The Festival of the Dead

Chapter 4: Horror at the Horizon

Author Note: I am using this map of Equestria for the sake of the story

True to their rather flimsy word, the demons were ready to leave for Ponyville the moment the sun's rays began to peek over the horizon. The number of festival-goers was more than anyone could have possibly imagined, a seemingly endless horde of creatures of every kind spewed from the portal, quickly filling up the entirety of the throne room and continuing to spread to the courtyard and even up against the gates. The elements were all gathered on one of the castle's many balconies, watching the writhing mass of excited creatures. They didn't know what to say at the spectacle before them, they saw just as many ponies as there were whatever those things Avnas and Andras were. Most seemed completely normal while others were skeletons just like the musicians from yesterday. There were centaurs and griffons, cyclopes and minotaurs, there were even a couple of hydras that seemed to be idly conversing with the other guests. The sight was humbling, most of the creatures in the crowd weren't even more than idle myths in Equestria.

A man in a flowing silver robe rose above the crowd, perching on one of the castle walls. His voice lifted above the sea of whispering dead, shouting, "Quiet my friends! You all know where the festival is! I want  to get there as soon as possible! The pink pony has already alerted the town of our coming so just get to work as soon as you arrive." He seemed to be resisting the urge to bolt any second, most likely due to all the excitement in the air.

"I had no idea there would be so many.." Mouthed Twilight, completely at a loss for words from all of the species before her. These creatures seemed intelligent and many have never been recorded before, even in myth. Even the species that were little more than animals such as the hydras seemed much more intelligent than the Equestria variety. She was practically drooling at the volumes she could publish with these findings if she could convince a few to sit-down and talk with her. "But with such a huge group, the trip to town will take much longer than we thought, I wouldn't be surprised if it took a few days at the very least."

The man announcing to the crowd continued his speech with the joy of a child, "And so, without any other matters needing be addressed..." He motioned to several members of the royal guard nearby to unlock the gates, "On your marks..."

"Wait... did... oh hay."

Twilight was wide-eyed, "There is no way! They'll cause a panic if they start charging through town!"

"Get set..." The crowd seemed to adjust themselves to all be facing the gate.

"Nonononononononononono!" Twilight saw the princesses trying to fly down to the guards to stop them from opening the gates but were drowned-out by the crowd.

The sun crested the horizon completely and with it, the man dropped his cloak, he was now left in only a loose pair of very nice blue trousers. Good trousers aside, he was also sporting a pair of large wings in the same color scheme as his cloak. "Go." He said simply before turning around and was off at tremendous speed with a few flaps.

The crowd all charged forward immediately, effectively shoving the gates the rest of the way open with their bodies. A fair number of guests took to the skies, giving chase to the long-gone announcer who could only still be seen via the violent glare coming off of his head from the sun. Every member of the impromptu race was giving their all to reach the destination as soon as possible, instead of charging through the town, the entire horde decided to instead run, slither, and otherwise launch themselves full-pelt down the side of the mountain. "Well at least they won't ruin the town." Remarked Rarity, rather surprised at the racer's apparent lack of concern for their own safety.

"You won't be able to say the same for that forest they're all running towards when they're done with it." Giggled a familiar voice from behind them. The girls turned around to find Avnas watching the race with glee. "Hello girls, so how was-" He was cut off by Rainbow flying into him with hooves around his neck.

The girls were surprised at Rainbow's sudden affection toward the man until they realized she was simply trying to crush his windpipe. "Going. To. Die." She growled at the trickster who had made a fool out of her three times in the last twenty-four hours.

After she was successfully restrained by Twilight's magic, Fluttershy spoke up, "Umm what are you... doing here it seems like you would want to be in the race with everyone..." No one was able to hear her anymore, her voice dropping to levels that the wind was capable of drowning her out.

"Oh, I'm definitely going to try for the race, I just wanted to say hi before I left but now I will definitely need to hurry if I want to have a chance." He ran over to Rainbow Dash, adopting an apologetic face, "And I really am sorry for messing with you, Miss Dash, it's simply too much fun for one prankster to get another when they don't expect it. I promise that I will find you the next time I go out to have some fun, until then." He then leaned over to Dash and, with a small flourish of his hand, flicked her in the snout. He ran towards the balcony, away from the once-again red-with-rage Rainbow Dash and yelled, "Peter! Papa needs you to save his life!" And jumped off of the balcony, clearing the railing like a hurdle.

The girls looked at the balcony for a moment before a small cyan wyvern, only about ten or eleven feet long, sped towards the horizon, towards Ponyville, giggling owner standing haphazardly on it's back, trying to take in the spectacle the race was creating, almost falling off of his loyal pet when he saw a manticore try to ambush a lagging racer, only to in turn be surrounded by other racers working in-tandem, as it turned out, some of the racers had held-off on eating before the gathering, believing that they would have more time to prepare before they decided to race. He was distracted enough to not notice an angry cyan and rainbow blur giving chase and rapidly catching up. Just a little further, a couple more seconds and he'll get a surprise courtesy of the sonic-rainboom!

Avnas turned around on his pet, looking directly at Dash and spoke in a slow, steady voice, "Okay, your friends shouldn't be able to see us talking from this far away, I have a deal that I'd like you to think about."

Dash could hardly hear him over the wind screeching in her ears and couldn't find the spare breath needed to formulate a response so she tried to give him her best "confused" face possible.

Both of them stopped, Peter apparently in on his owners own intentions. He turned to Dash, giving her his best reassuring smile, and spoke in a voice that, in her own opinion, was much to level for someone who couldn't even laugh without switching octaves, "Which of your friends do you find it the funniest to play tricks on?"

Rainbow Dash decided to just go with it, she didn't want to face any possible consequences from the nearby wyvern if she decided to sock it's owner, "Probably Twilight, she usually sees the prank coming from a mile away but that just makes her reaction when it works priceless." She imitated what seemed like an elderly mare having a heart attack and spoke once more, "Why is it important? Were you serious about that promise?"

"Do any of your friends ever help you with your pranking?"

"Usually just Pinkie Pie, is that important or something?"

He looked at her with sheer bemusement. "I was hoping it would be Pinkie."

"Look, you're kinda creepin' me out right now. Why do you need to know all of this?"

"Because, Miss Dash, I want to invite you to pull a prank on Twilight and those princesses of yours, do you think you would be interested in something like that?"

"Of course I would! Nopony ever tries to prank Celestia, they're all way too chicken!" Her response came so quickly that Avnas figured she was the type you could get to do anything if you worded it as a challenge, he stored that little informative nugget away for later. "Do you have a plan?" The only time he's ever acted business-like and it's over a prank.

"Oh many more than you could possibly believe but for now, I'll just tell you my personal favorite of the bunch. Let's fly and talk, can't have either of our groups of friends getting suspicious too early, after all."

And so they flew at a leisurely pace over the now-ruined path through the forest, the runners had really done a number on the place. There was a big strip of dead-man's-land about 100 feet wide that continued all the way through the forest, straight towards Ponyville. They discussed Avnas' plan, Dash questioning parts that she didn't fully understand and how to approach Pinkie's role in the trick. Even with flying, the trip took about a day from following the haphazard path, they had discussed every possible aspect of the plan and knew each phase to the letter. The sun set, but little did the other elements know, very interesting were looming over the horizon.