Red-eyed rats squeaked along the fringes of the grimey dungeon. A hunchback stallion in an executioner's mask cackled with demented bloodlust, rubbing his forelimbs together. A poor damsel—her carefree years of joy now exhausted—shrieked from deep within a rattling iron maiden as it slowly murdered her. In the flickering hellish torchlight, the mare shook against the claustrophobic torture device impaling her from all sides. She reached a hoof out through the rusted lid and grasped desperately at the dank dungeon air. Thick, syrupy blood dribbled off her fetlock while her shrieks reached a fever pitch
And yet, the abominable cacophony of all these horrible things were soon drowned out by the high-pitched shrieks of a wandering illusionist.
Trixie's muzzle was as wide open as she could allow it. She teetered back, hoofy-kicking at the grotesque scene transpiring in front of her. Bellowing howls of terror emanated from her otherwise dainty throat.
The "damsel" inside the hard plastic container stopped screaming—just long enough to blink at Trixie through the rubbery spikes bending against her figure. The executioner flinched away from the magician, his rear hooves crushing a foam rat with battery-operated eyes along the spray-painted floor of the room.
And yet—as the cheap red lighting billowed through the fan-blown "flames" of a torch—Trixie continued teetering, shrieking, teetering, shrieking...
With a nervous smile, Starlight Glimmer swiftly trotted across the room and grasped Trixie by the shoulder—barely restraining the flailing equine. "Ahem..." She hoisted the sorceress aside. "...calm down, Trixie. It's just a show."
"But h-h-her shrieks were s-s-so reeeeeal!" Trixie stammered between wheezing breaths, her beady eyes dancing between the fake "brick" walls of the "dungeon."
"Trixie-ie-ie-ieeee..." Starlight giggled breathily at the trail end of pronouncing her best friend's name. "It's called acting. Y'know..." She winked. "Like you do on stage?"
"But the Gr-Gr-Great and P-P-Powerful Trixie n-n-never uses blood!"
"It's raspberry jam!" Starlight leaned over a series of plastic chains to scoop up a puddle of crimson juices. "Here! Have a taste—"
"Nooooo!" Trixie batted the other unicorn's hoof away—only to cling tight to her side as if instantly sorry for the gesture. Her tender trembles shook the two of them together. "I don't want any p-p-part of this ghastly scene!"
"But Trixie—!" Starlight rolled her eyes and smiled at the two performers. "It's her first Haunted House."
The executioner cackled. The damsel inside the iron maiden resumed screaming. Confused, worried ponies stuck their heads in from beyond the furthest curtain behind the two mares.
"Come on, Trixie," Starlight said with a smirk. She dragged her hyperventilating friend towards the door beyond the scene. "Let's get to the next room already before we hold up the line."
"I-I-I-I don't g-g-g-get it!" Trixie was full of quivers and shivers. She practically draped over Starlight's flank, her rear hooves dragging beneath her starry cape as she gazed every which way with widely-blinking eyes. "So much misery and macabre! How can ponies actually celebrate such a display?!" A fierce, fuzzy frown. "Somepony explain this to Trixie at once!"
"It's Nightmare Night!" Starlight chirped pleasantly as they both shuffled down a crooked corridor echoing with ghoulish cackles. "Ponies celebrate creepy and crawly stuff once a year every year! But—y'know—maybe you've been too busy traveling on the road to stop by and notice?"
"Hmmmf!" Trixie regained enough strength to trot upright, her nose tilted at a haughty angle. "I know very well what Nightmare Night is! Trixie wasn't born yesterday, Starlight."
"Heehee—of course not—"
"I belong to the proud Lulamoon Family! My aristocratic ancestors fought alongside warriors of the Lunar Empire at the Great Battle of Whinniepeg!"
"And nopony's denying that—"
"So!" Trixie huffed, marching ahead of Starlight. "If you think I'm somehow ill-prepared for the downright carney simplicity of festive fright gags, then you have another thing coming—"
The two trotted through a curtain and straight into a room filled to the brim with giant rubber spiders dangling on elastic strings.
"HISSSSSSS!" A fucshia mare with six eyes—two normal and four googly—dangled from an enormous web, waving eight rubber pinchers. "I AM THE SPIDER QUEEEEEEN!"
"AAAAAAAAAIEEEEE!" Trixie clenched her eyes shut and immediately leapt backwards, falling into Starlight's arms. "They're everywhere!"
"MWAHAHAHA!" The Spider Queen laughed as a fog machine billowed mist between the legs of the dangling rubber arachnids orbiting her.
Starlight was a wave of giggles, and all of them crashing against Trixie's raised hairs. "Mrmmmff—!" She grasped Trixie and pushed her away so that her muzzle wasn't shoved into Trixie's floofy chest any longer. "Trixie! Snkkkt—hehehehe—seriously, you alright, girl?"
"Gnnnngh!" Trixie hung limply from Starlight's neck as she wept into her sternum. "I haaa-aaaa-aaate spiii-iii-iiiders!"
"What?" Starlight giggle-snorted. "Since when?!"
"They're s-s-so much like changelinnnngs!"
Starlight rolled her eyes with a smirk. "Oh bother."
"My goodness!" a soft voice cooed.
Starlight looked over.
Grimacing, the "Spider Queen" held a pensive hoof to her worried, fuzzy face. "Is... is she going to be okay...?"
"Ahem..." Starlight squinted back at her. "You're breaking character, Miss Cheerilee."
"Oh! Uhm... alrighty, then!" The eight legged abomination shook the web she was perched on, hissing through plastic mandibles. "FEED ON THEIR LIVERS, MY TINY VENOMOUS PRETTIES! FEEEEEED! MWAAAHAHAHAHA!"
"Aaaaaaaah—!" Trixie scampered and wriggled and scuffled to get away—but all she did was cling even tighter to Starlight's chest. "N-not my liver! That's Trixie's greatest and m-most powerful organ!"
Starlight fought a valiant battle to contain her laughter. With a swift burst of magic, she propelled the two of them across the room, batting away swinging spiders in a jiggling wave. The two landed in a "torch"-lit hallway of the labyrinthine attraction outside.
"Trixie, I don't get it!" Starlight exclaimed, setting the adoracute sideshow performer back down on her adoracute hooves. "Why are you still so afraid of changelings?" With a sympathetic smile, she reached forward and straightened the mare's wizard hat. "They all converted to good, remember?"
As the starry brim lifted, it revealed a pouty face with puppy dog eyes. "The Queen's still evil!" Her blue lower lip stuck out with extra blueness. "And she could lay tons more eggs full of super evil bug ponies!"
"Yeah, so?" Starlight winked. "I think we can take 'em!"
"R-really?" Trixie gasped with an ounce of hope.
Just then, a "cobblestone" panel in the wall opened wide, and several "zombie ponies" stuck their hooves out, grabbing and yanking at Trixie's cape. "Ponnyyyyy brainnnnnss!"
"Aaaaah!" Trixie flinched for the umpteenth time with the umpteenth shriek. She yanked her cloak away from the performers and shook an angry hoof at them. "Back! Stay back from Trixie! Trixie will put a spell on you!" Her teeth rattled. "It'll be a very smelly spell!"
Starlight laughed and hugged Trixie from behind.
"It's not f-funny!" Trixie's cheeks puffed like ripe blueberries. "Grrrr! Why are we even in this den of iniquity and parlor prank charlatans?!"
"B-because...!" Starlight wiped a tear loose and smirked. "After all that business with Chrysalis, I decided to make Ponyville my new home at long last. That means getting myself acquainted with all of their traditions."
"Including the s-s-sideshow horrors of a third-rate Nightmare Night pr-production?"
Starlight nodded, smiling bashfully. "As silly as it may sound... yeah." She brushed her bangs back and toed the floor. Campy circus noises and artificial monster roars echoed beyond the flimsy walls. "Nightmare Night is super important to Ponyvilleans. And considering that not that far from here is where Princess Luna was finally cleansed of her disharmonious spirit—"
"But Trixie doesn't understand why it all has to be so... so..."
"Scary?"
"Grrrr!" Blue hooves stomped. "Trixie didn't say she was scared!"
"Eughhh..." Starlight rolled her eyes again. "It's okay, Trixie. Really. It is." With a soft smile, she pointed at four red words glowing in the corner. "They have exits all over this place. If you're too skittish, we can ditch the rest of the rooms and... I dunno... go back to Sweet Apple Acres and join Twilight and the rest in bobbing for apples."
"But you've looked forward to this... 'Haunted House' pageantry for a long time!"
Starlight shrugged. "I'm not enjoying it if you're not. Let's go."
"No!"
"Huh?"
"You heard Trixie!" Tossing her mane back, Trixie spun around and trotted firmly for the next room beyond a series of fake flouncing spider webs and dangling skeletons. "I'm not about to ruin your very first Nightmare Night in Ponyville!"
"Trixie..."
"I mean it!" The illusionist reached the glittery curtains and looked back with a smug grin. "You invited Trixie to a special event, and it's only fitting that Trixie step up to the challenge! Hmmmf! Isn't that what friends do? Inspire each other to be brave?"
Starlight rubbed her head. "Well... uh... sure! But—"
"But nothing! Let us enjoy the rest of this... dismal display!" Trixie marched boldly through the curtain. "Bring it on! Trixie is ready for anything!"
"WELCOME!" Dr. Hooves' voice cackled against the buzz of electricity and the whirring of machinery. "TO THE WHEEL FACTORY OF DOOOOOOM!"
Trixie lay unconscious across a worn velvet couch.
Gentle telekinesis brushed and brushed at her long, silky white mane.
"Mrmmmfff..." The mare let loose a tiny, cat-like trilling sound. Her fuzzy blue eyelids fluttered... fluttered some more... then finally peaked open. She found her soft head resting gently in Starlight Glimmer's lap.
"Ah... you're finally coming to," Starlight said with a calm smile. "Uhm..." She blushed, glancing at the floating brush in her magical grip. "Ahem..." She did a few finishing touches to Trixie's snow-white threads and placed the brush onto a dimly-lit makeup table. "Sorry. I couldn't help myself. Your mane was in such a mess after you collapsed to the floor."
Trixie squinted. Her tired lips slurred: "Collapsed... to the fl-floor...?"
"Errrr..." Starlight winced through her smile. "Yeah..."
"Nonsense!" Trixie sat up with a jerk. "The Great and Powerful Trixie does not faint—!" She immediately winced from numerous tell-tale bruises along her back and shoulders. "Unnnngh..." She drifted back down, laying her bare head once again in Starlight's lap. "Okay. So maybe I fainted."
"I can understand torture chambers and spider queens..." Starlight suppressed a giggle. "But wheels?"
"Mrrmffff..." Trixie's hooves curled up over her fuzzy chest as she stared across the room. "It's a long story."
Starlight raised an eyebrow. "Care to tell me?"
Trixie didn't answer. She was too busy observing the make-up vanities and racks of costumes lining the walls. Rubber masks and cosmetic accessories hung off shelves and countertops. The walls shook with muffled sounds of practiced screams and wolf howls. A starry cape and matching wizard's hat sat on a stool not too far away.
"We're backstage," the performer muttered.
Starlight gently squeezed Trixie's shoulders. "Mmmmhmmm."
"Ohhhhhhhhh horseapples." Trixie buried her face in two fetlocks. "I must have embarrassed you sooooooo bad."
Starlight chuckled. "It's alright."
"No it is not!" Trixie lowered her hooves to frown up at her best friend. "You were looking forward to this tour so much, Starlight, and I ruined it for you!"
"I wouldn't say that!" Starlight gestured with a gentle hoof. "The stagehooves were really kind, not to mention helpful. They didn't strike me as annoyed in the slightest. And this?" She pointed at the cast member room around them. "This is all behind the scenes! I find it really exciting! Heehee! I bet Twilight and the others have never seen the inner workings of a haunted house show!"
"Meh..." Trixie meh'd.
Starlight glanced at her. "Oh. Right." She brushed Trixie's bangs back. "Guess you're used to all this show business stuff."
"If Trixie is used to it..." The mare in question sighed with a quiver. "...then why did Trixie faint?"
"You're just... easily frightened, that's all."
"Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm..." Trixie curled her forelimbs up once again, shook, tightened... and finally released with a deflating sigh. "Yeahhhhh..." She closed her eyes in shame. "Trixie is a sissy."
"Now don't you say that—!"
"Oh but it's true. Trixie is."
"Being frightened just isn't your thing! I mean... take Fluttershy for instance!" Starlight smiled. "The mare's skittish as a mouse, and yet she's done braver things than you and I! Well..." She winked. "Almost... considering recent events."
"If you say so, Starlight."
The two were silent. Bats squeaked in the distance. A metal hammer clanged against rusted chains, and was silent while ponies screamed through the walls and laughed and screamed again.
"Okay." Starlight scooted back, giving Trixie room to relax on the couch. "Let's be real here."
Trixie gulped nervously.
Starlight gazed at her with both curiosity and concern. "If... you were always so scared of haunted houses..." She cocked her head to the side. "...why did you even agree to come inside with me to begin with?"
"Isn't it obvious?!" Trixie flashed a sudden frown. "It's because Trixie wants to be a good friend!"
Starlight Glimmer droned: "There's a hundred thousand other things we could have been doing to celebrate Nightmare Night together, Trixie."
"So?"
Starlight folded her forelimbs.
Trixie's ears drooped fuzzily. She rubbed her shoulder with the other hoof and looked away. "Trixie... h-has never been as scared as she was when..." She shivered. "Wh-when we both marched into that changeling hive."
Starlight nodded, listening intently.
"And yet... ever s-since..." Trixie's upper body flushed until she was a purple shape in the shadows of the dressing room. "...Trixie... mmmmm... I can't stop thinking about how scared I was... and almost... almost..."
Starlight blinked. "Almost what, Trixie?"
"Almostwantingtofeeljustasscaredagain!" Trixie blurted. "Okay!" She tensed up. "You can laugh at Trixie now!"
Starlight shook her head. "Why would I want to laugh at you?"
"Because you've been laughing at Trixie all night!"
"No I haven't!" Starlight chuckled. She rolled her eyes at herself and exclaimed, "Trixie, I just want to understand what you mean. Why would you want to feel 'as scared' as you did back at Chrysalis' hive again?"
"Because..." Trixie squirmed on her side of the velvet couch. "... b-because no matter how scary things got... and how much Trixie f-feared for her life..." The next confession came through a squeaky sigh: "Trixie knew that you would be there to save me..."
Starlight raised an eyebrow.
"And pr-protect Trixie." The illusionist hugged herself, shivering without her starry cloak. "And... and that's a good thing... one of the b-best things Trixie has ever had the joy of experiencing." She hunched up on the couch cushion, slowly becoming a tiny blue ball of trembles. "So... I-I guess that's why it was okay... more than okay to be so scared... with you... again... in this place..." At the tail end of that trailing proclamation, she gulped hard. "Does any of that make any sense?"
The air tingled with magic. Trixie watched as her starry cloak floated over in a curtain of telekinesis. Suddenly, Starlight was scooting closer, and as Trixie's cloak draped over them both—warming them—Starlight wrapped a hoof around Trixie's shoulder, holding her tight. Close.
"To be honest... no, not really." Starlight nevertheless spoke in a warm tone as she hugged Trixie from the side. "I don't see why you have to force yourself through scary stuff, Trixie. So... how about this? What say we cut through all the chaff and just get to the 'feeling safe' part?"
Trixie blinked up at her. "Huh?" Her eyes glistened curiously.
"Hmmmm..." Starlight closed her eyes, leaning down to nuzzle Trixie's forehead with her velvety chin. "I promise... I will always... always protect you."
A snow-white tail flicked enthusiastically from beneath the starry cloak. "You r-really mean it?"
"Yes." Starlight purred, opening her eyes just wide enough to take in Trixie's shiny complexion. "And—if it makes you feel any better..." She giggled inwardly. "I... kinda sorta like it when Trixie clings to Starlight... so that way Starlight can hold her tight and hug all of the shivers away..."
"Heeheeheehee..." Trixie giggled for the first time that night.
Starlight blinked. "...what?"
Trixie stuck a tongue out. "Trixie thinks she has become contagious."
Starlight's eyes crossed. She smacked her own forehead.
Trixie giggled again.
"Yes... well..." Starlight leaned in until the two were nearly nose-to-fuzzy-nose. "Maybe the Great and Powerful Starlight is okay with that."
Trixie stared back, eyes wide. The tips of her ears burned purple... flouncing in time with her pulse.
Starlight remained a feather's width away. She purred: "Still scared?"
Trixie gulped. "Trixie isn't sure," she said in a dry tone.
Starlight hummed. "I know the feeling." Then she leaned forward... and rested her neck over Trixie's shoulder.
Trixie exhaled... then smiled in some wave of indefinable relief. She mirrored Starlight's gesture... until the two were curled tightly together in a nuzzling embrace, huddled in the backstage of a macabre horror show beneath a blanket of velvet stars. Somewhere amidst the lingering moment, Trixie sensed Starlight's heartbeat—heavy and earnest—and she timed her breaths between them. Before long, she lost count, feeling safe.
Safer than ever.
Author's Note
Silly, Scared, Fuzzy Ponies.
The Stuff Endorphins Are Made Of
