//------------------------------// // You Have Nothing to Fear... // Story: Rainbow Dash's Awesome Nightmare Night Haunted House Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Adventure // by TheDriderPony //------------------------------// You'll admit to not being the cleanest pony in the world. Maybe your house is on the messy side of lived-in. But even you know that the solution to a giant monster made of dust is obviously a giant broom. Or maybe a giant feather duster. But you don't have one of those, so a broom it is! You brace it between your wing and foreleg, brandishing it like a spear held by an ancient Pegasopolli warrior. They, however, had years of training to use spears, halberds, and poleaxes, meanwhile all the experience you have to draw on is your time spent jousting at the Crystal Fair. And Fluttershy hardly made a challenging adversary. Still you strike at the beast, short stabs to deter its approach and wide sweeping slashes to knock aside its massive arms. And it's effective. Way more effective that you planned. Every swipe you land not only dislodges a layer of dust, but disappears it as well. Magic? Probably, but that's neither here nor there. You knock aside another hit, but overextend and leave yourself open. The beast takes quick advantage and throws a haymaker at you from above. You dodge, turning what would have been a knockout into merely a glancing blow, but even that is enough to send you spinning into the other corner of the room. You realize your mistake now. As the creature gets smaller, it also gets faster. You narrow your eyes and grin. Speed, of course, is your area of expertise. The battle that follows is as epic as you could hope for. A deft game of speeding strike between you and an ever faster opponent. By the time its body is reduced to pony sized, it's fast enough to rival you in close quarters. But the battle was already decided. While it could hop across the room at lightning speed, you have unrivaled superiority in the air. Even when it became fast and small enough to dodge your broom, its hits were so weak as to barely shift you in the air. A couple of lucky strikes more and the monster is reduced to a perfectly clean skull in a totally dust-free room. The battle won, you set the broom back in your Inventory and wipe some sweat from your brow. Your hoof comes back grimy and grey. "Oh, gross!" Apparently the creature couldn't control dust wetted by sweat, meaning all that remains is what's turning into a gross paste amid your fur and feathers. Before you can get too worked up, the inanimate skull begins to glow. With a soft chime, it vanishes in a lavender light, leaving behind a small present box wrapped in orange and black paper. You open the box and find inside a pair of costume Bunny Ears. They're made of cheap fabric stretched over a wire and attached to a headband, but they to seem to be in adult size. Shrugging, you tuck them under one wing and head for the door.