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

by TheDriderPony

You Have Nothing to Fear...

You tap the number you vaguely think you may have heard earlier. You're not super confident about it, but what's life without a little risk? Besides, it's a one in four chance. Those are better odds than you're used to.

The swirling colors of the barrier go still suddenly and your breath catches in your throat. On second thought, you also don't know what will happen when you get one wrong and you're not super excited to find out.

Much to your relief, this wall chimes as well and falls away, leaving the path clear. You're two for two, which is the kind of solid average a winner like you deserves to have. You practically saunter up the stairs. Nothing can stop you now! You hardly even notice as the black stone starts to shift, becoming smoother and more polished the higher you climb. Within a few laps of the tower, every surface is polished to practically a mirror finish. Or they would be, if the reflections weren't distorted by a repeating pattern etched across the stone in minute detail.

But that's not important to finishing the challenge, so you ignore it. The end is close now! You can almost taste it!

After a few more steps you find yourself at the final landing. Before you is a grand set of double doors like the ones at the bottom of the stairs. But while those were plain and study, these are anything but. The left door is intricately carved with depictions of snarling monsters, savage beasts, and raging ponies locked in a violent struggle. The right is a near mirror of the left, though the monsters there are smiling and the ponies happy.

At the center where you'd expect to find a doorknob or lock is instead an ornate dial large enough to be used on a bank vault. Etched into the metal are a series of Illuminated numbers and at the center rests a single large arrow which currently rests pointing at zero.

As you approach, a final glowing message appears between you and the door.

This is it. Your final challenge. You've come a long way to get here and faced many spooks and specters on the way. But just how far have you come? Are you sure, in your test of courage, that you've faced everything this challenge has to offer? If you believe so, then the answer should be simple.
How many unique rooms are in this house?

"Oh come on!" you complain to the impassive stones, the sound deadening quickly as the tiny ridges trap the sound. "No one said I was supposed to be paying attention to that!"

When this fails to yield any sort of shortcut, hint, or free pass, you sit down with a grumble. Of course there had to be a memorization quiz in your action-packed adventure thriller. Starlight is a card-carrying, note-taking egghead after all, even if she has Trixie's absolute insanity to balance things out. Well, time to start backtracking through your memories and taking note of every awesome victory you scored. Huh, maybe it's not such a bad idea after all.

Author's Note:

How Many Rooms Are There?

[01] [02] [03] [04] [05]
[06] [07] [08] [09] [10]
[11] [12] [13] [14] [15]
[16] [17] [18] [19] [20]

Note: This excludes hallways, the foyer, and the final tower.