Through the Cavern

"I win!" Twilight laughed, panting slightly. Ricky collapsed againat the fence "It's easier when you've got four legs. Plus, I'm starting to think this costume isn't meant for running in."

"Man, you guys are slowpokes!" Rainbow Dash flew over, while Rarity was having her headdress adjusted by Spike "What did you do, stop for candy?"

"Oh, bite me." Ricky muttered. He took in the scene before him, and gave a low whistle. There were ponies wearing all kinds of costumes. He saw Applejack supervising the apple bob, while Vinyl and a rather dignified-looking mare were playing eerie music for a group of spectators.

"Wow this looks awesome!" Ricky quickly made his way through the gate, Twilight and the others close behind.

"I'm gonna go check out the haunted house!" Spike said gleefully "Rarity, would you...?"

"I'm sorry, darling, but I don't fare well with frightening things. Perhaps Rainbow Dash wants to?"

"Sorry, but I'm making a beeline for the cider tent." Dash said "I guess Ricky's on this one."

"I'm totally down." Ricky replied "I'm dying to see what freaks you guys out."

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Spike grabbed Ricky's hand, and began pulling.

"Easy, don't rip my arm off." Ricky was having a hard time walking due to the difference in height . Ponies were noticing this, laughing and pointing.

When they approached the entrance, Ricky was surprised to see Mint Condition from the comic shop sitting behind the table in a black robe "Evening, fellow fancolts!" he said "Feeling brave, are you?"

"You know it! I can't wait to see what you guys did this year!" Spike was beside himself "How scary are we talking?"

"Well, after the success we had last time, there's gonna be a cash prize if you can make it to the end. 100 bits." Mint paused to let two mares in "So, how about it? You guys in?"

"You had me at cash prize. Coming, Spike?" Ricky started to go inside.

"Totally!" Spike ran ahead, nearly knocking Ricky over.

***

"Wow...darker than I thought." Ricky fumbled for his lighter "How you doing, Spike?"

"Where are you?! OOF!!" A loud crash came from his left "Darn walls..."

As Ricky brought the flame to life, he took a hurried step back, on account of the grinning Pegasus skeleton that hung before him "Jesus...I was NOT expecting that." He reached down to help Spike up "Man, I didn't realize ponies could be this twisted."

"No wonder Rarity didn't want to come in. I'm starting to regret this myself..." Spike held onto Ricky's hand. Slowly, the two of them began to walk, Ricky feeling around in the dark.

A jet of steam suddenly shot up before them, followed by a loud cackle. Suddenly, Ricky's hand brushed something warm "EEEEK!!" a loud shriek sounded as the pony he touched jerked away. Spike screamed and ran, leaving Ricky to try and collect his wits.

"Wh-who's there?!" A familiar sounding voice asked. Ater a moment's thought, Ricky realized who the owner was "Derpy? Is that you?"

"R-ricky?" The cross-eyed Pegasus came into view, the dim lights allowing Ricky to see her a bit better. She was dressed in a princess costume, but it appeared to be a little small on her. He decided not to say anything, and walked up to her.

"Hey. Look, I am really, really sorry about that. I was with Spike, and...damn it, where did he go?" The dragon was long gone by now, and there didn't appear to be anypony else inside the haunted house.

"I didn't even know he was with you. Anyway...I'm glad I ran into you here." She glanced down, doing her best not to make eye contact with Ricky, a slight blush on her cheeks.

"Really? Why, were you getting freaked out? I don't blame you, this place is creepy as hell." Ricky leaned against the wall and removed his mask. Derpy shook her head "Well, yes and no. I...wanted to talk to you about something."

Ricky found it strange that Derpy would want to ask him something out of the blue. While he was on good terms with her, he didn't really talk to her that much, apart from when she brought mail to his work "Okay, I guess I'm not going anywhere anytime soon. What's up?"

"I...um...wanted to know if you were considering...this is really hard to say..." The mailmare was shuffling her hooves at this point "For the last couple of weeks...well, since I first met you at Pinkie's party, I...well, that is to say...I wanted to know if you would be..."

Suddenly, Ricky clued in to what she was on about. He took a deep breath and said "Derpy, are you the one Twilight was talking about? Who, you know..." It was his turn to look away awkwardly "...has a crush on me." he blurted out.

"Well, I...yeah. I'm really, really sorry for springing it on you like this, what with you being a human, and...is it okay with you?" Derpy had removed her hat at this point and was staring intently at Ricky, her eyes pointing in the same direction for once.

"I...I'm honored, don't get me wrong, but...why me? I mean, I don't think I've done anything that quite makes me stand out. Honestly, ever since Twilight mentioned this to me the other day, I've been wondering why anypony would want to have a crush on me. So, out of any guy in Ponyville, why pick me?" Ricky pulled out a smoke, figuring that in a stressful situation like this one, haunted house rules could be ignored.

Derpy turned a deep shade of red, closed her eyes and nodded "It's just...you're always nice to me when I bring the mail. You never make jokes about me, and you...you just make my day ten times better. When I'm around you, I feel like somepony really cares about me."

Ricky couldn't believe he was having this discussion, especially with Derpy. He really didn't want to hurt her feelings, so he knew he would have to let her down as lightly as possible "Look, Derpy...I'm flattered that you feel this way about me, I really am. But...well, there's really no other way I can say this, but it just wouldn't be able to work between us.

Derpy's eyes teared up slightly, but she just wiped them and continued "I had a feeling you would say that, but...I wanted you to hear me out anyway. I know that everypony would think it's really, really weird, but I just didn't want to keep this to myself anymore. And...I figured you would be the only person I could trust to break it to me easily."

"Derpy, I appreciate your feelings, and I'm sorry I can't return them properly...but I'll always love you as a friend, no matter what happens."

Derpy smiled and nodded, while Ricky kneeled down and pulled her into a hug "Don't give up on yourself just yet, okay?"

"I won't. Thank you so much for understanding, Ricky. This is the happiest I've been in ages." She sat back, smiling.

"I'm glad I can help with that." Ricky stood and pulled on his mask "But in the meantime, what do you say to getting out of this place and enjoying the rest of the party together?"

Derpy smiled "I would love to."

***

"So, how did it go in there?" Twilight asked. She and Ricky were sitting on a hay bale, observing the festivities. Ricky looked at her, surprised "What, you mean how scary was it?"

"Come on, I wasn't born yesterday. I saw you and Derpy come out of the house together, and you both looked to be a little on the red side, if you ask me." Twilight gave Ricky a sly, knowing look.

"Well...I had to turn her down. For obvious reasons, of course." Ricky pulled out a smoke, and made a mental note to stop at the smoke shop the next day. Twilight nodded understandingly "I figured you might. How did she take it? I hope she wasn't too upset."

"She was pretty disappointed, but she was alright with what I said. I told her that I didn't want to ruin a great friendship with something like this, and she seemed pretty happy with that."

"Really? I'm so relieved to hear it." Twilight replied "She's a bit on the fragile side, so things like this tend to have a pretty strong impact on her."

"I guess all I can do is just give her a little time to get her thoughts together." Ricky leaned back, then glanced over to where a tall, dark alicorn with a blue mane stood, laughing with a group of ponies "So, on a side note, am I gonna get a chance to meet this Princess Luna or what?"

"Don't worry, she requested you personally. She just wanted to have a chance to say hello to everypony first." Twilight hopped down "Well, I'm going to go see if I can find Spike. Do you want to come?"

"No, I think I'll sit here a little while longer. I'll catch up with you guys in a bit here." Ricky said. Twilight shrugged and headed off.

Pulling his mask off, Ricky sighed. He wondered how the next few days were going to go, and he slammed his hand down in frustration, forgetting that he was sitting on a solid block of hay. Holding it in pain, he cursed under his breath, praying for a break of some kind.

"Here." A bottle of cider suddenly appeared out of nowhere, causing Ricky to jump in surprise. As he caught his breath, he looked to over to see who it was.

"Oh...it's you."