//------------------------------// // ...What a Fright... // Story: Prank War! // by Ashfur //------------------------------// "So, what do we do? Just go and find ol' Moonbutt and catch her? If she's strong, we may end up hurting someone. And by someone, I mean me," Nick said as they wandered the gloomy halls. "Tis a possibility, but we did not sense a strong magical signature, so whoever is masquerading as our biggest regret is not an alicorn." Luna took a moment to sigh, her head drooping a bit. "We do enjoy this holiday, but it pains us to remember what caused it to come into being." "Don't worry Luna. The girls and I beat the real Nightmare Moon, I think we can handle this fake together. Think of it as... uh... overcoming your past!" Twilight leaned up against her friend as they walked, hoping to comfort her. It seemed to work, slightly. "Well, I think that our phony friend might be hiding, knowing that all of us together could cause them trouble." Nick's head snapped its focus onto Celestia. "Fred- no, Celly, don't say it. Just don't." Celestia tilted her head in confusion. "What? I was merely going to reccomend we split up." "You had to say it." Twilight chimed in before Nick could press the issue further. "Actually, splitting up in teams of two would allow us to search more of the castle while keeping to the buddy system in case things go wrong! I'll go with Nick." Luna threw a hoof up in the air with authority. "Tis decided then. Let's split up, team!" As they went their separate ways, Nick grumbled about the wrong character saying the line, and not even getting it right... "Well. Off they go. Shall we go check our usual hiding spots, Luna?" Her sister nodded. "Of course, Sister. We reccomend we check the backstage area that fiend emerges from. Perhaps we can find a clue there." And so, Celestia and Luna backtracked to the still-decorated main hall. Upon arriving, they moved to the storage area Nightmare Moon had come from, looking for clues. Celestia was up in the rafters, glancing left and right. Honestly, she thought to herself, why do we have so many sandbags up here? "Find anything, Luna?" Luna was digging through boxes to try and find a place a costume could be stored, potentially one used by the culprit. "Nay, Sister mine. We have yet to- wait a moment, there is something here! Look, a single, pristine, yellow hair from a mane! Perhaps it belonged to the perpetrator?" Celestia flew down and examined the hair. "Hm. This seems recent. You may be onto something. But who do we know who has a yellow mane?" After thinking for a moment, she added, "You know, I hope Twilight and Nick are doing alright." "So, in these stories, the characters running from the monster enter one door and exit a different one, but there's no teleportation? I think the only creatures capable of that are Discord, and maybe Pinkie." "Twilight, I'm not going to bother trying to explain. Not unless you say it." "Nick..." "Twilight..." "Fine. Jinkies. Now, can we get back to looking for the fake Nightmare Moon? I'd like to help fix this as soon as possible." "Fine. And to answer your question, it was just a story. It was more made for the humor value that anything else." Nick glanced around where his and Twilight's wanderings had taken them. "Oh, look! We've reached the 'Haunted house' section of the castle. I remember Celly saying it was full of silly, simple tricks. Secret doors and the like." The duo approached a set of stairs. Twilight turned to look at Nick again. "What kind of triiIIIICCCCKKKSSS!" Suddenly, as soon as she stepped onto the first stair, the steps of the staircase flattened out into a slide, the purple alicorn tripping and sliding down facefirst to the floor below. "Sparky? You alright down there? Hang on, I'll slide down to meet you!" Nick slid down the staircase much easier, hoping to catch up to the bookworm before something bad happened. Twilight, however, was still on the floor. She wasn't groaning, but searching. "I'm fine Nick, and I think I may have stumbled on something! There's a price of paper here, but I can't read it... because I lost my glasses. And my bad eyesight spell won't wear off for another few hours. Can you help me find them?" She felt a tap on her back, and the glasses were offered to her. She took them in her magic and put them on, looking at the paper again. "Thanks. Hm... it looks like an attack plan for the entire castle, where to haunt and when. But one room is crossed off as a no-go zone. Why would one room in the royal suites be a place Nightmare Moon wouldn't want to go? Is it maybe their room? That would mean the imposter is one of the royal family." She thought for a moment. "I suppose we'll need more clues. Thanks for helping me find my glasses, N-" she turned to face her friend, but froze at the face inches away from heres. "You're... not Nick." "Nope," Replied Nightmare Moon. "Should I start running?" "Yup." And she did. As soon as Nick hit the bottom of the stairwell, he slid past Twilight and hit the wall, rotating it on its swivel to throw him into another room entirely. "Ouch... I gotta invest in a helmet or something. This mystery buisness is more painful than it looks." He stood up, glancing around the room. It seemed to be a narrow hallway put in to allow for quick passage around the haunted house through the revolving walls, but no amount of force was making it budge. He was about to try again when he heard a rattling coming from one of the large urns used for decoration. Slowly, he crept over and lifted the lid. "Please don't hurt me." "Fluttershy? Is that you?" The yellow pegasus looked up from her hiding spot and nearly jumped into Nick's arms. "Nick? Oh, thank Celestia! I thought you were Nightmare Moon, come back to get me!" Nick comfortingly pet his soft spoken friend's head. "Don't worry. That Nightmare moon is a fake. We're gonna find out who it really is, and why they're scaring everypony. Come on, I got separated from Twilight and I'd appreciate some company. Let's go find the others together." "But the only way out of here other than those hard to move walls is the dark basement of the haunted house! I don't even know why I ran in here to hide. I should have found someplace safer, but I was so scared..." "Don't worry. I'll yank an enchanted candle off the wall and we can use that to see." That seems to calm Fluttershy as Nick tore a light off the wall and the two headed into the depths of the haunted house. "Hey, Flutters. Can I ask why you chose that as your costume? What are you supposed to be, anyway?" "Oh, I'm a brown and black great Dane. They are one of the lesser known dog breeds in Equestria since they are as big as ponies, and so many go hungry because ponies find it creepy their dogs are as big as they are and just don't adopt the breed! I decided to go as one to raise awareness of their plight. Why do you ask?" "No reason." The two carried on through the dark basement, their candle just providing enough light for Nick to see ahead of them. As the light of the exit came into view among the dusty barrels and boxes, a gust of wind blew out the candle. "Aw, fudge! Flutters, I can still see the exit. It sucks those candles are only enchanted to never run out of fuel, not immunity to being put out." Upon hearing Fluttershy's wings flapping, he rested his hand on the back of the mare on his right in order to guide them out of the box maze. "Hey, Flutters, I think your costume has a hole in it. I ca. feel your fur." He ruffled the back fur with his hand to emphasize his point. "Flutters?" "N-n-n-nick... that's not me. I'm on your left." "Than who am I petting? Oh, no..." the two looked at their new companion as they stepped into the light of the castle corridors. "Boo." "I believe our lines are 'Zoinks' and 'Ruh-roh', Flutters. But I think I'll settle for RUN!"