Blue Frosting

"Are too!"

"Am not!"

"You are too a scaredyfoal," taunted Snips. Snails stuck out his tongue in response.

"Stop it you two or somepony's going to hear us," hushed Twist.

The trio of would-be candy thieves crouched underneath a long row of bushes behind Sugarcube Corner.

"I don't know if we should do this. What if we get caught?"

"Are you a scaredyfoal too, Twist? There's nothing to worry about," chided Snips. "I've been watching all week. Mr. Cake sends Pinkie out to the cellar every day or two with a basket. She goes in, opens the secret candy vault, fills her basket with candy and comes back out. There is so much candy that it takes her more than an hour to swim through it to find what she wants."

Twist furrowed her brow. "She swims in the candy? Are you sure?" challenged the bespectacled pony.

"Well maybe she doesn't swim in it," backpedaled Snips. "But I'm sure there's a lot of candy in there."

"I don't want to get detention again," muttered Snails anxiously.

"Listen you two," started Snips. "First, you don't get detention from stealing candy. And secondly, Pinkie is the only one who comes back here to get the candy. I told Pipsqueak he could have a share if he kept Pinkie busy out front. All he has to do is mention something about parties and she won't shut up for hours." He poked his head out of the bushes and looked around. "The coast is clear, let's go."

Snips, then Snails, followed by a reluctant Twist darted across the lawn to the cellar door. Snails grabbed the handle in his teeth and pulled, but the door only moved a couple of inches. "Ith too hedy" mumbled Snails. "I cand hobe ith."

Snips jumped forward and stuck his horn in the crack. "I got it. Keep lifting." The two of them were able to lift it up a few feet. Twist squirmed her way into the cellar. She put her back against it long enough for the other two slip inside. It fell shut with an ominous thud.

The cellar was eerily gloomy, the only light coming through slits in the cellar door.

"What do we do now?" whispered Snails.

"I don't like this place," whispered Twist. "I shouldn't have let you talk me into this."

"C'mon," urged Snips. "Look for a big metal door with CANDY written on it." Their eyes, trying to adjust to the dim room after broad daylight, could hardly see anything.

There was a shuffling noise and a noise like old rusty chains clanking. A hoarse croaking voice appeared to be nowhere and everywhere in the room.

"Snips? Snails? Is that you? Help me please, help me!"

"Ahhh!" screamed Snails, jumping up and down. "It's the Peppermint Phantom! And it knows our names!"

As scared as they were, Snips and Twist could not help but turn and stare at the screamer. "The Peppermint what?" asked a thoroughly confounded Twist.

"Huh?" added Snips.

"You know, the Peppermint Phantom! It lives in old graveyards and eats the horseshoes of colts and fillies who don't leave peppermints under their pillows on Nightmare Night!"

"What?" asked Twist and Snips in unison.

"Please help me!" the voice cried out. "I'm trapped down here and I can't get out. Please!"

A shape crept around the back of the couch toward the totally freaked-out trio. Their eyes still not adjusted to the darkness, it looked like some kind of one-eared zombie pony, its skin crusty with what must be rotted flesh, dragging its useless undead leg behind it. Who knows how long it had been imprisoned in this dank hole, its unholy corpse kept semi-alive by some evil curse.

"Peppermint Phantom!" screamed Snips, Snails, and Twist in unison. They raced up the stairs and threw their bodies against the cellar door.

"No! Wait! Help me!" croaked the zombie. "Tell Applejack where I am!"

But the frightened ponies did not hear her as an undead-terror-fueled adrenaline surge gave them the strength to lift the cellar door enough to scramble onto the lawn. The cellar door slammed shut as they took off toward the safety of the bushes.

Had they not been screaming at the top of their lungs, they might have been able to hear the sobbing coming from deep within the obviously haunted cellar.