A Nightmare Before The Night [CYOA]

by Selbi

Chapter 11

Chapter 11

“Let nopony believe Twilight Sparkle, the personal protegé of Princess Celestia, is too greedy to share the spirit of Nightmare Night with them!” the unicorn proudly announced. Clearly enthusiastic by the idea of adding her share of holiday flair that night, she bolted off towards Ponyville’s only decorations store.

But before she’d taken two-steps, she stopped mid-track. What could she do? She was trapped in a labyrinth with no way out.

“What do you want to do now, Twilight? You can’t just magically make stuff appear and decorate the tree by itself,” noted Spike, taking out a quill and parchment. “So, what do you want me to write?”

Twilight’s helplessness, the disastrous expression of a pony who was about to lose everything written on her face, slowly began to fade away. In fact, it seemed to turn into something that was more of the opposite kind. A devious grin, that intended to give someone else nightmares for weeks, if it meant not having to endure endless torture for the rest of her own life.

“Spike,” she started slowly, still being turned away from him, and careful not to give out any hint about her plan to her assistant, “I want you to write this in the exact same words as I tell you them:

Dear Princess Celestia,

Please mail us unboxed decorations in exactly thirty minutes. I will pay you back tomorrow.

Your faithful student,

Twilight Sparkle”

Spike breathed a stream of green fire onto the parchment, and sent the letter off. “But what about the key now?” he asked. “How will you find enough time to decorate the tree while still looking for that?”

“Oh, that won’t be a problem,” Twilight replied just as painfully normal as she could. “Say, Spike, why don’t you go home already and start inspecting the outside of the tree to see where the best spots to hang the mini jack-o-lanterns are? Be sure to look, very carefully. We want to take advantage of the best spots to hang them!”

“You got it, Twilight!” With an eager salute, he ran off with the banner.

Twilight released a deep breath as her assistant was finally out of sight. I just hope this works…

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Another blur of purple streaked through the busy town—a common sight to all the ponies around at this point—straight towards the home of Rarity. Twilight, probably already rid of two pounds from all that running around.

“Twilight, wait up!” a young voice called out to her.

She stopped instantly, groaning incredibly annoyedly. “Whatever it is you want, just make it quick! I’ve been held up by too many silly ponies with silly issues today already!”

Turning around, she was surprised to see Applejack rushing towards her. “Oh, thanks a lot ya waited, Twi… Ah’m a li’l helpless here…” Being the work pony she was, she wasn’t nearly as exhausted as Twilight would’ve been, but her breathing gave away her shortness of breath.

“Helpless? Why?”

“Ah, uhm… Ah need you to rescue me from a loan shark…” she explained, defeated and slightly embarrassed. “She… Ah mean, uh… he… it… they… want onto mah money, but Ah don’t have any!”

Groaning once more, Twilight asked in a flat tone, “How much?”

“It’s, uhm… nothing much at all! Just a li’l two hundred bits…”

“Excuse me?!”

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Money, money, money!

→ Give Applejack the hefty sum of coins? Go Chapter 34!

→ See what happens if Twilight doesn’t give it to her? Chapter 22!

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[Andy Ray]

What have we learnt? Be generous.