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Mandrake Blossom's face was initially bright and exuberant as they came upon the strange and morbidly curious Haunted House. She briefly thought of the tiny ghost upon her new acquaintance, End of an Era's rump and it only made her grin wider. Her tiny hooves clopped against the ground eagerly, leading the way from one of the nearby food carts, and urged her brother to follow.

"C'mon, this'll be great!" At least it would be great if Lullaby wasn't lagging back something fierce. Looking over her shoulder, Mandrake scrunched her brow up and stared at her brother, to which he responded with stutters. Her mouth dropped open and her eyes went wide for a second before the filly's gaze shifted back the way they came. "But we did those other things... The mirror maze!" she let out a short, shrill whine, "Nnngh, I didn't even wanna do the mirror maze!" Though, unlike her brother now, she had gone in without complaint.

Her small navy body shivered with excitement at the potential thrills and chills this ride would give, the perfect sort with just the right amount of horror and laughs. As she turned to face Lullaby, a cart was pulled along its track from the inside of the structure and some of the passengers looked quite shaken while others were either uninterested or snickering.

He begged again and her tail twitched, ears folding as she saw the slight glaze to his eyes. Dumbfounded, she blurted out the only response she could think of right after he finished his shuddering words.

"Are you crying!?" It came out much louder than intended.

Her brother's retort was swift and unexpected, causing Mandrake's expression to falter somewhat as she took a step back, only to step forward again when he wiped his eyes. Why was he gonna go and lie about something small and silly like that?

It was true, she supposed, that the mirror maze had been 'safer' but some of the mirrors certainly had some freaky and creepy results when they were all squiggly and changed how you looked! Mandrake's brow twitched irritably and the more her brother pouted and whined, the more her eyes closed and she wanted to stomp her hooves. Why couldn't he just deal with it and go?!

A piercing shriek ripped from Lullaby's sister, startling everyone and everyphony around them and even momentarily delaying the next cart to go into the haunted ghost train. Once it tapered off and she was finished, Mandrake plopped her rump down and glared into the distance, deliberately avoiding eye contact with Lullaby.

"Well I'm not going if you're not going." she said with an almost eerie calmness after her sudden vocal explosion seconds before. Of course she could go without him, but what fun would that be?! And then all the thoughts of leaving her terrified brother out here alone in a huge crowd would completely spoil all the fun she could have inside by herself. Nope, there was no way around it; Mandrake could not leave her brother Lullaby behind for a couple of quick cheap scares but that didn't mean she had to be happy about it.

This wasn't going right.

He didn't understand what she meant at all!

Mandrake's face scrunched up theatrically, mimicking her brother's own dramatic fall to the ground where he still pinned himself. Her tail slapped against the ground with a muted thwack and gave a horsey snort at the air.

"YEAH I wanna go!" she began harshly, her expression reflecting a pent up desire to be scared, "But-- ...But I mean--" Mandrake frowned again, unable to properly articulate her thoughts. She stomped her front hooves in frustration, letting out a low whine as she tried to gather her thoughts. "But it'd be stupid not to go with somebody! Look!"

With a quick huff, she pointed a hoof to the line and showed that it was almost always groups of friends, relatives or couples that went into the carts together and very rarely did anyone go alone. Even still, the ones that did looked pretty bored or skeptical about the whole situation, maybe even huffy like they'd been stood up.

"B'sides," she brought her hoof back to the ground with a resounding thump, "What would you even do outside here by yourself while I was in there anyway!? What if someone came up and ponynapped you while I was gone, huh!?" Mandrake's face changed rather abruptly then, her own eyes glossing over a bit. That idea was WAY more scary than anything that stupid haunted house could offer!

Her brother's stutter of that frightening term, ponynapped, Mandrake started running through all of the various scenarios for what could go wrong in her mind. What sort of nasty character would bust through the theme park and pluck up an innocent little pony? Her orange eyes glanced around briefly and, to be sure, there were a fair amount of humans and other creatures in very close company with phonies, young and adult alike.

Anyone could snatch up her or her brother if they were left alone!

Her mane started to stand on end.

What if that was the whole point of buddying up to go into the haunted house? So no one could steal you.

Just when she was about to go on another volume challenged tangent about how dangerous it all was for the both of them to split up, her much quieter brother spoke up louder than usual and Mandrake clammed up, taken aback.

"A-a prize? What prize?" she fumbled with her words, surprised and totally unsure of what she wanted from any of the games, much less whether or not little Lullaby would be able to accomplish the task! Still, the thought was very nice. If he was hoping to make things up to his sister it was certainly working.

Lullaby's assurance of the prize's quality made his sister's eyes shimmer with curious delight. Her mouth hung open slightly as she imagined all sorts of things that would be fun to get. She'd never won a prize before! Or been won one as a present, either. Mandrake's attention returned to the task at hand when her brother urged her to follow and she did so obediently at a gentle trot. When they reached the RING TOSS booth, she gaped up at the vast collection of plushes, large and small, and was struck dumb.

Which prize did she like? All of them! Her brother couldn't possibly win all of them, though, "one of everything" was far too much to ask even after she gave up on all of her haunted house ride fun. With increased determination, Mandrake's eyes narrowed and began sweeping all across the vast collection. There were some pony shaped plushes, some of flowers, other animals, gwees, mythical creatures, you name it. It wasn't until she spotted one particular creature that could only be described as a piranha plant that she let out a short high pitched yelp and bounced, pointing to it with a hoof.

"OOOH! Oh that one! That one, please, Lullaby, pleeeaaase! It's so cool!" Her tail swished too and fro with excitement until she fell back onto her haunches and smushed her cheeks with her two front hooves, eyes never leaving the sharp toothed plant creature. If Lullaby was determined, she knew he would get it!

Mandrake had never seen her brother so resolute before! Normally he was so meek, unassuming, but now he had a clear goal and she couldn't help but smile at the fact it was in her favor. He really wanted to make it up to her and she appreciated it more than she could say.

Plodding along after Lullaby, she planted her rump on the ground behind him as he exchanged the ticket and rings with the worker. Her eyes were locked on the ring in his chops, waiting, watching with clear and wide eyed anticipation. When the ring went flying, her mouth contorted into a wide grin -- and then it clinked off the top of a bottle, landing between some of them. Her brows knit immediately, though the rest of her expression stayed the same, frozen in some sort of confused horror. Her eyes immediately glanced back to Lullaby who picked up a second ring. Mandrake planted her hooves firmly on the ground, her whole body going rigid as again the ring flew and missed.

The last one. Their final chance.

She leaned back, eyes huge like saucers with a strange, distraught grin across her face. The ring was airborn, then down with a subtle plink.

He failed.

Mandrake Blossom was frozen stiff, staring at the place the last ring made contact on the bottle. One of her eye lids twitched softly and she slowly, ever so slowly, fell backwards without moving from her current pose. Stiff legs were raised in the air, teeth gritted painfully as her eyes watered and she stared blankly at the clouds passing overhead.

"...Thank you - for - try-innnnnnnNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGG!" the sound increased to a shrill whine as she kept her teeth clenched shut, lessening the volume of what would have normally been a deafening screech.

Mandrake was beside herself. She wanted to kick and scream and cry. How could this day have gone so horribly bad so quickly? She wanted to go to the stupid haunted house but nooo, then her brother wanted to try and do something nice but even that couldn't even go right!

Did the universe have something against her? Was she not allowed to have fun at all?

As she sat back on the ground, clenching herself so tight she felt like she were made of stone, with her breath held and her teary eyes bulging, a high pitched whine escaped her puffed cheeks. It stopped abruptly at the sound of her brother breaking down and sobbing. Mandrake fell on her side and stared. What was he doing, getting so worked up? Everything was going wrong for her, not him! Why was he the one crying when it should've been her?!

Her whole body went limp and for a moment she laid there in a pathetic heap. If she were at home then she'd just curl up, be comfortable, and scream as loud as she wanted into a pillow, but where they were now was out of the question -- especially with her brother in such a state.

"Hey," she started, pulling herself up so she was crouched down, "Lull, c'mon." Her voice was calm and soft, more like their mother's instead of the shrill and harsh tone she usually had. Mandrake stood and stepped over to her brother, draping a hoof over his back. "Lullaby~" she sung quietly, "We can try again some other time. Okay?" Even so, the gesture was awfully kind. She wasn't about to forget that for a long time.