The Canterlot High Halloween Carnival was in full swing, though as Sunset waited in line for the haunted house with her friends, she couldn’t exactly seem to enjoy it.
Two weeks.
It has been two weeks since Sunset has been able to sleep. The coffee she had made herself that morning hadn’t done much for her, her eyes burned with exhaustion, making her wish she had declined their offer.
But it was her first Halloween with the girls, and she didn’t want to miss out on it. To her credit, her friends were none the wiser, mostly because she barely kept up the act that insinuated everything was perfectly fine.
Her facade was breaking though, it seemed she had yawned too many times; because Applejack had put an arm on her shoulder in concern.
“Ya’ll alright? You look more sleepy than a baby wrapped in a freshly dryer warmed blanket. Did you get any sleep last night?” the taller girl’s freckled face was contorted with concern. Though Sunset couldn’t exactly quite tell with all the makeup on her face. She was supposed to be some famous country singer or something, Sunset just couldn’t remember which one.
“Yeah,” Sunset lied, fighting back an on coming yawn. If she had told the truth, the farm girl would make her go home. No ifs, ands, or buts. She loved Applejack dearly, as she did all her friends, but the younger girl’s intuition was more of an inconvenience than an asset right now. “I just stayed up a little late playing Underwatch. You know, gotta keep up my rank and everything.”
It was a terrible lie, she hadn’t been playing video games at all. In fact, the past two weeks her wee hours were spent crying, shaking, and struggling to find some solace beneath her sheets. Nightmares plagued her mind; nightmares of a time that wasn’t but seemed so long ago.
She could still see the rubble. The smell of singed earth. The helpless, desperate screams of her classmates. The power that flowed through her. The feeling of being invincible.
They always ended the same. With her ending up killing everyone she knew and cared about, her hands—or claws in this case—stained with the blood of her loved ones.
She had tried everything from listening to soothing music, drinking milk, and breathing exercises. Nothing worked. The only thing that stopped the nightmares was staying awake for as long as she possibly could.
And she was about to hit her limit.
“You sure, sugarcube? There’s bags under your eyes,” Applejack's slender orange finger settled into focus in front of her, and Sunset couldn’t look directly at it without making herself dizzy.
“It’s apart of my costume,” Sunset answered quickly, realizing there had been a beat of silence between them. She gestured to the ensemble she had thrown together with clothes from her closet. “You know, since vampires don’t sleep. It’s like that vampire movie Twilight made us watch,”
“Except,” Twilight interjected, kissing her cheek, “You don’t sparkle,” she had replaced her glasses with a pair of steampunk goggles, her hair done up in a frantic bun. ‘The doctor created Frankenstein,’ she would remind anyone who got the information wrong.
“There’s a pun in there somewhere, but I’m too tired to make it,” Sunset retorted, putting an arm around her girlfriend. “Where’d Fluttershy and Pinkie go?”
“Fluttershy was dreadfully afraid entering a haunted house,” Rarity answered her, adding on another layer of lipstick to her already blood red lips. She was Frankenstein's bride, matching Twilight’s costume. “Pinkie took her to go play some carnival games. Frankly I don’t blame her,” she mumbled, making an annoyed sound when a certain rainbow haired guitarist put her arm around her.
“Aw c’mon Rares!” Dash said, patting the top of her tall wig. “You aren’t chicken, are you?” the mischievous grin on her face matched the daredevil look of her fighter pilot costume.
Rarity rolled her eyes. “Please. As if a little make believe shed with fake blood is going to make me faint,” she scoffed. “Try sharing a bathroom with Sweetie Belle. Now that’s something to be afraid of.”
They all shared a short laugh, and soon it was their turn to enter The House of Horrors.
It wasn’t exactly as small as Rarity had made it seem, but it wasn’t exactly big enough to get lost in either. It had the usual things that a haunted house would have; spooky sounds played on loop over a muffled speaker, endless darkness except for a few muted lights, and air blowing in every direction from somewhere unseen.
Despite how obviously fake the attraction was, Twilight still clung to Sunset’s arm with a trembling vice grip, jumping at every little sound. It was adorable, and Sunset wished she was more awake to appreciate it.
Unimpressed, Rainbow Dash let her frustrations be known. “Seriously? This is the crap your pants scarehouse Flim and Flam made everyone pay two bucks for? It’s nothing but a bunch of cardboard cutouts and sounds. Where’s the suspense? The terror? The madness? I want to see blood!”
“You’ll see blood alright if you don’t keep your gosh darn voice down,” Applejack said, smacking her upside the head. We just got in here. Give it some time,”
Rainbow rolled her eyes as another ‘ghost’ popped up and booed at them. “Yeah, okay,” she responded. “Let me know when someone comes bursting through the walls with an axe,”
Rarity frowned. “Of course you’d say that,”
Twilight fixed Rainbow Dash with a strong glare. “Why would you even—AAHH!” her shriek caused the other girls in the group to jump, their screams echoing hers as they watched a tall man with a ski mask appear out of seemingly nowhere.
Every girl screamed, scrambling to do something, anything to get away from the masked man.
"Hello?" Sunset asked after a moment of silence.
It didn’t take Sunset’s tired brain long to realize that she was now alone. She continued to walk forward until she stood at the entrance of a room filled with mirrors, her mouth fixed into a frown. She hadn’t seen where her friends had went. The man with the fake but very real looking machete was long gone, but the fear he instilled into those five teenaged girls had caused them to run off in terror, in about three or four different directions.
Sunset hadn’t exactly been scared herself, but she knew Twilight didn’t exactly like these kinds of places, and had only entered because she didn’t want to be left out. So of course the first person she went to look for was her girlfriend.
“Twilight?” Sunset called, walking into the room. Mirrors of all shapes and sizes adorned the walls, reflecting Sunset’s image a thousand times over. It was long, and quiet. Sunset had never seen a room in a haunted house so huge. She didn't think one existed.
She could only hear her own footsteps; apart from the muffled thumping of horror music and screams, and she could only see her own reflection bouncing off every mirror with every step she took.
Stopping at the end of the long room, it was clear that Twilight wasn’t in here. “Where could they be?” she asked, pulling out her phone. She scrolled to Twilight’s contact and tried to call her. No signal. Well, that was just great.
Folding her arms, she huffed, turning about to investigate for any clue or sign of Twilight being in this room. Something small and shiny on the wall caught her eye though, and she bent down to squint at it.
Look inside and see the monster inside you.
Not knowing what that meant, Sunset looked into the long floor length mirror in front of her, a little confused and annoyed. “I should have known it was just some dumb—”
Before she could finish her sentence, her reflection in the mirror morphed and altered into her demon form, the form she had transformed into on Fall Formal night, a night that seemed like it was so long ago.
The reflection danced, spreading from mirror to mirror; laughing at her, sneering at her, an outstretched hand to her so close Sunset was sure she could be grabbed with little effort. “Look what you’re missing out on!” it shouted. “Look what you could have been!”
“A monster!” Sunset shouted back, hugging her shoulders. “That’s what I could have been and that’s what I was. You can’t control me. You’re not real! You’re just my tired mind playing tricks on me.”
“Am I?” The reflection taunted with a smirk. “Do you truly believe that? Or are you just telling yourself that?”
Sunset could suddenly smell it—the magic, the fire, the smoke, the screams, it was all coming back to her. It all felt so real. The power she had, more power than she could ever imagine, she gave it up for what? Some stupid friends?
More power than I could ever imagine!
Sorry it had to be this way, Princess.
I have magic, and you have nothing!
“No!” Sunset screamed, holding her head. “They aren’t stupid! That’s not true! You aren’t real!” she began to cry as she heard the echoes of the whispers of her classmates, the payback she had gotten for the things she had done. It crept into her mind like a toxic sludge, filling her with self doubt, pity, and regret.
“Aw,” Her demonic reflected said with a mocking tone. “Is the big bad tough girl about to cry? What happened to the girl who was feared? The one everyone listened to! You’re nothing but a former shell of yourself! A disappointment!”
“Leave me alone!” Sunset shouted. "I'm a better person now! You have no control over me!" she reared her fist back and slammed it into the mirror with a loud grunt, shattering it into thousands of pieces. The demon version of herself was gone. No screams, no terror, no magic. All that was left was a broken reflection of a broken girl.....
With a bloody hand.
“Dammit! Argh!” Sunset groaned, hopping up and down as the adrenaline had worn off and pain and shock had promptly taken its place.
“Sunset?!”
Sunset heard the sound of multiple footsteps behind her.
She whipped around to see Twilight standing in the doorway, her eyes fixated on the redhead’s blooded hand. “Twilight?” She went to take a step towards her girlfriend, but hesitated. Her mind could be playing tricks on her again. “When did we start dating?”
Twilight became perplexed. “What? Sunset—”
“When did we start dating?” Sunset asked again sternly. “Just answer the question. Please.”
Confusion still written all over Twilight’s face, she obliged. “June first. You confessed to me.”
Sunset nodded slowly, then completed her walk over to Twilight, realizing half way that she had started crying.
Broken, heavy sobs left her body as she grasped at her girlfriend, an intense feeling of safety and comfort washing over her when she felt the taller girl wrap her arms around her.
“Did you punch that mirror?!” Twilight said, having gotten a closer look at Sunset’s injury. Her voice rose an octave. “There is glass in your hand! What on earth happened?!”
Sunset sighed, pulling away from the younger girl. “I saw her,” she blinked. “Me. I saw me. The old me. Demon me. She was calling out to me, and saying all this nasty things. I couldn’t take it anymore.”
Sunset buried her face in Twilight’s chest, groaning. “I don’t feel like myself at all,”
Twilight’s eyebrows furrowed as she pulled the older girl off with a concerned look. “What do you mean?”
“I...I’ve been having nightmares,” Sunset sniffled, rubbing tears out of her eyes. “Really, really bad ones. I keep reliving the night of the Fall Formal over and over again. Everytime I close my eyes I can see me floating above the school, and hear everything.” Her whole body trembled; and she slid down the wall, her legs giving out. “I feel like at any moment, the demon I became could come reaching out for me.” she took a backwards glance at the mirror behind her, the memory still fresh in her mind. “And I’ll accept her offer.”
Twilight frowned. “How long have you had these nightmares?”
“Two weeks,” Sunset could see Twilight was hurt, hurt that the older girl hadn’t told her. She was her girlfriend after all, and she cared deeply about the former unicorn. “I didn’t tell you and the girls because I didn’t want you guys to feel like you were all obligated to help me. Plus...this is my own problem tied to my own past. I shouldn’t let my friends deal with my issues.”
“Sunset,” Twilight said sternly, wiping tears from the redhead’s eyes. “We are your friends. We care about you. It doesn’t matter if what you’re going through is tied to your past—to the old you. Everyone makes mistakes. We’re here to help you get passed them.”
Sunset frowned. “It’s my fault all this crazy weird stuff is happening. I’m the one who brought magic through the portal. I’m the one who caused the domino effect. You became Midnight Sparkle because of me.”
“I also overcame her because of you. You aren’t exactly the only guilty one here. I caused a rift between two dimensions that’s accelerated the process you started. So no, you’re not the only one at fault here. I am too.” Twilight gave her a small smile. “Two reformed demons bonding over our shared evil past. We really were meant for each other, huh?”
Sunset couldn’t help but snort at that. “Yeah, you’re telling me,” she said, leaning on Twilight’s shoulder with a wince. “Where are the rest of the girls? I think we need to hit up the first aid station.”
Twilight shrugged. “I have no id—
“Hey, ya’ll in here?!” A familiar country twang rung out.
Twilight blinked. “Huh. How convenient.”
“Yeah!” Sunset yelled, sighing with relief when she saw Applejack, Rainbow and Rarity enter the room. “Where’d you guys go?”
“Mighty sorry,” Applejack apologized, blushing. “I guess we lost each other out there. Turns out the maniac who scared us was my good for nothin’ brother. I guess we all heard the commotion and came running. Ya’ll alright?”
“Besides the fact that my hand probably has more glass in it than a cathedral window, yeah, I’ll live,” Sunset responded, smiling wryly.
“Pardon?” Rarity asked, peering over Applejack’s shoulder. She gasped when she saw Sunset’s (still bleeding) hand.
“Whoa,” Rainbow mumbled in awe. “What the heck happened to your hand?”
“She punched a mirror,” Twilight replied flatly. And before any of the girls could ask the question she knew was going through their minds right now, she said, “She thought she saw the demon she turned into at the Fall Formal in it.”
“Did you have too much apple cider?” Dash asked, eyebrow quirked. She winced when Applejack had elbowed her in the rib. “Ow! It was a simple question!”
“I...was being stubborn, and let my emotions get the best of me. Instead of asking for help from my friends, I tried to shoulder my metal issues by myself, and I ended up exhausted and depressed,” Sunset admitted, slightly ashamed. “I should have come to you guys the moments the nightmares started.”
“Nightmares?” Rarity repeated. “Oh my darling! Are you okay now?”
Sunset nodded, smiling. “I am. Someone close to me reminded me that I always have people to count on.” she winked at Twilight, and chuckled when the scientist blushed.
Applejack clapped a hand on her back. “C’mon girlie, let’s get that thing checked out. Who knows where those snakes got that mirror from.”
“You think it was full of Equestrian magic?” Twilight asked, helping Sunset get on to her feet.
The latter girl shrugged. “Possibly. Could explain the reflection. Guess it was a good thing I destroyed it then,” she muttered as Twilight and Applejack helped her hobble to the entrance of the house.
“Magic or not,” Dash said following behind her, “It was pretty bad ass for you to face your fears like that.”
Sunset smiled warmly at her as the first aid tent came into view. “Yeah, it was,” she agreed, taking solace in the company of her friends, the people cared about her just as much as she cared about them. Her smile quickly disappeared when she remembered that all the glass in her hand was about to be meticulously, and (painfully) picked out with tweezers. “Just don’t expect me to do it again.” she groaned.
The girls around her laughed.
Author's Note
Happy Halloween! I decided to write a story just for the occation! Also, dont forge to support me on patreon or donate to my paypal! I hope you guys enjoyed this and have a happy and safe Halloween!
