Night Light raced out of the forest. She could hear the clattering sticks that formed the body of the timber wolf coming up fast behind her. Soft lights glowed through the trees up ahead, and she swore she could hear voices. She must be close to town by now! Seeing an opening in the ancient trees, she took a diving leap and crashed into a field of old, dry cornstalks.

Not stopping to see if the wooden wolf was still after her, she raced blindly through the corn. Leaves scratched and scraped at her legs and face, forcing her to keep her eyes shut. Finally, she stumbled out into a cleared path, panting and gasping for air.

Slowly she began to catch her breath, pulling herself together. She wasn't sure which direction she should be heading in, but that decision was made for her fairly quickly. Her heart froze in her chest as she heard a low gurgling noise creeping up behind. Slowly turning to look over her shoulder, she gasped. There, rounding a corner at one end of the patch was a soaked, slimy, dripping kelpie making gurgling, choking noises as it approached her.

Letting out an ear-piercing shriek, she bolted off in the opposite direction. There were multiple intersecting paths within the field and she kept taking random turns, circling back a time or two. She hears the clattering of stick once more and saw the silhoutette of an approaching timberwolf! This one wasn't as large as the one that had chased her through the forest, more pony-sized, but she wasn't about to test her mettle against one of them!

Doubling back, she wove her way through more paths and crossings, sure that she must find her way out of here eventually. For a moment, her mind latched onto the fact that this place was like a maze.

“A maize maze,” she cackled to herself, feeling her grip on sanity starting to slip.

She saw a pony up ahead with his back turned to her and yelled out to him for help! The unicorn stallion whirled to face her, a blank gray mask covering his face. His magic lit up to levitate a huge woodsman's ax in front of him. Without making a sound he stared to bolt down the path towards her, moving incredibly fast.

Crying, gasping and stumbling, she scrambled around turns and bends, finally seeing an opening up ahead! There was light and a clear path out of the corn. Bolting straight for it, there was a sudden crash and she found herself tumbling downwards into darkness.

She landed surprisingly gently on a soft pile of hay below the hole she had fallen into. Looking around she saw an old rusted magic lantern sitting nearby on the floor. Praying to Celestia, Luna, Twilight, or anyone else who might listen for guidance, she tapped it twice with her hoof, igniting the magical glow within, lighting the cave she had fallen into.

The walls were just dug out of the earth itself. Roots and small bugs filled the walls. A few centipedes skittered across the floor. A musty smell of decay and turned earth assaulted her nose. Slowly, she raised the lantern higher with her magic and revealed an old stone sarcophagus against the far wall. Slowly, there was a noise of grinding stone as the lid began to shift and slide off tot he side.

“Are you kidding me?” She practically shrieked as she saw a hoof reach out from within and start opening the lid even farther.

Letting out a shriek, she bolted down a tunnel opposite the coffin, screaming all the way! She burst out of the cave, popping up out of a hole in Ponyville proper near the cornfield that was surrounded by safety cones. She blasted through the crowd with a jibbering scream, racing off towards downtown.

Several ponies watched her shriek and run, starting to talk excitedly among themselves as they stood in line. The Apple Family corn maze they set up for Nightmare Night keeps getting better every year!