Eventually, Twilight, Sunset, the Humane 5 and The Dazzlings came out of the darkness, lightly scared at what they'd just gone through back there. They'd fought off unnatural forces and hordes of the dead and it left them with a sense of terror, yet slight amusement as they looked as their final scores.
Unsurprisingly, Fluttershy had around a measly 1,000 points, since her nerves had gotten the better of her back in the darkness where those creatures dwelled. Rainbow Dash and Aria were tied for the top score of 67,500. They both looked at each other once they came off and high-fived in victory.
"How well did you do, girls?" Pinkie decided to ask, since she couldn't see everyone's scores altogether.
"Well, I got 42,000 points back there," Sunset said, smiling at her success in such a terrifying situation. She'd fought creatures never seen to Equestrian eyes and she had still pulled through in the end. "What about you, Rarity?"
"Such heinous monsters to attack us all, I thought that the only best thing to do was to send them back down to the depths of hell where they belong," Rarity said, showing a face of war as she looked back at the darkness she'd barely made it out of. "Oh, and I got around 56,000 points."
"Ooh! That sounds pretty promising," Pinkie said before she looked at the rest of the group with a little smile on her face. "Unless someone else here scored higher..."
"67,500 points!" Both Rainbow Dash and Aria Blaze said together, throwing their fists to the air in victory as they savoured this wonderful moment. They both stopped and looked at each other afterwards, smiling little grins at one another as they knew there'd be some competition if they went again.
"Wowzers! That IS a really high score, Dashie!" Pinkie said once the group started to exit the mansion with the rest of the riders, hoping to get something good from the gift shop once they came out. "That's one of the highest scores I've ever heard of in this particular game. Well, besides that one time where Gun Nut came out of here with 93,000, that is."
Upon hearing this revelation, the jaws of both Rainbow Dash and Aria dropped instantly. They'd never known that Gun Nut was such a good shot, both in his online games and in real life. They both looked at each other once more when they put their jaws back to where they were and they knew from each other's gaze that they had to challenge Gun Nut the next time the carnival came round.
"Well, look at that..." Sunset said as she saw the pictures of all ten of them. They looked like they were all having a good time as the pictures showed them holding their blasters out and firing at what had attacked them before. "The pictures even have our scores on them."
The pictures indeed had the scores of all ten of the girls on them. Rainbow Dash and Aria's scores were both 67,500, as they'd said before. The other scores were 58,000 by Pinkie Pie, 38,000 by Adagio, Sonata and Applejack, 42,000 by Sunset, 43,000 by Twilight, Fluttershy's 1,000 and ending up with Rarity's 56,000.
"Don't worry, Fluttershy," Pinkie said, giving her a sympathetic few pats on her back, getting her to look at Pinkie with a little bit of a smile starting to grow. "You tried your hardest and that's what counts."
"Thanks, Pinkie." She said as she turned back to Twilight and Sunset, who were purchasing the pictures with their tokens once more.
"Have a nice night, girls." The staff member said as he handed Twilight and Sunset the framed pictured and waved them off for the night. Once they had gone out with the rest of the girls, he tended to the next customers willing to by their results of the game on a picture.
Twilight, Sunset, the Humane 5 and The Dazzlings walked away from the photo counter and ended up in a gift shop, full of merchandise relating to what they'd gone through back there. There were rubber zombie arms and toy blasters, even a few hats and glasses. They could also see some candy on offer in the middle of it all, but that didn't interest them in the slightest.
They came out of the gift shop and walked down the grassy roads once more. They still had some time to burn before they went back to their homes for the night. Twilight and Sunset still had planned to enter the funhouse with The Dazzlings and then grab some lunch, so they decided if the rest of the girls wanted to go with them to this funhouse.
"At this point, do you really need to ask?" Pinkie said, already on board with the idea 100%. She knew that anything with the word 'fun' in it would be fun not just for her, but for the rest of the girls as well. "Of course I'd love to go with you!"
"Well, shoot. If Pinkie's on board with the whole thing, then ah guess ah'm with her," Applejack said as she put a hand on Pinkie's shoulder, getting her to smile back at her. "What about the rest of ya'll?"
"I'm in." Was heard from the other girls travelling with them. They all decided together that a funhouse would be an ideal way to spend some last moments together here at the carnival.
"What about you, girls?" Sunset asked The Dazzlings, who looked up at her with gleeful faces already beginning to show. They'd taken Pinkie's word for it, anything with the word 'fun' in it now also appealed to them as well. "I probably don't even need to ask, do I?"
"Yes, please, Mommy!" They all said, completely ecstatic to be going to a place that would give them nothing but excitement and fun. They all hugged Twilight and Sunset's legs for a few seconds and then released them to let the two of them walk once more.
"Well, it looks like there's no objections." Twilight said as the ten of them began to walk to the funhouse together, passing by more patrons and food stalls on their journey to the funhouse they'd been talking about for the past half-minute.
When they finally arrived at the funhouse, they saw what looked like a massive three story house that looked like it had been twisted at the corners and looked a little slanted. The colours looked quite nice as well, with a stripy design running down all the walls of the funhouse.
They couldn't see the inside of the house for some reason and could only see the windows and door at the front. Aside from all that, they could see that the funhouse was titled 'Wacky World' and had a clown's smile as the entrance to the attraction. The bizarre design got Twilight to look in confusion. She'd never seen such a construct like this before in her life and was now wondering how it could have possibly made it past the safety checks.
They made their way to the entrance and saw a little coin hatch on the front. It read '2 Tokens Per Guest' on the door above the coin hatch and was put where the mail slot would usually go. Twilight and Sunset smiled at this clever design and deposited ten tokens into the hatch, so that they could get themselves in.
Once they made it inside with The Dazzlings, the door closed behind them, causing them to jump in panic. They tried waiting for the Humane 5 to join them, but the door suddenly vanished behind them, and they were sent down a sudden trapdoor to another area of the house.
The Humane 5 had noticed that Twilight, Sunset and The Dazzlings were missing once they all got inside the Wacky World funhouse for themselves. They tried to walk forward down the corridor ahead, but it was all an optical illusion and they found themselves falling down the same trapdoor that Twilight, Sunset and The Dazzlings had fallen prey to.
They had all landed with a loud thump on to what felt like a crash mat, to prevent any real falling damage and keep them in perfect shape for the journey ahead. They saw what looked like a mirror maze of colours ahead once they finally got to their feet. They could barely make anything out with all the mirrors and colours ahead of them.
"Where are we?" Fluttershy asked, showing some concern as she saw what lay ahead of her and the rest of the Humane 5. She'd never in her life received such a big surprise like that.
"I think we're inside Wacky World..." Pinkie Pie said as she took a few steps forward into the mirror maze and was already lost in the world of mirrors she'd stepped in.
"Hey! Don't leave us behind, Pinkie!" Rainbow Dash said as she ran into the maze after Pinkie, making sure that she wouldn't get separated from the rest of the Humane 5.
The rest of the girls followed suit and entered the maze of mirrors, already starting to succumb to the disorienting labyrinth which they'd bee thrust into. They tried using the mirrors to enhance their perception, but this led to no avail.
Some of the girls started to show fear, before they finally escaped from the mirrors and found themselves in a room with uneven, padded floors. They could already feel themselves losing their sense of balance as they tried to carefully walk through the padded room as quickly as possible.
As they got further, they heard the childish giggles of The Dazzlings in the rooms ahead. They made it through the uneven padded room and found themselves in a room that was completely spinning so that it would be hard to get through the door. The giggles could be heard again as they saw shadows of Adagio, Aria and Sonata going through the door on the other side of the spinning room.
"There they are!" Rainbow Dash said as she pointed at the shadows, which were just vanishing through the doorway on the other side of the revolving room. It was hard for the other girls to find where she was pointing, but they eventually found where she was leading them. "Wait up, Dazzlings! Huh, never thought I'd say that..."
The girls followed after Twilight, Sunset and The Dazzlings through the Wacky World but always seemed to arrive in the next room as the others had just left it. They did get close on a few occasions, but they still missed out on Twilight, Sunset and The Dazzlings by a few seconds.
"Well, that's it! I give up!" Rarity said as she slumped down on one of the padded floors as they'd just missed Twilight, Sunset and The Dazzlings for the eighth time in a row. "It's like trying to chase a panther in this place!"
"Come on, Rarity! Don't give up now!" Rainbow Dash said as she began to climb up a rotating rope ladder to the next floor of the place, where they thought they'd have more luck in finding their friends once again. "We're finally getting back up to the ground floor. Hopefully we can find the girls better there..."
The other girls were quick to follow Rainbow Dash up the rope ladder to the main floor of the Wacky World, where they could find Twilight, Sunset and The Dazzlings easier as they saw the place was all one big playhouse with different things for children to do. They all came up to the main floor where they could see everything now.
There were stuff like slides and giant wringers nestled in between the many different layers of activity and fun. Some of the areas were made safe with little rope nets to keep any of the kids from falling back to the main floor and hurting themselves. The floors all seemed padded here, just like the rest of the house and there were some kids who were bouncing on this padding, getting a sense of amusement from it.
The Dazzlings were seen at the giant wringers, feeding themselves through the padded cylinders with little giggles as they came out the other side. They saw that the Humane 5 had all arrived in the room with then and they pointed them out for Twilight and Sunset, who were travelling with them, to make sure they didn't get lost.
"Hi, girls!" Twilight said, waving her greetings to the Humane 5 as they finally saw the girls climbing up the padded infrastructure to reach them once more. Twilight didn't see it at first, but the girls all bore looks of frustration, as if they didn't have much success travelling through the basement of the funhouse.
Eventually, the Humane 5 finally caught up with the five of them and they shot little glances of hate as they had been left behind. Twilight and Sunset looked at their looks and felt sympathetic for the Humane 5.
"Why did you run away from us?" Fluttershy said, tears forming in her eyes as she looked at Twilight and Sunset. She looked like she'd been abandoned by the two of them and the tone of voice she had enhanced this tenfold. "It made me sad to think you'd left us all behind..."
"I'm sorry about that, Fluttershy..." Sunset said, showing her own shreds of sadness as she looked at Fluttershy's sad expressions. She'd always stuck with the Humane 5 through thick and thin, but to go through such a rigorous trial like the basement of the Wacky World and leave them all behind made her feel sad inside. "I should have waited for you all..."
"Yes, ya should have." Applejack said, putting her hand on Sunset's cheek to make her feel even more remorse for what she'd done.
"Don't worry about it now, though," Pinkie said, putting a hand on Sunset's other cheek and manipulated it as well as her other cheek to make Sunset force a smile. "That's all for another time now, now's the time for some fun with friends!"
"Pinkie, how can ya possibly want fun after what we'd been through?" Rainbow Dash asked as she held out her hands in confusion to emphasize her point further. "This place messed with our vision, our balance and even our gravity."
"I know that, silly. But it's all in the past now," Pinkie said as she led The Dazzlings over to a nearby slide which would land them in a ball pit at the bottom of the slope. "This place is a funhouse after all, and what's a funhouse without all the fun?"
"I guess you're right about all that..." Rarity said as she finally caught on to what Pinkie had been saying all this time. She'd constantly been saying that this place was a place for fun, even if this version of fun messed with their bodies and eyes constantly. "It IS a rather bizarre take on fun, however..."
"Yeah, but it's fun nonetheless!" Pinkie said before shooting herself down the slide, landing in the ball pit with a little giggle showing afterwards. Even as she was getting older now, Pinkie still enjoyed the sensation of fun in any variety. "Come on, girls. The balls are just fine..."
"Well, alright then, Pinkie..." Sunset said as she put herself on the hard slide and held onto the little handles at the side. She threw herself down the slope and could immediately feel a sense of adrenaline as she neared the ball pit that Pinkie had landed in. Once she landed, she felt like she'd finally tapped into her much deeper childhood self and she loved this sensation...
"Actually, it IS rather enjoyable." Sunset said as she climbed out of the ball pit, hearing all the plastic balls clacking as she shifted them around with her motion. This sound called back more memories to when she was a little filly herself, playing as happily as could be in the ball pit with her family to watch over her as she did.
"Come on, girls! This fun won't last forever!" Pinkie said as she made her way to another part of the room where she could use trampolines to get to other parts of the room. She bounced up high, giggling all the while as she used the trampolines to grab onto a ledge and do so again with another trampoline.
The girls all decided to follow along with Pinkie's words, breaking free of their maturity and beginning to behave like children again as they let all the padded activities and other things wrap them in all the nostalgia. The Dazzlings were also there with them, having all the fun they could have before the night came to an end.
When the girls weren't playing with all the different parts of the play area, they were playing Hide-and-seek or Tag with each other, letting out little giggles whenever they found someone, were found or tagged. They all had such a wonderful time here beyond all the confusion of the first area and it made them feel like they truly were kids again, playing in a world where everything seemed much bigger to them and was all childproofed so they wouldn't hurt themselves.
Once they'd all had their fare share of childish fun in the Wacky World, they all came out the back, returning to the carnival's many lights, attractions and food vendors. They did still love all the warm and welcoming lights of this place once they made it back, it made them feel a certain sense of beauty in the midst of the dark night sky.
They all started to feel their stomachs rumbling after all that excitement, which was a sign that they were all hungry. They went over to the nearby table in the middle of a ring of food stalls and decided to take a seat there. They also helped The Dazzlings sit up on since they were still too young to climb up and sit down on benches this high themselves.
"Boy howdy, Ah'm as hungry as a apple-hungry caterpillar!" Applejack said as she saw all the delicious choices of food on offer. There were such choices like caramel apples, cotton candy, popcorn, hotdogs, pretzels and even a few churros as well.
"I wonder what will catch my nostril tonight?" Rarity said as she now looked at all the choices that Applejack had just seen. Such a wonderful sight got her to sniff all the flavours and sigh a sigh of content. "From the looks of things, I'd say that EVERYTHING has caught my attention."
"Who's hungry, girls?" Sunset said as she pulled out her tokens from her pocket and saw the girls getting out what they had left of their tokens. There was enough tokens for everyone to have a variety of different combinations of food and it made Sunset smile warmly. "I'm buying."
"Well, I'd like a churro please, Sunset." Fluttershy said as she saw all those delicious pastry sticks of cinnamon being handed out to customers who paid their tokens to the staff member running that stall.
"Ah'll have me a caramel apple, please." Applejack said, getting no surprise from Sunset as she kind of expected her to say that.
"I think a rather divine pink cloud of cotton candy will do me for the night." Rarity said, watching people sink their teeth into the pink balls of sugary cotton and eating them thoroughly.
"Make that two clouds of cotton candy!" Pinkie said, bouncing in front of Rarity out of nowhere with her usual bouncy attitude behind her. "Or maybe three, or even four! I can't decide how many pieces I should have!"
"I'd say one for the time being, Pinkie," Sunset chuckled as she got the mental order from all of the girls memorized further. She wanted to make sure that they could all get what they wanted without the inconvenience of her having to write down a list which would waste time. "Now, who's next?"
"I'll take some popcorn." Rainbow Dash said as she looked over at all the glass box where popcorn was being popped out of a little pot and into a giant mountain of other popcorn below it.
"I'm gonna be brave and try a hot-dog..." Twilight said, looking at the meat which had traumatized her earlier. She must have been insane for doing it, but she was partially interested in seeing how cooked animals tasted.
"Are you sure about that, Twilight?" Sunset said, remembering that the mere mention of meat got Twilight to vomit earlier. "It IS a meat after all."
"I know that, but I'm actually quite curious as to how these humans enjoy such foods..." Twilight said, showing off her more studious expressions as she saw humans taking bites of the sausages sandwiched in special long buns of bread.
"Alright then..." Sunset said as she put down Twilight's brave order of a hot dog into her mental list before looking down to Adagio, Aria and Sonata. "Now what about The Dazzlings?"
"Can I have some popcorn?" Sonata asked as she looked at the popcorn stand with people taking their buckets filled with the food and began munching on them happily.
"I'll take a churro." Adagio said, looking at Fluttershy with a smile starting to show on her face.
"And I'll have some cotton candy, please." Aria said, finally smiling once she'd put down her order so that Sunset could now finalize it.
"So let me get this straight..." Sunset said as she now put everyone's desires together into one big order for the ten of them. "That's two churros, a caramel apple, three cotton candies, a hot dog, some popcorn and a pretzel for me?"
"Sounds like it." Twilight said as she saw no error in Sunset's mental memorization capabilities, causing to her to smile happily with feelings of pride. She not only had a good friendship student, but a very wise one at that.
"Alright then." Sunset said as she went off to purchase the many foods for the ten of them all. She went over and got the churros and cotton candy first, bringing them over to Adagio, Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkie and Aria, who all smiled afterwards. After that, she went on to get the caramel apple for Applejack, the hot dog for Twilight, the cups of popcorn for Rainbow Dash and Sonata and the pretzel for herself.
The girls enjoyed their food very much and spent almost all of their time devouring their carnival snacks instead of talking to one another. They also tended to get crumbs and such all over their faces, but that just made them smile when everyone else chuckled at them.
Eventually, they finished their food and saw that it was now 9:45 PM. Twilight and Sunset knew that it was way past The Dazzlings' bedtimes, so they had to say their goodbyes to the Humane 5 as they made their way out of the carnival, exchanging their remaining tokens for money.
Once they had their remaining tokens turned into money, Twilight and Sunset left the carnival, with The Dazzlings now sleeping in their arms. They made their way back to the car and put The Dazzlings in the backseats and buckled them in with the seatbelts.
Once The Dazzlings were all in, Twilight and Sunset got back into the cars themselves and started it up once more. The engine purred once again as Sunset began driving away from the carnival and back to the house where they'd come from.
Adagio, Aria and Sonata had a wonderful sleep that night. They'd seen many things tonight at the carnival, from fun, to beauty and even some moments of fear. As they let their dreams flourish, they all wondered when they'd be able to come to this wonderful carnival once more...