It's the Grand Pumpkin, Pinkie Pie!

In the Ponyville library, Spike sat slumped over his desk, his quill scribbling away on a scroll of parchment initially meant for recording results, but instead filled with absent minded doodles.

To his left, a large glass sphere stood atop a narrow plinth, a single red crystal hovering motionless in the middle, pointed squarely at its centre where the number 0 was cleanly inscribed.

“Time check!” Twilight shouted from behind a stack of books in the far corner of the room. “Any changes?”

Spike tapped against the glass sphere at watched the crystal wobble slightly before stabilising, its point unaltered. “No change.” Spike sighed, recording the time and yet another ‘0’ at the margin of his parchment. “Do we really have to do this all night? It doesn’t seem like we’re gonna’ find anything.”

“‘No change’ is still a very important finding, Spike!” Twilight corrected, her head emerging from her makeshift stockade. “By the way, when you went looking for information on The Grand Pumpkin, did you happen to come across this book?”

An unfamiliar text in hand, Twilight carved a path through the labyrinth of books in which she had resided. Her slender figure glided between the thin spaces among them, though her upper half, far more pronounced, and doubly so for her modest height, occasionally necessitated the taking of more awkward paths.

Spike spun in his chair, careful to obscure his scribbles from view, and examined the dusty tome held before him, barely managing to read the words ‘Ancient Equestrian Cults’ that were carved into its cover.

“I… don’t think so.” He replied. “Why would I? Pinkie Pie said it was just some kind of holiday spirit, right?”

Twilight pried the book open and turned to a bookmark, pointing to a picture of a strange creature with a bulbous head, sketched onto the page, surrounded by worshipping women in various states of undress.

“Do you notice anything strange about this?”

Spike leaned in closer, studying the image, his focus less on the enormous monster at its centre and more at its disciples. “I - I uh…”

"The chapter is about an ancient fertility cult, ‘The Order of The Sensational Winter Squash’. " she said, flipping through the pages. “Once a year its followers offered themselves to a deity that they believed possessed great power.”

“Yeah…yeah… can I have another look at that picture?” he asked, reaching after the book as it slammed closed.

“Spike! I think there might be a connection between this cult and Pinkie Pie’s Grand Pumpkin!”

He groaned, “Come on, Twilight.”

“Spike-”

“Don’t you think if some cult were starting up in Ponyville, that we’d have heard about it?”

“Spike-”

“Or at least noticed that something weird was going on.”

“Spike! Look at the crystal!”

Inside the glass sphere, the tiny red crystal had begun to shake violently, spinning in all directions and bumping up against its glass enclosure. The magic infused lamps that surrounded them began to flicker, then, in an instant, went entirely dark, so that only the sound of the crystal clinking against the glass and falling motionless remained.

“Twi-Twilight…?”

In the pitch blackness that surrounded them , Twilight felt Spike’s trembling fingers wrapped around her wrist. She closed her eyes and focused for a moment, imagining the lamps that surrounded them once again alight, but felt a pang of fear grip her as she opened her eyes and found the darkness remained.

“Twilight… can you…?”

Twilight shushed him, and tried again, then, instead turned her focus to the air in front of her, trying and failing to conjure a pink ball of aura, but finding that it refused to take shape.

“Spike.” She said, fumbling about the darkness of the study and managing to pull a candle from a nearby drawer. “Can you light this?”

A jet of green flame set the wick alight, offering just enough light for them to see the ground in front of them.

“Why aren’t you using your magic?”

“I - I can’t…”

She began to lead him towards the stairs, their hands on either banister, walking carefully down the familiar but invisible steps.

“What do you mean you can’t?!”

“It must be the holiday magic… somehow it’s interfering with mine.”

“What does that mean?” he asked, the pair of them almost at the ground floor. “It means we need to find Pinkie Pie and the others. Now.”

“Twilight…?” Spike asked, looking to the library entrance, the door wide open. “Did - did you leave the -”

Panic took hold of Spike as the candle fell from Twilight’s hands and to the floor, the room suddenly dark save for the scattered sight of glowing orange eyes surrounding them.

“Spike! Run!” Twilight called out from somewhere deep in the darkness. Spike spun on his heel but found pairs of eyes in every direction. He shrieked and leapt in the air as the touch of something thin and cold brushed against his ankle, but found himself held aloft a moment later, the feel of rough, calloused hands against his skin. “All shall worship The Grand Pumpkin.” Applejack droned as Spike screamed and pushed himself free from her grasp.

Falling to the floor, he scrambled to his feet, running barely three steps before bouncing off of something soft and warm. “It will be your honour to serve The Grand Pumpkin.” Pinkie Pie deadpanned.

Somewhere in the darkness there was a bright orange flash. As the light receded Spike caught sight of Fluttershy directly above him, and further away, the silhouettes of who he thought might have been Dash and Rarity.

“Twilight!” he shouted out, hearing no reply. “Twilight! What is going on!?”

Three pairs of hands took hold of him, and from them, vines began to cocoon him, covering him from head to toe.

Soon, he felt the cool night air upon what little of his face remained uncovered, a sliver of moonlight passing through the still open doorway as each of his friends made their exit. Cradled in Applejack’s arms, he watched as each of them walked, single file, with arms outstretched, into the night, save for Dash, who did so with twin sacks in either hand. Twilight was last among them, a large glowing pumpkin in her hands as they crossed the threshold into the night, headed back towards The Ponyville Pumpkin Patch.