Adagio hoped the next day would be a lot smoother and Trixie would explain her spur of the moment freakout. But she didn't. All morning she tried to talk to her and get her to open, but she wouldn't budge. She was an iron gate that had been padlocked, unwilling to open.
Everyone else was starting to notice Trixie's sudden quietness about what happened the night before. Any time that anyone had any mention of the house, Trixie would immediatley shut up and not speak. Everything else she was okay to talk on, but she stopped whenever a single word about the house came up.
"So let me see if I get this straight," Vinyl said as she walked with Sonata to their lockers. "Adagio shows her the location where we're setting up the Halloween party--"
"--Mmmhmm," Sonata replied.
"--She drops dead silent--"
"--Yep!--"
"--and then she runs away without saying another word?" Vinyl finished.
"Yep yep, yeppity yep!" Sonata chirped.
"Hmm...", Vinyl said, thinking. "Well, I'm not sure how well I know how to handle this kind of situation. Trixie has admitted to being afraid, but I've never seen a case like this. People, sure. Activities, sure. But houses?"
Sonata tapped her chin. "Maybe she saw a monster in there? Or maybe a ghost!"
"Sonata, ghosts aren't real," Vinyl said with total disbelief.
Sonata looked at Vinyl with a deadpan face. "Oh so ghosts aren't real, but yet you're talking to an immortal seapony in a teenage girl's body?"
"... fair point."
Sonata giggled. "But in all seriousness though, maybe she saw something from that place that probably traumatized her."
"Yes, but what could have scared her? I mean, I know she's a little scared at some moments, but it wasn't... it wasn't as bad."
"Then why don't we find her, and we'll talk to her. Maybe we can get her to open up. Besides, she has all of us, doesn't she?"
Vinyl nodded. "I suppose. And I do hope the poor girl understands she can talk to us if she needs to."
The lunch break came, and per usual, everyone came speeding like a stampede struggling to get to the front of the lunchlines to get their food, hot and ready. And once everyone got their foods, tables were taken up and the cafeteria was filled with the sounds of people chatting and eating.
Trixie was the last to sit down at her group's table, all eyes adverted to her. She hesitantly looked up, feeling like she was being watched by an army of cats.
"Um... hi?" Trixie blushed, smiling with nervousness.
"Trixie. It has come to our attention that Adagio had shown you the location of the CHS Halloween party. Upon showing you, you ran away without so much as a 'goodbye'. Is there something bad that we don't know about?" Bon Bon asked.
Trixie froze. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Trixie, you ran away from your girlfriend without any words, that doesn't just happen without reason," Vinyl said.
Trixie turned her head, looking away from Vinyl.
"Trixie, please, we're not here to make you feel bad, we just want to know what's going on, that's all. Did something at that house scare you?"
The little dork didn't say a word, and just kept her head away.
"Please, we're worried about you. This isn't like you, we just want to help you. You can talk to us, we're not going to judge you. Please?" Octavia pleaded.
Trixie frowned.
"Sweetie, please, it's okay," Adagio said, patting her shoulder, rubbing it.
Trixie still wouldn't budge. But then, Adagio had an idea.
"Hey. How about this. Perhaps my sisters and I can tell you a tale from our immortal past of something similar that you went through?"
Trixie whined a little. "I don't know..."
"Come on, pleaaaaseee? Maybe it'll make you feel better?" Adagio asked, giving her a full on puppy-dog begging look.
Trixie was entranced by that adorable face making the whimpering look. "... Curse your adorable beauty, I can't say no."
Adagio giggled and nuzzled her dorky girlfriend's cheeks, purring like a cat.
"Yay," Adagio squeaked. "Okay, so let me see... what story to tell? Hmm... Dead Man Tell No Tales, can't really tell that one," Adagio thought, tapping her hand. "Frankenstein, no, no... that didn't go well for us... What?"
Everyone was looking at Adagio with a disturbed look.
"Wait, are you saying... you and your sisters caused the Frankenstein creation?"
"Um... no. But we might have done something despicable to give a Ms. Mare Shelby an idea," Adagio winked.
Everyone's faces didn't change. Now they were having much more disturbed thoughts and ideas just from what Adagio was implying. And why wouldn't they?
"But I do know a story in particular that I think could be rather fitting. Something that fits with Trixie's underlying fear of that house. Places with that kind of creepy outlook can play tricks on your mind... much like the one that had befallen upon me and my sisters, in Sleepy Hollow..."
"Way back in 1819, my sisters and I had moved into a new home, a home that was very close to a little forest called Sleepy Hollow."
Two horses let out soft whinnies as their hooves clopped on the rocky path. The two of them were working together and pulling a cart, holding a few barrels of wine, and three young ladies; Adagio Dazzle, Aria Blaze, and Sonata Dusk. The three of them were dressed in a few old soldiers outfits, the ones worn by those they fought alongside in the American Revolution, dressed in blue. Adagio was reigning in the horses, leading them to where they needed to go, while Sonata and Aria hanged out on the wagon, kicking back and relaxing.
"We moved to the quiet hills of the Hudson river, not very long after the American Revolution. We were hoping for a change of scenery, having participated in a war and just wanted to return to a simpler life. A life of peace, relaxation, and simple friendly interactions."
The horses wandered through the forest, and the soft sounds of birds chirped and sang in the air. The trees surrounding them were in beautiful colors; yellow, orange, and red, all so breathtaking. And just up ahead was a wooden bridge, just the thing to cross and then they would be on the other side. Town would be very close.
"Those who lived in the land say that if you wandered through the drowsy, dreary patch of land called Sleepy Hollow, you would hear strange sounds and see very frightful spirits or apparitions. But the most horrifying of these apparitions was the ghost of a soldier, who's head was taken out by a cannon-ball, during the Revolutionary War. Legend has it, that the spirit of this headless horseman rides for each night, in search of his missing head..."
As they approached the bridge, one of the wheels went over a rock, making the wagon shake around. And unfortunately, one of the barrels rolled from out the back, onto the road.
"Whoops! Lost one!" Aria shouted.
Adagio got the horses to stop, and she got off the driver's seat. She joined her siblings as they all helped lift up the barrel, and push it back onto the cart. One man or woman alone couldn't lift up a single barrel, this required a team effort. Putting all their backs and maximum effort into it, they lifted up the barrel and rolled it back onto the wagon.
"Perfect! Now if you two can, perhaps you can make sure it can't roll out an escape this time?" Adagio asked.
Aria rolled her eyes. "Okay..."
"Got it!"
Sonata and Aria got back up on the wagon, and pushed the barrel back a little, making sure it couldn't easily roll away. Adagio folded up the ramp and locked it back up into position, securing it so the barrel wouldn't fall out again. But as she did, she heard a strange sound.
Wood being bent and falling echoed to her ears, like a tree had started to collapse. Instantly she turned her head, gasping a bit.
"What was that?"
And just then, she heard the sound of a twig snapping.
"Who's there!?"
And she could hear the sounds of clopping hooves on the ground. But it wasn't coming from behind her, where the two horses were standing. She slowly went back to check, and she could see the horses hadn't moved from their original positions. She turned back forward, down the forest that they were traveling through, hearing more of the same trotting sounds.
"We shouldn't be here after dark... we have to get out of here."
Adagio rushed back to the driver's seat and cracked the whip on the reigns. "Lets go, boys!"
The horses whinnied and then they started to move again, this time picking up a quicker pace than before. They sped out of the forest, and went straight for the wooden bridge, crossing it without any issues. Adagio did not dare look back, she couldn't think of it. She heard the rumors of the forest, but she would not believe any of them were true! Sure she could believe the soldier dying with the cannonball, but not their spirit existing in a full form and living in that forest!
And so like the wind, the sisters and their wagon escaped the forest just as the sun began to set.