Daring Do and the Haunted Barn!
Author's Note
A bit of Daring Do fun fluff. I have put her into my Alternate Universe Ponyville where, among other non canon beings, Roe, the wish granting deer disguised as a cream colored unicorn, runs the Sweet Spot. Daring Do has been asked to test run Roe's Haunted Barn.
Daring Do and the Haunted Barn!
Daring Do looked carefully about the crypt.
She raised an expert testing hoof and tapped the hidden trap trigger!
With a delightfully tacky rumble of stone grinding on stone, a hidden door creaked open revealing an ornate coffin complete with spider webs! The lid slid to the side and off! There was a stirring in the sarcophagus! A pony wearing a black cape with red lining sat up, the torch-like light glinting off large fangs!
The Vampony smiled and said, “Velcome! Do enter! I cannot come out to you vithout an invitation. Besides, I haf the Foal Bowl in here! Hee, hee, hee!”
The near apparition, pointed to a large bowl that had wonderful fake pony parts in it. The candies and treats were scattered among the rubber hooves, skulls and fake half eaten meat!
Daring Do grinned and took a few of the treats. The door closed behind her. The Vampony retired to her coffin and the lid closed over her.
The next “Trap” trigger stone caused a trap door to fall open, revealing what appeared to be moldering stairs leading down into Stygian darkness. A glow built up as she descended the steps.
The revealed scene showed two ghoul ponies apparently roasting what looked like the corpse of a foal. They smiled, showing snaggled fangs and pustulent complexions. They gestured invitation.
“Come, Lost Soul, and join our feast!”
Daring Do moved up to the illusion fire that cast no real heat. One of the Ghouls held a bowl under the roasting body. Neatly wrapped candies trickled out of the rib cage into the bowl which the creature then emptied into Daring Do’s loot bag!
The other pointed a knobby, misshapen finger to an arched passageway. Partway in, she saw another obvious “trap” stone! She grinned sheepishly as she tromped it!
There was a loud rumble of falling stones! Stone painted soft foam blocks pelted the Adventurer! As she progressed, cleverly hidden strings pulled the blocks back for the next “unwary” customer.
The end of the passage revealed three witches in tall pointy hats and long tattered black cloaks.
They chanted in weird voices, “Come to the Cauldron of Fate, what will await? If you are bold and not afright, test your fate this Nightmare Night!”
As Daring Do approached the Cauldron, the witches had to suppress giggles of their own at the sight of her pith helmet!
There was a big phony arrow going through from right to left! A phony dagger was stabbed in almost to the hilt! A hatchet appeared to be sunk half way into it!
Suppressing a snicker, one dipped into their big cauldron and pulled out a small string bag of foil wrapped candy coins. The next dipped into the “steaming” cauldron and pulled out a waffle cone while the last scooped up green mint ice cream to put in the cone!
Daring Do took the candy and grinned as she took the ice cream cone! “At last, real danger! Risk of a brain-freeze!”
In spite of the risk, she happily licked up the ice cream!
The scene was interrupted by a small cream colored unicorn leading a modest collection of costumed zombies, a vampony, and two ghouls. “How did did you like it, Doctor Do? What can we do better?”
“I liked it, Roe. You don’t have any ghosts though, and there are a few small costume glitches.”
She gestured to the vampony, “Come here, Countess. There is a problem with your fangs. Let me fix it.”
The vampony pulled the phony big fangs from her perfectly real fangs and hoofed them over to Daring Do. She applied goo from a tube and carefully pressed them back into place over the vampony’s real fangs.
“Your phony fangs were starting to slip a little. Not enough denture fixative. That got it!”
Turning to the ticket taking zombies she smiled and pointed out, “Nothing really bad here. We just need to stuff your shirt sleeves some more. The effect we are going for is that of a pony pretending to be a zombie, not a real zombie, even if you are one!”
They all laughed.
The vampony offered softly, “The ghosts were asked if they would help out but they did not want to. Most of them are not happy ponies and do not really want living ponies laughing at them. It would be insensitive to use fake ones after they said that they did not want to be part of our Haunted Barn.”
Daring Do nodded thoughtfully and suddenly grinned. “Can we get any rubber bats? We can fly them across the rooms and passage on strings! Jiggling the suspending string will make them flap sort of, and a second string can pull them across the space! We just need the bats and black string!”
The vampony grinned around her false fangs and snickered, “We don’t need phony ones at all! I can get a lot of real bats to play parts. The little guys like to scare ponies already! They will just want some bugs and we can easily set up a light to draw a dinner for them!”
Daring Do nodded enthusiastically! “If you can do that, it is just the thing for a good spooky atmosphere!”
On Nightmare Night, the Sweet Spot’s Haunted Barn was a big hit!
The snaggle grinned zombies at the door proudly pointed to Daring Do’s famous pith helmet hanging on a wall plaque, complete with arrow, dagger and hatchet. Under it was the legend, “The finest Haunted Barn that I almost got through! DD”
Ponies waiting in line were telling each-other, “It is really well done! This is my second time through! The actors almost do look like real monsters!” More thoughtfully, “Lots of great Sweet Spot goodies, too!”
~~ ~~ ~~ ~~
Sitting back in Roe’s living quarters behind the sweet spot, Daring Do asked him, “Roe, why is a disguised deer throwing a Haunted Barn with real monsters?”
Roe looked up sharply. “How did you guess that?”
Daring Do shrugged her wings. “It was not a guess. You left deer hoof prints when I met you. They were roe deer hoof prints to be precise. Since you were not wearing any sort of shoe, they were your prints.
“No, I am not going to ask you for any wish.”
Roe relaxed. “I used some friends of mine who agreed to behave themselves for Nighmare Night. I need to raise enough money to buy a new respirator for the Ponyville General Horspital’s neonatal unit.
“A nice nurse who works there told me about their need for a new respirator. She took my hoof across the counter, not knowing what I am, and said, ‘I wish that we could get that respirator. We really need it and we can’t afford it.”
Roe smiled quietly and said, “I have to grant the wish, that is what deer do. How I grant it is up to me. This gives my friends some fun, me some fun, and it will buy the respirator that young foals need.”
~THE END~
