Rainbow Dash's Awesome Nightmare Night Haunted House Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Adventure

by TheDriderPony

You Have Nothing to Fear...

She charges at you before you're ready, snarling like an animal.

She's a ferocious fighter. While you're in better shape and have quicker reflexes, she's driven by blind fury and knows her territory like the back of her wing.

You're nearly a perfect match for each other, but her anger gives her an edge. She punches, you block or dodge. You kick, she takes it and keeps going. The scales slowly start to tip in her favor as she leverages the fact that you have a measure of dignity while she's not above dirty tactics like going for your eyes.

What's most worrying of all is how silent she is. She growls and snarls at you like a feral dog, but gone are her monologues about her noble purpose.

You push her up against the wall but she head-butts you, slips out of her lab coat, and escapes. With it gone you can see the multitude of scars covering her body. As well as the reason she hasn't once taken to the air.

She lands a gut punch in your distraction that leaves you gasping for breath. She follows it up with a vicious kick to the head, and the world starts to go hazy.

You're vaguely aware of being drug across the floor and nearly vomit with vertigo as you're lifted and spun. The next thing you feel in the cold embrace of metal clamping across your body in a dozen places.

"Wakey, wakey." A sharp slap brings you to your senses. Your monochrome clone stands just in front of you with a sickening leer. You try to strike, but your forelegs are firmly held in place. Every part of you is, even your head.

"That's right. There's no escape from this pegasus' device. You're mine now." She steps closer and pats your cheek, then seems to notice her white hoof and scowls. "You are, without doubt, the most troublesome test subject I've ever had the displeasure of meeting. You've set me back so far, you monster, I can scarcely calculate how much Chroma I'll need to infuse just to get back to where I was."

She shakes her head and steps back to the far edge, resting her hoof on a large floor-mounted button. "I was planning on using you as a proof of concept for draining one color of Chroma at a time, but now..." She stamps down on the button. "...now I just want you gone."

The thick metal doors begin to swing shut as your cage starts retracting into the wall. You try to scream but the most you can manage with your muzzle bolted shut is a distressed hum.

As darkness closes around you, the last sight you see is a bone-white reflection of your own face grinning back at you like the Pale Mare herself.

[Self-destructive tendencies can harm others as well. Add one (+1) to your Fear Meter]

---

Light returns and you find yourself in the foyer again, whole, uninjured, and fully colored. On one hoof, you're thankful to be alive. On the other, you're really starting to hate these 'make you forget it's fake' spells. Seeing an evil version of yourself who still thinks she's a hero is frightening enough.

"Heya, kids! You all havin' a fun time, eh?" asks a familiar but unusually chipper voice. You glance around for the source until you inevitably glance to the upper balcony. There sits Trixie in... not much of a costume. She's powdered her fur to be white, but it looks like she ran out before she finished more than her face. Other than that, all she's wearing is a pair of fake wings tied on with string and an enormous ball-shaped rainbow wig. Tying it all together is a manically wide grin. It's the kind of grin that wouldn't look out of place on Pinkie Pie, but when worn by Trixie instead (and without pairing it with a bouncy manic energy) it just seems off.

"Did you... run out of costume parts?"

It had to be asked.

Almost immediately her smile drops and she sighs. "Not my best work. Look, the book only has a few named characters and I didn't want to be you for obvious reasons so this was the next option."

"That room was from a book?"

Trixie waggles a hoof. "Of a sort. We had to tweak it to make it work, but the design and theme were provided by the winner of the Ponyville Young Horror Writer's Club Nightmare Night short story contest. Some filly and colt duo going by the pen names 'Scooting Along' and 'Aura Dog'. Inspired by a true story, they said."

"They said what?" you squawk in surprise. "I never did anything like that!"

"Well duh." Trixie rolls her eyes. "Obviously not. You couldn't build a machine like that if it came with instructions and a team of engineers. I think they based it on Cozy Glow."

Huh. That... sort of makes sense, if you turn your head and squint at it. In whatever case, you are going to have a serious talk with that filly, followed by an explanation of how pen names work. That's the kind of libel that gets the Wonderbolt PR and legal teams riled up!

But that's something to do later, after you finish the haunted house. For now, it's time to pick another route.

---

There doesn't seem to be anything to interact with in this room, but there are three hallways that branch off that head LEFT, FORWARD, and RIGHT.

If your Fear Meter is full, you must select the fourth option.

Author's Note:

What Will You Do?

[LEFT HALLWAY]
[CENTER HALLWAY]
[RIGHT HALLWAY]
[BAIL]

Congratulations! You've found a hidden collectible! Trixie Costume #15 ["Cookies and Punch"]

Try to find all 20 of them!

Art provided by sadfloorlamp