The Ghost of the Woods:

One Nightmare Night two ponies were returning home late after celebrating with their friends. Suddenly a strange figure crossed their path. It was Mischief the draconequus. His body had all sorts of mismatched animal parts – horse hooves, leopard paws, bat wings, a dragon tail and a head of a pony with a crooked horn.

- You can’t go through here! – the draconequus stopped the two ponies.

- Why not? – asked the tallest of the two. His name was Frostbite and he was a skinny light blue unicorn with long white mane and tail. He always wore a jacket to protect himself from the cold of his own winter magic.

- Because there was a landslide, - explained Mischief. - The road ahead is closed. You’ll have to go through the forest.

- But isn’t this forest hunted? – asked Frostbite’s companion. His name was Hunter’s Moon and he was a grey bat pony with blue mane and tail dressed in a black and red gothic outfit.

- Do you mean the Headless Horse? But it only hunts once a year on Nightmare Night, - replied the draconequus.

- And that happens to be tonight!

- Well, once you leave the forest the ghost disappears, so just don’t spend more time there than you need to. You’ll be fine… probably!

- There is no such thing as a Headless Horse! – said Frostbite who wasn’t scared of the old made up story. - Let’s go!

 

The night was dark, the full moon was hidden by clouds and when the two ponies entered the forest, their surroundings became even darker.

- Did you hear that sound? – asked Hunter’s Moon.

- Yes, it was the sound of the wind howling. Don’t tell me you’re scared! – Frostbite was amused by how cowardly his companion was.

- I’m not scared! It’s just… - another sound interrupted Hunter. It was a gloomy “who” like the spirits of the forest wondered who dared to enter their domain. - Wait, what was that?!

- That was just an owl! – now Frostbite looked annoyed. Was his ally going to be scared of every sound in the forest: the wind, owls, squirrels, crickets…?

The two ponies were walking in silence for a while. Then Hunter’s Moon spotted a weird crooked silhouette at the side of the road.

- Look, over there! – he pointed at the scary thing with his hoof. - We shouldn’t have gone to the forest on Nightmare Night! I knew it!

- For the last time, there are no such things as ghosts! I’ll prove it to you! – Frostbite has finally lost his patience. He went to see what that thing was and disappeared into the night.

- Oh, no, don’t go there! – Hunter closed his eyes to avoid seeing the horror that was surely going to happen to his foolish companion (not that he could see much in the dark anyway).

- Frost! – the bat pony called after a while. - Frost, are you still alive? – there was no answer. - Oh, what do I do?!

Gathering his courage Hunter’s Moon left the relative safety of the road and followed his friend into the darkness. He soon found Frostbite near the silhouette they spotted earlier which turned out to be a dead tree. The unicorn was examining a colony of tree mushrooms growing on it.

- Be careful, it’s a tree! It’s going to stand here being all dead and scary! – warned Frost.

- Well, how was I supposed to know it was just a tree? – the bat pony was offended. Frostbite not only left him behind, but now was also acting like Hunter was a coward. - It could have been something dangerous!

 

Suddenly another bat pony descended from the trees above and landed in front of the two.

- Yikes, it’s a vampire! – Hunter’s Moon hid behind his companion.

- So what are you afraid of? Aren’t you a blood drinker too? – asked Frostbite. He started to suspect his ally acts like this on purpose. Surely nobody can be that cowardly!

- Oh, yes, I totally forgot! How silly of me! – Hunter calmed down a little.

- It’s coming this way! Run! – warned the bat pony. If she really was a vampire, she didn’t look like she was going to eat the two ponies. On the contrary she looked very scared.

- What’s coming? – asked Frostbite with suspicion in his voice.

- The thing! Run for your life! – without another word the bat pony flew up above the canopy and disappeared from sight.

- What was that all about? – the unicorn was confused.

- Maybe we should listen to her! – suggested Hunter’s Moon.

- And run away? From what? I still don’t believe in ghosts!

- Then what is that?!

Frostbite turned in the direction his companion was looking. There stood a large horse figure. It looked like a normal horse except one thing: its neck ended abruptly like it was cut off and its head was missing.

- Run! – cried Hunter. Frostbite decided not to object for once and the two ponies started running.

Looking behind him Hunter saw that the ghost was chasing them. He tried to fly away abandoning his friend, but got caught in tree branches.

- Frost, help me! – he cried.

Frostbite who specialized in winter magic created a sharp icicle and send it flying towards the tree branch cutting it off and releasing his companion. The branch fell onto the ground and the Headless Horse who couldn’t see very well because of the dark and its lack of head tripped over it. The phantom started tumbling towards the two ponies with increasing speed since they were running downhill, crushed first into Hunter’s Moon who was running behind the unicorn and then into Frostbite. Finally their fall was stopped by another dead tree at the base of the hill.

 

- Get off me! – Frostbite angrily kicked the Headless Horse who landed on top of him. His hoof connected with the phantom like it was a normal living being made of flesh and bone. - Hey, wait a minute, you’re not a ghost!

The headless body changed shape and turned into the familiar mismatched chimera.

- You should have seen the look on your faces! Priceless! – the draconequus laughed like it was the most fun he had in ages.

- It’s not funny, Mischief! – Hunter’s Moon was angry because of what the naughty trickster had put him through. - We could have gotten seriously hurt! And we’re in the middle of a haunted forest on Nightmare Night because of your prank!

- But it was worth it! – Mischief couldn’t stop laughing.

- I think I had enough fun for one night! - Frostbite got back on his feet and dusted himself off. - We’re halfway through the forest. We can continue going forward until we reach the village, or we can go back. I bet Mischief made that story about the landslide up to trick us into going this way.

Suddenly another horse figure quietly emerged from the darkness of the woods. It was larger and more impressive than the last one, wore a cape and had a blazing pumpkin lantern in the place where its head should have been.

- Mischief, enough already! – Frostbite decided he wasn’t going to fall for the same trick twice.

- I didn’t do it! – the draconequus looked genuinely surprised. - Maybe someone else is trying to pull the same prank on us tonight?

- Well, they are going to regret crossing me! – the unicorn had enough of all this nonsense! He summoned another icicle and launched it towards the horse.

- Wait, you’ll hurt them! -  Hunter tried to warn him.

But it was too late! The icicle reached the horse… and went right through it without causing any damage like it was some kind of ghost! The surprised ponies and the draconequus quietly stared at the specter. The Headless Horse who was standing completely still before the icicle incident suddenly moved and started walking towards the small group. The ponies and the draconequus screamed in terror, ran all the way to the village and didn’t stop until they were there and hopefully safe from the ghost of the woods.

 

End