, glancing at her in awe.

She sweat-dropped. "Er... yeah - I don't actually know what that means. I'm just repeating what I was told, but I got the message! I've got my work cut out for me if I want to spend more time on Nightmare's Eve here!"

Twilight closed her eyes, before nodding in understanding. "It's alright..." she sighed. "But will you at least accompany me to the real world? I'm sure Rainbow Dash would like to see you..."

Deathie stopped at that, almost as if a lightbulb (or perhaps in her case, a slimy green orb representing a tormented soul) appeared over her head. "Hmmm... Rainbow Dash, huh?"

"Huh?"

"Nothing," Deathie smirked. "Let's just say - I'm in!"

"Really?!" Twilight beamed, bouncing.

"Really really!"

"Really really really?!"

"Yep. HAH! C-C-C-COMBO BREAKER!"

"DAMN YOU!"

"PFFFT- ONLY GHOUL YOU CAN'T!"

...

The two took deep breaths....

"ALRIGHT, LET'S GO!"

And the two sped off to gather their friends.