"NO!"

The Soldier bolted upright from where he had been lying on the ground. In his panic, he leapt to his feet and charged forward, blinded by terror and the morning sun. It would later occur to him that he was behaving in a similar manner to a wild mustang who had been spooked. However, the irony was lost on him at the moment. He galloped forward, having no idea where he was going, until his progress was halted by a sudden explosion. Terrified beyond belief, he reared up onto his hind legs and began kicking his front legs wildly.

"WE'RE BEING SHELLED!" he screamed. His hooves hit the ground once more, and he suddenly found the will to stop. He listened carefully for the sound of an artillery shell approaching, but heard nothing. He hung his head and sighed with relief. While he was looking down, he caught a glimpse of an odd object out of the corner of his eye. He looked back up to get a better look at the object.

In essence, it was a pumpkin. That would be the simplest way to describe it. However, this pumpkin possessed a trait that most other pumpkins do not: four sticks of dynamite were tied to it with black cloth.

"…Wait a minute…" the Soldier thought to himself. He turned around slowly. There were hundreds upon hundreds of pumpkins scattered across the landscape, standing between the Soldier and Fluttershy's cottage.

"I'm not being shelled…I'm in a minefield."

The Soldier looked cautiously around the pumpkin-studded field, careful not to touch anything. Touching any one of these pumpkins would cause the dynamite to detonate, which would likely knock the unfortunate victim into another pumpkin and set off the pumpkins nearby.

"Just great," the Soldier muttered to himself. "I go to sleep, and I wake up in the middle of a minefield. If I had a goddamn nickel…" Suddenly, the Soldier spotted something off in the distance. He craned his neck forward and squinted, trying to get a better look at the edge of the forest. He saw a set of eerie floating lights near the entrance to the forest. Because he was so far away, he couldn't tell what they were coming from—just that they were lights. But based on their shape, and how high off the ground they were… The Soldier took a deep breath. He began to carefully weave his way back through the field of pumpkins.

After what seemed like ages, the Soldier returned to Fluttershy's cottage. This time, he pushed the door open and entered. To his surprise, the ponies he'd been travelling with (and Spike, of course) were already waiting for him in the main room.

"Are you OK? We heard an explosion!" Rarity said nervously.

"I'm fine. I've been blown up a lot. I can take it," the Soldier said. "I was just having a bad dream. I kind of panicked, and I didn't realize until after I'd run around for a while that we're in the middle of a freakin' minefield."

"Minefield? What's a minefield?" Pinkie Pie asked, hopping over to the window cheerfully. "Is it like a pumpkin patch?"

"Only in this case, Pinkie. Basically, there are bombs everywhere. All those pumpkins are rigged to explode if we touch them."

"Wait…" Spike said, placing his hand on his chin, "but if there are pumpkins everywhere, and the pumpkins explode if we touch them, then how are we supposed to leave?"

"That's the idea," responded the Soldier. "Whatever set these things up doesn't want us to leave. He wants us to either remain in this house until we run out of supplies and starve to death, or risk going through the pumpkins, set one off and die in an explosion."

"Well, it must've taken him a while to do," said Twilight. She was pacing nervously across the floor as she spoke. "Maybe he's still close by."

"About that…" the Soldier said. "I was too far away to get a really good look, but I saw some spooky lights on the edge of the Everfree Forest."

"Spooky lights, huh?" now at the Soldier's elbow, despite having been looking out the window a moment before. "What kind of spooky lights?"

"Well, I'm glad you asked," the Soldier said morosely, walking to the center of the room. "The lights looked like they were coming from a jack-o-lantern."

"Well, I guess that would make sense," Dash said, circling aimlessly around the ceiling of the cottage.

"The problem is this would have to be a jack-o-lantern about two feet wide, floating ten to twelve feet off the ground."

"That would complicate matters," Rarity muttered to herself.

"Therefore, I've come to the conclusion that the lights are coming from a jack-o-lantern—specifically, a jack-o-lantern worn as the head of a vengeful spirit resembling a ten-foot tall human skeleton clad in decaying cloth wielding a possibly cursed and definitely haunted axe that has an insatiable need to decapitate things. I'm sorry, but I wasn't completely honest to you earlier. I had my suspicions that this thing was following us ever since we found that Haunted Halloween Gift at Sweet Apple Acres, but I didn't want to run the risk of panicking you if that wasn't really him. I should have said something before we became trapped in here, but it's…too late for that…" The Soldier trailed off. He slowly realized that everyone in the room was looking at him like he'd sprouted a fifth leg.

"…Why's everybod—er, everypony staring at me?" he asked.

"Have you spit yer bit or somethin'?" blurted out Applejack, pointing an accusatory hoof at the Soldier.

"NOBODY KNOWS!" bellowed the Soldier, rearing onto his hind legs. Once he crashed to the floor again, he realized that his standard response may not have been the best idea, given the circumstances. After a few moments of awkward silence, the Soldier suddenly realized he'd left a key element out of his explanation.

"Oh, and did I mention that in my reality the undead are a completely natural phenomenon and this horrible monster I've just described is actually the physical manifestation of a very angry ghost, thus leading me to conclude that this monster is the other being from my reality we should be looking for?"

"Ohhhhhh…"

"You should really mention things like that the first time," Spike grumbled.

"Well, if that's the other creature, we've got to go after it!" said Dash, making as though to swoop through the front door.

"WAIT!" the Soldier shouted, hurling himself in front of said door. "Did you forget about the pumpkins?"

"…Uh…wings, remember?"

"…Oh, right," the Soldier said, looking down at his feet, embarrassed.

"But how're the rest of us gonna get through?" asked Applejack, adjusting her hat.

"Well, when I trained to fight in World War II…because I definitely did that…" The Soldier glanced off towards the far wall, clearing his throat awkwardly. It was suspiciously reminiscent of Applejack's attempts to keep secrets. However, the Soldier looked back to his fellow ponies and continued before any conclusions could be drawn.

"…I learned two ways to get through a minefield safely," he continued. "The first involves spotting signs of digging which tell you where the mines have been buried and walking through the field very slowly and carefully."

"But the pumpkins aren't buried in the ground," said Pinkie Pie, looking out the window to make sure they hadn't buried themselves at some point during the conversation.

"Yeah, in this case, we can probably skip that part."

"But we don't have time to go slowly and carefully!" groaned Dash. "By the time we get past the pumpkins, that thing will already be gone!"

"Well, there is another way…" the Soldier said.

"Alright, don't just stand there! Tell us!" said Twilight. The Soldier hesitated a moment.

"Do you want the technical explanation, or the short one?" he asked.

"The short one," blurted Dash before anyone else could say anything.

"Okay. In that case, we blow shit up. We set off all the pumpkins between us and the Everfree Forest, then charge through the path we've cleared."

"Alright! Why didn't you say so?" Dash pumped her hooves in the air excitedly as she prepared to swoop out the door again.

"Wait!" said Fluttershy, zipping over to the Soldier's position at the door. "The pumpkins are too close together! If you set one off, you'll set them all off! What about the animals that live in the field? They'll be hurt in the explosion, or worse!" The Soldier groaned loudly and slammed his face into his hoof.

"Oh, for God's sake, you ARE one of those 'lives in harmony with nature' types, aren't you?"

"…Wh-what?" Fluttershy murmured, turning around slowly.

"Listen, lady," the Soldier said, glaring menacingly and advancing slowly towards Fluttershy as she backed away just as slowly, "those animals are what we like to call 'collateral damage'. Sure, some of them will be hurt. Some of them may be killed. In fact, most of them will probably be killed. But where I come from, that's considered a loss worth taking. At the end of the day, it comes down to letting a few birds and squirrels die or letting that creature get away. And you know what?" The Soldier pushed himself forward, releasing the full force of his voice into Fluttershy's face, just like the drill sergeant he sometimes imitated.

"I WILL NOT LET YOUR FRIEND-TO-ALL-LIVING-THINGS BULLSHIT AID IN THIS SONOFABITCH'S ESCAPE! DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME, HIPPIE?" A shocked silence fell over the room. The Soldier panted heavily, glaring at Fluttershy, and Fluttershy stared back at him, face blank with terror. Suddenly, Fluttershy turned around and ran up the nearby flight of stairs, sobbing quietly. All eyes were on her as she disappeared onto the second story. After a few moments of shocked silence, the stunned ponies slowly turned to face the Soldier. Twilight finally broke the silence, her voice dripping with rage.

"…What…have…you…done?"