The Hauntfest Maze

All of Sunset's team gathered outside the ominous-looking maze to be greeted by Twilight who was dressed in a worriers costume and standing as stoically as possible. Sunset couldn't help but giggle at how funny Twilight looked. "Well you've put a lot of effort into this." Sunset noted as she looked around seeing the decorations and masks hung around the entrance of the maze. "Must've gotten some of these decorations from Zecora."

Sunny Flare frowned at the decorations, "Yes well it's not as good as our maze, these tacky decorations don't hold a candle to what we made." Flare's comment just made Twilight and Sunset both roll their eyes. As Twilight pulled out a torch and shined it on herself.

"Welcome to the Maze of Cupcakes!!!" Twilight said in the most creepy voice she could muster.

"The maze of....cupcakes??" All of the shadow bolts started laughing, "Well at least we're gonna get a laugh." Sour Sweet smirked as she walked past Twilight and into the maze with the other shadow bolts leaving Diamond, Sunset and Twilight just outside of it.

Diamond rolled her eyes, "Best go in with the morons, honestly Sunset you must've met these ponies in a real 'special' place." Diamond mumbled as she trotted into the maze. Leaving Twilight and Sunset alone. Diamond stopped for a second and then trotted back out to see the pair gazing into each others eyes. Diamond rolled her eyes If I keep having to roll my eyes they're gonna fall out of my head she thought. "Sunset, this is Nightmare Night not Hearts and Hooves day."

"R-right." Sunset blushed as she looked at her hooves, "Twilight are you supposed to be touring us?"

"Oh! Right!" Twilight bolted into the maze to catch up with the Shadow Bolts and Sunset walked past Diamond as she opened her mouth.

"Don't even go there Dust."

"Heh right."

As Sunset and Diamond walked to the maze there was a heavy, eerie silence filling the it. Both ponies carried on down the halls made of hay, corn plants and dead grass. They saw almost no decorations, no 'pop - up' ghosts. They didn't even hear Twilight or the Shadow Bolts anymore. The deeper they delved into the maze the thicker a mist begun to appear, it only reached up to their chests but it had a bitter chill to it that seemed to freeze their lungs and made them struggle to breathe. As they we're about 5 minutes into the maze they found three paths. One forward, one left and one right.

"Shoot, which one did everyone go down?" Diamond frowned.

Sunset looked down every pathway and didn't hear anything down either one, "I don't know Dust, maybe we should just keep going forward?"

Diamond nodded and started her way down the path; "Good plan."

Sunset walked behind her friend, her stomach twisted nervously.

Diamond laughed "What were they planning to do scare us with silence!?" As soon as she bellowed that a loud sickening crack made itself notable causing both ponies to freeze in their tracks.

"You had to ask didn't you?" Sunset groaned.

"Well it is supposed to be a scare maze so they could at least try to sca-"

Before Diamond could finish her sentence she heard a quiet, whisper of a voice appear.

Who once worked as a team must work alone, it is thee who must free her friends from stone.

"Well what the hay does that mean?" Sunset asked as she looked around. "...Dust?" Sunset turned to see the Pegasus gone. "DIAMOND?" Sunset asked panicking slightly. "Dust this isn't funny!" Sunset was only met with a deafening silence.

"R-right okay, I'll just go ahead...yea I'm sure she just went ahead." Sunset said trotted quickly down the path as she felt paranoia creep up her neck.

When Sunset came to the end of the path she realized what she was in an circular opening, with four different paths available to her now. 'Geez how big is this thing?' Sunset wondered trying to ignore her gut feeling to run. Sunset approached the middle of the opening to see a statue of a terrified Alicorn. That looks an awfully lot like Twilight, but surly she wouldn't have a whole statue carved of her; that's not her style. Sunset walked through the dead grass and up to the statue, prodding it with her hoof to feel a warm sensation. That's not right. Statues are supposed to be cold because they're...well..statues.

"It is thee who must free her friends from stone." Sunset recalled out loud. "B-but it can't be! This is your maze!" Sunset pressed her hoof on the statue. The Alicorn panicked as she couldn't believe what she was feeling. "No, this is a game....I think." Sunset turned refusing to believe it was actually Twilight and cantered down a path, not even bothering to think which one would be best. Sunset slowed down as a foul smell invaded her nostrils. As Sunset slowed she tripped over a wire causing a loud bang. Sunset lifted her head, expecting a ghost or something to be the result of the bang but found nothing. Sunset frowned as she walked further down her chosen path - a little more scared than she'd like to admit.

On the other side of the maze

"What the hell is this Indigo!? What did you do that for??" An angry Sugar Coat shouted at the Pegasus, Sugar coat rarely got angry.

Indigo tried to hold back her laughter. "It was an accident! I swear!"

"Come on you two, play nice." Sour Sweet said "Before I rip your eyes out." She mumbled behind her back.

Crack

Sunny Flare turned from her amusing 'friends' and looked behind her; "What was that?"

"Probably nothing, come on this maze has been a total bust." Indigo groaned and turned around to be greeted with a silhouette of an earth pony. "Ugh finally one of Twilight's team is here to take us out of this crappy maze."

The earth pony stepped out of the shadows and the sight made all of the Shadow Bolts stand back. In front of them was a pink pony with a wicked, toothy grin on her face, the scary thing was that her hair no longer stood up, and blood was matted in her mane and on her coat. "Hehe come on silly's! Let's go and make cupcakes together! I'm going to show you my secret ingredient now we're friends!"

The Shadow Bolts just looked at each other for a awkwardly until Sour Sweet spoke up "Well you said you're sooo brave Indigo, and because this is suuch a 'crappy maze' why don't YOU go first hmm?"

Indigo just looked at the pink pony who seemed perfectly content bouncing around in circles; "Yea but - she's crazy and I really hope that's ketchup."

"Well of course it's ketchup!" Sugar Coat snapped; she thought for a moment and grinned "Oh so maybe Rainbow was right and you're not one of the most daring ponies out there?"

"Fine! I'll go first" Indigo put on a fake smile and walked to the the earth pony, "Hey there.......you doing okay?" Pinkie stopped bouncing around and stood vacant for a moment before turning around and looking at Indigo, "So you can make cupcakes with me!? That's super! Hehe come on, lets go to the kitchen!" Pinkie giggled and bounced down the maze's hall.

"There's a kitchen in this thing?" Indigo thought as she followed Pinkie down the hallway, her friends close behind. As they turned the corner that Indigo saw Pinkie turn down the Shadow Bolts saw skeletons of ponies and griffons, hanging on the bushes, Indigo saw a bunting of Pegasus wings, making her tuck hers tightly into her back. The one thing that the Shadow Bolts saw that struck fear up their spine was a rainbow colored mare, hanging from a table as blood trickled down her sliced stomach and drained into a rusty, metal bucket; making a sickly dripping sound.

"Okay this is creepy, I'm outta here" Sunny Flare turned to run but stopped in her tracks as she saw a demented Pinkie Pie standing in her way, holding a tray of cupcakes, one of which had an eyeball as a decoration causing Sunny Flare to let out a scream snapping all of the other Shadow Bolts out of their trance.

"Run!" Indigo zipped over Pinkie as all the other Shadow Bolts ran past her.

"Wait! I thought you wanted to make cupcakes!!!" Pinkies voice faded as they galloped down the hall seeing an opening at the end of it.

Back to the other side of the maze.

Sunset felt as if she had been walking for hours, while it had only been a few minutes. She stopped dead when she heard an ear piercing scream coming from a different part of the maze That sounds like Sunny Flare Sunset thought. But that wasn't the reason she stopped, the reason was the 'too close for comfort' howl that joined the screams. Sunset heard heavy breathing behind her, and the foul smell hit her harder than before. She didn't even need to turn around to see what it was. Timber Wolf Sunset heard footsteps come closer and she bolted, following any path ahead of her until an exit came into view.

Near the exit of the maze

Diamond wandered down the hallway that she had been placed into. She had no clue how she had been separated from her friend and had come across next to no decorations. She frowned when she saw the exit of the maze. Dust trotted towards it a little disappointed that nothing even came close to making her jump, let alone get her scared. Diamond felt as if she had been trotting for a good five minutes but the exit seemed no closer than before; she looked down to see her hooves moving and the ground changing so she knew she was moving forward but the exit had not budged. Dust looked back up to see the exit further away than before, Dust started to feel nervousness grasp her stomach as she tried to gallop towards the exit but she got no closer to it than before.

Diamond heard a loud bang noise which seemed to trigger something, she heard what sounded like a cage opening. Diamond slowed down and slowly looked behind her to see a pack of shadowy wolf figures descending upon her.

Diamond's eyes widened and she picked up her pace again; galloping towards the exit. But Diamond noticed that the wolves were getting closer, but the exit was getting further and further away causing her to gallop faster, her lungs burned as she tried to force her body to move forward, to no avail. She skidded to a stop realizing that suddenly she was out of the maze. Confusion hit her as she could clearly see Sweet Apple Acres, she looked around the Maze to see her friends running in completely different directions, Sunny Flare screaming like a banshee and Sunset looked just as confused at Diamond. While Twilight and her team just stood there laughing and had smug looks on their faces; even Discord stood behind them chucking.

Sunset Shimmer still wasn't quite sure. "What the-? Huh? But?" She heard a crash and turned around to see all of the Shadow Bolts on the floor.

"What did you do that for!?" Sunny Flare growled at them.

"Maybe if you shut up I could hear myself think!" Indigo snapped back. Diamond just facehoofed and Sunset considered braking up the argument, but decided against it.

Outside the barn she could see Rainbow laughing her head off while the others joined in. Sunset sighed in relief when she saw Twilight giggling with her friends. "Guys, I think we know when we've been beaten."

"Heh" Indigo and the others blushed, "Yea you're right Sunset. That was one of the scariest mazes I have ever been in! Those were some creepy magical illusions. "

Sunny Flare looked at Indigo as if she had lost a few screws. "One of!? I'd say that was THE scariest maze I have been in, Rainbow Dash was hanging while she was being drained of all her blood!!! And that EYEBALL!!"

Sunset giggled as she watched her team argue about how scary the maze really was, They still have a lot to learn about getting along

"Sunset!" Twilight called over to the red and orange Alicorn.

Diamond trotted next to the red and orange Alicorn with an amused look on her face. "Go on, I'll make sure nopony kills anypony."  Sunset spared her friends one last look as they argued. Sunset nodded to Diamond and trotted up the small hill to get to the barn.

"Wow Twilight, I'm amazed you all pulled something like that off, I don't think they've seen anything like it before." Sunset mused as she nuzzled her girlfriend in - literally - shining armor.

"This has been an fun Nightmare Night Sunset, I'm glad you mentioned this to Rainbow actually." Twilight nuzzled her back.

"It was AWESOME!" Rainbow interjected.

"And it gets better for you Rainbow, Usually the winning team get's to ask the other team to do one favor for them. So I guess it would be the same here right?"

"Sweeeeet!" Rainbow simpered as she fantasized about all of the humiliating things she could get Indigo to do in public. While Sunset almost read Rainbows' mind.

"Try not to be too harsh on her Rainbow. Twilight what do you want?" Sunset laughed.

"Next year I want you to actually wear a costume." Twilight grinned.

"Yes it appears you evaded me in that area dear, even though I had a time slot for you." Rarity murmured.

Sunset blushed at her marefriend and nuzzled her. "Okay, next year I will wear a costume. What about you Pinkie and Applejack?"

"I don't really need nothin' I'll let ya'll know if I do." Applejack replied honestly.

"Well Sunset I could really use some help with making cupcakes next week, I was thinking maybe Sour Sweet could help?" Pinkie pie asked innocently.

"Sour Sweet? Really? Okay, good luck with that Pinkie. What about you two?" Sunset turned to Rarity and Rainbow Dash.

"Well I have something planned for Indigo Zap" Rainbow smirked evilly.

"As do I for Sunny Flare." Rarity winked at the Pegasus who winked back.

"Best Nightmare Night EVER!!" Pinkie pie shouted.