The Most Horrible Hearth's Warming EVER: A Candy Mare Tale

As quickly as she had revealed herself, the Candy Mare darted back into the dark, not giving her prey a chance to react. The echoes of her laughter came from every direction as the trees surrounding the clearing began to bend and shake as if caught in a violent storm. It was clear that the monster was trying to disorient them and keep them guessing about where exactly she was and from where she might strike.

Flash Magnus readied his shield and took wing, but since he didn't know from where or when his enemy might attack he held his position with his back to the flames. He cursed himself for sacrificing his night vision for the limited illumination that the stoked bonfire provided, the firelight only serving to illuminate a perfect kill zone for their opponent, given how fast she seemed capable of moving. As it was, the Candy Mare knew right where they were, but it was impossible to pick her fleeting form from among the ever shifting shadows.

It didn't help that Flash's eyes kept drifting to the remains of his fellow legionaries. They were ponies that he had served with, shared meals with, and stood watch with more times than he could count. He knew all of their hopes and dreams. Or rather, he had known them, but now those aspirations has been cut short as brutally as their lives. Such was the fate of soldiers of course, but that didn't mean he could accept such wholesale slaughter. Flash Magnus, who had engaged dragons in dogfights and danced through their fiery breath without singeing a feather, had never felt as close to death as he did right now...

Without warning a giggling ball of teeth and claws exploded from the snow, eyes glowing with swirled pink and blue madness as it hurtled at blinding speed towards the pegasi. Instinctively Flash raised his shield at the last possible moment, the fiends flashing limbs sending sparks flying into the night as they scraped across the metallic surface with a terrible screech! For a moment her full weight was pressed against the Netitus, and Flash's every muscle strained against her fearsome momentum. The Candy Mare was far heavier than her diminutive size would have led him to believe, but even so his defenses held and he managed to shrug her off, deflecting her attack to one side.

For an ever so brief moment, the Candy Mare hung helplessly in the air. Seizing this chance, Commander Hurricane charged the thrashing beast mid-air. With a whoosh, he brought his mace down in a lightning fast arc aimed to crush her candy skull with one mighty blow!

Unfortunately, the heavy spiked ball only slammed uselessly into the ground, its intended target contorting herself into an unnatural shape to dodge the spiked metal orb. Instead, the Candy Mare skidded to a halt by the fire, hunched over commander Ironhead's prone body. Without missing a beat, Hurricane brought his mace up in a searing uppercut, that for just a moment appeared to connect with the cannibal corpse's chin, before the fleet footed filly bolted away, back into the treeline. She left behind no trace of her presence aside from her mocking laughter.

"She's quick," spat Hurricane, as if it were a curse.

"Tell me something I don't know!" shouted Flash, his ire rising with his adrenaline. "What's the plan? How do we beat this thing!?"

"If you figure it out, be sure to let me know," was the commanders flippant response. "I've only been trying to kill her every day since she popped my best friend like a water balloon."

"Hahaha! I bet that was quiet the sight! You certainly have been trailing me doggedly since then, little hound! And oh the price he has paid for the privilege!" ridiculed Candy Mare, with a scornful chuckle. "First I took an eye. Then a leg. Then a wing. Then another leg, because honestly, why not go for a matching set? What should I take from you this time commander?"

"You already took the only thing that ever mattered to me, beast!" shouted back the mutilated pegasus as he raised his mace menacingly. "I'll pay whatever toll I must in order to smash in that sick smile of yours, no matter how steep!"

"Oh goodie!" shrieked the monstrous mare, as if she enjoyed her enemies rage. "Then I guess it's chef's choice! What piece of you should I devour next? Perhaps this time I'll just take your head!"

With that, a scythe like appendage whistled out of the forest straight for Hurricane's throat!

Fortunately, the commander was able to duck just before the razor edged limb could slice through his neck, though the plume of his helm was shaved clean off. The flashing candy scythe didn't stop there, however, and wrapped itself like a grasping tentacle around Flash Magnus's leg, digging into the meat with a sick thunk!

A howl of pain erupted from the legionnaire as with a tug the Candy Mare nearly degloved his extremity, sending a fresh spurt of arterial blood to blotch the now crimson snow.

"Ooh! Maybe I'll just take another one of your toy soldiers instead!" the Candy Mare chortled. She showed herself once more, licking her orange and black striped tongue over her candy corn fangs as she peeked out of the shadows. "After all, these pegasus troops are quite crunchy and taste good chilled to the bone with terror!"

As the candy coated fiend gloated, however, Flash Magnus had other ideas. Raising his shield over his head, he brought it down hard - edge first - on the grasping tendril that held him.

The Candy Mare screamed!

Despite it appearing to be just a strand of the mad mare's hair, black blood erupted from the severed strand and the candy coated beast herself let out a pained squeal as the metal sliced the rest of the way through! With a painful kick of his partially skinned leg, the pegasus soldier shook loose the bladed piece of the now detached candy appendage. As soon as it touched the ground it began to writhe and wriggle back towards him, as if it had a mind of its own and was out for bloody vengeance!

With a golf swing of his mace, Commander Hurricane connected with the tendril fragment and sent it hurtling into the bonfire. There was a tiny scream and a puff of green smoke as the candy caught fire and shriveled up into a charred black squiggle. Then it was gone.

"Just cutting a piece of her off isn't enough." Hurricane advised, "Throw any bits you manage to tear off into the fire! Otherwise it will just rejoin with her in time."

"Thanks for the update," hissed Flash, doing his best to quickly tie a makeshift tourniquet with his torn cloak around his wounded leg. The cuts were ragged and deep and he risked bleeding out if he did not act fast. "Anything else you care to share before she finishes tearing us apart?"

During this time, the Candy Mare had melted back into the shadows but instead of laughter it was the sound of screams as she ranted and raved that split the night.

She was clearly unhappy about losing a part of herself to the hungry flames.

"I was only going to torment you a little. Just to give your meat that sweet tang of terror. I would have killed you swiftly, like I did with your friends, but that shield of yours actually managed to hurt me!" growled the Candy Mare in a guttural fashion that was very unfilly-like indeed. For once, she sounded very much like the monster she truly was. "You feather brained pegasus. Now I'm going to make you suffer!"

"Sticks and stones," Flash shot back weakly. He didn't let the promises of doom distract him, however, staying vigilant for where the next attack might come from. He wouldn't be caught out twice, if he could help it. The immediacy of the pain of his injured leg helped him to focus on his enemies movements and ignore her words. If he truly had enraged her, then the next attack would likely be aimed at him and it would be coming very soon.

Only it didn't.

The trees stopped their shaking.

The ever present laughter faded to silence.

The snow which had been falling steadily faster began to fill the air in earnest, an audible hiss drowning out every other sound as the fat feathery flakes softly piled up on the ground. Every trace of blood or viscera was quickly covered in a blanket of white. Visibility quickly dropped from poor to none at all as the storm grew serious and the two soldiers were engulfed by the resulting blizzard.

The fire did nothing to aid them now, as White Out conditions took their field of vision down to zero. These circumstances could prove fatal in even the best of times, but in the middle of pitched battle against a supernaturally fast and strong enemy? There was almost nothing that could be worse.

Flash tugged his cloak tight around himself and stated the obvious, "We're in trouble now."

"One of us needs to fly up and bust the storm, or we're done for," agreed Hurricane. "Your younger, faster. You do it. I'll stay here and try to distract her. You should take the chance to get clear.”

"No," the legionnaire declined, hefting his shield. "This is the only thing that has done any real damage to her so far. Even if I were to go, it's obvious that I'm still going to be her target as long as I have this. You take care of the storm as best you can. I'll hold her off until you get back."

The commander locked eyes with the cadet through the swirling storm, "I'm not the cloud buster I used to be. Losing my legs saw to that as surely as what she did to my wings. I do good to manage a hover these days."

"Then hover out of here and bring back some reinforcements," Flash replied in a harsh whisper. "It's obvious we're out-matched here. If her attention is on me then we need to use that to our advantage."

The older pony hesitated, but nodded. "Keep your back to the fire and stay as close to it as you can. She won't be able to come at you through the flames. Singe your tail off if you have to, and keep that shield up and at the ready. There's no telling what dirty tricks she'll try next."

"Yes sir!" barked the cadet brusquely, taking position so he was silhouetted against the blaze, armor gleaming as if it was fresh out of the forge. For the briefest of moment he looked like a phoenix, wreathed in flames and snow that drifted like falling ash, "On your way sir!"

He needn't have said anything. Hurricane was already gone, lost beyond the wall of white and well out of earshot.

The silence that followed was somehow more chilling than the snowstorm itself.

Flash could feel the fur on his back curling and smell the stench of burning hair as he hovered as close to the crackling flames as he dared.

Beneath the stink of his own singed hide there was another scent which turned Flash's stomach even further. It rose from the dead body of his mentor, Commander Ironhead, who had collapsed too close to the roaring blaze. The sweet stench of roasting pony forced Flash to fight down waves of nausea as he tried to focus his other senses on detecting his enemy's movements. Though the snow would most likely distort any sounds, identifying the approach of the Candy Mare was likely the only chance he would have at defending himself.

So Flash strained his ears, swiveling them about, trying to catch even the barest hint of what direction violent death might be advancing from.

Crunch, crunch...

There, what was that!?

It was low and anyone who wasn't listening specifically for it would have likely missed it, but it was the unmistakable sound of hooves crunching through snow! It was slower and quieter than Flash had expected. It seemed like the Candy Mare was taking her time, creeping up on him cautiously.

She was taking this seriously now, despite her anger, no longer recklessly throwing herself at her prey.

Dealing with a beast was bad enough, but a beast that could think, reason, and learn from its mistakes was seriously the worst news.

She already out classed him in speed and strength, so if she managed to defeat him in a battle of wits as well then it was all over.

Crunch-crunch.

The sound came again, but this time slightly off to the right. Was she trying to circle around behind him?

Crunch-crunch-crunch.

Wait, that had come from the left. Had she realized he had heard her and was trying to switch tactics? To what end?

Crunch!

No, that couldn't be right, that was right in front of him!

She was fast, but surely not that fast!

CRUNCH-CRUNCH-CRUNCH-CRUNCHCRUNCHCRUNCHCRUNCHCRUNCHCRUNCHCRUNCHCRUNCHCRUNCHCRUNCHCRUNCHCRUNCH!!!

The sound was suddenly coming from every direction at once!

But that wasn't as terrifying as the moan that rose from right behind him!

As Flash turned he had just a brief glimpse of Ironhead's corpse engulfed in flames as it lunged at him!

It was only by instinct that Flash brought his shield around and smashed it into the side of the ponies head and sent him sprawling back into the fire. The mournful sound that rose from his dead commanders ruined throat as the tongues of fire consumed him completely was unlike any sound he'd ever heard any pony make before. The aroma of burning flesh was overpowering as the commander's fat sizzled and melted, bubbling away in the snow. Perhaps the old stallion had drank one too many mugs of hot cocoa?

Flash had no time to make sense of the horror of his commander's sudden resurrection and destruction, as multiple shapes loomed out of the wall of snow. Their eye sockets were hollowed out and their jaws hung open and slack just as the corpse of Ironhead's had. However unlike him their bodies were mismatched things, clearly jumbled together in some haste and held together only by twitching black and red tendrils of licorice. This candy thread seemed to pull them along as well, making them lurch awkwardly, their hooves barely touching the ground. They moved surprisingly quickly, floating over the snow, groaning painfully as they flew at the bewildered pegasus!

The soldier whirled, bashing his shield into the corpses as they came. He drove them back as best he could, though their hooves scrabbled against his armor time and time again, trying to drag him down. He couldn't fly away now even if he had wanted to, as every time he tried to dart away a fresh corpse would pull him down to the ground while it’s fellows blocked out the sky.

Now that they were so close, It didn’t take long for Flash to figure out who his attackers were. The Candy Mare was using his dead comrades to attack him, holding together their ripped apart remains with her foul candy strings as if they were nothing more than grizzly marionettes to dance to her tune. Where he could, Flash used the edge of his shield to try and cut the strings that were manipulating their movements, but more often he sliced off a head or a limb instead. That did little to slow them down as headless and limbless cadavers simply tottered backwards into the snow to re-emerge moments later with fresh replacements. Faces and bodies of his dead friends swapped back and forth as swiftly as he could drive them back, any damage he managed to deal instantly repaired!

This was beyond the worst case scenerio.

As the battle wore on, the lips of the severed heads began to twitch and twist on their own. The corpse's empty eye sockets began to glow as if illuminated from within by some infernal magical light. They smiled rotten jack-o-lantern grins and displayed broken and jagged teeth, At last they started to laugh, dry as leaves shivering in the autumn breeze, sending ice water dripping down Flash's spine despite his proximity to the bonfire.

Then they began to sing...

"Nightmare Night..."

"What a Fright..."

"Give us Something..."

"Something?"

"Something Sweet..."

"Something... Sweet... to... Bite!"

Before Flash's horror struck eyes the jigsaw pieces of his friends body parts began a chilling metamorphosis! Hard crystalline growths began to cover their limbs, knitting them together more completely than the Candy Mare's stitch-craft had managed. A strange substance spilled from their gaping wounds to engulf their blood slick bodies. It was something, at first, that Flash could not identify but as the smell of it struck him like a physical wall there was no mistaking what it was...

It was candy.

That overpowering sugary aroma was something he was fast becoming familiar with. Fresh, shiny candy that flooded the gaps in their mismatched bodies and grew into plates of armor and wickedly curved spikes and hooks. Chocolate, caramel, cookies, wafers, hard candies and taffy spilled from their insides to coat their outsides in uncanny candy splendor!

As the freshly minted candied ghouls new exoskeletons solidified their movements became faster, more powerful, and more precise. They also became more vicious, changing from trying to grab hold of Flash to actively attempting to tear him apart! Their laughter grew louder along with the unnatural light that blazed brighter in their eyes. That eerie glow came in every color and hue as they darted in and out of Flash's field of vision. Liquid candy drizzled from the candied corpse's once hollowed out eye sockets, twin rivulets that splattered Flash with their sticky pink filth. Suddenly the once slack mouths were filled with jagged teeth that gleamed darkly in the half light, drool leaking from salivating maws that snapped mere inches from his face!

Flash Magnus was on the verge of being eaten alive by the very dead friends he had not even had a chance to mourn!

His fellow legionnaires were no longer puppets, but had been reborn as beasts just as sick and deadly as the creature who had killed them! Flash's muscles were sore and his bones were shivering with ever blow his shield took from the slavering dead. Were it not for Netitus he would have already been shredded to ribbons and devoured long ago. As it was, he put his all into merely defending himself, as there were no openings for him to fight back. If he lowered his shield for even a moment it would be all over for the brave pegasus. The grotesque ghouls were driving him back, inch by inch, into the fire that had so recently consumed Commander Ironhead. Flash could see his feathers blackening and curling away in the wintry wind!

Did they mean to feed him to the flames the way Commander Hurricane had fed that small fragment of the Candy Mare but moments ago?

Was this her petty idea of revenge for that comparatively minor slight?

If that were the case, Flash Magnus would never know, for a sudden hail of arrows peppered the ghouls with such force that it hurled them away from Flash and snapped their heads backwards!

"Second volley!" cried a clear and commanding voice. Another wave of arrows drove back the undead horde as they tried to recover. This was followed with another command, "Hold your fire! Advanced unite, charge!"

From the wall of snow erupted the gleaming armored forms of the Royal Canterlot Guard's, each brandishing a long gleaming spear! Without hesitation they impaled the candy ghouls, lifting their twitching, snarling bodies high into the air. Though the beast still thrashed at the end of the soldier’s weapons, the war ponies stood firm, not letting the creatures advance or retreat. The undead were trapped now. That was when a sudden explosion of heat and fury fell from above engulfing the monsters in a golden light that swept away the curtain of snow for miles around!

The light blazed as if the stormy night had ceased to exist and was replaced instead by brilliant day! The radiance that spilled over Flash was warm and welcome, and seemed to revitalize his weary body. Indeed, he could even feel the wounds on his leg tingle and his flesh healed and knit itself back together before his eyes! In moments, all that was left were a few fading scars to mark where his injury had been.

For the shocked and surprised candy ghouls's, however, the radiance had no such rejuvenating effects - Quite the opposite actually. The candy that held their bodies together melted and evaporated, causing the chunks of dismembered pony to slough away like muddy soil. The eldritch glow faded from their eyes as the golden glow invaded their skulls, causing their twisted songs to die on their blood stained lips. Whatever unholy power had animated them seemed to flee more swiftly than it had came. The revealed dismembered pegasi looked rather sad piled in a slurry of sludgy melted sugar, but expression of relief graced those heads which were still lucky enough to have a face. It seemed as though the dead, too, were relieved to be defeated.

Casting his eyes to the heavens, Flash Magnus couldn't help but smile from as he saw the massive white wings and the multicolored mane of his descending savior; The monarch of Equestria, Princess Celestia, had arrived! It was from her that the divine glow had emanated that healed wounds and laid low those who should, by all rights, be deceased. That explained why it felt like the summer sun was kissing Flash's face when mere moments ago the freezing grasp of encroaching death had chilled him to the bone.

Celestia was not alone, however, as her sister Princess Luna descended alongside her. The pair were accompanied by an entire host of Royal Canterlot Guards! Among them Flash caught the welcome sight of several more familiar faces - His friends were here too, each of them a legendary hero in their own right, the Guardians of Harmony! Starswirl the Bearded, Somnambula, Rockhoof, Mistmane, Mage Meadowbrook, and even little Stygian were all here!

Flash felt his wings fail him and his knees go weak as he collapsed to the ground, his shield sticking firmly into the muddy earth beside him. Relief flooded his weary form.

He was saved!

And there, coming from the rear was Commander Hurricane. He'd come through with reinforcements after all!

"Glad to see you back Commander," Flash said breathlessly, leaning against his shield for support. He wasn't sure if he was more lightheaded from fighting for his life or from the feeling of being snatched from the jaws of death, and frankly he didn't care. "What took you so long?"

There was no relief on Hurricane’s serious face, however. “Quiet, Cadet. We're not done here"

“Was our trap successful Starswirl?” asked Celestia in a calm dulcet tone quite at odds with the sight of so many corpses strewn around her. “Has the threat of the Candy Mare been eliminated?”

With a swish of his cloak, and a jingle of bells sewn into its hem, the old unicorn surveyed the scene. Regrettably, his eyes told the story before he said even a single word.

“I will have to examine the bodies to be sure, your grace,"answered Starswirl. "But it does not appear to be so. I fear that the Candy Mare has escaped us once again.”