dark A Ponyville Haunting Pt 1

[TreadingWater 6]

Trixie knew deep down that this was a terrible idea. 

The old house had stood abandoned for many years and nobody remembered the ponies that once lived there, only that they apparently just vanished without anyone noticing. The house itself was falling apart and the ceiling was close to caving in, it was kind of a miracle that the house was still standing at all. There had been plenty of times where the prospect of demolishing the building due to the risk of cave-ins had been brought up but so far nothing had actually been done about it. Nobody was willing to buy it and restore it either.

The cause of that being that plenty of ponies believed that the building was haunted. 

Echoing clapper of hooves in empty corridors, terrifying howls in the middle of the night, items and furniture moving on its own and ghostly faces; this house had it all. The first and only time someone seriously tried to bring the house down it ended with disastrous consequences and even more haunted hijinx that could have easily killed several of the workers. Tools went missing, heavy objects were placed on precarious ledges where they could easily fall on an unsuspecting pony, the electricity in the wiring was suddenly going haywire without any explaination and one pony almost being pushed down the stairs by invisible hooves all occurred within the first week of the workers setting hoof on the porch. The project was canceled due to nobody wanting to work on it and the house was left alone ever since. 

Until now.

As she stood there looking up at the large building in front of her that sure must have looked stunning at one point on time, Trixie shuddered as all sorts of horrible scenarios began to play out in her head. Nightmarish images of her broken body lying at the basement of the marble staircase or drowned in the fishpond outside were sending shivers down her spine but she mentally silenced the voice telling her to flee. She had an image to keep after all. 

She had been dared by Rainbow Dash to go into the haunted house and bring something back that proved that she had been inside. Her first response had been to refuse but Rainbow kept poking at her pride until she gave in. 

So here she was, standing in front of the most infamous house in all of Ponyville. 

She took a deep breath and opened the broken door, carefully stepping into the Main Hall. The smell inside was unlike anything she had ever felt before, heavy and nausiating with decay. The wallpaper was peeling off the walls and a thick layer of dust covered everything within sight. Nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary. 

So far so good. 

Trixie jumped slightly as the floorboards creaked beneath her weight, frantically looking around for something to bring back so that she could leave this wretched place. She stepped into the foalie and to her delight spotted a small statue on top of an old piano. It was still intact and more importantly small enough to easily carry. 

As she took a few more steps across the threshold, a cold breeze made her shiver and she could swear that she heard a sinister voice whisper in her ear. Not wanting to remain in the old wreck any longer, she reahed out for her magic and grabbed the statue.

She had not been prepared for what came next.

The piano suddenly came alive in a horrifying fashion. The lid flew up in a grotesque parody of a jaw and an unnarutal sound was coming from its hollow casket, like a funeral-choir played on broken keys. Its wooden legs bent and twisted in ways that should not be possible and a pale blue flame inside its gullet emitted a sinister glow. 

Paralyzed with fear, Trixie's mind was going blank and she couldn't look away from the monstrosity that was rapidly stumbling towards her. She tried to run away but suddenly screamed out in pain as the living instrument had unhooked the wires from within its chassi and had latched on to one of her legs. The steel was digging into her flesh as the piano pulled harder and harder to try and get her to let go off the lightfixture that she was clinging on to for dear life, having no desire to know what was awaiting her within the monster's belly. 

Suddenly the light in the room swayed and Trixie looked up to see a massive chandeleer hanging from the ceiling, right above her adversary. She spotted the chain and fired off a magical bolt, praying with all her heart that it would be enough. 

Thankfully, Trixie was in luck that everything in the house was a decrepid as it was. The rusted chain snapped, sending the heavy chandeleer smashing into the floor and smashing the piano into hundreds of pieces. The second the pressure on her leg vanished, Trixie limped out the front-door as fast as her legs could carry her without looking back even once. 

If she had, she might have seen the pale fire rise from the remains. 

As the frightened unicorn limped home with shaky nerves, she never noticed the second quartet of hoofprints that followed her home.

Nor did she hear the sound of faint laughter above the howling of the autumn winds.