Don't Be Afraid
Equestria Girls Halloween Special
Written by: ThomasZoey3000
Don't Be Afraid
Applejack and many of the other students of Canterlot High stared in complete shock as they saw Rainbow Dash dancing in between the rows of tables, and every now and then, she could be seen prancing.
"What's gotten into that girl today?" Applejack asked the other girls at the table. "It's almost as if she's eaten some jumping beans."
"Nope, that's not it," said Pinkie Pie. "And for the record, jumping beans don't make you jump. They're just regular beans, which is a total bummer in the fall."
"Don't you mean in the summer Pinkie?" Rarity asked.
"Nope, because it's fall right now," she answered.
Applejack rolled her eyes and at that moment, Rainbow Dash came up to their table with a big smile on her face that could rival that of Pinkie Pie. Before anyone could ask why she was so cheerful, she answered with a statement.
"I'm super excited, tomorrow's my favourite time of the year. Tomorrow's Halloween girls!"
"Oh that's right," gasped Rarity, "I had been so busy working for Ms Hem-line and the store I work at, that I almost forgot."
Rainbow Dash gasped, "you can't forget the most important day of the year. Free Candy, getting to wear cool costumes, play pranks and of course, get scared by all the monsters, ghosts, witches and zombies. This is going to be great."
In her seat, Fluttershy was shaking, for unlike Rainbow, she didn't like this time of the year.
"I'm going to be dressing up as a famous soccer player."
Applejack rolled her eyes, "of course you are. Anyone would think you have a love obsession with the sport." This statement got a quick glare out of Rainbow Dash. "Well for me, I've decided to dress up as the daughter of a trucker."
"Why a daughter of a trucker?" Sunset asked curiously.
"I kind of like the idea, which is similar, yet different from what I look like these days."
"Well I can't wait to see your outfits Darlings," said Rarity. "I'll be dressing up as a princess."
"Big shock," Rainbow muttered sarcastically. Like the others, she knew Rarity loved stories and movies about princesses, so it would be no surprise that she would dress up like one.
"I was thinking of a clown!" cheered Pinkie.
The girls looked to her with concerned looks, but it was Twilight who spoke up, "I'm not so sure that's a good idea Pinkie Pie. Clowns aren't in a great light right now, especially with remakes of classic horror movies coming out."
"Oh yeah, good point," sighed Pinkie. "I want to make people laugh, not make them scream in terror."
"Well you could always try being like those carnival folks," suggested Sunset, "that's something that really makes people smile."
"Hey yeah, I could do that, thanks for the great idea Sunset."
"Anytime," smiled the red and yellow haired girl.
All eyes next turned to Twilight Sparkle, wondering just what she would be dressing up as. She adjusted her glasses before speaking, "well I've been thinking of dressing up as one of the best video game heroes ever. I've actually been working on the suit and everything, including...well, you'll find out tomorrow."
"Oh I can't wait for that," smiled Rainbow, and quickly looked over to Sunset, "and you?"
"I'm going as a pirate, and not one of those pirates you'd see in kids shows, I mean like the ones in the movies. Of course, I won't have the weapons, due to school rules, but pretty much have everything else. Plus," she admitted as she rubbed the back of her head, "I kind of got the idea from my little sister when I was visiting her and my family."
"You mean you guys have Halloween in Equestria?"
"Not really Dash, but we have something similar. It's called Nightmare Night, where ponies say that Nightmare Moon goes on the hunt for ponies to gubble up, unless that is if they wear a disguise and offer up candy. It's just a silly story ponies came up with, but hey it works for the night, and it's lots of fun. I just wish I could remember the darn pharse."
"You mean, you don't say trick or treat?"
"Nope, it was too long to really remember. Often my Dad would have to remind me of what to say." She blushed and rubbed the back of her head again, "and I don't remember it now." She reached into her backpack and pulled out her journal to ask the princess.
"So while we wait for the reply, why don't you tell us what you're going to be dressing up as," Rarity suggested to Fluttershy.
"I'm not dressing up for Halloween."
"You're not?!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie. She couldn't believe what she was hearing.
"I'm not," she answered.
"Why not Fluttershy?" Twilight asked curiously.
"I don't like Halloween," she answered and went back to being quiet.
"But you've dressed up for Halloween before," Applejack reminded her. "So what's changed your mind now?"
"You're right Applejack, I've dressed up for Halloween before, but between pranks by my brother, my parent's horror movie marathon and pranks by others, I can't stand it anymore. So this year, I'm just going to be spending my Halloween at the Animal shelter, and not dressing up as anything else."
Sunset lifted her head up from her journal, blushing in embarrassement, "some of those years might've been me. Sorry Fluttershy."
"It's alright Sunset, but it doesn't change my mind."
"Hey, you know we're not going to force you to join us, we respect your choices."
"I know that," Fluttershy nodded, "and thank you."
"No problem." Sunset looked down and saw that Princess Twilight had replied, "she says the pharse is 'Nightmare Night, what a Fright, give us something sweet to bite'."
Rainbow Dash gasped, "seriously, and young ones have to say that?"
"Yep," Sunset nodded. "Though I'm one of a few that couldn't get it right, everybody...uh everypony else could get it right." She groaned to herself, muttering about lingo troubles again.
The next day was Halloween. As expected, many of the students came in wearing different kinds of outfits. Only one or two had have some pieces of their costumes, namely custom weapons taken away. Rarity was the first to arrive, and just as she said the day before, she was dressed as a princess, though the skirting was a bit long and she tripped over it.
"Maybe I should've made that shorter," she groaned.
Applejack was just behind her, "here Sugarcube, I'll help you up." She extended a hand and helped Rarity to her feet. Once she was standing up, Rarity could indeed see that Applejack was dressed like a true daughter of a trucker, even to having a piece of hay in her mouth, much like her brother Big Mac often has.
Rainbow Dash came in next, though she looked more like she was going to practise.
"Nice costumes girls, they look cool."
"I was going for beautiful," pouted Rarity.
"Well it's certainly a Rarity style outfit," commented Applejack. Rarity smiled over the comment.
"HEY GIRLS!" cried Pinkie Pie as she seemed to pop out of nowhere. She was dressed like someone who worked at a carnival, "Are you all excited? Cause I'm excited for today!"
"Pinkie, you're always excited," said Rainbow Dash.
"Maybe, but I'm super duper excited for today!"
She then gasped as she looked towards the front doorways. Everyone looked, and they too gasped to see a person walk in with a full armor suit and a helmet that covered up their face.
"Hello girls," said a voice that sounded like the video game hero they were dressed as, "what do you think of this outfit?"
"Twilight, is that you Darling?" Rarity asked with eyes wide open in shock.
There was a nod, then the person took off the helmet, revealing the familar face of Twilight Sparkle, "indeed it is girls. What do you think? It's taken me weeks to put together, but it's done and ready for today."
"How did you make your voice change?" asked Rainbow Dash.
"A sound chip inside the helmet. So everytime I speak, it changes my voice to sound similar to this character."
"That is so cool, it's like bringing those four games to life with a real life version."
"You know there is a movie set in the same timeline as those games right?" Applejack asked.
"Yeah, but I'm not a huge fan of the movie. Still, the costume is awesome." Rainbow Dash then noticed Fluttershy walking in, and much like she said the day before, she was not in a halloween costume. Just her regular outfit.
"So Fluttershy is dressed up as Fluttershy," Pinkie said cheerfully.
"She's always Fluttershy," Rainbow said.
"I know, I'm just trying to help put a smile on her face. I hate seeing my friends all saddy waddy."
Fluttershy showed a kind smile, "thanks Pinkie, it was a good one."
Applejack then started looking around, "Say, has any girl seen Sunset Shimmer? We're all here, but she's not."
"I saw her," said Fluttershy, "she was just a few feet away from me."
Just as she finished saying that, in walked one more person in an outfit that made them look like the pirates in the most recent movies, "Arr, aye best not mess with my mates, or ye have to face Captain Sunset Shimmer." There came a chuckle, "oh seriously, I could do better than that."
The other girls laughed.
"Your outfit is quite amazing Sunset," commented Twilight, "where in the world did you get it?"
"I got many of the pieces from various movies done in the past," she answered. "And much to my surprise, they fit like a set of gloves. And as you can see," she did a little spin to reveal the rest of the outfit, "everything is here, minus the weapons, not that I have any. Seems they go for prices higher than anything I can afford right now."
"Well either way, we all look great today," smiled Rarity. "Even those that are here as their normal selves," she said this as she looked to Fluttershy. Fluttershy continued to show a small smile, but she still felt a little bad for not joining her friends this year.
At lunchtime, the girls were once again sitting at their table and enjoying their lunches. As they ate, they overheard Trixie from another table, "I heard many of the students are going to go into that old building tonight and see if they can find a ghost. The Great and Powerful Trixie is going to go there too, and prove she's the bravest one of them all, even more so than those Rainbooms."
"She's got an ego the size of Kansas," grumbled Rarity.
"According to Princess Twilight, the pony version is much the same," said Sunset, "though she hasn't seen her since that whole mess with the Alicorn Amulet."
"Ego or no Ego, Trixie is not braver than us, I say we go into that building and prove how brave we are."
"Ain't no way you're going to get myself, or any of us in that building," Applejack said firmly.
"What building? What are they talking about?" Twilight asked.
"I think I know which one they're talking about," said Sunset. "A few decades ago, a famous computer company came to Canterlot City and set up a business of building computers and helping with programs. It had well over 500 people working there, and was a well respected company. In the late 90s though, the company was finding that it's time in the city was running out as no one wanted to buy from them. They started laying off employees until about ten or so years ago, the company shut down their operations and left the building abandoned. Some say though that one employee couldn't stand not being in there, so went in after the closure and never came out again. It's resulted in many people going in to see if they can find this ghost, either that or vandalise the place."
"Yeah, and with each visit, there have been reports of people seeing something that scared the heck out of them," added Applejack.
Fluttershy started shaking, "we're not really going to go in there, are we?"
"We should, and prove Trixie wrong," boasted Rainbow Dash, which got a glare from Trixie's table.
Sunset and many of the other girls shook their heads furiously. Rainbow sighed, "fine then, I'll prove Trixie wrong alone."
"You wouldn't dare!" snapped Rarity.
"Oh but I will, you'll see."
As the day wound down, the girls went their own ways. Pinkie and Applejack went off to Sweet Apple Acres to give out treats to the Trick-or-treaters. Sunset, Twilight and Rarity had decided to go with Fluttershy to the shelter, leaving Rainbow Dash all alone.
"They're all silly," she thought to herself. "There's no reason to be scared. Heck, I could stay in there till Midnight and not get scared out of my wits."
When she arrived at the five story abandoned building, she found that the front door was open, which meant Trixie and her pals were already in there. Rainbow took in a deep breath and walked into the building. It was dusty, but it didn't smell, meaning someone had gone in there recently to clean up the worst messes in there.
"Okay Trixie, where are you hiding you silly girl?" Rainbow smirked.
Trixie was three levels above Rainbow Dash, but she wasn't alone as she had her band-mates, and in spite of what she said before, there were no other students in there. Her band-mates weren't sure at this moment if they should be in there or not. They also weren't sure if Trixie was being brave or stupid.
"Come on out Ghost! Where are you?! Show yourself to the Great and Powerful Trixie!"
From downstairs, Rainbow Dash heard Trixie's shout. She smirked as she walked up the stairwell to reach their level.
"Most likely she's going to get scared of a spider, I just hope I get to see it with my own eyes," she thought to herself.
Finally she reached the third level of the building. As she walked through the empty and dusty hallways, she suddenly heard a loud scream coming from down the hallway. She moved out of the way as Trixie, along with her band-mates ran past with scared looks on their faces. Rainbow Dash laughed, "that is priceless, I wish I had my phone out, I could've captured that look."
Rainbow Dash walked onwards and sure enough, saw a big spider walking along a window sill.
"You're the little guy that scared Trixie? I like you," she smirked.
Instead of leaving, feeling that she had proven she was the bravest, she continued on, going up till she was at the top level. The roof itself was in bad shape with plenty of holes in the roof, and with rotting tables on that floor. The tables looked home-made, which made Rainbow think that maybe it was lucky Applejack wasn't in there, since she loves home-made stuff. Still, she continued to explore until she finally grew bored and decided enough was enough. Besides, she wanted to go to Applejack's and scare some kids.
As she reached the third floor once more, she suddenly heard a loud thumping sound.
"Is someone there?" Rainbow called out.
But there was no voice calling back to her. Rainbow chuckled nervously and began to walk again, until she heard another thumping sound. "Applejack? Pinkie? Trixie, are you trying to scare me? Cause it won't work!" There suddenly came the loudest thumping sound, which made Rainbow jump. She turned and tried running away, but as she reached the stairs, she slipped and fell down to the second floor. Upon landing on the second level, she let out the loudest scream of her life, "ow! My Leg!"
Rainbow Dash tried to get up, but there was a sharp pain and fell back down. She wasn't going anywhere, not on her own. She went to grab her phone, but found it had been smashed upon reaching the second level.
"Oh no, I got no way of calling for help, and I can't move. HELP!" she screamed, but no one heard her.
By late that evening, all the kids who had been trick-or-treating had gone home. Applejack and Pinkie Pie had decided to call it a night after their evening, while Twilight and Rarity, after helping at the shelter for a few hours, went home to enjoy Halloween with their families. Sunset was the only one to stick with Fluttershy at the shelter.
"You have to give it to Twilight, she sure knows what she's doing when it comes to making costumes based on video game characters."
"It was an interesting costume," agreed Fluttershy. "Then again, all of you have interesting costumes."
"Yeah, though mine scared your animals at first."
"They got used to it after a while, and look at them, they're all over you."
It was true, the little puppies and kittens were climbing all over Sunset Shimmer. It actually made her think that one day, she should get a pet of her own. Still, they had to put the animals back in their little beds for the night as no one else would be coming in for the night. As they began to tuck the animals in for the night, Fluttershy got a text message from someone.
"It's Windy Whistles, Rainbow Dash's mother, she's asking if we've seen her lately."
"Well I haven't seen her since we left the school."
"You don't think she would be in that scary abandoned building, do you?"
Sunset sighed, "I might not have been friends with Rainbow Dash as long as you and the others have, but even I know when she gets an idea in her head, she'll often go through with it."
"But surely, she would've gone home, I mean, not meaning to be rude, but Trixie's not that brave, she would've run out at the first sight of a spider."
"You might be onto something there Fluttershy, so either she's staying in there to prove a point, or something else has happened."
Fluttershy gasped, "you don't think she's hurt do you?"
"I think she is. Let's finish here, then we'll go in there and get her."
Fluttershy started to shake in fear, "g...g...go in there?"
"For Rainbow Dash."
Despite her own fears, Fluttershy knew she couldn't just leave a friend behind in an abandoned building. So she gave a firece nod, and with Sunset's help, finished her work at the shelter, and after making sure they locked the doors behind them, they set off to the old building.
Standing outside the building, Fluttershy shook like a leaf. Sunset however boldly walked up to the front doorway and walked in. Fluttershy followed her inside.
"Sunset, how come you're not scared? There are stories about ghosts in here, and who knows what could be hiding."
Sunset turned to her pink haired friend, "it's not to say I'm not scared, cause truth be told I am a little bit scared of this place. But I'm reminding myself that we're here for our friend, so that helps to silence the scared part of myself and focus. Besides, if there is a ghost here, I don't think they'll want to hurt us."
"You think so?"
"Yeah, cause I don't believe every ghost is here for revenage. It's like humans, or even ponies, there are some that are bad, but there are some that could be good, and going on the stories I've heard of this place and the people that worked here, I think if there is a ghost, it's more of a friendly one."
Hearing these words from Sunset really helped to calm Fluttershy down. Suddenly, they heard a banging noise from above them.
"Could that be Rainbow Dash?"
"Maybe, let's go Fluttershy."
The pink haired girl nodded and followed her pirate costumed friend along the first level and towards a stairwell. They walked up it and soon they found their rainbow haired friend.
"Am I ever glad to see you guys!" Rainbow cried in panic, "this place is haunted!"
Fluttershy walked over towards Rainbow and noticed her leg was spranged, "it's no wonder you're still in here, you're injuried. Why didn't you call for help?"
"I wanted to, but my phone broke when I fell down the stairs, and I've been here the whole time!"
Sunset picked up Rainbow's phone, then together with Fluttershy, the two girls helped her out of the building. To say Rainbow was glad to be out of there would be an understatment. They got into a taxi and took her to the hospital. She was sent home that night with a cast around her right leg, and gettting a scolding from her parents about going into an abandoned building. As a result, Rainbow Dash was grounded for two weeks for this stunt.
Sunset and Fluttershy were thanked for helping Rainbow.
"We wouldn't have known where she was had she not made those thumping sounds," said Sunset.
"That wasn't me!" cried Rainbow as she layed with her leg on top of a tower of pillows. "I told you, the place is haunted! There was a ghost in there, knocking things over!"
After that, many of the girls believed Rainbow was hearing old furniture being knocked over by winds that night as it came through broken windows. Fluttershy though thought differently, and one afternoon, on her way to the shelter, she stopped near the building and muttered 'thank you' to no one in particular.