It was a chilly but sunny morning at Ponyville station as the train pulled up, whistling. It was too early for most ponies to be out, and the platform was desolate until the conductor stepped off the train and a small team of ponies began to unload mail bags from the rear car. The train wouldn't be leaving for a few hours, so the conductor pulled out his pipe and leaned against the side of the train as he lit it. He watched as a pale violet unicorn with a thick, black mane and silver filigreed shoes stepped off the train and looked around, squinting against the sunlight. The young pony nodded once to the grizzled old conductor before heading to the back of the train to collect her stowed luggage. As she claimed her three large chests and hired a pony to carry them, the conductor looked up from his pipe to notice the pony's cutie mark, a set of nested circles and other shapes, and to feel an odd sense of disquiet as he reflected that he had never seen her in Ponyville before.
Not every pony was asleep as the chest-bearing cart trundled through the center of Ponyville; bakers in particular must get up early every morning to prepare their goods for the day. Pinkie Pie’s left forelock twanged and she looked up over mixing cupcake batter to see a violet pony and a diminutive parade of luggage pass in front of her window. "A new pony! I wonder what they're doing?!" Pinkie dashed outside, hopping around in front of and beside the other pony, rubbing and bouncing against her. Fortunately the luggage was safe in the cart pulled by the hired pony, who received only a friendly wave and hug. "Hello there! I'm Pinkie Pie! Who are you? What's your name? Have you been welcomed to Ponyville? Welcome to Ponyville! Are you staying long? How long are you staying? Where are you staying? Do you want to stay at my place? Are you allergic to cinnamon?" She took a sharp intake of breath after that long delivery.
The unicorn absorbed the earth pony's friendly buffets and they continued walking as she responded gently and warmly, "Hello, Pinkie, my name is Aloise. I am actually moving to Ponyville this morning, for the foreseeable future. I will be staying in this house, let's see..." she searched in a small bag on the cart and pulled out a photo of a large house, taken straight on from the street as a realtor would have taken it. The house was a sprawling Victorian mansion, with wooden siding done in light gray, bay windows, turrets, and large wraparound porches. Scrawled in the bottom right corner was "221 Bridle Way, Ponyville."
Pinkie's eyes grew wide with concern, "oh! You're going to live there!? Don't you know that place is haunted? For decades, nopony has lived there because they have been unable to sell the place! Nopony wants to live there! You’re not nopony, are you?"
Far from being apprehensive, a twinkle of intrigue appeared in Aloise’s eye. "Haunted, why is it haunted?"
Pinkie thought for a moment. "Actually, I don't know! But you should be careful, you never know what craaazy things might pop out at you, or what doors might mysteriously slam in the night! But don't you worry, I will bring some charms to protect you - charming pony friends I mean! And cupcakes! I will bring my friends to help you move in this evening when everypony is free!"
"Ok, thanks Pinkie. So generous!" Aloise was starting to feel good about her move to Ponyville.
"No problem. Gotta run now, my cupcakes are missing me!"
Pinkie dashed off before Aloise could say anything in response, and by that time she and the hired pack pony had reached Bridle street and the gate to the mansion could be seen at the end of the block.
***
The mansion looked exactly as pictured, which was fortunate as Aloise’s purchase had been faithfully blind. It was set on the top of a short slope no higher than a tall pony and behind an overgrown yard. Partially obscured by wrought iron and brick fencing and overgrown trees it did not dominate the block - but it did sit as an imposing presence. Aloise approached the gate and surveyed the house. The facade and unkempt front lawn presented a dilapidated look, but the realtor had assured her the structure was sound and, if the description was accurate, that exterior concealed a beautiful mansion with sweeping halls, elaborate staircases, many rooms, large kitchens, and behind the house a beautiful, expansive garden. She pushed the gate wide with her muzzle to allow the pack pony to roll the cart in and they proceeded together, no sound but the wind in the trees and the clatter of their hooves and the cart on the flagstones.
The double stout oak doors were made of thick, solid oak that creaked as Aloise pushed them open, also freeing a layer of dust that had accumulated on the inside. Aloise took in her first view of the inside of the house. Through the dim morning light barely penetrating the dirty windows, a large circular foyer with two story ceilings presented a curved staircase to the front left, two wide rectangular archways directly forward and on the right side of the room, and closed doors to the left. A complex crystal chandelier hung overhead, covered in cobwebs. Scattered about were various soft white forms - furniture indistinguishable under sheets. The floor was tiled in a complex pattern which couldn't be appreciated through the layer of dirt. Aloise was enthralled.
She addressed the pack pony, "please leave my luggage here, thank you." The pack pony unloaded her trunks and Aloise wordlessly tipped him and turned back to her house. Not saying anything, he glanced around nervously before quickly taking his leave, not hiding the fact that he was running for the gate as fast as he could.
Aloise had felt tired after her long journey, but left alone in the house she was suddenly filled with energy and curiosity and, leaving her trunks in the entryway, set off to indulge that curiosity in the old home she had newly claimed.
She discovered the open archways lead to two grand rooms which could be separated by sliding pocket doors, a rounded room facing the front of the house and the other oblong and in the back. French doors interspersed with unornamented supporting columns constituted the rectangular room’s outer wall, offering a view over a long, narrow deck to take in the garden beyond. The garden was overgrown and breathtaking in the late morning light. No flowers were in bloom as Spring had not really begun, but the numerous verdant plants spilled over the pathways and burst out in every direction. The streams of light catching moisture and pollen made the air itself seem thick with life. Aloise moved to the rest of the first floor to discover a more modest sized dining room for everyday use, the kitchen, what must have been a sitting room, and a room of shrouded shelves, a library of considerable size. She pulled down plastic sheeting over the bookshelves to reveal them half full of books, most old, with worn bindings. Moving to the second floor, she found seven rooms of varying sizes and two baths. The round part of the library on the first floor continued into a study on the second floor and included a staircase to a third floor, the top of the turret. All together not a huge mansion, but definitely a nice size.
The decor was mostly wood with hints of tile and iron, warm and comfortable but not overly heavy. Every room was well lit, with tall windows and high ceilings. The plan was simple, but with extra hints and details to suggest grandeur without ostentation such as the rounded walls, the turret above the library, the carved balustrade, complex moldings, and the beautiful windows. Her exhaustion resurfacing yet still exhilirated, Aloise sat on one of her trunks to reflect. The house sat quiet and heavy in the dim light, she could hear the sound of birds outside. Unable to contain herself, after a brief rest she lept up and rushed off to fetch water and soap to clean the windows, letting the light in to bring the house back to life!
***
By two o'clock Aloise had managed to clean almost all of the windows, the hundreds of square feet of glass that surrounded the house on all sides, a feat not too hard with the use of her magic. Fortunately ladders are not needed when a unicorn is on the job! She had left the wall of glass that made up the side of the grand room facing the garden for last so she could explore the furniture left in the upstairs rooms as she went through them cleaning each window. The house was underfurnished, but there were some interesting pieces laying about. Still daytime, the house was bright and cheery even if still dusty. While in the midst of magically rewetting her sponge, she heard a loud THUMP come from upstairs. Had some furniture fallen that she had disturbed earlier? She ignored it and continued with the windows. However, at her final wipe of the last window, she heard a loud scraping noise from somewhere else in the house, unmistakable. She paused for a second to listen more carefully. THUMP! She was so startled she magically sent her sponge through the window, smashing the brittle old glass onto the deck. Someone was upstairs! There must be! A little afraid, she went through the foyer and up the stairs, carefully watching ahead of her the whole time, pointing her horn ahead and ready to magick anyone who appeared.
"Who is there?"
There was no response.
"I know you're there!"
There was a terrible noise, like metal warping and screeching, so loud the echo down the hallway was audible.
Aloise was starting to have second thoughts about having bought a haunted house. She had internally laughed it off earlier, and never believed in ghosts, but in her current state of mind she might believe anything, particularly because that anything was happening. Minutes passed with no further noise, so she advanced to the top of the stairs and began down the hallway to the left. She magically lifted herself off of the ground and floated gently forward so as to make no noise, yet her horn’s effulgence could have betrayed her.
All the doors in the hallway were open, as she had left them, except for one. The last door on the left which led to a large room on the second floor above the library, and the turret. Positioning herself outside the door, she prepared herself mentally and her magic violently blew the door in, but no amount of preparation could have prepared her for what came out.
A white pegasus with jet black hair burst forward, rushing straight at Aloise! Having too little time to make a rational response her instincts kicked in and she merely closed her eyes and bowed her head between her forelegs to ward off the incoming blow - a blow which did not come. She felt a cool breeze pass by her but nothing more than that, and belatedly opened her eyes. Seeing nopony in front of her, she turned around.
Her eyes met with the glowing red disks of the pegasus behind her. With more time to examine it, she noticed that while the dark hair was dark beyond any notion of color, seeming to absorb all light from around it, the white body was so pale it was transparent, light coming from the windows in the room behind it seeming to shine partially through the pony. Its cutie mark was a black bat. Neither moved until it opened its mouth as if to speak.
"RrraaaachreeeeeeEEEECH!"
The sound was deafening and frightening and the ghost pegasus' eyes turned darker red, glowing like embers and penetrating into Aloise's soul. She was frozen in place.
"Ahem. A-hem!" The pegasus coughed a bit and cleared its throat. "Sorry about that, I guess I had something stuck in my throat!"
Aloise was flabbergasted and couldn't respond.
"Hello? Heeellooo? Ground control to Major Tom, can you hear me?"
Aloise recovered herself and managed a weak reply. "Um... hi."
"Hello."
"Yes, hello. Nice to meet you, my name is Aloise."
"Hi Aloise, my name is," the pegasus became confused. "Actually, I am not sure. That’s disconcerting. Wait, ah, now it is coming back to me. My name is Ennuye!" She looked proud of herself for remembering.
"Hello, Ennuye. So, what are you doing in that room over there? I heard some terrible noises earlier."
"Oh, well... actually, I don't know. Actually, I think I have amnesia. Did I hit my head? Do I know you? I feel like, this is my home, I know that at least, and this is my bedroom over there, where I was! Or maybe... I actually live somewhere else, and this was just where I go in the summer. It seems like it is always summer here. And...” she screwed up her forehead, “that is all I got?"
Totally recovered from her fear, Aloise had empathy for the pegasus’ predicament. "You don't know me. I just moved in here today. The house has been vacant for thirty years until I arrived today, or so I was told."
Now it was Ennuye's turn to be flabbergasted, "thirty years? That's ridiculous, I live here, with my friends, and I just hit my head or something so I don't remember."
"Perhaps you should take a look at your body."
Ennuye looked downward at herself, at her ghostly translucent body floating in the air despite her wings not flapping, and both ponies together began to believe she might be a real ghost.
Ennuye said, "is this a trick? I see you are a unicorn; are you making me float?"
Aloise looked into Ennuye's eyes, "I am serious. I arrived in this house today, after it being vacant for thirty years, and was downstairs cleaning thirty years of dust and grime off of the windows when you started making a terrible racket."
"Yes, I had a feeling, of slowly coming to life, after a long time."
"Ok. Well, perhaps we have a lot of things to sort out, but this house is plenty big enough for both of us, so lets stay here together until you remember, ok?"
"OK!"
Something about the two ponies drew them together, making them feel as close as long time friends after this brief encounter.
Aloise picked her head up. "Well, I, for one, am hungry after cleaning all morning so how about we go to the garden for a late lunch! There is nothing in the kitchen, but I brought some bread and cucumbers and a bottle of zinfindel and we can eat it out in the garden!"
"Let's go!"
And the two new friends tromped off down the stairs together.
***
"So then I said, that's not a goat, that's my mother!"
Ennuye burst out laughing, "haha, that's the funniest joke I've heard in a long time!"
"Yeah, thirty years even!"
"Ha ha... yeah!"
Ennuye had accepted her ghost-hood with ease, and Aloise had taken it just as easily. The two sat on the porch overlooking the garden as the sun crept lower in the sky, both a little buzzed (it turns out ghosts can still drink). However, their reverie and repartee was interrupted by a rustling along the periphery of the garden. They both turned to look.
An orange fleeced earth pony with straw colored hair and freckles, wearing a straw hat, came out of the bushes. Her mane was disheveled and she was a little dirty, almost as if she had been living in the forest for a while. Her cutie mark was an empty straw basket. "Ah, well hey there everypony. What are y'all doing?"
Aloise called out, "just having a drink on the porch."
Ennuye was less wary, "yeah, come and join us!"
The orange pony seemed hesitant. "Well, I don't want to be a bother or nothin'."
Aloise picked up on Ennuye's excitement, "don't be silly, we would love to have you here. I will get another chair for you." She levitated a third heavy wooden dinner table chair outside, as well as another glass. She opened a second bottle of wine and poured some for everypony.
The orange pony took her seat, noticing for the first time that Ennuye was translucent. "Are you... a ghost?" She squinted her eyes to be sure she was seeing things correctly.
Ennuye laughed, "yep. I'm a ghost... boo! My name is Ennuye, and this is Aloise, and we both live here. Me for a bit longer than her, who just arrived today!"
The orange pony looked a little crestfallen. "Well, mah name's Applelack. So, y'all live here now?"
The other two ponies gave their affirmation.
"Well, ya see, it's just that I `ave been living in this `ere garden, because it was vacant, but if y'all live here now I ought ta leave."
Aloise was intrigued. "You've been living in this garden? Whatsoever for?"
Applelack responded matter-of-factly, "you see my cutie mark? Well, I am actually a daughter of the Apple family, and usually all of us grow up and get apple cutie marks and start raisin' apples. However, my basket is empty. You see, I am allergic to apples."
Ennuye looked shocked, "allergic to apples!? An apple farmer!? Allergic to apples!?"
"Well, its not so bad. I am actually quite good at growing most things, I have been keeping up this here garden for a few years now, as I have lived in it. So even though my family has shunned me, I can still find a little happiness in this world. But, now that you're all here, and owning this house, I’ll just be on my way. There's gotta be other gardens for ponies such as myself."
It took Aloise no time to consider, "Don't be silly, Applelack, why don't you live in the house with us? It's plenty big, and bound to get lonely if we don't have a few other ponies living in it."
Applelack brightened instantly. "In the house? Wow, great! I don't have any money, but I can tend the gardens for you! It's what I like to do anyway."
Applelack considered for a moment, "how did you get to buy such a big house, anyway, Aloise? What do you do?"
"See my cutie mark? These shapes inside the circle have to do with quadrature of the circle - a symbol of the alchemist. I am an alchemist! I was living near Manehattan and discovered a new way to make train engines that don't run on steam, and sold my idea to all the big railroad tycoons. I always wanted to live in a big victorian mansion, so when I finally had the money I picked this big house - and so far I am very glad I did!"
Applelack looked like she wasn't sure she should be impressed or not. "Alchemy, eh?"
Aloise's eyes brightened, "oh, I forgot to say. The big round room on the second floor on the right I want for my laboratory. The oddly shaped room on the left of the second floor is Ennuye's. You can take any other room for your bedroom. Not much furniture yet, but we'll deal with that later."
Applelack turned to Ennuye, "and how about you? How did you become a ghost?"
Ennuye considered for a moment, but apparently the memories still eluded her. "Well, I'll let you know once I find out!"
The three ponies sat silent for a moment.
Aloise raised her glass. "to exciting changes and new lives!"
"Cheers!"
The three new friends leaned back on their chairs and took in the garden underneath the setting sun.
***
The three ponies sat in near total darkness, listening to crickets and frogs and watching fireflies. Applelack looked around, “hey, don’t y’all have lights or somethin?”
“Nope, just moved in so the electricity isn’t turned on. Also, that might take a week since I need an inspector to come and check the old wiring first,” said Aloise, nonchalantly.
“Don’t look at me, what do I care about the darkness, I’m a ghost!” quipped Ennuye.
“Uh-huh.” Applelack sat quietly for a moment. “But, I mean, I was kinda lookin forward to sleeping in a real bed for once...”
Aloise again, “there are no beds either. Just frames.”
“Ok. Well, I’m kind of gettin tired, so if y’all don’t mind I’m going to go lay in those bushes over there.”
“Night, dear!” called out Aloise.
“Goodnight,” said Ennuye.