Warm water poured over the smooth porcelain white surface. The sound of the running tap could be heard even at the entrance to the Carousel Boutique, though there really was nopony there to hear it. Seemingly small, blue rocks poured into the forming pool of water.
Blue-Dust's Bath Salts, the bag read. A new brand that Rarity had recently bought, suggested by Aloe from the local spa. Apparently there was a new mare in Ponyville (Pinkie Pie would be throwing her a party soon enough) whose talent was bath salts. They emanated a beautiful aroma that Rarity just adored, and they made her fur and mane just so soft.
Her horn lit up with magic and the tap was switched off. She slipped out of her white and blue bathrobe emblazoned with her cutie mark, the bath wear sliding off her flank. She dipped in her front hooves first before lifting her hind legs over the edge of the tub and fully immersing herself in the blue and bubbly water. She submerged her head in the tub before resurfacing, her hair now straight and dripping wet. Her horn once again glowed, levitating two cucumbers from a nearby plate over her indigo eyes.
A long sigh escaped her mouth. "Finally, a moment to relax." Her pet, a white cat with a purple bow pounced around the room.
"It's been such a long day, Opal. Designing Nightmare Night costumes for everypony is just so tiring. I might not even be able complete my own." She sighed. "This happens every year."
Opalescence hopped up onto the edge of the bathtub, carefully balancing herself as not to fall into the water. Something about it was strange to her. She dipped a paw in and brought it close to her face. Opal sniffed.
"Mmrow!"
The cat accidentally inhaled the paw full of water. A violent sneeze which knocked her back erupted from her nose. Opal never was a big fan of water. It attacking her just made the hate burn brighter.
Swish.
A shadow passed over for a moment, blocking off the silver light of the Luna's moon for only a second before disappearing into the night. Opal noticed this. It was an odd occurrence to say the least. Somepony staring into the window would be eerie, but somepony staring into the window on the second floor was strange. Especially when there were no wings beats to be heard. She stepped up a few conveniently placed fabric piles and jumped onto a stool sitting under the window. She pushed it open.
Only the sound of nighttime wind passed through. Opal peeked down and out the window to see absolutely nothing out of the ordinary.
"MrreeoOW!"
Rarity shifted in the tub. "Opal?" she called to her beloved pet. "What's wrong? Brrr, it's getting cold in here."
The white unicorn lifted the cucumber slices off of her eyes and looked around the room. It was empty. That's strange, she was in here only a moment ago, she thought. On the other side of the room sat an open window, the probable reason why it was suddenly so cold. Did that silly cat jump out the window?
Something was off. Rarity levitated a towel and her bathrobe towards herself as she stepped out of the tub. The wind continued blowing. She looked out the window. Nothing. Opal must have opened and closed the door while she wasn't looking. She closed the window carefully before turning to her bath. It was quite the waste of her new bath salts. She could always re-enter the bath, but it seemed too unladylike to her. A mere matter of opinion.
She began draining the bath before hearing the bathroom door open behind her.
"Opal, you worried me. Give me warning before you AAAAAHHHHHHHH!" Her speech became a scream as she turned around.
Silence...
_______________________________
The day of Nightmare Night was always busy. It was mostly due to the festival held in the town square each year. Everypony helped set it up, and ever since that night that Princess Luna came to town settle festival had gotten bigger and bigger, especially with her returning every year.
This year Mayor Mare decided that it would be a 'super spoooooky' idea to hold a haunted house in the local Ponyville Library, to which Twilight Sparkle gave full consent. The original plan was to have the house of horrors in the town hall, but apparently there was 'not enough funding'. Besides, the library inside the giant tree is much scarier.
"The decorations look great everypony," Twilight Sparkle stated as she trotted down the stairs. She was dressed in a frilly white shirt with a black collared cape. Behind her hovered a large jack o' lantern. As she reached the bottom of the staircase she levitated the pumpkin over her head and plopped it in. "How do I look?" she asked.
The four of her friends that were there cheered.
"I think it's sure to give them kids a fright," Applejack remarked. She was dressed as her older brother, Big Macintosh. She had painted herself red and dyed her mane orange.
Rainbow flew down from the ceiling where she was hanging plastic spiders and other spooky decorations and exclaimed, "It looks awesome! Waaay better than last year when you dressed as an unfinished math equation."
"Hey, that equation was plenty scary. Cheerilee shuddered when she saw me."
Rainbow snorted. "Either way, even the Headless Horse won't be scarier than what I have planned. I've got a costume that'll make even Princess Luna cower in fear!"
A faded pink hoof grabbed her shoulder, causing her to shriek and jump up and grab onto a hanging bat.
"Didn't mean to scare you Dashie! I mean, I knew my zombie costume was scary but I didn't think it would be that scary," giggled Pinkie Pie. Her entire coat looked to be much paler than usual and had a sickly green tone to it. There were stitches drawn all over her body, and Small hairs were popping out in random places in her mane.
"I wasn't scared, you just... Startled me," grumbled Rainbow, who was now floating back down to the floor.
Fluttershy now spoke up. "Oh, I love your costume, Pinkie. Yours is the best zombie costume I've seen today."
Twilight, who had now taken off her pumpkin head, looked at Fluttershy. "I know. It's odd how many zombie costumes there are this year. Maybe there's an inside joke going around. Also, are you going to stay out tonight? I know you always stay inside on Nightmare Night, but we need a lot of help for the haunted house."
"Oh, I'm so sorry Twilight, but I, um... Need to take care of my animals tonight. Yes, that's it. Animals." Her eyes shifted left and right as she smiled widely. She changed the subject. "Which reminds me, where's Rarity? I haven't seen her all day."
As if on cue, the front door to the library creaked open. A white unicorn with a purple mane stood in the doorway. Rarity, whose hair was dripping wet slowly entered. She looked quite a bit dirty despite having seemingly taken a bath or shower. Her coat had a blue tinge to it and her eyes held a blank expression. Everypony fell silent while she took her time to walk towards the group of five. Finally, Pinkie spoke up.
"Wow Rarity! That's a really cool costume! It looks like the costume that most of the ponies in town are wearing. Are you in on whatever it is too, because we were all wondering what it was. Also, wasn't I supposed to be the zombie tonight, not you?"
"That's right Rarity," Twilight said, "you were supposed to be a 'fabulous witch'. What happened?"
She took her time to answer, as if something else was on her mind. A blank look was spread across her face. After hesitating, she stuttered, "Oh, y-yes. I- forgot. I have something I need to... Deal with. You, can you come with me?" She pointed to Rainbow Dash, who was looking a bit confused.
"Or you can use my name ya' know," she said angrily.
"Yes... Your name. I apologise. Please come with me."
Rainbow followed Rarity outside. The room was silent for a moment.
"Is it just me, or do y'all think Rarity was actin' a bit... Out of character?" Applejack asked. Something was certainly up, but nopony thought anything of it.
"I'm sure everything's fine," Twilight remarked. "She's probably just tired from making costumes for everypony. I just hope she feels better for tonight."
Other ponies around town, Fluttershy noticed, were also acting strange. They had the same blank expression and the same strange discolouring of their coats. They couldn't all be exhausted. Was it a new flu that was going around? Whatever it was, she was sure it would all blow over by the end of the day.
A slow knock emanated from the door and echoed through the tree. Lightning sounded off outside. The pegasus ponies hadn't scheduled a storm for that day. It opened. A hooded figure stood in the frame of the door. Nopony could see who it was, but they were taller than the average pony. Two eyes and a mouth began to glow under the figure's blackened hood.
"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Wind rushed in as the pony's hood fell to reveal a rotted pumpkin, it's smile wide and maniacal. They began floating as the pumpkin head dismembered itself from the body and began levitating above it.
The four friends backed away, cowering in fear as the floating pony moved ever closer. Twilight couldn't believe what she was seeing. It was exactly what she had dressed up as.
"It's the Headless Horse!"
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAhahahahehehehehe!"
The psychotic, murderous laugh turned into a light giggle as the headless figure gently floated back down. The head landed beside it.
"Hehehe. Cough cough. Boy, this costume is quite stuffy."
From under the cloak emerged not just a normal pony head, but the head of none other than Princess Luna herself. She stepped forward towards Twilight Sparkle.
"Hello Twilight, did you like my Nightmare Night costume this year?"
She frowned. Not because she had scared everypony. She scared them every year. It was because Twilight Sparkle was wearing the same costume as her.
"Oh great, I worked for weeks on this costume thinking it was original."
As if Twilight, or anypony for that matter, cared about the lunar princess' costume troubles. They were too busy gasping for breath to think about anything else.
Twilight eased up a bit. "Oh, um... Hello Princess Luna. I didn't think you would be arriving until later tonight."
"I heard news of the haunted house that was being hosted. I came in hopes that I would be able to help," the Princess responded.
Twilight, still facing Luna, powered up her horn and lifted Fluttershy out from under a pile of books while telling the Princess that she was free to help in any way.
Fluttershy, now hanging in the air, looked past Luna and out the window saw that the sun had already begun to go down. It was already nearing nighttime, and Fluttershy wasn't at home boarding up her windows and doors. She flittered her wings, causing her to become upright while he tail was still caught by Twilight's magic.
"Ohmygosh! It's getting late. In so sorry, by I need to go home right now," she explained to everypony.
"Ya, I better get back to the farm. I need ta' get some apples for bobbin'," came Applejack, who was now looking out the window. The two said their goodbyes before leaving. Applejack took notice of Fluttershy's nervousness and decided it would be best to escort the timid pegasus home. The two little ponies exited the treehouse library, Fluttershy jumping at the mere sound of the closing door.
The two friends walked along the sand road in near silence, the only sounds coming from the wind blowing through the few leaves left in the trees. The awkward silence of their trek was due to Fluttershy's irrational fear of pretty much everything. Applejack was used to her shyness, but on a night like Nightmare Night, things tend to get a little out of hoof with her. About every few minutes there would be a small noise, after which Fluttershy would dive behind the nearest bush from which Applejack would have to drag her out. This continued for about eight minutes before something happened.
After passing a small row of scary looking pony statues, the pair of ponies came across two other mares they knew. It was Rarity, who now seemed dirtier than before, and Rainbow Dash who had adopted a similar look. Her hair was messy (well, messier than before) and the shade of blue that her coat was was now slightly darker. Her eyes held the same blank stare. For a moment, both of their eyes seemed to gleam a cobalt blue.
Fluttershy tensed. Something seemed very, very wrong. Her earth pony friend on the other hand thought otherwise. Besides, Fluttershy was afraid of everything. Besides, Rarity and Rainbow weren't dangerous. Right?
"Hey Rainbow. Rarity. How y'all doing?" Applejack asked them.
They said nothing.
"Uh, Rarity?"
Nothing.
"Rainbow?"
Nothing.
Now she was curious. Something was up. It certainly was odd that Rainbow Dash was wearing a similar costume to Rarity, and their behaviour was very strange.
"Well okay then," she said, "it was nice, um, talking ta y'all. Come on Fluttserhy."
The orange apple farmer went left to walk around the pegasus and unicorn, but was blocked off when Rarity stepped in front of her.
"'Scuse me Rarity, yer gettin' in the way." Applejack attempted to go around, but was blocked off by a certain rainbow-maned pegasus that was starting to get on her nerves.
Fluttershy, who was now backing away, asked, "Applejack, maybe we should go back to the library."
"No! These two are probably hidin' somethin', and I think we need to find out what it is." Being the stubborn mare that she was, Applejack decided she would force her way past. "Sorry for this, but I need y'all to move," she grunted. The orange mare pushed both ponies aside and walked past them. They stood back up to face her.
But as she walked past them another pony stood in her path. It was nopony she knew directly, but she had seen her around. Bon Bon, was it?
Soon enough more and more ponies began appearing. Out from bushes and behind trees. She was surrounded, and everypony was moving in on her. There was nothing she could really do. Normally, she would buck a group of attackers and take them down with ease, but most of these were ponies she actually knew, or at least ponies she knew would not normally attack anything.
"Fluttershy!" she screamed from behind the advancing ponies, "Go get help! I'll try to hold my own, just go!"
And do she did. The timid mare galloped as fast as she could, not wanting to become victim to these mindless attackers. Back she went down the path, through the town and back towards the library. More ponies, their coats also tinged blue, opened doors of their thatch roofed houses and began to wander into the street. Finally, she arrived at the giant tree that Twilight called home. At night the decorations gave an eerie spooky feel, almost as if the house really was abandoned and haunted. She raised her hoof to slam against the wooden door.
_______________________________
The wooden door creaked open slowly, beckoning her to enter. The inside was dimly lit, but even that would be better than the vulnerability of being outside with those... Things
Quickly, a yellow pegasus jumped in and slammed it shut. A sigh escaped her mouth. But it was not time for rest. What was left of her friends had to be alerted of the dangers occurring outside. She turned. Cobwebs lined the walls, nooks were scattered all over the floor, smoke filled the entire room. Fluttershy gulped.
As she began to steadily trot through the terrifyingly terrifying house of horrors as screams played in the background and lights flickered on and off. A few steps in her eyes adjusted to the uncanny darkness of the main lobby of the library, she saw a statue to her right. It was a statue of a pony; a unicorn. But upon its head sat a twisted, evil looking horn, one that was longer than any normal horn. The teeth it bore were sharper than that of a dragons, and filled its over exaggerated mouth to the brim. The yellow pegasus shrank back with a squeak. Statues and paintings were a thing that always managed to scare everypony; the way the eyes always seemed to follow you.
Swiftly turning to get the frightening sight out of her mind, Fluttershy came face to face with a greenish, moaning Pinkie Pie. Not even a scream could escape her throat as she fell backwards into the wall.
"Uugggghhhhh..." grumbled Pinkie, staggering in front of Fluttershy. "Wait, Fluttershy? What are you doing here?"
The lights flickered on and the smoke began to clear out. Out from behind a wall came Twilight, in her Headless Horse costume, while Princess Luna trotted down the stairs, no longer wearing the same costume.
"Fluttershy, what are you doing here? I thought you went home to... Feed your animals," the lavender unicorn said.
Fluttershy calmed down a bit, but soon remembered the reason she came there in the first place and began to panic again. "Oh, Twilight, it's horrible! There's- there's something wrong with Rarity and Applejack and everypony else in town! They're like... Zombies." She ended in a whisper. A moment of silence passed, and then the room erupted in laughter.
"Hahahahahehehe!" giggled Pinkie Pie. She put a forehoof around the pegasus' shoulder. "You silly filly. There's no such thing as zombies, otherwise I wouldn't be wearing a zombie costume. I mean, duh!"
Rapid pounding came from the front door. Bang bang bang bang. Fluttershy shrank back, saying, "That's them, don't open the door!"
The unicorn peeked outside to see Rainbow Dash, Rarity and Applejack trotting towards the library. Not exactly noticing anything immediately wrong with them, she gladly opened the door for her other three friends.
"Wow girls, I really like your costumes. You should have told the rest of us what you were planning so we could have done a big group dress up," Twilight explained.
Applejack stepped forward into the door towards Twilight, who stepped out of the way to let her into the library. This was bad. Whatever was wrong with Rainbow and Rarity had somehow affected Applejack as well, but Fluttershy was too scared to do anything. Applejack neared Twilight, but the purple unicorn mare was oblivious to the dangers presented to her. Twilight was doomed unless she did something.
Finally, Fluttershy opened her wings and sprang forward and grabbed Twilight, pulling her out of the way before Applejack could reach her.
"Fluttershy, what are you doing?" Twilight asked.
"Loo-look at their eyes."
All three of them were now in the main lobby of the library. As Twilight gazed into their blank, misty eyes she saw them all glow blue. The unnatural look of their eyes showed her that there really was something wrong. Through the open doorway, a large crowd of ponies approached the tree house, their eyes containing the same blue glow that matched the glow in her own friends eyes and their fur had the same blue tinge.
It was a truly terrifying sight to behold. Hundreds of Ponyvillians converging on the library, presumably to 'eat their brains'. Just as Applejack did not want to harm anypony, the same was true with Twilight. If she blasted them with a magic missiles, they could all get hurt, and she was sure that this conundrum could all eventually be fixed. Twilight's horn began to glow its usual magenta colour, magic building. As the mindless blue-ish ponies approached the tree, she discharged her spell. A large pink bubble appeared around the entire tree, which was able to stop all those ponies in their tracks. But it did not stop them from trying to get through. They smashed against the sides of the bubble, but only the sounds of their moans could get through.
While this did solve one problem, they were now trapped inside with the three friends that had been infected by this unknown disease. The trio began to advance upon the seemingly last four ponies in Ponyville.
They backed away towards the empty wall that Fluttershy had been cowering at the whole time.
"Stand back, my little ponies. I shall take care of this predicament."
Princess Luna had stepped in front of the three friends, wings outstretched and horn glowing.
"No Princess, we can't hurt them," interrupted Twilight who tapped the tip of Luna's horn, disrupting the spell.
"Well, what do you propose? If we don't do something right now, they will get us," she responded, implying some unknown impending doom. The three ponies moved in slowly while the sounds of banging and moaning could be heard outside.
Then she had an idea. Twilight cast a spell; something simple that would not take very much power to do. She teleported her three companions to the other side of Applejack, Rarity and Rainbow Dash. She pushed aside an ominous-looking statue of a unicorn that seemed to have fallen on the stairs with her magic she beckoned for the other three to follow her.
Up the stairs they ran. They left, those other three disoriented by the sudden disappearance of their prey. Fluttershy was the first to zip into the room, falling over in the process, followed by Pinkie Pie, then Twilight, and finally Luna, who slammed the door shut behind her. They could hear the clopping of hooves just down the stairs. Twilight quickly rallied her leftover friends into a small circle.
“Okay, so we’re trapped up here on the bedroom floor. We need to get past Rainbow, Rarity and AJ so we can get down into my lab,” she said.
Luna spoke up. “A lab?”
“Erm, a laboratory, Princess. It’s like a study,” Twilight explained to Luna. There were still a few things that she had to be updated on, including a majority of scientific subjects.
“Why do we need to go down there?” Pinkie asked. Though she was still bubbly and bouncy, her smile was not currently visible on her face.
“ Because, at first when I saw them, I thought they looked dirty, but when I looked closer, I saw that the reason they were looking blue was because the alleged ‘dirt’ was not dirt at all. If we can get a sample of whatever that blue dust is, we might find a way to fix all of this,” she explained.
Fluttershy shivered, a large frown spreading. “But... How are we going to get a sample? How can we get to the lab?”
The lavender unicorn smiled. “Upstairs, there’s one more floor; the observatory. There’s an emergency fire ladder up there that we can use to get outside. Then we go through the front door, sneak up on them and get down to the lab.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Luna agreed. Fluttershy was hesitant about putting any plan of theirs into place, but it seemed she was forced to agree with this. If she didn’t, things probably would not end well.
As the group of four broke their huddle, a mischievous laughter could be heard from above. They looked up. Clip, clop, clip, clop. The sound of hooves slowly pounding against the wooden floor echoed throughout the room. Each step getting closer and closer to the staircase, it was terrifying just imagining what this unseen horror could possibly be. Down the stairs. The door opened.
“AHAHAHAHAHAHA!”
There was no possible way. It was the least likely thing on anypony's mind. It was the Headless Horse. Twilight was standing right there, as was Luna, who was not wearing her costume. The pony, whose gender was unknown reached up with both of its hooves and plucked off its head. Fire spurted from the eyes and mouth, which morphed and moved as it continued to laugh, its smile reaching insane levels of wideness. This was definitely no costume.
It pulled back its arm and threw the flaming, cackling gourde-head at the survivors, who split and jumped to both sides.The pumpkin exploded, causing many soft, flaming bits of pumppkin to scatter ac all over the dark room. This truly was no costume. It began to gallop towards the leftmost pair which consisted of Twilight and Pinkie Pie. The unicorn in the group charged her horn and teleported them both behind the pony beast.
But they were not the main objective in its attack. It outstretched it's hoof and grabbed hold of an ordinary pumpkin. Slowly, the plant writhed as if it were a living being. It moved and changed, the side morphing slowly into a face. Two eyes and an sinister mouth opened before lighting on fire; inside and out. The face moved as the laughter returned. Twilight gawked.
A second time, the pumpkin came hurtling in Fluttershy and Luna's direction. Easily, the Alicorn stopped the attack with her own shield spell. This was not the end of the creatures attacks though. Littering the room were many more pumpkins and jack o' lanterns for use as weapons.
"Twilight Sparkle!" Luna called out. The lavender mare turned to her. The Princess pointed right of the creature with her horn. The gesture was easily understood. Twilight whispered to her pink friend who smiled in response.
"Hey ugly!" she yelled at the Headless Horse. It turned to face her. Twilight stuck her tongue out. Three bolts of dark blue magic struck its back. But nothing happened. It turned back to Luna. Even the Princess was apparently powerless against these poltergeist. It picked up another pumpkin the throw at her. It too transformed into an insane laughing head. It raised its arm.
"Gotcha!"
Pinkie jumped out from behind. The large coffin that she had sneaked off to grab encased the horse whole and caused it to drop its head, which had then returned to a normal pumpkin.
"Yay, we did it!" she cheered. She jumped off the box so that Twilight could place down a funny looking pony statue and trap the monster. The box shook with the force of the phantom.
But the danger was not yet averted. Through the door came three ponies, Rainbow, Rarity and Applejack, still chasing after them. They continued their trek towards the group. Twilight was already heading towards the staircase on the other side of the room. "Come on everypony, let's go!" she yelled. The other three hurriedly followed her up the stairs, Fluttershy trailing behind.
Twilight slammed the door shut and locked it behind them. They would be kept safe for just a little bit longer. It was finally time for a break in the observatory. This was meant to be the finale for the haunted house if it was still going on. There was to be a fake Nightmare Moon that would give an evil laugh and scare the ponies that entered so that they would all run back to the entrance. But now the room was empty. It was decorated to look almost like the room in which they defeated the original Nightmare, in the castle in the Everfree forest. There were pillars of stone, a rock floor, moss everywhere. To the left was a row of malicious unicorn statues lining the wall. The only light was from the moon outside.
At the other end of the room, where Twilight’s telescope normally sat was a large window. She trotted over to it and looked down. She activated her horn, casting a spell on a small spot on the floor. It opened to reveal a long rope ladder, for fires. She threw one end out the window and attached the other end to the pane. Her friends gathered around.
“Okay,” she started, “I’ve figured something out. I know exactly what’s going on.”
Everypony in the room gasped.
“How?” asked Fluttershy with a hoof to her mouth.
Twilight smirked. “You should know.” Then she pointed directly at the nervous pegasus. “It’s all part of your plan.”
Again, gasps came from all around.
Luna stepped forward. “What? How could you accuse one of your friends of this? Have you gone mad?”
“No, but I would accuse an impostor!”
“An impostor?”
“Yes, “ she responded, “because that is not the real Fluttershy.”
The yellow mare shrank back a bit. “W-what are you talking about Twilight?”
The unicorn smiled before beginning her rant. “Ahem, you see, I noticed something when the Headless Horse attacked. It only threw pumpkins at Pinkie Pie and me. Now, this could be explained as not thinking it could hurt a princess, but then I noticed you weren’t all too worried. Fluttershy would have been a nervous wreck, regardless of whether or not she was being attacked. When we trapped the Horse, I noticed that cut on your cheek. Probably from when you fell in the room.” Everypony looked at her to inspect the alleged scratch. “I thought it was a normal scratch, but there is nothing normal about it. There is and was absolutely no blood coming from it, even though it looks like it cut pretty deep.
“But those were all things that I used to hypothesise who or what you were. The only thing that tipped me off that you were a fake...” She paused. “Was your lack of a cutie mark!”
It was true. This Fluttershy had no cutie mark on her flank. It was as empty as those of the cutie mark crusaders. Pinkie and Luna both gasped in surprise. They had not even been paying any attention to Fluttershy. The faux-Fluttershy grinned.
“Hehehe, I can’t believe I made such a rookie mistake,” she whispered.
“It’s over for you.”
Fluttershy laughed. “Hehehe. That’s what you think.” Her eyes flashed.
Suddenly all of the statues on the wall began to move. They closed in on the group of three, surrounding them.
“You see, you may have figured out that I was a fake, but have you figured out who I am?”
Then Twilight stuttered, “Well, I... Uh. No. I hadn’t gotten that far.”
“Hahaha. Well, why don’t I show you.”
The pegasus’ skin soon began to dematerialize, cracking apart and becoming what looked like a blue sand. Parts of her coat fell off, large chunks of blue stone landing on the floor and breaking apart.
Finally, the true form of the impostor was revealed. It was a stone pony, similar looking to all the others. It’s horn was a twisted sight upon its head. The teeth were large and sharp.
“We are the gargoyles, masters of illusion. A race from over a thousand years ago. Before we simply hid in the dark so that we could feed off of the fear of the ponies that passed by. But your Princess Luna thought of us as a threat and decided to curse us. Since that day, we have not been able to move, except on a full moon, when our magic is strongest."
"What about the Headless Horse? And the blue dust?"
The gargoyle gave a hearty chuckle. "A simple illusion spell. A part of our curse is that we cannot physically harm ponies. That is why we created the dust. Funny thing about sapphires is that in dust form, boiling them down can give some... Interesting results."
"Mind control?"
"Not exactly," she responded, "These ponies are trapped in their nightmares. They are now being harvested for all of their fear. Soon we will be the most powerful race in all of Equestria, and nothing can stop us! Now all that's left is to eliminate you."
They attacked.
Fin.
