My Little Fortress: Night of the Living Dead

Ponyville, October 31st.

Cries of fright and joy echo throughout the night air above Ponyville. Fillies and Colts run to and fro from house to house, gathering candy and other goodies in their bags. Parents watch their children with smiles as the kids meet friends and go house to house. In the town center, the single and childless residents of Ponyville party to loud music provided by Vinyl Scratch. The costumes here were more risque and less innocent than the costumes of the younger residents. Ponies drank and danced as if there were no tomorrow, not having a care in the world.

Outside the eighteen and up party, Twilight, Applejack and Rainbow Dash were making the rounds with Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle. Apple Bloom was dressed up as a crow, matching with Applejack's scarecrow costume. Scootaloo was decked out in a WWII style infantry outfit, the helmet coming down over her eyes, going with Rainbow Dash's costume of Commander Easyglider of the Wonderbolts. Sweetie Belle was dressed as a winter fashion model, much to her displeasure.

Rarity had practically turned Sweetie Belle into a living advertisement for her upcoming fashion line.

Luckily, it was only for tonight.

"Applejack, you were a scarecrow last year. You couldn't come up with a different costume?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"T'aint nothin' wrong with doin' tha same thing. 'Sides, ya'll had ta' borrow that there costume from Twi." Applejack countered with a smirk. "So don' come at me with not havin' any ideas." she added. Rainbow Dash grumbled a bit, the others all giggling.

"How much candy do you girls think you have?" Twilight asks the Crusaders.

"It's kind of getting hard to carry this thing around..." Scootaloo said, gesturing to the infantry saddlebags that were filled to the brim with various sweets. "Starting to hurt my back." she said with a wince.

"I'll take that for you, Squirt." Rainbow Dash said, taking the saddlebags off of Scootaloo and onto her own back.

"Granny Smith said I shouldn't get that much candy tonight. I gotta help with the orchards tomorrow." Apple Bloom said. Her own saddlebags had candy, but only one was filled about half-way with candy.

"I didn't get any candy because all the adults would do is gawk over Rarity's outfit!" Sweetie Belle said with a grumpy expression, looking to her empty saddlebags.

"It's okay Sweetie Belle, I'll share some of my stash with you!" Scootaloo said cheerfully. This seemed to have improved Sweetie Belle's mood a bit as she nodded in agreement.

"Okay Scoots, that sounds great!" she replied happily. Twilight suddenly stopped, looking to the skies above.

"Girls look, the moon!" she said. The other mares stopped beside her and looked at Luna's majestic moon as it hung in the night sky, the marble white replaced by a deep crimson.

"Whoa..." muttered Rainbow Dash in amazement as she lowered the aviators over her eyes.

"It's amazin' that it happened tonight..." Apple Bloom said as her eyes took in the sight before her.

"Kinda creepy, if ya'll ask me." Applejack said with a raised eyebrow.

"Hey, come on! Enough of the moon! I gotta go an offer my half to Nightmare Moon!" Scootaloo said, suddenly remembering the Nightmare Night tradition.

"Oh! Right! Come on girls! Can't forget tradition!" Twilight said cheerfully, leading the way to the statue of Nightmare Moon that resided in a clear section of the Everfree Forest. As they walked, the sounds of fireworks going off could be heard going off over town hall, filling the skies with a multitude of colors and shapes. Rainbow Dash stopped and watched as the display went off.

"Wow, Pinkie sure did a great job!" she said with a smile.

"She sure did! Come along, RD. Yer' fallin' behin'!" Applejack called with a small wave of her hoof. Rainbow Dash turned away from the fireworks and trotted back along side the group as they walked the path to the statue. The surrounding trees looked ominous and seemed to be closing in at some places, mostly because some of the trees were absolutely massive. Soon, the trees started widening out, opening up to a clearing. Right in the center of the small hill, a large stone statue of Nightmare Moon stood, depicting her in a rearing back stance. In front of the statues' base, evidence of other fillies and colts giving half their candy was seen in a large pile. Scootaloo approached the statue with Rainbow Dash, dumping the contents of one of her saddlebags onto the pile.

"There! Now we can go and party!" Rainbow Dash said with an eager smile. Scootaloo giggled at Dash's eagerness and trotted back with her to the group.

"Stay a while..."

Rainbow Dash stopped dead in her tracks, her ears swiveling around.

"Did...anyone else hear that...?" she asked, looking around.

"Hear what?" Twilight asked, tilting her head to the side curiously.

"Join us..."

"That!" Rainbow Dash said, looking at the others with slight panic in her eyes.

"Ah definitely heard a voice that time..." Applejack said looking around now also.

"Oh come on girls, it's just the wind playing tricks." Twilight said, trying to deliver a valid explanation to the spooked mares.

"Twilight, be serious. Do you feel any wind? Are the trees rustling? No. Something is out there..." Rainbow Dash said warily.

"Join...the family..."

This time, the Crusaders huddled closer to each other, their eyes looking about now also.

"Come on girls...let's get outta here..." Applejack said, turning and taking the lead. "AH! WHAT IN TARNATION?!" she yelled suddenly. The others all turned to see what happened and let out a scream of fright at the sight before them.

Standing on the path was a pony; or at least half a pony. The pony's features were too far rotten to determine sex, but the jagged remains of a horn show it was a unicorn. It's fur was a light purple, covered in pockmarks, slashes, and dirt. It's internals hung low and exposed from the belly, the upper half rotten away to nothing but torn ligaments and exposed bone. It's eyes glowed a dirty yellow, locked on the six mares before it. The only evidence of a past life was the torn remains of a cutie mark on it's right flank.

"Uhm...does anyone recognize the cutie mark...?" Twilight asks nervously, her mind starting to come undone by the lack of logic behind what was happening. Rainbow Dash squinted her eyes at the flank, trying to determine the torn symbol. Suddenly, she gave a gasp of horror.

"It's a stem of wheat! It's Forsythia!" she yelled.

"An' she's suppose ta' be dead..." Applejack said, her voice going quiet as fear started to grip her. But, before anyone else could speak, the rotting corpse let out an unholy roar and lunged for the mares, it's mouth a hyper-extended maw of teeth. The six mares all screamed in terror and scattered, avoiding the snapping hooves and teeth of the zombie mare. Regrouping, the six ran for their lives down the path, back towards Ponyville. In the surrounding darkness, more roars and glowing eyes could be seen as the ponies ran. Rainbow Dash picked up Scootaloo and carried her under herself, while Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle rode on Applejack's back. The sounds of numerous hooves stomping through the foliage could be heard behind them as the opening to Ponyville rapidly approached.

"Put the lead out girls!" Rainbow Dash yelled as she sped ahead. Applejack and Twilight put as much of their strength as they could into running, not slowing down one bit. The mares tore into Ponyville, passing by the Library. Twilight suddenly stopped in front of the library.

"You five take shelter in the Library! I'll go grab Rarity and Pinkie and warn the rest of the town!" Twilight said as she panted, gasping for breath. Applejack and Rainbow Dash nodded and sped to the library, entered, then slammed the door behind them. Twilight's horn flared and she vanished...

...Reappearing in front of Vinyl's DJ booth.

What she then saw would forever scar her mind.