//------------------------------// // Part 5 // Story: Harriet Hollow // by CrackedInkWell //------------------------------// The emptiness in their stomachs was painful enough to move around. Every couple of minutes, that particular organ roared for something to fill it, after all the rations were eaten. Judging off the fading light of the windows, it was getting close to sunset as the illuminance gray from distant clouds crept away. Yet, despite their hours of exploration, the four of them were still unable to find a direct way to the first floor. “This is getting us nowhere!” Scroll complained as he eyed the spider webbed stain-glass window. “We’ve been walking around for days, and this map is useless!” he tossed the copy of the map aside. This getting the attention of the other ponies as he marched over to a wooden chair that was next to a table – and before they could react, Lost Scroll took the chair in his hooves and threw it at the window as hard as he could. A shocked gasp was heard before the chair shattered upon impact, leaving the window unscratched. “I tried to tell you,” Way Finder said, “the windows are unbreakable, as well as sealed shut.” “This is insane,” Iris rubbed her eyes. “You know Oatberg, I don’t think that this place was home at all. It’s perfectly designed to drive ponies crazy.” “Or built by insanity,” the director muttered. It was then that his ears perked up as he heard a noise. A mummer of saws, hammers and something heavy being dragged was heard. Oatberg scanned this way and that, “It’s coming from down there.” “H-Hold on!” the mail pony rushed over to the front of him. “You all do realize that this must be a trick right? For all we know, where ever that noise is coming from might get any of us killed.” “So what do you want us to do? Walk around of something that Equestrian should know or-” the noise instantly stopped. With a raised eyebrow, he walked over down a familiar hallway and immediately stopped at an archway. Glancing down back at the other three, he inquired, “Guys? Wasn’t that tall staircase here before?” “Oh, what now?” Scroll was the first to take the lead as he went over to where the director was. He too stopped wide-eyed as he looked around him. The other two ponies went up to join them to find that the staircase that went up to the seventh floor was replaced with a long, windowless hallway with a single door on the other side. “We can’t go down there,” Way Finder stood between them. “This is obviously a trap don’t you think?” The unicorn mare raised a hoof, “Wait a minute,” she turned to the mail pony. “Let’s pretend for a moment that this mansion is, indeed, alive. One that can rearrange every room and corridor in any way that it wants-” “Where are you going with this?” Scroll interrupted. “As I was saying,” Iris continued. “What if this house is trying to show us something? Trying to tell us something important that wants somepony to know after being left alone for so long.” “Yeah, like a venus fly trap inviting flies into its mouth,” Way Finder deadpanned. It was then that the director got an idea. “How about this: I’ll go ahead to check out what’s on the other side of that door? If there’s any danger, I’ll just fly right back here, and if not, I’ll tell you guys that it’s all clear.” The others agreed to this and let the director, still holding the camera to go ahead of them. Three ponies watched their leader walk down as calmly as possible to the other end. Oatberg looked forward, pretending to himself that there wasn’t any cause to worry or dread what is behind the white door. He mentally tied the knot of the back of his head tighter to keep on the mask of being calm on as he got closer still. When he finally reached to the other end, he lifted a hoof, tested the doorknob to see that it was indeed unlocked and pulled it open. From the other side, they saw the director sighed in relief as he entered, “It’s just a small room,” he called out. “In fact, there’s nothing he-” Then the door slammed on its own. “Boss!” both Script and Iris screamed as they and the mail pony made a mad gallop towards the other end of the hallway. Flinging the door open, they not only found that the director was gone, but the small room with nothing in it was turned into a dusty nursery. There among the cobwebs of infant toys and a crib was the camera that had fallen on its side with the bright light on. “W-Where did he go?” Script looked around the nursery. “What happened to him?” “Oh Celestia, they’ve taken him…” Way Finder collapsed on the floor, whimpering at his statement. Iris was the first to pick up the camera to reverse the footage on it. The other two stallions’ eyes were on the tiny screen where she rewound the frames backward before the moment their director opened the door. The unicorn pressed the pause then play buttons to move the past forward. The camera at first showed Oatberg opening the door, entering into a wooden room that was about the size of a broom closet. Swinging the camera around back down the hall, he tells them: “It’s just a small room. In fact, there’s nothing he-” the door slammed shut. The pegasus screamed in the darkness as he fiddled for the light switch on the camera. When light does show, it showed him trying and failing to turn the door handle, only to find it locked. “Guys! Guys, I’m stuck!” “Your room is ready,” a quiet, gentle voice spoke that chilled the viewer’s blood like the icy air. The voice was that of a mare’s, like that of an impossible old grandmother. The camera swung around, and for a brief moment, it fell upon a veiled mare in black, her hoof reached out to him when suddenly the camera dropped to the floor, and when it hit the ground, the empty broom closet had turned into the nursery that the three of them had burst into. Iris Lens turned the camera off, glancing over to the other two stallions. “Who was that?” “Who cares!” the post pony objected. “He’s taken gone, dead. This place wanted him so it snatched him away.” He turned around to really look at the room they’re in. “Why are we in a nursery?” “Even that doesn’t make any sense,” Scroll scratched his head. “Mrs. Harriet was a widow when she built this place, and her daughter died way before she bought the farmhouse.” “I think I know why,” Iris said. “Maybe it’s in memory of the daughter that died too young.” Way Finder turned away towards the cobwebbed crib, in the very center was a tiny black and gilded case. Picking it up from the dust, he opened it to find that the case was picture frames where one held a yellowed, black-and-white photo while the other was a lock of blond hair. However, his eyes went wide when he saw the same veiled mare in the picture; it was the same one that was on camera. Only this time, he could clearly see her face. “G-Guys…” The other two took a close look at what he was looking at. “That’s Mr. and Mrs. Harriet,” Scroll pointed at the couple in the picture, but between the suited stallion and the mare in black, she held a filly wrapped in swaddling clothing with its eyes closed and its face was the clearest.  He read underneath aloud the title of the picture, “‘Family group photo before the funeral. 866.’ It looks like one of those Post-mortem photos. And if it is such, that that would mean-” “This lock of hair was her baby’s.” Iris finished his sentence, making sense of the nursery around them when she noticed that the door to the room was closed. “Did somepony close that door?” “Huh?” they looked at the door, Scroll walking up to it. “Weird, I don’t remember anyone…” he trailed off as he opened it to find the long hallway was replaced by a towering set of twin spiral staircases with windows around. “What the- we’ve moved!” “What?” the unicorn stepped outside of the room and onto a platform where she and the other two could see through the windows that they were at the very top of the mansion. While the moon was out that help illuminate the snow-covered roofs and land underneath a blanket of snow in the midnight light, the wind still continued to howl louder than ever before. Scroll took out a flashlight to shine down the tower of intertwining stairs where in between there were platforms that lead off to different floors. “Six, five, four, three, two- You guys! This is the way out!” “Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s get out of here!” Script exclaimed in a full gallop down the stairs. “Hey! What about Oatberg?!” she called out when she was pulled down by the mail pony. “He’s good as dead at this point! Let’s get out of here!” Before Iris could object, she was almost dragged down the stairs, spinning around and around the tower with a ricochet of hooves echoing off the walls. Swiftly descending floor after floor without thinking about the steps underneath their hooves that fly over when suddenly, they heard Scroll scream before a sickening crack. Before they could wonder what had happened, their answer came just about they were to descend the fifth floor when Way Finder quickly snatched Iris Lens off the ground. “Hey! What was…” she then saw what he saved her from. The flight of stairs before her for the last several floors was nothing but an illusion. A realistic painting against the curved wall and the floor below where Lost Scroll lay there unmoving – the pegasus lowered her down to which they found that both twin staircases were left unfinished, leaving both staircases a deadly drop. “Oh Celestia,” the unicorn mare grasped her muzzle in horror once they’ve reached the ground floor. She immediately went up to what remained of the historian, his neck bent at an odd angle. As much as she tried to feel a pulse, hoping that somehow he survived a fall like that, she instead found it still. “We’ve got to move,” Way Finder told her. “Let’s do it now before the house changes on us.” “We can’t just leave him h-” “Now!” the post pony tried to pull away, to grab the unicorn again, but she used her magic to push him off of her. “You get out!” she yelled. “The front door shouldn’t be somewhere nearby. I’m going to carry him out.” He looked between her and the entrance towards the ground floor. “You get eaten by the house, I’m getting out of here,” and without saying goodbye, the pegasus ran into the darkness of the hallways. Iris struggled to lift her employee onto her back of her back, but finding carrying him and the saddle bag as too heavy, she dropped the supplies she had left except for a flashlight to light her way. She carried the limp body carefully through the hallways and elegant rooms while following the windows that lead towards the outside. At the same time, she listened for any signs of the cowardly Pegasus that fled. At every window, she almost expected to catch a glimpse of that pony flying off into the night. Only… she didn’t. The house was silent and still as if a predator was waiting for the right moment. What disturbed Iris the most wasn’t just the lack of sound, but as she carried Scroll’s body, she noticed that she couldn’t hear the wind as well. Like the wood and glass have at once became soundproof. Finally, she recognized the layout of the hallways that she was able to find the foyer. There she found that not only did she find all the supplies were left untouched. So taking one of the sleds, she set to work into not only unloading the body onto it but to take some supplies off that wasn’t necessary so it wouldn’t be too heavy to pull. “Okay Scroll,” the unicorn said as she hooked herself to the sled. “Let’s get you out of this crazy house and… tell your family the bad news.” Before she could walk to the front door, she saw the doorknob turn and opened where a dark figured walked right in. “Oh, there you two are,” a mare’s voice behind a laced, black veil said as she closed the door behind her. “We’ve been looking all over for you. Your rooms are ready dears.” Iris’s horn glowed in a menacing light. “Now who are you?” “Well, you did trespass in my house some time ago. But that’s all forgiven, as of now, all of your rooms are ready.” “Get out of my way lady,” the unicorn dragged past the veiled mare and towards the door. “I’m not planning to stay in this place any longer.” She flung opened the door and looked behind her as she said. “I don’t care if this place is haunted, but I have enough of this… what?” But instead of walking out into the snowy remains of a garden path, she instead found herself walking right back into the foyer. The veiled mare was there, waiting patiently in the center of the room – looking behind her, it only leads to a mirrored room with the exact same floor, wallpaper, staircase, and the mare in mourning clothes, “Hey, what’s going on here?” “I did say that your rooms are ready.”             Mysterious Disappearance in Harriet Hollow (Mountain Ridge, Equestria) The director, Oatberg, along with the actress Iris Lens and writer Lost Scroll have gone missing while attempting to film a documentary of the enormous mansion, Harriet Hollow. When the three ponies haven’t returned around the time they said they would be, families of the missing ponies have contacted the local police of the nearest town from the mansion of Mountain Ridge. Soon search parties were organized to go inside the maze-like mansion. While they were able to find their supplies, research papers and even copies of the script, they were unable to find the film crew. The search had gone on for a week, with the search crew exploring every floor of the seven-floor mansion until they gave up the search and turned their attention towards the outside. “I’m completely stumped,” said Sheriff Steel, the head of the search party. “We’ve been going around this place in circles for days, going in and out of wacky rooms but still can’t find any hide or hair of them.” The mansion itself held some very strange peculiarities. Not just in the architecture of the interior in which stairs lead to ceilings, rooms that have one way in and three-way outs, and a chandelier that was installed in the floor just to name a few – but everything from the windows to the delicate fabric has been well preserved since it was abandoned eighty years ago. And during their searching, the search party has found evidence that there may have been other ponies that too have gotten lost in the labyrinth of the estate. From a trail of envelopes to a string of twine that suddenly ends. Some of the locals have attributed this to the childish dares to explore the titanic house over the years that have broken in and gotten lost. However, no bodies have yet to be found. “It could be possible that they’ve gotten out and got lost in the storm,” suggested Sheriff Steel. “After all, we had blistery cold blizzards for the past several days. If they’re not in here, then they might be somewhere outside.” The search for the film crew will go on for the next two weeks. After which would the search team stop looking.