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// Chapter 3: The Cottage 
// Story: Fluttershy's Mansion 
// by Hyjinks_Gamer 
//------------------------------//

Fluttershy and Luigi walked towards the mysterious cottage slowly. They stood in front of the cottage door as Luigi knocked nervously. Both of them waited patiently, but there was no answer. Luigi knocked on the door again but a little harder. There was still no answer on the door. Luigi started to get frustrated, so he slammed his fist on the door as hard as he could. Still, no one answered the door. Fluttershy wanted to try, so grabbed the doorknob with her hoof and twisted it. They realized the door was unlocked, so Fluttershy softly pushed the door open. Luigi stared at the door feeling embarrassed and walked inside the cottage. Fluttershy laughed as she followed Luigi inside.

As Fluttershy and Luigi entered the cottage, they noticed that there was a ladder. They wondered if it would lead them somewhere else in the cottage. Luigi looked to see if there was anything down the ladder. All  he saw was a bright light at the bottom where the ladder ends. He grabbed on the ladder and slid all the way down to the bright light. Fluttershy started to flap her wings to fly and followed Luigi. Luigi was sliding down the ladder so fast that he couldn't stop and slammed on the floor. Fluttershy gently lowered herself to the floor and eventually landed on Luigi's back. When Fluttershy noticed she was on top of Luigi, she got off to help him up. As Fluttershy helped Luigi stand up, she looked at the room that they were in. They were in a laboratory. Luigi stood up on his feet and looked around the laboratory. There were lots of gadgets in the room. They were fascinated by all the inventions that were built. After they explored the laboratory, they found another door and decided to go through it.

The door led to a gallery room. It had two paths that were filled with paintings and in the middle of the room were two angel statues. Fluttershy was amazed about all the paintings in the room and ran towards them to have a better look. She went to the left path of the room and look at the paintings. The yellow pony noticed something strange about the paintings. There wasn't anything painted on them. Luigi went and looked at the right path filled with paintings, but those didn't have anything painted on them either. They were both confused to why there wasn't any painted pictures in the room. Fluttershy went to Luigi and told him what she saw or in this case what she didn't see. Down the hall there was a door that led to another area of the gallery room. Both Fluttershy and Luigi went through the door. As they entered the room they saw a golden frame canvas on the wall surrounded by more gold objects. They were both amazed of all the glittering gold in the room but were also confused by the empty canvas on the wall. Fluttershy and Luigi decided to ignore the confusion and left the room. They exited the gallery room and went back to the laboratory.

They found another door that led to a room with a mysterious machine inside. They tried to figure out what the machine was but they couldn't. Both of them saw canvases lying against a wall next to the mysterious machine and wondered if they had something to do with the machine. They ignored the machine also and continued their exploration. Fluttershy and Luigi found a door that was located next to the machine so they decided to go through it. When they entered the room they saw a glass wall and a door that would lead them inside the glass wall. Behind the glass wall was pure darkness, they couldn't see anything. Fluttershy and Luigi walked up to the glass wall to have a better look inside. As Fluttershy walked toward the wall she stepped on a remote that was lying on the floor which controlled something behind the glass wall. Behind the wall in mere darkness orange smoke appeared and formed into five orange ghosts. As they were forming, Fluttershy and Luigi were getting scared. Once the orange ghosts were formed, they scared Fluttershy and Luigi. They both screamed loud as they fell to the floor and crawled back to a wall. The door of the room opened and a scientist walked in. Fluttershy and Luigi looked at the scientist as they hugged each other in fear.

"You gotta suck in the ghosts in this vacuum green fella.", said the scientist.

"M-Me?!", replied Luigi as he was shaking in fear.

Luigi looked at the scientist as he stood and walked towards in him slowly. He grabbed the vacuum that the scientist was holding in his hands. Fluttershy stood up and walked towards Luigi and pushed him to a door that would lead him to the ghosts. Luigi struggled to get away from the door but Fluttershy was too strong for him. Luigi was standing in front of the door and looked back at Fluttershy and the scientist. Luigi looked back at the door, he took a deep breath and walked in the room filled with ghosts. As he walked in, all the orange ghosts looked at Luigi. They rushed towards him and scared him. Luigi jumped and screamed really loud.

"How come the ghosts can't get us here?", said Fluttershy as she looked at the scientist.

"The wall is ghost proo-...Y-You're a talking horse?!", yelled the scientist as he noticed Fluttershy.

Luigi ran around the room as the ghosts followed him. He tripped on a transporter and fell to the ground. The ghosts slowly floated to Luigi. Luigi grabbed the vacuum and tried turning it on. Luigi closed his eyes in fear and started pushing random buttons on the vacuum. The vacuum was activated and sucked up all the ghosts in the room. The ghosts struggled to escape the suction of the vacuum, but the vacuum was too strong and the ghosts were sucked in. Luigi opened his eyes and saw all the ghosts gone. He got up and did a little victory dance. Fluttershy and the scientist cheered for Luigi as they did a victoy dance themselves. As Luigi was cheering he noticed the transporters were activated again. More orange ghosts appeared, but this time Luigi was ready. The ghosts vanished into the darkness. Luigi grabbed his flashlight and walked around the room looking for the ghosts. One by one the ghosts appeared, scaring poor Luigi. Luigi then got the hang of the vacuum and did his duty. As the ghosts appeared, Luigi flashed his flashlight on them and sucked them up in the vacuum one by one. When he was done, he put his flashlight in his back pocket and took off the vacuum. After that wave of ghosts were sucked up, Luigi exited the room exhausted. 

"You did it Luigi!", said Fluttershy as she ran and hugged the exhausted plumber.

"Excellent job young fella, I knew you could do it.", said the scientist.

Luigi got his breath back and asked the scientist who he was. The scientist looked at both of them and told them that his name is Professor E. Gadd and he lives in the cottage. Fluttershy and Luigi introduced themselves to E. Gadd as well. Fluttershy walked up to Professor E. Gadd and asked why he lived in a creepy and scary forest all by himself. Professor E. Gadd told Fluttershy that he researches the ghosts that lurk in the forest. Fluttershy nodded her head and asked him if he gets scared of the ghosts that lurk around in the forest. E. Gadd told the yellow curious pony that he is in no harm and that there's nothing to be scared of. He uses the vacuum to suck in the ghosts and researches them. E. Gadd looked down at the floor and went into silence.

"The only thing to be afraid of is...", said the scared professor as he broke his silence. "...The mansion... "

Fluttershy and Luigi were confused at what E. Gadd had said. E. Gadd explain that the mansion next to his cottage wasn't there last night. It somehow appeared out of thin air. When he woke up in the morning, he noticed the huge mansion. Luigi asked Professor E. Gadd if he had seen his brother go into the mansion earlier today. E. Gadd looked at the green plumber and told him that he did. He saw Mario enter the mansion, but he hasn't seen him return since then. Luigi went into shock. E. Gadd said that Mario was in a hurry to enter the mansion, he didn't even say hi to him. Fluttershy also asked Professor E. Gadd if he has seen her friends. E. Gadd looked at Fluttershy and asked her to described them. As the yellow pony described her friends to the professor, E. Gadd had interrupted her and told her that he did. He said that he saw five colorful ponies also enter the mansion and heard screams shortly after they entered the mansion. He hadn't seen them since. Fluttershy started to get worried. She knew she had to resue her friends before anything terrible happens to them or to the Elements of Harmony. Fluttershy rushed to the door to exit the cottage, but before she exited Professor E. Gadd had stopped her. He told her that it was to dangerous to explore the mansion alone. The worried yellow pony said that Luigi was going to help her find her friends. Professor E. Gadd still didn't let her go. He told Luigi that if they were going inside the mansion, they needed some equipment. E. Gadd gave Luigi the Poltergust 3000 so he can use it against the ghosts lurking in the mansion. He also gave Luigi a device he called the "Gameboy Horror". Luigi asked what it was for. Professor E. Gadd only told him that he will find out in due time. Fluttershy slowly walked up to E. Gadd with her head down.

"M-May I have an equipment also...if that's ok with you", said the yellow shy yet courageous pony. "I promise I'll take care it...".

Professor E. Gadd observed Fluttershy's wings and told her that he will invent a suit that will make her fast and tireless whenever she flies for a long time. Fluttershy flew around the room feeling excited and asked if she can borrow it. E. Gadd told her again that he needs to build it first but it may take some time. Fluttershy stopped flying and landed on the floor with a grin on her face. Luigi walked towards Fluttershy and tapped her back to tell her that they needed to head for the mansion. Fluttershy told Luigi that she'll meet him outside and flew out the cottage feeling courageous. Luigi followed her as he climbed the ladder all the way up to the exit of cottage.

As Luigi exited the cottage he noticed it was raining hard. He covered the Poltergust 3000 with his hat, so it wouldn't get wet. Luigi found Fluttershy on the floor wet and covered in mud. He ran to her and helped her up. Luigi had asked Fluttershy why she was on the floor. Fluttershy told Luigi that the thunder had scared her and made her fall straight to the floor in fear. Luckily she didn't get hurt. Luigi nodded his head and laughed softly so Fluttershy won't hear him. Fluttershy and Luigi looked at the mansion as they walked towards the gate. They opened the gate slowly and entered. As they made their way up the stairs, they felt a cold breeze blowing through the air while it rained. Once Luigi and Fluttershy reached the entrance of the mansion, Luigi put the Poltergust 3000 on his back and dried off his hat. Fluttershy shook her whole body to dry herself off and to take off the mud. Luigi pulled out his flashlight from his back pocket as he turned the doorknob of the entrance door and pushed it opened. He turned on his flashlight and walked in.

"L-Let's-a go...", said the trembling plumber as he entered the mansion's foyer.

Fluttershy followed Luigi into the mansion as she was also trembling in fear. She hoped that she would find her friends in time before anything bad happens to them.