School of Horrors

by Bookpony579

Chapter 9

Pinkie, Applejack and Rarity raced through the halls to where the screaming was.

"Okay, I think we we left them riiiiggghhhttt..." She turned the corner. "HERE!" Her smile faded as she looked ahead.

The group had indeed barricaded themselves in as instructed. Only now it was reversed, as everyone was in the hallway, stacking things against the door as something from inside tried to break out.

"Trixie is sorry for saying those things before! Trixie just wants to go home!" Trixie cried.

"What happened!?" AJ asked.

"It came through the air ducts!" Someone shouted.

"What did?"

Just then the barricade was knocked away as the thing inside burst it's way to freedom.

When Rarity saw what it was; the resulting scream broke several pairs of glasses and cracked a few windows.

"SPIIIIIIDER!!!!" Pinkie exclaimed

Indeed, there, just emerged from it's classroom prison, was a gigantic, eight-legged, black spider. It's eyes glowed red as it let out a threatening hiss.

Before anyone could move, it jumped, picked up Pip with it's front two legs, and began to scurry off.

"HEEELLLLLLPPPPPP!!!!!"

"Hold on young fella'. We're a' comin'!" AJ called out as she began to chase them.

"Excuse me..." Rarity hesitated. "Is it alright if I stay here, with no other.....ahem, arachnids, to keep the others safe?" Rarity shuddered at the word 'arachnids'.

"Oh for land sakes! Fine! Come on Pinkie Pie!"

With that, the chicken and the scarecrow chases after the pirate-capturing spider while the detective stayed behind to keep the others safe.

---

Meanwhile, Twilight, Luna, Spike and Rainbow weren't having much luck getting the book back.

"I GOT IT!" Twilight shouted as she jumped at the ghost.

*WHAM*

......Only for it to phase through the wall, leaving poor Twilight to crash into it.

"...ow...."

"This is ridiculous!" Rainbow groaned. "Even my super speed can't help considering I can't phase through walls too!"

Twilight, rubbing her nose in pain, just glared at her. "Well if you hadn't used that spell, we wouldn't be having this problem!"

"I told you I didn't mean for this to happen!"

"I know that! It just you can be so careless sometimes and it often ends up getting others hurt."

Rainbow, desperate for a comeback, looked around and saw a poster of the dreaded Nightmare Moon. "Hey! At least I'm not as bad as Nightmare Moon! Now that chick was evil! If it wasn't for her, there wouldn't be so much pressure to make today so scary!"

"Rainbow Dash!" Luna scolded coldly.

Rainbow straitened, frightened by Luna's tone before looking away shamefully and sighing. "I'm sorry. I know this is my fault. I just......I love Nightmare Night! It's the one day of the year where we can scare each other and have fun doing it. I loved all the scary pranks and attractions when I was a kid, and I just wanted give more kids the same experience I had, so they can love the holiday as much as I do." She sighed again. "But thanks to me, they'll probably be too scared to come out at all today, just like Fluttershy! I really messed up..."

She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up to see Twilight smiling gently at her.

"It's alright Rainbow. I know you just wanted this night to be special for everyone. You just...went a little overboard doing it. But now you have the chance to make this right."

Rainbow returned the smile. "Thanks Twilight."

"I'm glad to see you girls sorting that out." Luna smiled before frowning again. "We'll still need to talk about your punishment later Rainbow, but we have more urgent business right now. On a side note..." She actually looked a little uncomfortable. "...Could you girls please not talk about Nightmare Moon around me? I'm sorry, it's just....an uncomfortable subject for me."

"Why?" Rainbow asked curiously.

"Rainbow, Celestia was part of the team that helped defeat Nightmare Moon!" Twilight explained.

"Woah....." Rainbow's and Spike's eyes widened with awe.

"Yes...she was..." Luna looked away, an unfamiliar expression on her face.

"What happened? Did she kidnap you? Did she fling Celestia into a living nightm-- ow!" The 'ow' was the result of Twilight elbowing Rainbow in the rib cage.

Luna was quiet for a moment before replying; "Let's just say, Nightmare Night is now both a fun and bitter holiday for me because of her."

Twilight, Spike, and Rainbow all looked at one another, confused over the vague answer.

"Like I said; we have more urgent business to attend to." Luna frowned at her watch. "We only have half an hour to reverse the spell and we can't do that without the book. Chasing it around blindly isn't working, so we need another plan."

"How!? Ghosts normally don't exist; so I have no idea what to do about this one!" Twilight exclaimed.

"But I do." The three turned to see Luna smirking.

"You do?" Spike asked skeptically.

Luna just shrugged. "I minored in parapsychology in college. Assuming this ghost plays by a certain set of rules, I may have an idea about how to catch it.

Now here's what you need to do....."

---

Eventually, AJ and Pinkie came upon the library.

They walked cautiously through the darkened shelves, looking for the young boy.

"Pip?" AJ called out. "It's Applejack and Pinkie Pie."

"Pip? Pippy? Pipparoo?" Pinkie called out as she began taking books off the shelves and looking closely, as though Pip were hidden there.

"Help!" A familiar voice cried out.

"Pip!" AJ and Pinkie followed the pleas until they found...

"Woah..."

...there, hanging between two shelves, was a humungous spider web blocking the whole of the passage. And there, rich in the middle and wrapped in web, was the young Trottingham boy himself wiggling and struggling to break free.

"Hang on Pip, we're right here." AJ said as she moved towards him.

"Uh...Applejack..."Pinkie said slowly as she pointed in the direction they had come from.

AJ turned and saw the spider crawling towards them menacingly.

"Pinkie; you help Pip! I'll take care of this fella."

"Got it!" Pinkie agreed, grateful to be the one avoiding the arachnid.

AJ got into a fighting stance as she prepared to face her foe.

"Alright you eight legged varmint! Let's dance!"

"Nows not the time for dancing Applejack, nows the time for fighting!"

"That's what I meant Pinkie!"

---

Back in the gym, everything looked good so far with no one noticing anything out of the ordinary.

"C'mon....c'mon....." Sunset muttered as she waited anxiously near the entrance.

"Sunset! I got your call! What happened!?"

Sunset looked to her Principal and guardian running up to her dressed in a regal, gold and white dress and a tiara perched perfectly on top her head.

Sunset quickly explained the situation as Celestia's eyes widened with horror.

"But that means we only have a few minutes until the spell becomes permanent!" Celestia exclaimed.

"I know, but Twilight and the others are handling that. Thankfully the spell didn't affect the gym."

The sound of screaming caused both Sunset and Celestia to turn and see students running around and trying to avoid the now-alive bats.

"....or not."

---

The ghost continued to float through the halls, clutching the book.

"Hey!" The ghost turned and saw Rainbow and Twilight looking determined while Spike growled.

"Give us that book you undead bed sheet!"

The ghost immediately floated in the opposite direction as the two girls and dog gave chase.

The ghost flew quickly down the halls, giggling as it outmaneuvered the young mages and mutt until...

*WHAM*

It hit hit a wall.

Confused, it looked down and found itself inside a salt circle.

"Well done girls." Luna said stepping into the hallway while carrying a carton of salt from the cafeteria. "We've got it right where we want it."

The ghost, still holding the book, rammed into it's invisible prison trying to escape with no success.

"I'll take that." Twilight said, reaching into the circle and grabbing the book out of the ghost's grip.

"Good now give it here." Luna took the book and quickly began flipping towards the spell.

"Hurry!" Twilight warned. "It's almost midnight!"

"Here it is!" Luna pointed at the reversal spell before handing it to Rainbow.

"What?"

"Rainbow, this is one of those spells where only the one who cast it can reverse it. Just follow and read through it just like you did the first time."

For one of the few times in her life, Rainbow looked nervous. "But-but look at what happened the first time! What if I mispronounce something? What if-"

"Rainbow!"

This time it was Luna with a hand on her shoulder, staring into her eyes intently.

"You can do this."

Rainbow's eyes widened a bit before she nodded and read the spell:

"Larraim ar chumhachtaí an oíche a athrú
an méid atá déanta agam.
A chur ar an saol as an méid a thug mé é.
Chun an áit seo filleadh ar an méid a bhí sé riamh."

The book glowed red for a few seconds before a circle of magic flew from it just as the bell chimed midnight.

"Did it work?" Rainbow asked anxiously.

"Look!" Twilight pointed down the hall to the headless horseman getting ready to charge at them!

The group gasped just before-

*POP*

The headless horseman was rearing.....and didn't move.

"Huh?"

After a minute the group cautiously approached it.

Spike sniffed a little before knocking on it a littler. "It's a statue!"

"Then...that means.."Twilight started.

"IT WORKED!" Rainbow finished, pumping her fists.

"Well done Rainbow Dash. You've successfully cast a reversal spell." Luna praised.

"Whoo-oo!"

"Of course you DID cast the original spell without thought, so there is still the matter of your punishment."

"...Whoops." Rainbow gave a nervous giggle.

---

AJ held the spider's front forelegs and pushed and the spider flashed it's fangs and hissed.

"Pinkie! How's Pip doing!?" AJ cried out over her shoulder.

"Uh..." Pinkie tried to lift an arm, but the sticky residue on the web was too strong.

"PINKIE!"

"Sorry! I tripped!" Pinkie explained as she lay sprawled out on the big web, unable to move.

Sensing an opening, the spider lashed out with another one of it's legs, knocking Applejack back a few feet.

When AJ looked up, she saw the spider right above her, ready to strike when-

*POP*

Suddenly, the spider was nothing more than a giant plush Pinkie had made.

*POP*

*OOF*

Pinkie and Pip dropped to the floor as the web disappeared.

Looking a little dazed, Pip only had one thing to say:

"What happened?"

---

Celestia and Sunset were in the middle of evacuating the students out of the gym when-

*POP*

The bats that had been flying around swiftly just a minute ago dropped to the floor as lifeless paper cutouts.

Everyone stopped and looked around in confusion. Celestia and Sunset were also trying to process what happened when somebody shouted:

"BEST! EFFECTS! EVER!"

It spread like wildfire and soon everybody was giving props for the impressive 'show' that was clearly planned and not at all an accident.

"They did it!" Sunset cheered.

"They did....and now to clean up the rest of the mess."

Author's Note:

1 more chapter!

Spell Translation: I call on the powers of the night to reverse what I have done. To take the life from what I have given it. To return this place to what it was before.

Comments

[Comickook]

Great job on the second-to-last chapter. The exchanges, action, characterizations, main adventure wrap-up and epilogue set-up are all well done in all the right places. I particularly liked the ghost chase (especially Luna's contributions) as well as Luna's reactions to the unintentionally touchy subject Rainbow brought up and the close calls of the others .

I'm definitely going to be looking forward to the epilogue, ESPECIALLY to see how Rainbow is going to get punished for causing the mess in the first place.