They say Nightmare Night is a once-a-year tradition for fun and games, tricks and treats. This particular story is one of many that covers the true definition of “Tricks” and “Treats”.

Hundreds of years ago, high above Foal Mountain, there was a sole tower that oversaw the old town of Hollow Shades. This particular tower stood as tall Princess Twilight’s castle, but did not shine as brightly. The structure had been built high above to keep away intruders who would dare invoke who-so-ever lived inside. And inside this tower, lived the shadow of the mountain; the mysterious terror of Starlight Spellcaster.

At least…that’s what the townsfolk would say. Starlight Spellcaster was not as terrifying as the people were led to know. She stood tall, wearing a witch’s hat and branded a rather revealing green and purple outfit with leg stockings reaching up to her thighs and a witch’s belt buckle to tie it all down. But she was nothing more but a childish trickster in a full grown body. Her spells created the illusions to scare the denizens of the town to force over their treasures. Gold? Silver? Gems? No, none of those treasures. This particular town was robbed of an unusual source: their candy supply.

Every year around this time, the Spellcaster would ride in as a mysterious shadow demanding the candy from the townsfolk. This was led to also believe that the shadow was a servant to Nightmare Moon, who had been banished to the moon years ago. And this shadow was somehow trying to save their master from her sister’s punishment. They once tried to fight back, but the shadow did nothing but dodge their attacks. The shadow never attacked, only moaned for the yearly treats and threatened to haunt the town for a thousand years if they did not comply. Scared and with no other option, they would feed the shadow who would disappear for another year until the time came again.

Starlight Spellcaster would revel in her successful caches that she would stow away at the top of her tower, only allowing her and her alone to see her delicious treasure.

“Hm-hm-hm,” Starlight Spellcaster boasted, “My candy collection is the most valuable thing in Equestria! I dare anypony to come and take my well-earned prize! HA-HA!” Little did she know that this year, the tricks and treats would turn on the Spellcaster.

The witch had begun to brew a new Shadow disguise from her cauldron to continue the yearly feast of her candy collection. Her ego, heavily inflated by her success had decided to change things up a bit.

“This town must be drained of its candy cache this year,” she declared, “A bigger shadow is required, something more frightening, more powerful! These spells have reached their limits, but there must be something or somepony that can take me to the next level!”

She turned to her spellbooks in search of an answer. She would either get her wish through a book…or through the unknown. She had noticed a strange book sitting in her shelf this year. It wasn’t as faded as most of the others and its font seemed curvy. She opened the book and flipped through the pages until she pointed a finger at a potential answer.

“The Power-Hungry Sprit,” the Spellcaster read aloud, “Strengthens the user’s power through a bargain of their choice. Beware its unusual personality. Its bargains are most unusual and random.”

The Spellcaster did not have the patience to read through the rest of its warnings and turned to the conjuring page. She tossed the spell’s ingredients into the cauldron, but one spell made her scratch her head. It required ten pieces of candy to complete the spell. Starlight Spellcaster had never taken any candy out of her tower before, but if she wanted the power to steal all the candy this year, she needed the boost. She teleported to the top of the tower and grabbed ten different pieces before popping back on the ground level. One by one, she unwrapped the wrappers and held all ten pieces in one hand. And then, she incantation from her book.

“I summon the spirit of trick-or-treat,
their bargains and exchanges that cannot be beat,
I, the summoner have nothing to lose,
How will they decide, how will they choose!”

The spellcaster dropped all ten pieces into the cauldron as it bubbled and boiled, turning its water from green to pink. Suddenly, a bright pink light burst out of the caldron, splashing boiling water across the floors and into the gutters below. It flew round and around the ground tower floor until stopping in front of its master. The spirit itself was pink and had a curly mane stretching down to its waist. It had no legs, but a ghostly tail and…packed a whopping pair upon its chest.

“Well hi!” greeted the spirit to a judging Starlight Spellcaster.

“Are you…the Power-Hungry spirit?” she questioned.

“Uh-huh! Call me PONK!”

“P-Ponk?”

"Nuh-uh, PONK! All caps P-O-N-K, PONK! With an exclamation point at the end!"

The Spellcaster was puzzled. Perhaps she summoned the wrong spirit.

“Uh…Ponk—“

“PONK!”

“Whatever. You are said to possess a power to increase my power or allow me to learn much more powerful spells, correct?”

“Yup! Got somethin’ on your mind?” She excitedly ask, floating around and lying her body horizontally, her ghostly bust bouncing up and down in front of Starlight, who tried to look away with a blush on her face.

“Y-yes. I require a new shadow disguise. Something bigger, meaner, scarier enough to swindle an entire town of their candy supply—“

“CANDY?!” she exclaimed happily. This gave the Spellcaster the proper idea of the bargain.

“Why, yes. This town has loads of candy. Tell you what? If you conjure me the shadow spell I require, I’ll let you have a bag to go. What do you say?”

“Yeah! Definitely,” the spirit agreed, “I’ll have you a new Shadow spell by next month!”

“N-NEXT MONTH?! But-but Ponk—

“PONK!”

“Whatever. I need that spell tomorrow night when the candy supply is at its greatest! I will miss my deadline if my spell doesn’t arrive in time!”

“Hmm…you need it that badly, huh?” the spirit questioned.

“I want to collect every piece of candy off of those townsfolk. Are you sure you can’t supply me the spell?”

Ponk—

“PONK!”

Whatever. She gave it a very hard thought. By supplying her with her spell by tomorrow night, she’d get that bag of candy. But she wouldn’t have it in time. However, she found the alternative.

“Say, humor me for a sec, alright? What if I got you something better than a spell? Your very own Shadow creature that will go in instead of you to take the candy? And it’ll be ready by sundown tomorrow.”

“Yes! That’d be perfect!” Starlight approved at first, “But hang on…what’s the coverage?”

“Uh, upgrade the bag into a pillow case full of candy?”

“You’ve got yourself a deal.”

Starlight Spellcaster held a hand up to shake the spirit’s hand. The spirit returned to its upright position and held out its hand, reaching for Starlight. As they touched, the spirit’s hand simply went through the Spellcaster.

“Oh…right,” she embarrassingly admitted, “Keep forgetting about that. Anyway, WOOOO!!

The spirit began circling around the tower floor at a head-spinning pace, around Starlight and floated above the cauldron raising its arms up.

“Candy, candy for my tummy,
Make this spellcaster the proper mommy,
Have this shadow grow and grow,
When does it come? Well, you’ll know. :P”

The spirit flicked its arms and an aura encapsulated all around Starlight Spellcaster until the bright colors disappeared.

“See you at sunset tomorrow!”

With a twist and a bend, she flung herself back into the cauldron and disappeared in a pink puff of smoke.

“Well…” the Spellcaster commented, brushing off whatever puff of spirit smoke off of her, “That couldn’t have been more random.

With the bargain in place, the witch began to clean up the mess the spirit had left, brushing whatever cauldron water. She smiled with content as her yearly plans had escalated to its biggest and scariest yet. Not only would she be able to swindle the town of candy again, but now she’ll have the power and force to collect every last butter-scotch drop. All for her and her alone.

After cleaning the cauldron, Starlight scratched her midsection with heavy eyelids. The incantation had possibly made her a bit tired this evening and decided to end her evening early. She couldn’t wait to get her hands on all that candy this year. She retired to her bedroom on the second to the top level of the tower and hung her witch’s cap on the nearby dresser. She attempted to undo her belt, but for some reason it had felt a bit…tighter than usual. Perhaps the spirit’s displays had messed her up a bit. In fact her mane had been blown out of proportion so she went to her bedroom mirror and quickly fixed the damage.

The Spellcaster held her head high with her hands on her waist…before looking down at her body in slight confusion. Was it just her, or did her own bust grow a bit. She slid off her green and purple dress and undid her bra, letting it all drop to the ground before re-approaching the mirror. She stared at her chest in confusion. Had she grown just a little bit more since she became an adult? She was in her prime and she seemed a bit perkier than before.

Just to be sure she wasn’t imagining things, she cupped her breasts in her hand, feeling nothing more than just fleshy weight. Nothing out of the ordinary. She slowly turned around and reclipped her bra on before changing into her bedroom gown. She climbed into bed, blew out the candle, and drifted herself to sleep. But unknown to the Spellcaster, the spirit had casted a spell of her own, as the enchantment she uttered echoed inside Starlight’s head over and over throughout the night.

“Candy, candy for my tummy,
Make this spellcaster the proper mommy,
Have this shadow grow and grow,
When does it come? Well, you’ll know. :P”

Starlight tossed and turned, sweating through her sleep, feeling as though she was slowly losing breath and sinking into her bed. The dreams and feelings lasted throughout the evening until daybreak.

Author's Note

Here it is! My contribution to the Fertile Fright pack. Going to divide it into chapters and see if that helps any bit since this is currently my longest story so far.