Despite the ever looming threat of the Headless Horse, Cherry Berry found it best to continue with the festivities to keep the rest of the town's moral up and so she did just exactly that all the while keeping a false smile to make the townsponies see she was not scared of the Headless Horse.

Now both Twilight and the Doctor could see where she was coming from, but that didn't mean they had to like it. In the Town Hall's Ball Room, a party was held, complete with food, drinks (Including a punch bowl full of imported Apple Family-created Cider much to Rainbow Dash's pleasure) and even a local band called the Crypt-Kickers playing Nightmare Night themed songs.

Even as Twilight and Rainbow ate and drank from the snack table, they along with the Doctor, plus Shining and Cadence who were dancing to the song being played by the band kept a wary eye out as they scanned the crowd. The Headless Horse could show up at any time, and they knew it.

Twilight sighed even as she turned to Rainbow.

"You know, as much as I'd like to enjoy this party... I... I just can't, not with..." Twilight trailed off, and Rainbow finished for her as she knew exactly what she was thinking.

"The Horse? Yeah, I know what you mean." Rainbow admitted. She wasn't going to admit out loud as she considered herself far too awesome for it, but she was nervous as well. Suddenly, Rainbow got a idea her Element showing itself in concern for Twilight.

"Hey, I got a idea that should help you get your mind off things." Rainbow suddenly exclaimed as she pulled Twilight onto the dance floor making her friend yelp even as Rainbow shouted "Hey Crypt-Kickers, give us something to dance to! Something real slow!"

The Crypt-Kickers all shared a shrug before they started up another song, and a saxophone began to play setting a romantic mood as a female singer with tan fur and a bucket of white liquid, whose name was White Wash began to croon out a tune.

Rainbow began to slow dance with Twilight as the song progressed, and to Twilight's shock as they twirled on the dance floor she found herself enjoying it.

"W-Where did you learn to dance like this?" Twilight asked, her face quite flushed from being so close to Rainbow however her lavender fur made it barely visible unless you looked closely enough. Rainbow too was blushing , though thanks to her blue fur it was MUCH more obvious.

In the background, Cadence had stopped dancing with Shining and whispered to herself "Just a little closer, please!" in a almost pleading manner. Shining sighed in embarrassment, his marefriend loved shipping ponies a little too much.

"Eh, my dad wanted me to become a Class-A dancer instead of a radio DJ." Rainbow admitted before laughing. "You can see how well THAT turned out huh?"

Twilight let out a small giggle, before she found herself moving her muzzle closer to Rainbow and Rainbow found herself doing the same. But just as they were about to meet, there was a loud crashing sound from the breaking of glass along with a whinny as the Headless Horse crashed in through a window. This time, there were no brief glimpses, and the Horse was in full view of everypony as it reared up on it's hind legs and whinnied once more.

The Doctor let out a sigh of resignation as he muttered "Well, there goes the party. Time to greet the crasher."

In his mind, the Doctor was quite a mix of conflicting feelings. He was happy about being proven right that the Headless Horse would come back, but he was also nervous for anypony that was inside the building. So many targets, so many ponies for the Headless Horse to behead and live up to it's reputation as it already had twice tonight. The Doctor growled to himself, he was not going to let that happen, one was one too many in terms of death, and tonight that number was already twice that amount. This was going to end now, if the Time Lord had anything to say about it.

The Doctor then adjusted his sheriff's badge as he walked up to the Headless Horse. Even now, he could tell something was off from the get-go. The stance, the form, it did not look like a stallion as Ichabod Crane was supposed to have been. Something was very wrong here indeed.

"Well hello there Horsey!" The Doctor exclaimed. "Might I say, YOU look absolutely beautiful tonight. What, are you trying to get a-HEAD in life with the socialites?"

The Headless Horse, if it had a head would had glared at him. Twilight and her aunt shared a look, with Cherry looking very confused and shocked at the Doctor's behavior while Twilight was sighing and about to facehoof at the Doctor's poor joke. Shining meanwhile already had.

"Is he crazy? Is he trying to get himself killed?" Cherry hissed to Twilight, who shook her head and whispered back "No, he's doing two things. One, try and study the creature and second try to get us time to leave and run for it."

Cherry growled to herself bitterly.

"Not tonight, he's not stopping this thing. I am, this is my town and I'm going to deal with it!" Cherry said before she pulled out a pistol from her vest. Twilight and her friends gaped while the Doctor's jaw dropped.

"No... Not guns! I hate those things..." He muttered even as Cherry aimed her weapon and her eyes narrowed.

"This pistol contains rock salt, great for dealing with spirits. You see, I've been prepared for this night if it ever came and you threatened my town and it's citizens directly. But no more, time for you to die... permanently!" Cherry said, determination alight in her eyes and her hoof on the trigger ready to pull it and fire. And it wasn't long before she did exactly that.

KA-BLAM!

Cherry's gunshot was dead on it's target and the noise of it was like a small explosion, and the Horse reeled back in pain as the Doctor jumped to the left to avoid the shot. Several more bullets were fired, and the Headless Horse was again hit before it vanished in a cloud of night black smoke and the cloud flew right back out through the window from where it had come in from.

"You see? I know what I'm doing Doctor." Cherry stated smugly to the Time Lord/Pony, who looked at her with a expression of anger. Twilight and Shining winced, they'd seen this expression before and it never meant anything good as it could mean the Doctor was about to start not thinking straight and that never ended well.

"No, you don't!" The Doctor roared, and Cherry took a step back. "All you did was make it angry, and now it'll come back. Before, it was just picking off random townsponies, but now you've probably gone and set it on your whole town! Are you happy now?"

As soon as Cherry realized what she'd done, she whispered "Oh dear Celestia... What have I done?" as the Doctor stomped off and muttered to himself "Ponies... Always take the violent way out. Never diplomacy!"

Cadence ran after him before he even reached the front doors.

"Where are you going?" She asked in concern. She could tell the Doctor's temper was at a all time high, and she too could tell he might do something reckless. Cadence also knew he needed somepony to stop him, and if that pony was her, then so be it.

"Besides be with the only person who is intelligent around here, meaning me?" He asked sarcastically. "I have a theory I've got to confirm, but I need time travel to do it."

The Doctor then frowned to himself, trouble was his Tardis was back in Ponyville. Cadence knew what his problem was and got a idea.

"Come with me, there's a way we can do this. One question though... When do you need to go?" She asked, and the Doctor smiled. Nearby, Trixie was in quite a state after being in the middle of all this.

"What... What does Trixie do? She cannot stop a ghost!" She whispered to herself hoping nopony heard her before she saw Twilight heading out a doorway and ran towards her.

"Trixie asks, where do you think you are going Twilight Sparkle? To run and hide? Some hero YOU are!" Trixie mocked, and Twilight glared at her before sighing and grumbling something under her breath along the lines of "Celestia give me strength..."

"No, I'm going to do things my own way. We don't need guns to stop the Horse. There's a library in town, and there we can find the greatest weapon of all!" Twilight exclaimed and Trixie looked confused at her statement. Twilight smirked at that.

"Books! Now are you coming or not? I need somepony to help me search."

Author's Note

Well, that party sure went bad fast didn't it? So the Doctor and Twilight both have separate plans to try and learn about the Horse enough to stop it, even as it now closes in on Sleepy Hollow thanks to Cherry's foolhardiness. Now, credit to the artists whose songs I used in this chapter: Bobby Boris Picket for Monster Mash and Queen/Foxes for "Don't stop me now".

And yes, the gun with rock salt bullets in it used to stop a spirit and the black smoke cloud was totally inspired by Supernatural. Here, have this video I found that is a tribute to this absolutely great show!

(Credit to Stacy Patterson for the video and of course AC/DC for the song.)