You and your family have just moved into one of the two buildings, which used to be hospitals over two centuries ago. It is still being renovated, and your parents spend most of their spare time overseeing the work. You and your brother, who is about six years older than you, keep each other company. You are about three. The other building is still unoccupied. It is a dilapidated mess of crumbling bricks, broken glass, creaky floorboards and cracked walls. A few days later, your brother starts going to school, and is away most of the mornings. Though you are old enough for preschool, your mom is not very confident about it. Since you can't nap inside, because of the noise, you play in the frontyard with your stuffed animals.
One such day, you are putting your stuffed toucan to bed, even though it is midday. The sun blazes in this part of the world, but you are well protected from its nasty, hot, invisible fingers- that would otherwise envelope you, burn your sensitive skin and make you loathsomely sweaty and smelly- by your trusty new purple umbrella (a gift from Daddy). You are certainly no outdoors pony, unlike your brother. You finish telling your toucan a bedtime story, when you look at the Other House . You swear you saw something. You ignore it and proceed to put the other animals to bed, when your mother calls you in for lunch. You hate lunchtime. And breakfast time and dinner time. You simply hate eating. Besides, your not even hungry. Your mom calls again, since you didn't respond, and you hear her say that maybe you preferred to be spanked. You sulkily get up and go in, glancing once more at the Other House.
The house has been renovated, the workers have left, your father is buried in books and scrolls and your mother has dozed off on her mending basket and your brother has left to play with his new friends. You are bored and gaze out of a window at the Other House. Your mother has washed your toys and forbade you from touching them, lest you dirty them before they even dry. You find it increasingly captivating the more you look at it.
You have become obsessed with the Other House. You are very much aware that your parents would disapprove if they knew, and therefore, only manage to steal glances at it when they are around. Your brother, however, knows your little secret. You only hope he doesn't tell on you.
You see a mare with a scar across her face in one of the windows of th Other House. She has two foals. A filly and a colt. They have a little puppy with them, too. The made grins and waves at you. She and her kids, and even their dog look strange. You grow curious with each passing day.
One day, your brother becomes irritated with your strange obsession and confronts you about why you find the Haunted House, as the locals call it, so interesting. You tell him about the ponies in the Other House. He is creeper out and leaves without another word. You hope he doesn't split on you.
At dinner, your parents are still blissfully unaware of your secret, and you decide that your brother can be trusted.
However, hardly a week passes, when your brother can't take anymore of your creepy tales, and tells on you. Moments later, your parents come running up to you, worried. Your mother takes into her fore hooves and pats your back, comfortingly. They tell you to stop imagining things and that there is nopony in the other house.
You don't look in the direction of the Other House for weeks. Its your birthday. Your neighbours and your brother's friends have come for celebrating it. You have turned four. You and your mother unwrap your presents on the dining table. You can't resist the temptation to glance out of the window across the room at the Other House. Your mother catches you in the act. She asks you where you were looking. You reply with a hasty shake of your head. Not wanting to upset you on your birthday, she lets the matter rest.
Your mother decides that it is high time you were enrolled into school. She doesn't tell you, but you know that you aroused her suspicion that you are relapsing into your old obsession on your birthday. She probably thinks that it would do you good to have other distractions.
Still, you watch the Other House everyday as you pass it on your way to school and back. Unbeknownst to you, your mother notices you. You fall back into your old habit. But this time, is for a different reason.
One afternoon, you come back home to find that your mother has boarded up all windows facing the Other House.
Your parents are getting dressed for a party. Your brother is being instructed by your mother on what to do while she is away. Shortly after they leave, your brother goes inside to play video games. You stand on the doorstep gazing at the Other House. You take a nice long look at it for the first time in weeks. Your mother had taken care of that.
You can resist no longer. You decide to check out the Other House.
As you make your way towards the entrance to the Other House, you think again. Why are you here? The foals. That's right. They had pleaded to you for a long time to come and help them. Their silent pleads stirred something up inside you. It is the same kind of feeling one would get when they see a cute foal crying because its mother wasn't around.
You enter the hall. Deathly silence screams into your ears. You can't see any signs of life. There aren't even spiders to be seen, though their webs are aplenty. It is as though all life has departed the mansion, making it appear even more forlorn.
You climb the stairs to the landing overhead. The floorboards creak under your hooves. I the corridor above, dormitories lie on both sides. The steel cots had been left behind as if the occupants had left in a hurry.
Soon, you come to the end of the corridor. There is a single room left. The door is shut. You push open the door cautiously, expecting the worst.
Nothing. There is something, but nothing that can potentially harm you. Just old broken steel cots. You sigh and go down the way you came. There is another flight of stairs and you take them. This part of the building most likely served as quarters for the nurses and other staff.
You come upon another closed room. It is bolted shut, and you are not tall enough to reach it. You balance on your hind legs and gingerly unlock the door. Suddenly, your hooves slip under you and you fall down on your haunches with a loud thud. You hold your breathe. The door slowly creaks open a sliver. You breathe again and get up. As you open the door, the smell of gutters, rotten eggs, rats and every imaginable stench hits your nose. You recoil in disgust. You have half a mind to abandon your quest, but grit your teeth and step in. This room somehow felt different. It was furnished just like the others. You move across the room to inspect the view from the window. You see your own house and realise that this is the room from where the made waved at you. As soon as you do so, you hear the door click shut behind you. You turn around in a panic, and dash to the door. It is locked from the outside. The bang and kick with all your might till you give up, more because of your terror than exhaustion. You can feel your little heart trembling in your chest and beating furiously. You run to the window hoping that somepony might see you and come to your rescue. Somehow, you have this feeling that the made with the scared face is nearby and has more Ill intentions than good ones.
Frantically, you flail your hooves about, but, as if possessed, you grin and wave from the window, just like the made with the scarred face did at you.