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

by TheDriderPony

You Have Nothing to Fear...

There's no telling what purpose this room originally served, as Starlight and Trixie have clearly gone to town remodeling it for the haunted house.

It's been totally gutted, the walls stripped down to the raw brickwork beneath. They even took out the floor, leaving nothing but cold and damp dirt. A few standing stones—about as tall as a pony each—are scattered here and there in a rough circle but that's all that stands for furniture. A thin layer of mist covers the ground, still as a pool of water.

The damp smell of rot permeates the air. Not the rich earthy smell of farms and tilled soil, more a swampy dankness. The smell of half-rotted logs and stagnant puddles. An unnatural chill seeps into your bones, as though someone's standing on your grave.

What grabs your attention is a small flat-topped rock in the room's center. Atop it, sealed under a glass dome, there sits some kind of wand with a star-shaped gemstone on the end. Whatever it is, it looks both important and magical.

You make your way towards the wand and pass through the outer ring of stones. The moment your hoof crosses that invisible threshold, the door slams shut behind you!

You whirl around on the spot, but it's too late. The standing stones begin to glow a demonic red and the sound of groaning fills the air. It's a warbling, yet unsettlingly breathy noise; like somepony trying to communicate in whalesong with a mouth full of sand. Your muscles tense as you try to pinpoint where it's coming from. An invisible monster? Something in the walls? No, if anything the noise sounds like it's coming from all around you.

The dirt to your left buckles and bulges as something pushes its way out from underneath. You step away from it, only to hop back into the middle as more patches of ground start to crack on all sides.

The groaning reaches a new level as a hoof bursts through the ground. The fur is matted and half gone, peppered with open and sickly-looking wounds, but with still a hint of yellow luster. Another bursts out to your right, red and thick, little more than a skeleton at the hoof.

A third, a fourth, a fifth. Five zombies claw their way out of the ground, trapping you between them. Their bodies are the stuff of nightmares. What flesh they still have is either dried or gangrenous, clutching to exposed bones like dead ivy on an old fence. Random portions of their bodies are outright missing—a jaw, a wing, half a leg—the sight of which sets your stomach turning.

Their voices moan in hideous symphony—not words, not with no tongues nor lips to speak of—but something close enough your mind stumbles over itself failing to ascribe meaning.

Their eyes glow with menacing intent, curtailing any thoughts of negotiation or friendship.

You're taut as a bowstring, every muscle ready for someone to make the first move.

---

Zombies. The classic filler monster in any adventure story taking place in a ruin, ancient temple, or swamp. Even Daring Do fought them a few times so you have some idea of what to do. You can FIGHT, but maybe using an ITEM would make things easier.

Or, perhaps, does the sight of these zombies stir up some uncomfortable memories of that one incident, ones which you never properly dealt with?

Author's Note:

What Will You Do?

[Fight]
[Use Item: Stick]
[Use Item: Boutique Voucher]
[IF YOUR FEAR METER IS >75% FULL YOU MUST SELECT THIS OPTION]

Comments

[Panem et Circenses]

Just a note, it's not entirely clear if this stick under the glass is the one mentioned in the notes. Maybe add a note saying (not the one under the dome) after, if it isn't.