//------------------------------//
// Treat 
// Story: Boo!  Haunted House! 
// by shortskirtsandexplosions 
//------------------------------//

	Trixie lay unconscious across a worn velvet couch.

Gentle telekinesis brushed and brushed at her long, silky white mane.

"Mrmmmfff..."  The mare let loose a tiny, cat-like trilling sound.  Her fuzzy blue eyelids fluttered... fluttered some more... then finally peaked open.  She found her soft head resting gently in Starlight Glimmer's lap.

"Ah... you're finally coming to," Starlight said with a calm smile.  "Uhm..."  She blushed, glancing at the floating brush in her magical grip.  "Ahem..."  She did a few finishing touches to Trixie's snow-white threads and placed the brush onto a dimly-lit makeup table.  "Sorry.  I couldn't help myself.  Your mane was in such a mess after you collapsed to the floor."

Trixie squinted.  Her tired lips slurred:  "Collapsed... to the fl-floor...?"

"Errrr..."  Starlight winced through her smile.  "Yeah..."

"Nonsense!"  Trixie sat up with a jerk.  "The Great and Powerful Trixie does not faint—!"  She immediately winced from numerous tell-tale bruises along her back and shoulders.  "Unnnngh..."  She drifted back down, laying her bare head once again in Starlight's lap.  "Okay.  So maybe I fainted."

"I can understand torture chambers and spider queens..."  Starlight suppressed a giggle.  "But wheels?"

"Mrrmffff..."  Trixie's hooves curled up over her fuzzy chest as she stared across the room.  "It's a long story."

Starlight raised an eyebrow.  "Care to tell me?"

Trixie didn't answer.  She was too busy observing the make-up vanities and racks of costumes lining the walls.  Rubber masks and cosmetic accessories hung off shelves and countertops.  The walls shook with muffled sounds of practiced screams and wolf howls.  A starry cape and matching wizard's hat sat on a stool not too far away.

"We're backstage," the performer muttered.

Starlight gently squeezed Trixie's shoulders.  "Mmmmhmmm."

"Ohhhhhhhhh horseapples."  Trixie buried her face in two fetlocks.  "I must have embarrassed you sooooooo bad."

Starlight chuckled.  "It's alright."

"No it is not!"  Trixie lowered her hooves to frown up at her best friend.  "You were looking forward to this tour so much, Starlight, and I ruined it for you!"

"I wouldn't say that!"  Starlight gestured with a gentle hoof.  "The stagehooves were really kind, not to mention helpful.  They didn't strike me as annoyed in the slightest.  And this?"  She pointed at the cast member room around them.  "This is all behind the scenes!  I find it really exciting!  Heehee!  I bet Twilight and the others have never seen the inner workings of a haunted house show!"

"Meh..."  Trixie meh'd.

Starlight glanced at her.  "Oh.  Right."  She brushed Trixie's bangs back.  "Guess you're used to all this show business stuff."

"If Trixie is used to it..."  The mare in question sighed with a quiver.  "...then why did Trixie faint?"

"You're just... easily frightened, that's all."

"Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm..."  Trixie curled her forelimbs up once again, shook, tightened... and finally released with a deflating sigh.  "Yeahhhhh..."  She closed her eyes in shame.  "Trixie is a sissy."

"Now don't you say that—!"

"Oh but it's true.  Trixie is."

"Being frightened just isn't your thing!  I mean... take Fluttershy for instance!"  Starlight smiled.  "The mare's skittish as a mouse, and yet she's done braver things than you and I!  Well..."  She winked.  "Almost... considering recent events."

"If you say so, Starlight."

The two were silent.  Bats squeaked in the distance.  A metal hammer clanged against rusted chains, and was silent while ponies screamed through the walls and laughed and screamed again.

"Okay."  Starlight scooted back, giving Trixie room to relax on the couch.  "Let's be real here."

Trixie gulped nervously.

Starlight gazed at her with both curiosity and concern.  "If... you were always so scared of haunted houses..."  She cocked her head to the side.  "...why did you even agree to come inside with me to begin with?"

"Isn't it obvious?!"  Trixie flashed a sudden frown.  "It's because Trixie wants to be a good friend!"

Starlight Glimmer droned:  "There's a hundred thousand other things we could have been doing to celebrate Nightmare Night together, Trixie."

"So?"

Starlight folded her forelimbs.

Trixie's ears drooped fuzzily.  She rubbed her shoulder with the other hoof and looked away.  "Trixie... h-has never been as scared as she was when..."  She shivered.  "Wh-when we both marched into that changeling hive."

Starlight nodded, listening intently.

"And yet... ever s-since..."  Trixie's upper body flushed until she was a purple shape in the shadows of the dressing room.  "...Trixie... mmmmm... I can't stop thinking about how scared I was... and almost... almost..."

Starlight blinked.  "Almost what, Trixie?"

"Almostwantingtofeeljustasscaredagain!" Trixie blurted.  "Okay!"  She tensed up.  "You can laugh at Trixie now!"

Starlight shook her head.  "Why would I want to laugh at you?"

"Because you've been laughing at Trixie all night!"

"No I haven't!"  Starlight chuckled.  She rolled her eyes at herself and exclaimed, "Trixie, I just want to understand what you mean.  Why would you want to feel 'as scared' as you did back at Chrysalis' hive again?"

"Because..."  Trixie squirmed on her side of the velvet couch.  "... b-because no matter how scary things got... and how much Trixie f-feared for her life..."  The next confession came through a squeaky sigh:  "Trixie knew that you would be there to save me..."

Starlight raised an eyebrow.

"And pr-protect Trixie."  The illusionist hugged herself, shivering without her starry cloak.  "And... and that's a good thing... one of the b-best things Trixie has ever had the joy of experiencing."  She hunched up on the couch cushion, slowly becoming a tiny blue ball of trembles.  "So... I-I guess that's why it was okay... more than okay to be so scared... with you... again... in this place..."  At the tail end of that trailing proclamation, she gulped hard.  "Does any of that make any sense?"

The air tingled with magic.  Trixie watched as her starry cloak floated over in a curtain of telekinesis.  Suddenly, Starlight was scooting closer, and as Trixie's cloak draped over them both—warming them—Starlight wrapped a hoof around Trixie's shoulder, holding her tight.  Close.

"To be honest... no, not really."  Starlight nevertheless spoke in a warm tone as she hugged Trixie from the side.  "I don't see why you have to force yourself through scary stuff, Trixie.  So... how about this?  What say we cut through all the chaff and just get to the 'feeling safe' part?"

Trixie blinked up at her.  "Huh?"  Her eyes glistened curiously.

"Hmmmm..."  Starlight closed her eyes, leaning down to nuzzle Trixie's forehead with her velvety chin.  "I promise... I will always... always protect you."

A snow-white tail flicked enthusiastically from beneath the starry cloak.  "You r-really mean it?"

"Yes."  Starlight purred, opening her eyes just wide enough to take in Trixie's shiny complexion.  "And—if it makes you feel any better..."  She giggled inwardly.  "I... kinda sorta like it when Trixie clings to Starlight... so that way Starlight can hold her tight and hug all of the shivers away..."

"Heeheeheehee..."  Trixie giggled for the first time that night.

Starlight blinked.  "...what?"

Trixie stuck a tongue out.  "Trixie thinks she has become contagious."

Starlight's eyes crossed.  She smacked her own forehead.

Trixie giggled again.

"Yes... well..."  Starlight leaned in until the two were nearly nose-to-fuzzy-nose.  "Maybe the Great and Powerful Starlight is okay with that."

Trixie stared back, eyes wide.  The tips of her ears burned purple... flouncing in time with her pulse.

Starlight remained a feather's width away.  She purred:  "Still scared?"

Trixie gulped.  "Trixie isn't sure," she said in a dry tone.

Starlight hummed.  "I know the feeling."  Then she leaned forward... and rested her neck over Trixie's shoulder.

Trixie exhaled... then smiled in some wave of indefinable relief.  She mirrored Starlight's gesture... until the two were curled tightly together in a nuzzling embrace, huddled in the backstage of a macabre horror show beneath a blanket of velvet stars.  Somewhere amidst the lingering moment, Trixie sensed Starlight's heartbeat—heavy and earnest—and she timed her breaths between them.  Before long, she lost count, feeling safe.

Safer than ever.