Something Sweet to Bite: A New Generation

"If you have ghosts you have everything" - Roky Erickson

Water swirled down the drain as steam drifted up from the wash basin. Sunny Starscout just finished washing her hooves and dried them off as she smiles at her reflection in the mirror over the sink. She was still wearing her 'Nightmare Moon' costume and couldn't help but grin at how 'spooky' it made her look. A complete departure from her usual, well, sunny appearance.

It had truly been one of the best Nightmare Night's she had ever had the good fortune to experience. Sure she had Hitch and, to a lesser extent, Sprout to go trick or treating with when they were younger but it was just that much more fantastic having a larger group of friends to spend the holiday with. It magnified the 'spooktacular' fun to a degree she'd previously only ever dreamed of. It wasn't just sharing her traditions either but actually spending time with all her friends. both new and old, that really made it special. Pipp, Zipp, Izzy, Hitch, and even Sparky brought their own brand of fun to the evening. Of course Sunny was opposed to just about everything that Nightmare Moon had stood for, but Sunny almost wished that the night could last forever, just so the fun would never end. Sadly, in a few short hours it would all be over. Oh well, at least she'd get to spend what was left of the spookiest night of the year with her best friends!

Turning off the faucet, the young mare turned out the lights, and stepped back out onto the ground floor. Sunny had been in such a rush to get to the little fillies room earlier that she hadn't really taken the time to notice just how dark it was down here, as if every light in the house had gone out. Her hoof went to the light switch but that didn't change anything. The only illumination came from above in the form of the soft glow from the paused movie projection upstairs. The darkness suddenly exploded as a flash of orange lightning spider-webbed across the sky, lighting up the Crystal Brighthouse's windows. The crack of thunder that immediately followed let Sunny know that the brewing storm almost right on top of them! Ah, that must be it! The storm knocked out the power. Wait, no, then why is the projector still working upstairs? And how were the lights still on in the washroom?

There was another strobbing pulse of lightning as fat green claws of electricity raked across the sky outside, scarring an afterimage into the clouds. This time Sunny got a good look at her surroundings. An eerie green fog had enveloped the floor, rising to about her knees. It swished and swirled around her hooves in odd hypnotic patterns, cool to the touch. Okay how did I miss that? Low clouds don't usually gather inside a ponies home. Why does it seem to glow a soft green? What could have caused this? Is this some sort of prank? The mysteries seemed to just be piling one upon the other.

It dawned on Sunny that Nightmare Night wasn't quite over yet, and she knew that everypony was entitled to one good scare. Perhaps this really was some kind of prank organized by her friends? The blackout and the mist both were fairly uncanny, but a Unicorn's magic might flip the breakers without her ever having to come down stairs and a few agile Pegasi might corral some wayward storm clouds into an enclosed space to create a creepy fog. A mischievous Unicorn and her Pegasi pals working in tandem could probably cook all of this up in no time with a little patience and practice. Like, say, maybe in the time it took a particular unsuspecting Earth Pony named Sunny to get back from the bathroom?

Oh no, my friends are being way too obvious! Sunny thought. Still, it was sweet of them to keep up the Nightmare Night fun for Sunny's sake. After all, sometimes it was fun to be scared... Even if you knew there was really no reason to be. She'd need to pretend that she hadn't figured it out without letting them know she'd realized it was them causing all these strange phenomena. With that in mind Sunny slowly crept up the stairs, making sure to step in such a way for maximum creepy squeakiness to herald her coming, that way they could prepare for her return. It was hard to suppress a squeal of delight as she imagined the kind of surprises her new friends might have cooked up for her!

Just to make doubly sure Sunny didn't ruin any of their careful plans, she called out, "Hey guys, something strange is going on around here! There's this really creepy fog and a scary storm outside, and I can't seem to turn on any of the lights! It's so dark and spooky down here, I sure hope there isn't somepony hiding and waiting to jump out and frighten me!" Maybe she was laying it on a little thick, but it was hard to stay in character when she was grinning from ear to ear. She was really appreciating all the effort her friends must have gone through to create this unearthly atmosphere. "Are you all okay up there?"

As Sunny reached the landing and carefully cantered into the bedroom, she was more convinced than ever that she was the victim of a Nightmare Night prank, and it was a doozy that had been masterfully executed! Emphasis on the word 'executed'! There was blood sprayed everywhere in the room! The floor, the walls, and even the ceiling were all dripping with the crimson fluid. It was a huge mess and, considering they'd need to go to sleep soon, it struck Sunny as being kind of overkill. They'd gotten it all over the crystal elevator, their beds, and Sunny could see that several set of sheets were completely ruined. They would be up to the wee hours of the morning cleaning and doing laundry. Maybe since it was fake blood there was a quick and easy way to clean it up that Sunny just wasn't aware of?

An amazingly subtle touch was what had been done with the film projected onto the bedroom wall. Cracks radiated around the films grainy image as if the film were breaking through into their reality! A trail of fake blood leading down from the image to the floor gave the impression that something had actually drug its gore dripping carcass out of the movie itself! The horror film had been paused right at the scene where the slasher was revealed to be not just any ordinary pony, but actually one with supernatural power. The killer's incredible abilities, which included the power to seemingly teleport, mimic their victims voices, and cause an eye watering amount of damage with multiple weapons that seemed to come from nowhere, were all revealed to not be the result of poor editing or bad writing but rather instead a product of the killer’s uncanny paranormal nature!

The plot had been written in such a way the audience would take it for granted that the murderer was one of the final mares friends or an ex-lover in disguise, yet this had been nothing more than a clever ruse to distract from the villain actually being a ghostly entity. In reality the killer that stalked our heroes had no relation to them at all. In fact, they had merely been in the wrong place at the wrong time and had unfortunately attracted the killer's attention through pure happenstance. They were less an antagonist and more a force of nature. It seemed that in line with that the set up in the bedroom was meant to indicate that the killer had used her powers to escape from the film! As if they were the ones responsible for all the spooky goings-on in the Crystal Brighthouse! How clever!

It was going to take a lot of spackle to repair the wall, but sweet Celestia it was quite the effective set up!

Only, there was one problem. Sunny was pretty sure she was the only one that had seen ‘Nightmare Night’ before. Her friends weren't as into these old slasher movies as she was. Most of the films Sunny collected had come out before they had even been born. It didn't seem likely that they would have known about this films twist from their own experience. As far as Sunny knew she was the only pony who even knew this film was an option for their entertainment this evening.

As if to punctuate this realization the storm outside grew worse. Sunny could hear the wind howling as thick sheets of rain pounded the outside of the Crystal Brighthouse. It sounded like they were in for a real Nor'easter, rather than a simple little cloud burst stirred up by a couple of Pegasi. A shiver went down the young mare's spine as she began to think that her friends might not actually be responsible for everything she was seeing. Maybe they weren't accountable for any of it, in fact.

"Okay guys, I'm sorry to ruin the fun, but I think that's enough," hollered Sunny, still holding on to the hope that this was all just a joke. When there was no reply she instead tried, "I get it, you all went to a lot of effort to give me a Nightmare Night to remember, but enough is enough! You can come out now! It's not funny anymore!"

In the center of the second floor, situated between all the beds, there was a glass elevator that led up to the upper reaches of the Crystal Bright house. Sunny hadn't really paid to much attention to it, too distracted by the grizzly scene in the rest of the bedroom. All of the sudden though, the doors slid open with a soft hiss and more green fog spilled out from inside to flood the bedroom just like the downstairs. Sunny sighed with relief, thinking this was at last her friends making their appearance, but instead when she looked inside there was nopony there. Only four glowing jack-o-lanterns, each with a hauntingly familiar face carved into the orange rind.

Sunny didn't have long to consider what it was about those pumpkin faces that were so disturbing, before her attention was seized by another strange phenomena. The Prisbeam, which typically shone down from within the elevator shaft in rainbow hues, had completely changed. Sunny hadn't noticed before because the glass tube that housed the elevator had been so splattered with blood as to be almost opaque but now with the doors open she could see that the Prisbeam had gone from every color of the rainbow to a dull black and grey monochrome that was edged with a sinister crackling red sparkle. As far as they could tell the rainbow of light represented the flow of magic from ponies into the land of Equestria itself and back again. Something had clearly gone terribly wrong! This bizarre rainbow of darkness thrummed and pulsed weakly in a way that was painful to Sunny's eyes, causing strange images to blossom in her mind and dance across her vision.

There were flashes of an Earth Pony being pounded over and over into the jagged glass shards of a pair of broken mirrors. This was followed by the apparition of a mutilated mare crawling painfully across a blood stained floor to a phone that was just out of her reach, just before something ripped off her scalp and bit into her skull. The visions came faster, overlapping one another, and they were now joined by a series of auditory hallucinations as well. A symphony of screams - cries of anguish, despair, and pain - echoed inside of Sunny's head as she saw ponies chopped to pieces, ripped to shreds, ground to a paste, and devoured mercilessly by many unrelenting maws all lined with candy corn fangs. Sunny fell to the floor and added her own screams to the cacophonous noise as she clamped her hooves over her ears, trying to drown out the endless sounds of torment and horror. It felt as if she was forced to endure every act of savagery, every cruelty, with her own body. Her senses were flooded with sensations both unfamiliar and agonizing as she writhed and foamed at the mouth.

Sunny could perceive that what she was experiencing was not some trick or illusion, no, but instead an awful, terrible truth that was playing out even now in the streets of Maretime Bay. A cold hard truth that had been haunting the town as Nightmare Night had gone on. One that she and her friends had been blissfully unaware of until it was far too late!

At last, the manifestations slowed. Now Sunny was once again downstairs in her kitchen, watching a strange mare she had caught glances of in her other visions lean over a meal spread out on the table, eating it with gusto. Only instead of a warm home cooked meal being eaten it was Sunny's friend Hitch! The horrified young mare could see from how wide his eyes were that Hitch was still alive as the stranger ate him, but he was helpless against her, pinned down by so much cutlery stuck into his body that he could barely twitch! His mouth had been so jammed full of knives that his moans of pain and screams of terror only came out as a low gurgling hiss, silenced by the cold sharp metal.

The image shifted, although it was still the same scene. Hitch was now, mercifully, dead. Yet there was a new victim present to suffer, as Sunny watched helplessly as Zipp came into the room. It seemed to take the Pegasus a moment to process what she was seeing and in that moment of hesitation the horrific mare who had tortured and eaten Hitch got the drop on Zipp too! The brutality unleashed on the unwitting princess was made all the more unbearable as Sunny was forced to listen to the monstrous mare's girlish giggles as she sadistically entertained herself with Zipp's suffering.

Now Sunny was back in the bedroom, but there was no blood - Not yet. That did not last long as, unbelievably, Zipp made it upstairs still alive but mortally injured. It looked like the fiend had purposely thrown her up the stairs to act as both ultimatum and terroristic threat. Sunny realized neither Pipp nor Izzy were equipped to deal with such a shocking situation so suddenly being thrust on them, and so it was only with deepening despair that Sunny watched the shadowy monstrosity came up the stairs after them.

What happened next threatened to destroy Sunny's already reeling mind, The thing she had thought was merely a murderous pony warped and changed into a towering abomination that proceeded to tear into Pipp. Izzy watched on just as Sunny did, helpless to save her friends. Then the grotesque thing turned its baleful gaze on her and proceeded to violate her in the worst ways imaginable. Sunny realized that the same had apparently been done to almost every pony that had crossed this ghoul's path that evening. Maretime Bay had been saturated in blood and suffering and Sunny hadn't even noticed! The blood was not fake, neither was the fog, or the magical storm that raged above the town. All of it was being caused by this maniacal shape changing beast that laughed at the agony of any pony unfortunate enough to cross her path as it feasted upon their flesh as well as their fright!

The moment passed and the visions faded.

Sunny felt sore all over. Fresh blood dripped from her nose and ears, and her eyes were bloodshot with tears. She felt her gorge rise in her throat, but she fought down the urge to vomit. It would only delay what she had to do.

Wiping her bloody nose clean with the back of her hoof, Sunny stepped into the elevator and pushed the button that would take her up to the Gallery Deck and the Lantern Room. She didn't truly know what awaited her up there, but with every fiber of her being she knew that this was where she had to go.

As the elevator rose up the glass tube, Sunny looked out over Maretime Bay. The entire town was obscured by boiling green fog which unnaturally swirled around, making the buildings appear like decrepit tombstones in some long forgotten and neglected graveyard. The foreboding metaphor was not far from the truth, as Sunny realized that many of the homes had been turned into abattoirs and charnel houses this evening. Surprisingly, Sunny thought she could see figures slowly moving about in the misty streets, lit up by the occasional flash of lightning. They swayed slowly, sadly back and forth, as if listening to some sorrowful silent serenade.

As the elevator continued to ascend, Sunny began to hear the song too.

♪~Nightmare Night, what a fright, give me something sweet to bite~♪

At first she thought she was imagining it, but she dismissed that thought as the song grew louder. It was coming from above.

♪~Nightmare Night, what a fright, give me something sweet to bite~♪

She had heard this song before, being sung by many voices when she had been trapped in her visions. Now it was being sung by a lone despondent voice in a slow, soft monotone.

♪~Nightmare Night, what a fright, give me something sweet to bite~♪

At last the elevator doors slid open revealing the gallery deck. It was only a few steps up into the lantern room. When Sunny arrived there she realized things worse than she had thought. The Unity Crystals were still intact, but they were cracked, warped, and twisted. The artifacts were caught in a thick black and red web that filled the Lantern Room. The cord-like threads pulsed like a heart beat, each throb seeming to suck the magic from the crystals and further distort them. Each pulsation sent a stab pf pain directly into Sunny's mind like an ice-pick was being jammed into her skull. Yet as the pain grew stronger the pounding grew weaker and, with each passing moment, the Prisbeam grew darker. The light grew fuzzy and indistinct, as if it were on the verge of fading altogether.

♪~Nightmare Night, what a fright, give me something sweet to bite~♪

And there she was, the cause of it all.

The stranger who had invaded their home and their town was standing almost nonchalantly out on the Widow's Walk, looking out over the town. A freezing wind swirled around her, swishing and whirling her long black and red mane, but not a drop of rain dared to fall on her. This monster was the eye of the storm of madness and malice that had been unleashed on Maretime Bay. She was the abomination that spoke in the tones of a child and, though she could mimic many stolen voices, the voice she was using now was uniquely her own. There was only one name for her...

"Candy Mare..." whispered Sunny. Her visions had shown her more than just the ghouls actions, but had revealed her nature to Sunny as well. Sure enough, the thing in front of her only barely resembled a pony and was in actuality composed of a hodgepodge of sweets and treats smooshed together in a vaguely pony-like shape. Some of the confections that composed her were so ancient that they had long ago rotted or crystallized, and this rendered her all the more hideous as she turned to regard the little pony who had spoken her name. Sunny howled, "What did you do!?"

"You know what I did," replied the Candy Mare softly. "You saw everything. All that I've done tonight. All that I'm planning to do, if you don't find a way to stop me."

"Why? Why show me that!?" demanded Sunny, outraged. "You're just going to kill me anyways, right? That's your plan! So why make me suffer through seeing all of that pain and horror!?"

"So you would understand," answered the candified corpse as she smiled ever so sickeningly sweetly at Sunny. "So you would know exactly how grateful I am to you."

"Grateful!?" cried Sunny, aghast "You've killed and tortured so many innocents and you day you are grateful!?"

"None of you are innocent!" roared the Candy Mare spitefully, an aura of dark crimson power crackling over her form. Eyes and toothy mouths rippled through her candy flesh, but with apparent effort the beast restrained herself. More calmly, she continued, "Never the less, yes, I am grateful. I wanted to show you my gratitude."

"This is gratitude!? Hah!" cried Sunny, unable to suppress her tears as she laughed bitterly. "Gratitude for what!?"

"Why, for everything you and your friends have accomplished Sunny! For finding the Unity Crystals! For bringing Magic back to Equestria! For bringing me, back to Equestria! " exclaimed the monstrosity as she suddenly loomed impossibly tall over the Earth Pony, her pink and blue glowing eyes turning to fiery red pinpricks in empty black sockets. "Your disrespect for the dead, for the wishes of those that sealed away Equestria's magic, is what brought me back from beyond the veil! That and the magic you so brazenly unleashed are what have infused me with the power to be here tonight!"

"What?" asked Sunny, dumbfounded. That couldn't possibly be true. "We brought you back? There's no way! We couldn't possibly have brought you back!"

"Of course you did," replied the Candy Mare smugly, her gentle tone giving way to one that was remarkably spiteful. "Did you think when you brought magic back that you only brought back the good magic? Equestria's history is chock full of tales of dark sorcery, wicked despots, and evil creatures that haunted the shadows of this land. Did it never occur to you that by bringing magic back you might bring all those things back with it? Are you so naive to think that you could take the good without the bad?"

"No that's not what I mean!" roared Sunny, as she stamped her hooves in frustration. "There is no way we could have brought you, specifically, back! The Candy Mare isn't real! She was a cautionary tale to keep fillies and colts afraid of breaking their parents rules! Just an old pony tale told around campfires and in front of mirrors at sleepovers. The subject of cheesy slasher films and bad melodramas! She never actually existed!"

That admonishment seemed to give the Candy Mare pause. She seemed to shrink as the building aura of power around her faded and her eyes returned to their usual pink and blue state. She was remarkably fragile in that moment, like an ancient doll that had been left all alone in an attic somewhere to gather dust and cobwebs.

"Maybe you're right," the creature whispered wistfully. "Something has felt off all night. I don't seem to be entirely myself anymore, or at least not how I remember myself being. I am different from what I was before, changed in a way that makes me question why I'm doing any of this. Perhaps I was just a story in this Equestria. A simple nightmare that never truly existed."

Sunny almost felt pity for this broken creature. Almost but not quite. She could never forgive what had been done, but maybe this monster was a victim in her own way.

However, any burgeoning sympathy that Sunny might have been feeling was obliterated by what she said next.

"But does any of that really matter?" asked the Candy Mare as insanity and more than a little cruelty flooded back into her swirling eyes. A wide grin split her horrid face from ear to ear as she laughed in Sunny's face, "Waxing existential over the whys and wherefores is just a waste of time. Clearly all that evil magic went somewhere, and that somewhere is me! I am here now! I exist now! And I plan to keep it that way!"

"Not if I have anything to say about it!" swore Sunny as a golden pair of wings erupted from her back and a glowing horn of light sprouted from her forehead. The force of the Alicorn's very appearance seemed to push back against the darkness, opening a hole in the clouds above that allowed the moon to shine down around her. The Unity Crystals seemed to stabilize and the licorice web that held them started to shrivel at the touch of the golden glow. "For my friends! For Equestria! It's time to bring your story to an end!"

"Aww, what's the matter Sunny-bunny?" mocked the Candy Mare in Argyle's voice. In Sunny's father's voice! "Are you going to do your part, hoof to heart?"

Fury erupted inside of Sunny as she launched herself at the cannibalistic corpse in a blind rage. This monster defiling her father's memory was the last straw that pushed her from righteous anger to absolute fury! All she wanted was to wipe that terrible smile off of this horror's abominable face!

Tendrils and claws exploded towards Sunny, but her magic fried them to a cinder, causing them to shrivel and melt like a bowl of ice-cream under a burning noon day sun. The Candy Mare gave an unearthly screech and yowled more like a dying cat than a wounded pony. Then Sunny was on her, sending candy flying in every direction as she tore into the monster with her bare hooves as well as her magic! Melted chocolate and caramel splashed against the inside of the lighthouse's glass and bits and pieces of charred candy scattered out over the Widows Walk and sleeted down onto the ground below. The storm seemed to reach the pinnacle of its fury as the heavens broke, lashing the two opponents with wind and torrential rain as they fought!

When Sunny was done venting her wrath all that remained of the Candy Mare was her sugar skull, broken in several places so you could see through the hollow candy shell to the green gummy brains within, and a throbbing shriveled up piece of meat that was the only part of her that was not made of candy - her heart. Yet even as Sunny stood over her, huffing and puffing, as she tried to catch her breath she could see that the bits and pieces of candy that remained in the Lantern Room were wriggling their way back towards the desiccated heart. Before the Alicorn's eyes, pieces of the shattered sugar skull started to float back into place, and fresh lollipop eyes grew in its empty sockets as a new set of candy corn teeth erupted from the monstrosities jaws. The quickly regenerating severed head smiled savagely up at Sunny.

"Good try, for an amateur," the ghoul hissed, her voice a whisper, dry as leaves and crisp as an Autumn morning. "But you don't get to end my story. I get to end yours!"

"Guess again," Sunny's eyes suddenly shone with a golden inner light that was quite at odds with her Nightmare Moon costume. A beam of pure magic erupted from the Alicorn's horn and tour through the sugar skull, shattering it once more, and this time disintegrating its brains along with it. The beam of light shifted to engulf the ragged heart, charring it black, before Sunny smashed her hoof down upon it. The carbonized muscle crumbled to ash and was blown away by the howling storm winds. The pieces of candy still in the tower ceased their wiggling and fell still. Sunny lifted her hoof from the ashes, her hoof-print in stark relief against the cinders, and raised the hoof to her chest. "Like you said, I did my part. Hoof to heart."

With the threat of the Candy Mare gone, Sunny's wings and horn faded. She at last allowed herself to break down and, with a shuddering sob, curled up with her back against the candy gore smeared glass of the Brighthouse.

Sunny cried for everyone who had died; all of her friends, her family, and for the ponies that she had hardly even known who had simply been going about their lives in Maretime Bay. Ponies that Sunny would now never get the chance to know any better than that. She cried for all the pain and horror they had suffered and all that had been lost. She could only imagine what this would do to the relations between the pony tribes once word got out, but it seemed like it could only undo all the careful progress that they had made. The small faction of ponies that still grumbled against the return of magic as something dangerous would likely gain a significant number of new followers.

But more than anything, Sunny cried for herself. Not just for the fear and rage that the Candy Mare had sown in her heart, but for all the doubt that she had planted there too. Sunny had no way to know for sure if the things the Candy Mare said had been lies or the truth when she said it was Sunny and her friends fault for bringing her to Equestria. Even if it was a lie, it was true enough that Sunny hadn't really considered what dark forces she and her friends might unleash by trying to restore magic. In light of all of that, this was no victory or cause for celebration, but a grim warning of worse that might be yet to come. As such, she might find herself joining the anti-return of magic faction, as heartbreaking as that would be.

But Sunny was certain that she had not set out to disrespect the dead, as the Candy Mare had claimed. She had nothing but love and respect for the ponies who had come before her, and from what she had seen she believed that Twilight Sparkle and her friends had intended for magic to eventually return to Equestria, not stay sealed away forever. Sunny just had a better understanding now of what led to them making the difficult decision to lock magic away and hide Equestria from the rest of the world in the first place. That was, if threats like the Candy Mare were the alternative.

Still, if the option was between a divided Equestria without magic or a united one with magic, what choice had Sunny and her friends really had? Being in constant fear and misery were not how ponies were meant to live. Sunny had just wanted everyone to be happy and to be friends again. Was that so wrong? But if it was not, then why had her childhood dream twisted into such a terrible nightmare? Why had so many ponies suffered and died as a result?

As Sunny's small frame continued to shake, racked with grief, she didn't notice that the storm outside had not abated entirely. Indeed, it seemed to be steadily growing worse instead, with the fog thickening and rising up to completely engulf the Crystal Brighthouse in its billowing cloak. Sunny didn't see how the shriveled tendrils of licorice that bound the Unity Crystals swelled, tightened their grip, and burrowed still deeper into the magical stones. Not until it was too late did Sunny notice anything was wrong at all.

Then the Prisbeam went out and all light in the Crystal Brighthouse went with it.

"Sunny..."

In the darkness, a pained whisper drifted down from above. It didn't sound like the Candy Mare, but it did sound familiar.

"Who's that?" she asked, blurry eyes unable to focus for all the tears she had shed. "Who's there?"

"SunNy... We'Re... SsSo...GlaD... tO ssSeE YoU..."

Sunny got to her hooves, her braid swirling about as her wings and horn manifested in a golden blaze once more, "I asked who is there! Answer me!"

However, even as her magical wings and horn came into being they began to dim and fizzle, before finally fading away in a shower of sparks. The only illumination in the room was the strange pallid glow of the fog and the occasional flash of crackling lightning. By that fitful light, something that squelched wetly lowered itself from the ceiling. There was the sound of wings flapping limply as well as something soft and damp churning about to the accompaniment of the a ceaseless snapping of bone. The licorice webbing dissolved as the now useless Unity Crystals fell to shatter on the floor. At the same time something that blotted out the sky hung dripping just above Sunny's head.

"We...mIsssSEd...yOu..."

Eight eye sockets suddenly blazed with a deep crimson light that shone like a beacon in the dark. The ruddy glow filled the Brighthouse and radiated so brightly that the beams cast themselves out over the sea and the town far below. Sunny's mind reeled and her stomach churned as she looked up at the thing that was at one and the same time an unthinkable atrocity as well as a strangely compelling work of art. It was a twisted facsimile of the Unity Crystals made out of flesh and bone. But not just any flesh or bones, but rather those of her friends!

Sunny could pick out each one of them. In the center was Hitch, scrunched down into a hideous boneless ball of meat that slithered and seethed, twisting and rotating constantly in place in the position the Earth Pony Crystal would be. Zipp and Pipp were wrapped around either side of him, mouths sewn shut with pulsing licorice tendrils, their bodies melded together by their twisted legs and their backs bent painfully so that their wings stretched out to either side in a representation of the Pegasus Crystal. Lastly, crowning the bizarre corpse sculpture in the place of the Unicorn Crystal was Izzy's decapitated head, grotesquely bloated and misshapen. Izzy's own boneless body had been jammed inside of her painfully distended jaws, leaving her mouth constantly masticating her own flesh. Red and black licorice writhed like maggots over, in, and through the living obscenity; bestowing upon it the unnatural life and vitality that thrummed through her friends dead flesh.

"JoiN...Us...SsSunNy...ToGeTHeR wE wIlL bRiNG MaGiC tO ThE WoRLd!"

Their voices in her head were strange and hypnotic. Sunny could not stop listening. She could not move or look away. As the young mare watched in astonishment, this violation of her friends quickly candified, a thick crystalline sugar spreading over their conjoined form. From this semi-translucent candy coating new eyes and slavering mouths erupted, jagged rock candy teeth gnashing together hungrily as the monstrosity loomed over Sunny. The licorice tendrils which had previously held the creature together now shot out, wrapping themselves around Sunny's limbs, torso, and throat. There was no hope of escape as Sunny felt herself lifted bodily into the air. With a sound like cracking ribs and ripping flesh, a huge mouth opened in the very center of the obscene candy facsimile of the Unity Crystal, revealing a heart shaped hollow within that was wreathed around in candy fangs that spun like the teeth of a chainsaw. Sunny heard her own voice whispering from the void within.

"This is where you belong. This is where you have always belonged. At the heart of your friends, at the heart of magic, at the heart of everything! This is how it ends, and begins..."

"No, this isn't right!" protested Sunny as she struggled weakly, her last spark of defiance flaring against the dark magic that clouded her mind. "This isn't where I belong! Is it...?"

Whether it was or was not no longer mattered, Sunny's last words were lost to the sound of the enormous jaws slamming shut around her suspended form. A band-saw whine filled the tower as fresh blood and flakes of meat sprayed in every direction from the constructs makeshift mouth. Both the grinding and cutting noises as well as Sunny's screams were muffled. They went on for some time as the mare was contorted and compressed smaller and smaller to fit the heart shaped hole in the center of the monster. As the last of her life's-blood trickled out of the seams of the artificial Candy Crystals, the thing finally swallowed. The composite creature moaned with pleasure in five voices, like a party of starving people might after enjoying a meal long in the coming.

"Mmm...DeLiCioUsss! We...wAnT...MoRe..."

The crimson glow that emanated from the Crystal Brighthouse swept out over the horizon, searching for that next meal. Far below, the candy ghouls that were all that remained of the citizens of of Maretime Bay, began the slow and somber march inland towards Zephyr Heights and Bridlewood. The Autumn chill and the pallid green fog following with them.