#CRAWFEATHER!

[ask-de-writer]

I would like to thank Delightfully

EAGER BINGE READER

@furislupus​ for READING and LIKING

My whole MASTER STORY INDEX SECTION,

Now he is delving into

TALES TO READ AFTER THE LIGHTS ARE OUT!

INVITATION TO A FEAST

THE MORGRIPE REPORT

BONNIE BONES' ERRAND

QUIET NIGHTMARE NIGHT FOR BONNIE BONES

A BONNIE DAY

WEREWOLVE'S WEDDING

POSSESSION

CRAWFEATHER!

NO REFUND

A QUIET EVENING

NIGHTMARE NIGHT LESSON

BLOOD RED ROSE

NIGHTMARE NIGHT AT THE SWEET SPOT

THE LUCK OF BLACK CATS

BEHIND YOU!

LUNA'S NIGHTMARE NIGHT

CRAGENMARE

SQUEAK'S NIGHTMARE NIGHT

BONNIE BONES

DEAD EASY

NIGHTMARE BLESSING

REPOSSESSED

CRACKING THE CODE

GNAWED EVEN

THE EMPTY GRAVE

VIGNETTE AT A HAUNTED MANSION PARTY

NEVER ASK ~ ~ ~

[nevermord]

Just a heads up. Tomorrow's tale was inspired by your interest in the old, abandoned Crawfeather Mansion. It will carry warnings for murder, gore and death. Gotta get those ghosts in there somehow, right?

I am certainly looking forward to it! :)

[nevermord]

A delightfully chilling tale for this month of spooks and ghouls!

CRAWFEATHER! : MLP Fan Fiction : Tales to read AFTER the lights are OUT

Return to the Master Story Index

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CRAWFEATHER!

by

De Writer (Glen Ten-Eyck)

1382 words

© 2019 by Glen Ten-Eyck

Writing begun 10/16/19

All rights reserved.  This document may not be copied or distributed on or to any medium or placed in any mass storage system except by the express written consent of the author.

//////////////

Copyright fair use rules for Tumblr users

Users of Tumblr.com are specifically granted the following rights.  They may reblog the story provided that all author and copyright information remains intact.  They may use the characters or original characters in my settings for fan fiction, fan art works, cosplay, or fan musical compositions.

All sorts of fan art, cosplay, music or fiction is actively encouraged.

///////////////////////

TRIGGER WARNING : Multiple murders by ax, poison, and stabbing!

Haunted mansion: You have to get those ghosts in there somehow, right?

///////////////////////

Cory grinned meanly as he bounced the heavy bag from hoof to hoof while he offered, “Yah, I got the money that I owes you, Canter.  It’s right here.  Not gonna pay you, though.  Not yet.  I means, it is Nightmare Night.  I will give you the money first thing in the morning.  Just spend the night in the old Crawfeather place.  Should be a piece of cake, after all, you don’t believe in ghosts, so you says.”

“You are on, Cory.  But make it 300, if you make me stay in there for the night!”

“You got it, Canter, if you stay the night, I’ll make it 300 when you come out at dawn.”

Now he was creeping down one of the empty hallways of the long abandoned mansion of Crawfeather.  The darkness relieved only by the single candle held in Canter’s magic.  Old furniture mostly covered by aged dust covers dotted the passage.  He shivered, and it was not from the cold.  He was wishing that he had not taken the dare to spend this Nightmare Night in the reputedly haunted Crawfeather mansion.  Still, 300 golden bits was 300 golden bits.

Keep reading

[ask-de-writer]

I would like to thank Delightfully

EAGER BINGE READER

@furislupus​ for READING and LIKING

My whole MASTER STORY INDEX SECTION,

Diving into the SCIENCE FICTION and going

on to WORLD OF SEA, and TALES TO READ

AFTER THE LIGHTS ARE OUT! as well!

LEZON (Parts 2 and 3 of 3)

WARRIOR CLAN

T'LASS' QUESTION, (Parts 1 to 4 of 4)

SCIENCE FICTION

KURIN’S FOLLY, (Parts 1 to 15 of 15)

MIKHALA, (Parts 1 to 11 of 11)

CORAM’S HOPE, (Part 1 to 8 of 8)

WORLD OF SEA

INVITATION TO A FEAST

THE MORGRIPE REPORT

BONNIE BONES' ERRAND

QUIET NIGHTMARE NIGHT FOR

BONNIE BONES

A BONNIE DAY

WEREWOLVE'S WEDDING

POSSESSION

REPOSSESSED

CRAWFEATHER!

NO REFUND

A QUIET EVENING

NIGHTMARE NIGHT LESSON

BLOOD RED ROSE

NIGHTMARE NIGHT AT THE SWEET SPOT

THE LUCK OF BLACK CATS

BEHIND YOU!

LUNA'S NIGHTMARE NIGHT

CRAGENMARE

SQUEAK'S NIGHTMARE NIGHT

BONNIE BONES

DEAD EASY

NIGHTMARE BLESSING

Tales to Read AFTER the Lights are OUT!

[ask-de-writer]

CRAWFEATHER! : MLP Fan Fiction

Return to the Master Story Index

Return to MLP Fan Fiction

Return to Tales to Read AFTER the Lights are OUT!

CRAWFEATHER!

by

De Writer (Glen Ten-Eyck)

1382 words

© 2019 by Glen Ten-Eyck

Writing begun 10/16/19

All rights reserved.  This document may not be copied or distributed on or to any medium or placed in any mass storage system except by the express written consent of the author.

//////////////

Copyright fair use rules for Tumblr users

Users of Tumblr.com are specifically granted the following rights.  They may reblog the story provided that all author and copyright information remains intact.  They may use the characters or original characters in my settings for fan fiction, fan art works, cosplay, or fan musical compositions.

All sorts of fan art, cosplay, music or fiction is actively encouraged.

///////////////////////

Cory grinned meanly as he bounced the heavy bag from hoof to hoof while he offered, “Yah, I got the money that I owes you, Canter.  It's right here.  Not gonna pay you, though.  Not yet.  I means, it is Nightmare Night.  I will give you the money first thing in the morning.  Just spend the night in the old Crawfeather place.  Should be a piece of cake, after all, you don't believe in ghosts, so you says.”

“You are on, Cory.  But make it 300, if you make me stay in there for the night!”

“You got it, Canter, if you stay the night, I'll make it 300 when you come out at dawn.”

Now he was creeping down one of the empty hallways of the long abandoned mansion of Crawfeather.  The darkness relieved only by the single candle held in Canter's magic.  Old furniture mostly covered by aged dust covers dotted the passage.  He shivered, and it was not from the cold.  He was wishing that he had not taken the dare to spend this Nightmare Night in the reputedly haunted Crawfeather mansion.  Still, 300 golden bits was 300 golden bits.

Canter remembered all too vividly the ghastly past of this place.  The land that the mansion was built on was originally owned by the Bordens, back in the very earliest days of Ponyville, before there was any sort of formal town.

After the Apple Clan had demonstrated the value of the land in the area for farming by creating one of the most productive apple orchards in Equestria, the land rush was on!  The Bordens had claimed a big area and invested all that they had into clearing the land.  It proved to be too stony for any sort of farm.  It wasn't just loose surface stone either.  Rough upthrust sedimentary rock made up most of it. Clyde's attempts to sell it to newcomers became a local joke.

Clyde Borden put the land up in a card game and lost it to Jason Crawfeather.  For weeks afterwards, Clyde crowed about how bad Jason was taken in by winning that worthless land.  Jason and his family quietly ignored him and set industriously to work.  It was not too long before the Crawfeather Quarry was supplying the good building stone for foundations and nicely split slates for stout, weatherproof roofs that the rapidly growing community of Ponyville needed.

The fortune earned by the Crawfeathers and the resentment of the Bordens stoked the flames of the feud that followed.  The orgy of murder was started by Poxy, one of Clyde's grown colts.  

Swinging an ax, he charged into the Crawfeathers and some guests, who were dining on their plaza!  By the time that it was over, Chance Crawfeather was carried up to his room, his life blood soaking the sheets and bolster of his bed as he died.

Sweetbriar Crawfeather, Jason's wife was laid out in the great room.  One of the guests was a doctor who managed to stanch her wounds and saved her life.  She would carry those scars to her grave.

Poxy was caught before he could escape.  Three strong unicorns from the quarry held him down while Jason brained him with his own ax.

Pretending serious remorse for the actions of her brother, Lisset Borden came to serve the remaining Crawfeathers as a maid.  She soon learned that all three of them, Jason, Sweetbriar, and their remaining filly, Sunblossom had a fondness for tomato soup.  She served the unsuspecting family a tasty soup of tomatoes, basil, and a strong portion of poison hemlock.

Sunblossom collapsed at the table.  In spite of the pangs from her own stomach, Sweetbriar assisted Sunblossom up to her room.  In her attempt to appear innocent, Lisset helped her too.

Jason, in spite of the agony in his own innards, called for help from the house staff.  It took them only moments to find the bottle that had contained the deadly concoction.  They captured Lisset as she was coming down the stairs.  Lisset was made to drink the soup that remained.  She was dead before the ghastly wails of Sweetbriar announced the passing of Sunblossom.

Both Jason and Sweetbriar were ill for weeks before they recovered from the effects of the hemlock.  In one regard Sweetbriar never recovered.  Seeing both of her foals murdered by ax and poison drove her into madness.

She was known to haunt the rooms where they died and sought them about the mansion and their play yard.  She even went down into the quarry seeking her “lost” foals.  Most watched her with pity.

Searching the play yard again, as the year was passing into autumn, Sweetbriar stumbled on something concealed from her sight by her madness.  The headstones of her missing foals, Chance and Sunblossom could no longer be denied.  She avidly read what was on each stone.  Instead of wailing her loss, her heart became harder than the stones of the Crawfeather Quarry.

On a late autumn night with no moon to betray her, Sweetbriar sneaked down into the developing town of Ponyville.  Unseen by any, she poured lamp oil over the front porch and back stoop of the Borden house and set it ablaze.  Cunningly, she did not stay to see how her plot played out but repaired back to Crawfeather, avoiding the many foals out in fanciful costumes.

Entering the house, she beheld the horrid sight of Clyde Borden hacking at the dead body of her beloved Jason with a double bit ax!  She seized the weapon from his grasp as he pulled back for another stroke!  With the power of her rage and madness, she took Clyde's head from his body in a single stroke!

She dropped the ax, which stuck upright in the floor boards.  In her struggles to drag the corpse of the assassin off of her husband's body, her feet slipped in the spilled gore and she lost her footing! She fell on the ax and the razor sharp blade cut her throat!

The house staff and their foals returned from their Nightmare Night, which had been made more exciting by the deadly house fire that had destroyed the Borden house and, apparently all the remaining Bordens!

The town's newly appointed constables had far more to deal with than the usual Nightmare Night pranks.  At least the feud would go no further. Neither Borden nor Crawfeather remained alive to carry it on.

Canter's reverie was broken by the creaking of hinges.  His ears straining to hear more failed to spot any further sound.  This was not the first such sound that he'd heard, either.  He had traced the first ones to open windows upstairs and drafts making old doors swing.

There was a creaking floorboard behind him!  Whirling about in startlement he saw . . . Cory!

“Just checking up on you, Canter.  Realized that you are missing out on Nightmare Night partying.  Brought you a little to make up for it. Here.  Got you something to drink in the bottle and a bunch of candies.”

“Nice of you, Cory.”

As Canter took the bag, the knife that Cory was hiding behind it plunged up, through the bottom of his jaw and into his brain through the weak area of skull on the underside!

Canter collapsed, dead before he hit the floor.

Cory's gloat of, “Looks like that money stays mine!  You ain't going to see the dawn . . .” was interrupted!

Screaming foals in Nightmare Night costumes ran from the old parlor and out into the night!  The last one bucked the doors shut!  The locking click of the latch was like a trump of doom!  Cory was panting frantically and pounding on the door when the old handle turned.  The opened door showed a brace of constables waiting to take him to jail.

Canter looked about, sort of puzzled.  Everything was sort of gray, in spite of which, he could see clearly.  There was a pony before him, also gone gray, and a good thing. He had several huge wounds.  At least he was not bleeding from them.  Canter could see furniture through him.

He invited, “Canter, right?  I am Jason.  Why don't you come with me and meet the rest of the family?”

~THE END~

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[ask-de-writer]

I would like to thank

@codehsayshi​ for READING and LIKING

CRAWFEATHER!

Sorry that I could not find a larger copy of your avatar to use.

[ask-de-writer]

About CRAWFEATHER!

@mordenheim​ READ, LIKED and REBLOGGED

CRAWFEATHER! to

@nevermord​ where he sorted out:

I do need to do a small re write to introduce the foals better.  Thank you.

As for the rest, well, if you are going to have a haunted house, you need to get the ghosts in there, somehow!

[ask-de-writer]

I would like to thank

@inhumaninterest​ for READING and LIKING both

CRACKING THE CODE and

CRAWFEATHER!

[ask-de-writer]

I would like to thank

@wind-the-mama-cat​ for READING, LIKING

and REBLOGGING

CRAWFEATHER!

[ask-de-writer]

I would like to thank

@little-red-rabbit​ for READING and LIKING

CRAWFEATHER!

[ask-de-writer]

About CRAWFEATHER!

@mordenheim​ reblogged the story to @nevermord​

and had this to say:

Indeed!  You have nailed it!

[ask-de-writer]

About VIGNETTE AT A HAUNTED MANSION PARTY

@mordenheim reblogget the story to @nevermord

And suggested:

I really had not planned Crawfeather to me more than a simple one off tale, but there certainly could be more told about that old abandoned mansion and its incorporeal inhabitants.  Thanks for the IDEA!

[ask-de-writer]

VIGNETTE AT A HAUNTED MANSION PARTY (1 Part)

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VIGNETTE AT A HAUNTED MANSION PARTY

by

De Writer (Glen Ten-Eyck)

580 words

© 2017 by Glen Ten-Eyck

Writing begun 10/01/17

All rights reserved.  This document may not be copied or distributed on or to any medium or placed in any mass storage system except by the express written consent of the author.

//////////////

Copyright fair use rules for Tumblr users

Users of Tumblr.com are specifically granted the following rights.  They may reblog the story provided that all Title, author and copyright information remains intact.  They may use the characters or original characters in my settings for fan fiction, fan art works, cosplay, or fan musical compositions.

All sorts of fan art, cosplay, music or fiction is actively encouraged.

///////////////////////

The moon outside was just past full, filling the party room with its soft effulgence.  Such pale light suppressed color, rather than enhancing it.  The assorted party goers were visible only as shades of gray. Absolutely perfect for a Nightmare Night party.

Standing by herself, near the table laden with cobwebbed snacks was a lovely mare who was new to me.  I drifted through the throng (actually there were only about ten of us there), to her side.

I smiled, though that is unsettling to some, and asked her, “So, who are you and what brings you here to the Haunted Manse?”

She startled just a little when I spoke.  Common enough among the new arrivals.  Her brow wrinkled prettily as she thought.  “I am Nemmie.  I am not sure how I got here, really.  I mean, I went to the old Crawfeather Mansion on a bet.  You know, the usual, 'Bet that you can't spend the whole Nightmare Night in the haunted ruin of Crafeather.'  That bet.”

I took a bottle and poured her a mug.  Mist flowed from the bottle and into the mug, which sort of overflowed with the mist.

She took the mug, admiring the effect.  “Lovely.  Is it safe to drink?”

I nodded. “It is safe.  Drink up.  So, you arrived here how long ago?”

“It will sound silly, but I am not sure.  I would have thought that it would be coming on daylight soon but it looks just as dark as when I got here.”

Gesturing at the old Grandfather clock with its dead still pendulum, I suggested, “Take a look at the clock.”

She turned her head to the clock.  The hands swept silently about the face and stopped at 11:47.  “That is odd.  Why did it stop there?”

I took my turn staring at the clock.  The silent hands swept about to 1:36.  

We were interrupted by several pale, nearly invisible, yellow lights held by indistinct forms that passed through the room.  The far door creaked a bit on its hinges and they were gone.

I returned to my question, “So, why did you decide to stay here?”

Troubled, she replied, “I never decided to stay here.  My brother Smallgreed dared me to spend the night in the haunted mansion on Nightmare Night.  That's all.”

“I see. Tell me, what would he gain by your absence?”

Her eyes widened.  “Father's will!  They are reading it on the second!” She put a dainty hoof to the back of her head.  The blood looked black in the pale moonlight.  Realization dawned.

In a sick voice, she asked, “What now?  Do I just haunt this place?”

The door creaked again and the pale lights started into the large room.  She pointed and asked, “What are those?”

I replied, “Candles in the hooves of the living.  Do you recognize any of them?”

Rage giving her clear focus, she screamed, “MURDERER!”  The word started low, almost bone shakingly low, and rose to an ear piercing shriek!

I gave Chance and Canter the high sign.  Doors slammed shut!  The candles all went out!  Perhaps Luna was helping us because the Moon went behind a cloud, plunging the place into total darkness!

The screams of the living were music to my ears!

Nemmie, Smallgreed's sis, was having so much fun!  

Of course the town Police Ponies were drawn by the bloodcurdling screams. Being nothing if not civic minded, Chance and Canter let the doors open for them.

The police removed the horrified and shivering Smallgreed, his two accomplices, and Nemmie's corpse.

~THE END~

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Return to Tales to Read AFTER the Lights are OUT!

[ask-de-writer]

Just a quick note:  For this Nightmare Night collection I have set a new (for me) record.

I have written 15,406 words of stories so far.

~~ !! ~~ !! ~~ !! ~~

The complete collection to date is:

VIGNETTE AT A HAUNTED MANSION PARTY

580 words : MLP Fan Fiction : Tales to Read After the Lights Are OUT!

Shortly before the reading of their father’s will, Smallgreed dared Nemmie, his sis, to stay in the haunted mansion of Crawfeather.

VIGNETTE AT A HAUNTED MANSION PARTY (1 part)

                                     **********************

THE EMPTY GRAVE

581 words : MLP Fan Fiction : Tales to Read After the Lights Are OUT!

It is never a good idea to betray a witch, especially if she is a real one!

THE EMPTY GRAVE (1 Part)

                                     **********************

GNAWED EVEN

298 words : MLP Fan Fiction : Tales to Read After the Lights Are OUT!

There is a zombie arising in the Ponyville Graveyard!  What will happen?

GNAWED EVEN (1 Part)

                                     **********************

CRACKING THE CODE

632 words : MLP Fan Fiction : Tales to Read After the Lights Are OUT!

What could possibly go wrong with cracking an ancient code in a graveyard – on Nightmare Night?

CRACKING THE CODE (1 Part)

                                     **********************

REPOSSESSED

591 words : MLP Fan Fiction : Tales to Read After the Lights Are OUT

What happens when a being of the Underworld tries to collect the soul of Sawnax?

REPOSSESSED (1 Part)

                                     **********************

NIGHTMARE BLESSING

1203 words : MLP Fan Fiction : Tales to Read After the Lights Are OUT

Penny looks like a “fake witch” pony to Red.  He jumps to the wrong conclusion

NIGHTMARE BLESSING (1 Part)

                                     **********************

DEAD EASY

1011 words : MLP Fan Fiction : Tales to Read After the Lights Are OUT

Ferd made two mistakes on Nightmare Night.  First was trying to rob the Sweet Spot.  The second was making a wish …

DEAD EASY (1 Part)

                                     **********************

BONNIE BONES

2340 words : MLP Fan Fiction : Tales to Read After the Lights Are OUT

A young unicorn filly was abandoned in the cemetery because of a stunted horn.  She was raised by some who are no longer ponies.  She gets taken to Miss Cherrilee’s school by the truant officer.

BONNIE BONES (1 Part)

                                     **********************

SQUEAK’S NIGHTMARE NIGHT

960 words : MLP Fan Fiction : Tales to Read After the Lights Are OUT

Squeak, a preternaturally long lived thestral, who helped Caramel Treat’s shop on her first Nightmare Night Celebration, drops in to see his friend on another Nightmare Night after some years have passed.

SQUEAK’S NIGHTMARE NIGHT (1 Part)

                                     **********************

CRAGENMARE

559 words : MLP Fan Fiction : Tales to Read After the Lights Are OUT

What reason could there be for a Nightmare Night party for foals in the ruin of ancient CRAGENMARE, far outside of Ponyville?

CRAGENMARE (1 Part)

                                     **********************

LUNA’S NIGHTMARE NIGHT

2036 words : MLP Fan Fiction : Tales to Read After the Lights Are OUT

How does Princess Luna spend a night that really is ALL ABOUT HER?

LUNA’S NIGHTMARE NIGHT (1 Part)

                                     **********************

BEHIND YOU!

713 words : MLP Fan Fiction : Tales to Read After the Lights Are OUT

Cortwrong makes the mistake of stealing Sarrie’s manuscript.  He looks where he should not have.

BEHIND YOU!  (1 Part)

                                     **********************

THE LUCK OF BLACK CATS

1441 words : MLP Fan Fiction : Tales to Read After the Lights Are OUT

Black cats may bring bad luck, especially if you are doing bad things!

THE LUCK OF BLACK CATS (1 Part)

                                     **********************

NIGHTMARE NIGHT AT THE SWEET SPOT

1492 words : MLP Fan Fiction : Tales to Read After the Lights Are OUT

Roe, the magical wish granting deer in disguise, throws a Nightmare Night party for his pony family and some friends.

NIGHTMARE NIGHT AT THE SWEET SPOT (1 Part)

                                     **********************

BLOOD RED ROSE

929 words : MLP Fan Fiction : Tales to Read After the Lights Are OUT

Pointea makes a spell to draw some company for Nightmare Night.  Did she get the spell done right?

BLOOD RED ROSE (1 Part)

                                     **********************

[ask-de-writer]

CRAWFEATHER! : MLP Fan Fiction : Tales to read AFTER the lights are OUT

Return to the Master Story Index

Return to MLP Fan Fiction

Return to Tales to Read AFTER the Lights are OUT!

CRAWFEATHER!

by

De Writer (Glen Ten-Eyck)

1382 words

© 2019 by Glen Ten-Eyck

Writing begun 10/16/19

All rights reserved.  This document may not be copied or distributed on or to any medium or placed in any mass storage system except by the express written consent of the author.

//////////////

Copyright fair use rules for Tumblr users

Users of Tumblr.com are specifically granted the following rights.  They may reblog the story provided that all author and copyright information remains intact.  They may use the characters or original characters in my settings for fan fiction, fan art works, cosplay, or fan musical compositions.

All sorts of fan art, cosplay, music or fiction is actively encouraged.

///////////////////////

TRIGGER WARNING : Multiple murders by ax, poison, and stabbing!

Haunted mansion: You have to get those ghosts in there somehow, right?

///////////////////////

Cory grinned meanly as he bounced the heavy bag from hoof to hoof while he offered, “Yah, I got the money that I owes you, Canter.  It's right here.  Not gonna pay you, though.  Not yet.  I means, it is Nightmare Night.  I will give you the money first thing in the morning.  Just spend the night in the old Crawfeather place.  Should be a piece of cake, after all, you don't believe in ghosts, so you says.”

“You are on, Cory.  But make it 300, if you make me stay in there for the night!”

“You got it, Canter, if you stay the night, I'll make it 300 when you come out at dawn.”

Now he was creeping down one of the empty hallways of the long abandoned mansion of Crawfeather.  The darkness relieved only by the single candle held in Canter's magic.  Old furniture mostly covered by aged dust covers dotted the passage.  He shivered, and it was not from the cold.  He was wishing that he had not taken the dare to spend this Nightmare Night in the reputedly haunted Crawfeather mansion.  Still, 300 golden bits was 300 golden bits.

Canter remembered all too vividly the ghastly past of this place.  The land that the mansion was built on was originally owned by the Bordens, back in the very earliest days of Ponyville, before there was any sort of formal town.

After the Apple Clan had demonstrated the value of the land in the area for farming by creating one of the most productive apple orchards in Equestria, the land rush was on!  The Bordens had claimed a big area and invested all that they had into clearing the land.  It proved to be too stony for any sort of farm.  It wasn't just loose surface stone either.  Rough upthrust sedimentary rock made up most of it. Clyde's attempts to sell it to newcomers became a local joke.

Clyde Borden put the land up in a card game and lost it to Jason Crawfeather.  For weeks afterwards, Clyde crowed about how bad Jason was taken in by winning that worthless land.  Jason and his family quietly ignored him and set industriously to work.  It was not too long before the Crawfeather Quarry was supplying the good building stone for foundations and nicely split slates for stout, weatherproof roofs that the rapidly growing community of Ponyville needed.

The fortune earned by the Crawfeathers and the resentment of the Bordens stoked the flames of the feud that followed.  The orgy of murder was started by Poxy, one of Clyde's grown colts.  

Swinging an ax, he charged into the Crawfeathers and some guests, who were dining on their plaza!  By the time that it was over, Chance Crawfeather was carried up to his room, his life blood soaking the sheets and bolster of his bed as he died.

Sweetbriar Crawfeather, Jason's wife was laid out in the great room.  One of the guests was a doctor who managed to stanch her wounds and saved her life.  She would carry those scars to her grave.

Poxy was caught before he could escape.  Three strong unicorns from the quarry held him down while Jason brained him with his own ax.

Pretending serious remorse for the actions of her brother, Lisset Borden came to serve the remaining Crawfeathers as a maid.  She soon learned that all three of them, Jason, Sweetbriar, and their remaining filly, Sunblossom had a fondness for tomato soup.  She served the unsuspecting family a tasty soup of tomatoes, basil, and a strong portion of poison hemlock.

Sunblossom collapsed at the table.  In spite of the pangs from her own stomach, Sweetbriar assisted Sunblossom up to her room.  In her attempt to appear innocent, Lisset helped her too.

Jason, in spite of the agony in his own innards, called for help from the house staff.  It took them only moments to find the bottle that had contained the deadly concoction.  They captured Lisset as she was coming down the stairs.  Lisset was made to drink the soup that remained.  She was dead before the ghastly wails of Sweetbriar announced the passing of Sunblossom.

Both Jason and Sweetbriar were ill for weeks before they recovered from the effects of the hemlock.  In one regard Sweetbriar never recovered.  Seeing both of her foals murdered by ax and poison drove her into madness.

She was known to haunt the rooms where they died and sought them about the mansion and their play yard.  She even went down into the quarry seeking her “lost” foals.  Most watched her with pity.

Searching the play yard again, as the year was passing into autumn, Sweetbriar stumbled on something concealed from her sight by her madness.  The headstones of her missing foals, Chance and Sunblossom could no longer be denied.  She avidly read what was on each stone.  Instead of wailing her loss, her heart became harder than the stones of the Crawfeather Quarry.

On a late autumn night with no moon to betray her, Sweetbriar sneaked down into the developing town of Ponyville.  Unseen by any, she poured lamp oil over the front porch and back stoop of the Borden house and set it ablaze.  Cunningly, she did not stay to see how her plot played out but repaired back to Crawfeather, avoiding the many foals out in fanciful costumes.

Entering the house, she beheld the horrid sight of Clyde Borden Hacking at the dead body of her beloved Jason with a double bit ax!  She seized the weapon from his grasp as he pulled back for another stroke!  With the power of her rage and madness, she took Clyde's head from his body in a single stroke!

She dropped the ax, which stuck upright in the floor boards.  In her struggles to drag the corpse of the assassin off of her husband's body, her feet slipped in the spilled gore and she lost her footing! She fell on the ax and the razor sharp blade cut her throat!

The house staff and their foals returned from their Nightmare Night, which had been made more exciting by the deadly house fire that had destroyed the Borden house and, apparently all the remaining Bordens!

The town's newly appointed constables had far more to deal with than the usual Nightmare Night pranks.  At least the feud would go no further. Neither Borden nor Crawfeather remained alive to carry it on.

Canter's reverie was broken by the creaking of hinges.  His ears straining to hear more failed to spot any further sound.  This was not the first such sound that he'd heard, either.  He had traced the first ones to open windows upstairs and drafts making old doors swing.

There was a creaking floorboard behind him!  Whirling about in startlement he saw . . . Cory!

“Just checking up on you, Canter.  Realized that you are missing out on Nightmare Night partying.  Brought you a little to make up for it. Here.  Got you something to drink in the bottle and a bunch of candies.”

“Nice of you, Cory.”

As Canter took the bag, the knife that Cory was hiding behind it plunged up, through the bottom of his jaw and into his brain through the weak area of skull on the underside!

Canter collapsed, dead before he hit the floor.

Cory's gloat of, “Looks like that money stays mine!  You ain't going to see the dawn . . .” was interrupted!

Screaming foals in Nightmare Night costumes ran out of the old parlor and out into the night!  The last one bucked the doors shut!  The locking click of the latch was like a trump of doom!  Cory was panting frantically and pounding on the door when the old handle turned.  The opened door showed a brace of constables waiting to take him to jail.

Canter looked about, sort of puzzled.  Everything was sort of gray, in spite of which, he could see clearly.  There was a pony before him, also gone gray, and a good thing. He had several huge wounds.  At least he was not bleeding from them.  Canter could see furniture through him.

  He invited, “Canter, right?  I am Jason.  Why don't you come with me and meet the rest of the family?”

~THE END~

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