It all happened on a dark night, the skies completely covered in the blackest clouds as the winds were ruthlessly blowing outside, showing no mercy to the trees, bushes or shop signs.
However, while all ponies were long gone in the plane of dreams, one of the bunch refused to sleep, a tailor who was working on something that was to change everything around soon.
She was ever so close to be ready, and just behind her, there was 'It', the one thing she was working on for Celestia knows how long. Only the sound of the sewing machine and her wicked but soft laughter was heard as she worked on the fabric.
Then, as the textile ended the machine came to halt. The unicorn took the finished cape off the desk and eyed its charcoal gray color on the outside, and scarlet red one on the inside. Then she turned around to compare it to the ones the mannequin's dress had, for the two was to unite very soon.
It was her ultimate masterpiece, a gothic style dark gray dress with red ribbons and streamers hanging across its outside, its sleeves long, slim and elegant, and on the top of all, it came with a cape and a collar that wrapped around the neck, giving the place to the secret ingredient, a gemstone of a shape of a heart. Of course, it was no ordinary jewel, it had a horrifying, dark secret to it. The seamstress was mad, and mad was her idea too, so many times she have tried and failed, failed to get famous and recognized by the upper class, she turned to ancient black magic to achieve success. With that gemstone, nopony can resist that couture's sheer beauty and grace.
Fame, fortune, power, just by thinking about it made the unicorn excited, she wasted no time and raised the collar to slid the cape under it, then grabbing a thread and a needle, she quickly sew them together.
It was finished... and it was perfect. She gazed at her work for long, long seconds. The style, the colors, the execution, it was a sight to behold. She came closer, gently stroking her hoof across its material, feeling its texture gently sliding across her limb... so soft, warm, so welcoming towards her skin, almost asking her to wear itself.
She couldn't stand any longer, her own work captivated her mind, she needed to try it up right there and now. Yet despite her feelings, she took it off the plastic doll carefully, not to cause any damage to it. Soon as it was off, she tried it on.
So soft, lightweight, so comfortable it was, the dress turned out simply astonishing in literally every way. She looked for the mirror, she needed that specific one mirror she used for these occasions. She charged up her horn to see what she was storing behind the curtains of her boutique's dark corners, places only she knew about and if somepony else would have knew about they wished they wouldn't have. There was it, the mirror on wheels, even greater than her. She took it, and pushed it out to the showroom where she had enough light to take a proper look.
Her reflection took her breath away, her amethyst mane's beautiful curls, her ivory coat, her glorious golden eyes and the black dress, there was no words for it. It seemed to be a bit thigh around the neck, but she didn't mind it all too much.
She admired herself for minutes long, then she decided its time for them to part ways with her darling work. She reached for the collar, grabbing it to pull it upwards and let her body slip through it, but soon it reached her chin she could do no more, it couldn't go further. She tried to tilt her head up, down, rotating the collar around, but nothing worked, in fact, as she let go of it the dress felt even tighter.
The tailor started to panic, she began hyperventilating, but breathing was hard. She was to take it off at all costs now, even if she needed to rip it. She raised her hooves and began tugging the collar with all the power she had, but it just didn't want to tear into two. In fact, she felt the sleeves pushing against her hooves as if a mystical control have took hold of it, a force that wanted her hooves off the dress.
She couldn't do anything, she kept moaning, almost crying miserably, trying to stand still on her rears but hardly being able to from the power delivered into her actions, as she kept giddying back and forth like a dizzy drunkard. It seemed like the dress turned against her, not that but it wanted to outright kill her.
Things started to get blurry, she felt her power running out and her veins in her neck being pressed so hard even the blood couldn't pass. She was choking, her creation didn't let any air pass her throat into her lungs. She fell down on her back, still trying to resist but the longer she tried, the less use it had. Her eyes rolled back, as she started making loud groans, trying to catch air, even a tiny little bit of air would have been enough. Things were fading to black, and she couldn't do anything about it. Her life was playing back in front of her, pictures of her family, friends, relatives, big events of her lifetime that changed it entirely. It was too fast for her to grasp, like a lightning, gone in a blink of an eye as she passed away.
Long minutes, or maybe even hours passed as her body lied there, limp, lifeless. Then it slowly began to move, just the hooves at first, slowly, gently, like if she'd try it out for the first time. Her face showing the same fright, eyes shrunk and rolled back, mouth open as if she was still grasping for air she couldn't get. She stood up carefully, and headed towards the backstage, towards the curtains which covered the secrets, as well as the mannequin the dress was on. Her horn charged up, as its magic violently began tugging the plastic figure until it broke off its stand, throwing it away carelessly afterwards.
The fabric monster shown no mercy to her even after death, it stared at the sharp end of the steel stand, then reared up with its victims body. The walking corpse took a few ever so slow steps forwards, then with a confident move let the gravity take care of the rest, as the tailor's body- "Mi-Miss Rarity, please stop, that's too creepy." a little filly with grayish body wearing a costume of a witch interrupted. She was shaking to the bone and marrow.
"Hm?" Rarity replied, her mind confused a little bit as it slipped out from the mysterious trance she was in now. Though the little Dinky had a point, this was not a creepy little story, it was scratching the point of real, macabre horror. Even though she warned them, that was just to set the mood, as such the seamstress found it best to end it before she does something she might regret.
"I suppose I got carry away a little, I'm sorry about that." Rarity apologized, letting her front hooves rest on the ground once more, as she took a look around the small camp of little ponies dressed as all kinds creatures, wolves, witches, goblins, devils and even bees, their faces showing complete fright from the tailor's horror story. But of course, it was Nightmare Night, the night of fright and candy, and what else would be the best opportunity to reveal the darkest depths of her mind. Now that she was done with that, it was time for something else.
"How about I'm showing you my nightmare night costume instead?" she said, standing up and strolling over to a curtain as she prepared her horn to pull the rope that was to reveal what was behind. It was a classic, one'd say clichéd thing even, but it always had its own advantages when it came to announcing something.
The fillies didn't seem all too interested though, true Rarity was one of the best tailor around, but she wasn't par on Gothica when it came to nightmare night costumes... well, not yet.
As the seamstress pulled the chain though, the tables turned completely. It was a mare, impaled on a mannequin stand, her eyes rolled back and jaw open and she was wearing a black dress with red ribbons and with a special, heart shaped jeweled. It was that exact dress Rarity told about, the Dress that Posses.
Loud, ear-piercing screams that made even the windows shake echoed through the building, as the group ran for their lives, kicking up the bags and almost stomping on one another as they tried to squeeze through the door to get away from the demonic creation.
Rarity giggled behind her muzzle as she watched them flee from the door, down the streets with no signs of stopping whatsoever. It worked like a dream, if not even better.
"This will keep them going for a few more hours." she chuckled, as the "dead" mare also hopped off the steel stand that had a special, bowl-shaped part of it to make it slightly comfortable for her to lay down on.
"Hours? Days even, I say." she laughed, her golden eyes now searing from joy instead of horror. Two of them looked almost like twins, except for Charity's golden yellow eyes and cutie mark. The student was a good apprentice of the seamstress roughly a year and a half ago, and was now one of the top student in her class in Manehatten thanks to it.
"Thank you for your help Charity." Rarity told her fake twin. Though Charity did try to steal her style once, she have learned her lesson. Though the idea of a doppelgänger certainly was something interesting things could be made out of. Things like this little park for example.
"Don't mention it, it's my pleasure." the apprentice hushed modestly as she instead raised up one of the bags scattered around the floor and took a little candy corn out of it, which she threw into her mouth "Mmm... Candy?" she offered, turning the open bag towards Rarity. The seamstress giggled a bit, then took the first thing she felt with her magic, a little orange candy, taking it in her mouth. It was their loot, after all, scaring others out of their sweets was what this holiday was all about... but of course, it was a game two played, and she knew well how to turn the tides to her advantage.
"You know, I kind of wander how Aggy and Lemon are doing?" Charity giggled, cleaning up the mess on the floor with the help of her yellow magic, as the fleeing group managed to scatter the treats all over the floor. All the better for her, as she knew Rarity would most likely not eat out of those, for obvious reasons.
"I do as well, dear, trust me." Rarity replied. After all, the two other mare's place was already haunted to begin with, so they got quite the kickstart they can build upon their own little prank that was a mystery even to them.
The two mares cleaned up the mess in the end, putting away their loot they shared in half-half ratio behind the backstage curtain, Charity marking her bags by putting them just by the mannequin stand, while Rarity hiding hers behind the gigantic mirror. With that being done, the two mares had more then enough time for a little tea and some chit-chat in the kitchen, before going out and joining the fest which's sounds was echoing through the streets.
