//------------------------------// // Ponyville Panic // Story: Crazy, Clever and Cunning // by Fresnor //------------------------------// “Just how long can three ponies panic for?” I mumble to myself as I see the pink furred, blonde maned pony run by again. Her along with a light cream furred, magenta maned one, and a pink furred, green maned one have been constantly running around since I had arrived. “Probably related or close friends judging from them all having some sort of flower mark.” Turning towards the surrounding buildings I see that most of them are still closed up, though there are some that look to be open but they aren’t the kind of store I’m looking for. Seeing little choice for now I head towards the crowd I had spotted earlier in hopes of hearing something about what is going on now. As I get closer I can see and more mature looking beige pony with grey mane. She seems to be trying to keep the others calm though seems to be only partially successful. Moving along the edge of the crowd I can pick up mentions of a “Nightmare Moon” and “Night time forever” from those in the crowd. A few of them glance oddly towards me, their eyes seemingly drawn to the sunstone about my neck. Hmm, either they don’t use enchanted gems at all, or it’s just very uncommon I think to myself while keeping an eye and ear out. While not catching much else from the crowd that makes any sense to me, I do finally spot a shop over the top of the crowd that looks to deal in gems, and looks to possibly be open or at least occupied. It takes a while to make my way around the group in front of me though as I decide to circle around it instead of trying to push through. Entering into the light of the lanterns around the shop the stone around my neck begins to dim until only the softest of glows can be seen from it as if reflecting the light around it. Making my way into the store I notice nobody around the front area, though I do hear some noise in the back. They must of heard the sound of my hooves on the wooden floor though as I hear a “Be with you in a minute,” come from somewhere in the back. Taking my time I examine the various displays around the store, noticing the decent quality of much of, and take note of the prices that seem to be used. I recognize a few of the gems and stones used in some of the pieces, though some are unfamiliar to me. Luckily a few of the gems I have don’t seem to be in use in any of the items I see, and few seem to give off any sort of magic so even my poor skills at enchantments can bring in more to the bargaining table. Hearing steps coming closer from the back I turn to see a pink mare, Really, what’s with all the pink mares I’ve been seeing lately, with a platinum colored mane exit the back room. Adorning her flank is a diamond ring, “Sorry for the wait, I didn’t expect anyone to actually show up what with the, situation right now. I am Diamond Band, proprietor of Diamond’s Jewelry how may I help you?” She says while examining my dusty appearance with a wary eye. “Yes, I’ve heard bits about what is going on, but not the full story though I’m sure it’s only temporary. My name is Flarenza, and I recently arrived in town and needed to obtain some funds for lodgings. I have come across some various gems and stones in my travels I wish to sell and hoped that this would be a place to do so,” I reply trying to be polite though a bit ashamed as I only now notice my appearance could be better. The mare raises an eyebrow at this as she doesn’t seem to be expecting much from me. “Well we do buy from independent groups on occasion, we usually get all we need from our usual sources,” she says while eyeing me, “But seeing as you are new in town I guess I could take a look,” she finally concedes while bringing out a few tools from behind her counter. I breathe a small sigh of relief in response to this and advance to the counter while bringing out two pouches, one blue and one red, from my packs with my magic, making sure to leave the special one inside my bags. Placing them on the counter I careful remove from the blue pouch two sets of three gems of two types, one type a pale white stone and the other a very light blue, and place them atop the bag. From the other pouch I do the same, but the time with the stones being a pale orange color, and the other a blazing orange and red. All of them have been polished into an oval shape, and the mare’s eyes widen at the sight of them. “I was definitely not expecting pieces of this quality,” she states, “I’m not even sure if we’ve even had these kinds of gems come through here before,” she seems a bit breathless at seeing something beyond what she normally gets, while carefully examining them all from different angles. When her hoof comes into contact with one of the blue stones she shivers a bit as her eyes widen even more. “As you probably have noticed, yes they all have a type of enchantment on them, though it is weak,” I say to her, grinning a little. “While not great, they each are still useful enough. The moonstones,” I gesture to the white ones, “give off a soft glow that is gentle on the eyes while the sunstone,” pointing to the pale orange ones, “Give off a brighter, warmer light. Both of them only work in the dark to conserve energy.” I demonstrate this by covering all but one of the gems while dousing the lanterns in the place with a twitch of magic before relighting them all. “The turquoise as you have felt gives off a cooling sensation and is useful during warmer weather, though it does work to cool hot objects as well, it drains them faster than it can recharge. The last gems are fire opals,” pointing to the last, “and work in the opposite way by giving off gentle warmth. These ones aren’t strong enough to really heat anything, though they can still bring things up from colder temperature if needed.” Her eyes have left the stones at all during my explanation, probably in shock that someone in my state would have things like these in their possession. Eventually she shakes herself out of her stupor to ask, “Where did you find these at? The gems alone don’t show up around here much, but the enchantments on them even of this level are almost impossible to acquire.” “Well the gems weren’t that hard as I traveled through areas where they were more common, the enchantments though,” I pause considering if I should admit the next part, “Well those I was able to do myself, they aren’t anywhere near what my teacher could do, but I can get it to work a bit if I can match the spell to the stones.” This last bit causes her eyes to widen again and then she gets a look on her face as if she is reassessing her opinions. After a few minutes she sighs and seems to come to a decision and names a price, one higher than what I expected. I guess even that little amount of magic I could put in the gems isn’t a common skill here. I take a moment to think the offer over and decide to not push things by haggling, reasoning that if I can seem reasonable I may be able to do some more work of the likes without having to search hard for a job. At my nod at this her eyes light up a bit, probably expecting me to haggle for a much higher price. As we conclude our business and she hands over a pouch of coins, called bits apparently, and I head out of the store pausing to wave a hoof back to her as I pass the threshold, glad to see a smile on her face unlike her expression on first meeting her. As I get outside the crowd seems to have mostly dispersed, though there are still a few ponies here and there talking in hushed tones. Looking around I notice a large board next to the building I assume is the town hall, as everyone was gathered around it, and head over to see what is on it. Nearing it I can see it is filled with various flyers of differing sorts, and on closer inspection they seem to be of various things, from job postings, to missing objects, to even a few items for sale. I peruse those last ones and am happy to notice that there are a few homes for sale or rent among them, though many priced a bit higher than I would like, or of a size smaller than I’d look for. As I am about to turn away and look elsewhere a fluttering of a slightly discolored flyer catches my attention. It is mostly covered up by the others so it takes a bit of work to get it out, but when I do I am surprised to find that it is for an old place out near the Everfree Forest. Judging from the description it’s not the cottage as that wasn’t large enough, but the size is much larger than I could ever need. What catches my eyes though is the price. “Something has to be wrong with this place, whoever owns it is selling it for barely a quarter of the price of a place half its size. Maybe it’s the proximity to the forest, other than the cottage everything seems to be well away from it?” I ponder through this as I look for whom to contact about this and notice that the place of sale is the Town Hall itself. Glancing up at the building next to me I shrug at my luck and head inside. On entering I notice that the place is a bit of a mess, as if they were having some sort of celebration recently, though there are a few ponies cleaning things up. I notice a desk with a darker mare behind it and head over assuming they can point me in the right direction. As I near the desk she glances up with a look of annoyance on her face. “I’m Dusky Script, blah blah blah, what do you want?” she says in a bored tone without looking up from her work. I raise an eyebrow at this as I haven’t seen this type of attitude on a pony yet, odd looks and skittish behavior sure, but not outright rudeness. Deciding to stick with politeness I bring up the flyer, “Well I was looking at the board outside and found this flyer for a home; I was wondering if it was still up for sale and where if so where I need to go here.” The mare sighs audibly at the fact that she may have to do something to help me, though when she catches sight of the flyer her eyes widen as she breaks into a chuckling grin. “You want to know about THAT place? You definitely must be new here; nobody has asked about that place in so long I’d thought everyone heard about it. Yeah it’s still up for sale, if you actually want it.” The look on her face makes me rethink on the wisdom of this place, but seeing as I have limited resources right now and the place is probably out of the way of others this is probably my best bet. “Yes this place should do nicely for my needs, it can’t be all bad as the forest doesn’t bother me much, and judging from what I’ve seen I won’t have to worry about bugging any neighbors with my… experiments.” I state to her confidently. She just shakes her head, laughing at me as she digs in her desk for paperwork that I assume is regarding to the house. “Well whatever seems to suit you, but don’t come running back complaining if you can’t handle the place.” She lays out the forms for not only the house, but what looks like a census form as well. That makes sense as I will be living in the area now and governments like to keep track of that. Filling out the forms is easy enough, though I have to pause at the spots marked Family and Previous Home as they hit me a bit hard as I am forced to mark None to both. Returning both completed forms, as well as a stack of bits for the full payment of the house she only nods as she passes over the deed and keys to the place, along with a simple list of directions. She does raise an eyebrow at the census forms as she looked it over, but just shrugs and mutters, “None of my business,” and files them away. She then proceeds to go back to ignoring me so I take that as a sign that business here is concluded and make my way outside again. As I head out I have to shade my eyes a bit as the sun is now shining again, and I can see what looks like a small procession heading along the path from the Everfree Forest. Taking a moment to stow the sunstone around my neck back in my bags, I curiously head towards a good view point to get a better view of the approaching group. I’m not the only one with this idea as what looks like the whole town is out for this. Trying not to jostle anypony around me, I find myself a spot in a nearby alley atop a close barrel which I pushed out towards the street a bit. I can hear murmurs of the others nearby of what sounds like “Princess Celestia” and “long-lost sister” among other comments. My ears perk up a bit at this as this seems to be an unusual place for royalty to show up at. I decide to keep an eye on this as I probably won’t have a chance to see them again. It takes a while, but the procession eventually arrives to this point of town, and I am surprised to see the six mares I saw head into the forest as part of it. Each of them seems to be having a different reaction to being in the spotlight of the town. The orange pony and purple unicorn are calmly waving to everyone, while the cyan pegasus and white unicorn seem to be basking in the attention. The overly pink pony is bouncing around all over the place waves to and talking to everyone, though a couple times it looks like she was in multiple places at once. Behind them all though I see the buttery pegasus, Fluttershy, trying to hide from all the attention, guess it’s not just a name. Behind the six I spot what I assume is the Princess and I stare in shock at her appearance. She easily towers over all the others around her, and not only has a horn but wings as well. Her fur is a pristine white color, while her main is a flowing prism of colors that seems unreal. Emblazoned on her flank is an image of the sun which brings up stories I’ve heard of her actually controlling the sun. My eyes shift a bit to the form next to her next, which causes a shock, but to a much lesser extent. I assume that this must be the “long-lost sister” I heard mention of as she also possesses wings and a horn. She is of a dark blue color though with a mane of a slightly lighter blue. She has a symbol of a crescent moon on her flank and as her sister possibly controls the sun, this must mean she controls the moon. I wonder if she had something to do with the incident causing the longer night I ponder as I watch the procession. As it nears the street outside of where I am I hop down and prepare to leave, but I my eyes catch sight of the older sister suddenly raising her head high and look around with a frown. I wonder at this odd behavior as she looks around then shakes her head and goes back to her smiling countenance. Did she sense something off in the area? Could she have maybe felt something about what I was? I panic at this a bit and slowly back down the alley making note to try not to get in close proximity to her again just to be safe. Once I exit the alley I pull out the directions to my new home and start heading towards it to get an idea of what I may need to do with it. I make sure to avoid the procession from then on, which isn’t hard as it was heading deeper into town while I was heading away from it. Soon enough I reach the edge of the town and an open field that is between it and the forest, I can spot a building that is near the edge of the forest a decent distance away, and assume that it is my destination. The walk there is uneventful though relaxing after my recent scare, and I also take time to go over the deed to the house. “Huh, looks like there is a fair bit of land around it that is part of the property, though looks like part of it extends into the forest. That seems odd as from what I’ve seen most of these ponies seem to avoid it completely.” It takes about fifteen minutes to get to the house at a walking pace, and I am surprised at what I find. “This place is much bigger than I expected. I know it says it has six bedrooms, but they must be pretty big ones for a place of this size,” I stare at the multi-storied building in wonder as I note that it even seems to be in one piece still with little damage. Going around the outside of it there seems to be no damage to the place, though the flower beds and gardens are a complete mess which is easy to fix. All the windows seem to be in good condition as well which is odd for a building abandoned for any length of time. “I really wonder what is wrong with this place now, as from here I see nothing that would explain the price. Must be something terrible about the inside that will need to be fixed,” I consider various problems there could be as I make my way to the front door which is on the side facing the town. The door is in good condition and unlocks with no problem as I slide the key into it. Once I enter though I get an odd feeling going up my spine though. Shuddering at the feeling I start to explore the lower floor of the place which seems to be in decent condition, if a bit dusty. The entryway contains stairs that lead up to the next floor, with doors on both the left and right side of it. The right leads to a living area that contains a fireplace, and another door into a study with empty bookshelves. The left door heads to a kitchen with a large pantry, as well as stairs into the basement which is empty beyond a few tables against the walls. Every room seems to be fully furnished and even the cupboards in the kitchen are fully stocked as well as working plumbing. Heading out I notice a door under the stairs which upon opening leads to a bathroom area which also has everything working. I decide to head upstairs to check out that level as a feeling of worry continues to grow. “This place is too good to be true, there has to be something about this place that I haven’t been told,” I mutter to myself while keeping an eye and ear out everywhere. Reaching the top of the stairs I ponder where to start and decide to go with the master bedroom which is right at the top. Inside is a large bed that could easily fit six ponies at once, as well as other furnishings commonly used by mares and stallions. In the far corner I find a door leading to a walk-in closet of considerable size which I have some ideas for. In the other corner of the room is a door leading into a luxurious sized bathing area which has both a shower and a large spa sized tub. Leaving the room I head down the hall to the left of the stairs and check out the individual rooms. Each of them is decently sized with bed and dresser, as well as a simple bathroom with toilet and shower for privacy. Each of them are largely the same, though the feeling of unease continues to grow as I head down the hall to the other end of the building. As I reach the final door my unease is at its highest and I start to pick up an odd scent. Steeling myself for whatever is behind the door I open the door to have my nose assaulted by a strong odor that I now recognize… Blood. Within the center of the room is a pale pony that on closer inspection I can partially see through. As the door hits the point on being fully open the figure turns towards me and I can see black hollows where its eyes should be. “Frig… This place is haunted,” escapes my mouth as the figure’s mouth opens up into a frightening scream as it glides across the floor towards me.