The Haunted Mansion

by lunabrony

02 - Welcome to the Mansion

Applejack wasn't having any of this. All she wanted was to be by herself for a day or two, relax, and maybe read a book. She was a fairly logical pony, enjoying the benefits of long hours of hard work. Honest work. This whole facade of fancy tricks and illusions didn't sit right with her at all. Especially since she still blamed Discord for whatever was going on here, as he was usually behind things like this. The doors which slammed behind her were met with an instant look of annoyance and dissatisfaction, even as whirled in place to place the heavy iron rungs around her front hooves and pull with all of her considerable strength.

The doors didn't move. They might as well have been made of concrete and fused together. Applejack fell back to all fours, a much more comfortable position, and lined up her back legs. "Like shootin' fish in a barrel." She said with confidence, and bucked the doors as hard as she could. The heavy doors shuddered slightly, but remained intact. Neither pushing nor pulling was going to get her anywhere. The farm pony snorted in irritation.

"Having trouble, are we?" Came a voice from the top of the stairs. The newest arrival of the mansion looked up with no small degree of surprise to find a small figure descending the Grand Staircase. Dressed in a dapper suit jacket with a top hat perched upon his head, he was the exact duplicate of the baby dragon that Applejack had left behind in Ponyville.

"Spike! Thank Celestia. Confounded doors are stuck, ah can't get out! Do ya know how to open 'em up for me?" She asked.

"I'm not Spike," The dragon said casually.

"Oh, right, yeah, ah fergot, y'all are playin' this stupid game with me. Alright, who are ya then?"

"Why, I'm your Ghost Host, of course. Welcome to the mansion."

"Oh, real cute." Applejack muttered.

Spike grinned proudly. "I know, right? I thought of that all by mys-" He coughed suddenly. "I mean... SILENCE! Your attempts to open the doors will prove fertile! No, wait. Fuchsia? Fur... Fettle... you can't leave!" He said finally, with a tone of frustration. "Not until the rain stops, anyway."

"AHA!" Applejack announced. "Gotcha there! It ain't rain-" She had been in the process of turning to the window at this moment, and only now noticed the torrential downpour of liquid chocolate which was relentlessly pelting the windows from outside. She pulled her hat off her head and threw it angrily onto the floor. "Ah've jes' about it with this game!" She huffed. "Let me out!"

"I CAN'T," Spike explained patiently. "You'll have to wait until morning. If you survive the night, that is. Don't worry about being bored, though. We have many haunts here who I'm sure will be happy to meet you. Perhaps you might even solve a mystery or two!"

At this, Applejack lost patience. She charged towards the dragon, intending to flip him onto her back and be done with this whole charade. But that was not what happened, and what happened instead was not something she cared to ever repeat again. She watched as the dragon came closer and closer in her field of vision, and then, quite suddenly, she went through him. Immense pain stung her body from all directions as she tripped and tumbled to the floor, all four legs twitching. Needles stabbed every inch of her body as if she'd plunged headfirst into an arctic lake. Applejack was not the type to cry out, but did indeed look incredibly uncomfortable. "Agh! What was that?!" She gasped, struggling to get back onto her hooves. All four legs felt like they'd fallen asleep at once, and it took quite a bit of doing before she was able to move again.

"You know, if you'd asked, I could have warned you not to do that," Spike said. "it's extremely impolite. We're already dead, no need to make a show of it."

"Dead?! You... but... how..." Applejack began to slowly back away from him now, her eyes widened with fear. "Y'all mean... yer actually spirits? This place really is haunted?"

"We prefer the term spiritually inhabited. But yes. It is." Spike said. "You're welcome to explore, but I will warn you, some of the ghouls are... less than welcoming. Enjoy your stay, and due to the dark corridors, if you do find a flashlight, please use it sparingly. The spirits are rather sensitive to bright lights, you see," he explained, then disappeared before her eyes into wisps of vapor, which in turn evaporated seconds later before she could ask any more questions.

"Aw... this ain't good... this really ain't good..." Applejack muttered to herself. To make matters worse, she was gradually beginning to suspect that young Apple Bloom's story about being stalked by zombie blank flanks deep in the forest was, perhaps, not as fabricated as she had initially thought. But now was not the time for that. Applejack began to get her bearings, looking about the enormous entryway that she found herself in. In front of her, the Grand Staircase stretched upwards, its steps covered by a faded red carpet which had certainly seen better days. It was stained a darker red in several areas that Applejack really didn't want to think about. On each side of the staircase, a hallway led further back into the house. She opted for the left one.

"Ah really don't like this place." She decided, mostly due in part to the confusing sign hanging over the archway to the side of the stairs.

ENDLESS HALLWAY. PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK.

"Lies, ah can see th' end of the hallway right there!" Applejack said, and broke into a run for the other end. She started slowly at first, and seemed to gain some ground. Doors of all sizes flew past her galloping legs at irregular intervals, determined as she was to find something that resembled logic in this twisted mansion. This hallway was not one of those things. The faster she ran, the further away the end of the hallway seemed to get. She ran even faster, reaching speeds normally reserved for competitions, and still the doorway which she could plainly see at the other end moved away from her.

At last she skidded to a halt, panting and gasping for breath, and, with a sense of dread, looked behind her. She was barely three feet from the Grand Staircase. "OH COME ON!" She complained. "Fine, can't go that way, ah'll find another way." Reaching for the nearest door, she turned the knob, and entered.

Applejack found herself in an expansive library, one which stretched for quite a ways and wound between aisles and aisles of books and scrolls. Some appeared quite new, others she surmised by the look of them had been around since before the founding of Equestria itself. She entered quietly, noting a few ponies sitting near the tables, reading. None of them looked familiar, which she found was actually rather comforting. She had begun to think that she'd over worked herself to the point of exhaustion, and this entire mansion was just her own subconscious. But it was impossible for her to imagine face she'd never seen before, Twilight had spouted this as one of her many odd facts.

"Hello?" She called. And got no answer. She ventured a bit deeper into the library. "Hello?!" She called again.

"Shh!" A voice hissed at her.

"Aw no y'all did NOT just-"

"SHH!" The voice came again, and Fluttershy emerged right through the center of one of aisles. "Be quiet! That is, if you don't mind. Spirits are trying to read."

"Ah din'-"

"Shh!"

Applejack narrowed her eyes. A dull headache was forming in her skull, but she lowered her voice. "Ah' din' know the dead could read."

"Oh, of course we can. We have so many wonderful stories here," Fluttershy said proudly.

"Uh... huh." Applejack scratched her head. "Y'got the new Daring Do? Dash would like that."

"Nope."

"Oh. Instruction manuals? Told Twilight ah'd try to find out how t'put together a toaster."

"No. Sorry."

"...Horror novels?"

Fluttershy's ears pinned back. "Oh, goodness no!"

"Well gosh dang it, what DO y'all have? This place is huge!"

"Ghost stories!" Fluttershy squeaked.

"...Yer kiddin' me."

"Oh, no! Our library is fully stocked with priceless first editions! All written by ghost writers, of course. Some of them even haunt here! They're ever so nice, would you like to meet them?"

Applejack facehooved. She wasn't getting anywhere with this. "Alright, fine, ah ain't even gonna ask. Ah jes' wanna get out of here. Is there another way out of here?" She asked. "The endless hallway din' get me anywhere."

"Of course it didn't. It's endless." Fluttershy replied. "I'm so sorry, but there's only one way out. Of course, there's always my way..." She started cackling, the effect of which was ruined by the daintiest fit of coughing Applejack had ever heard.

"Uh... y'all alright?" She asked. "What exactly IS your way?"

"Oh, the back door." Fluttershy said once she'd calmed down. "Through the back of the aisles, on your right. It'll take you through the music room." She squeaked.

Applejack sighed with relief. Finally she was getting somewhere. "THANK-"

"Shh!" Fluttershy scolded.

"...Thank you." Applejack said. "S'agood thing yer all dead, or ah've a feelin' ah'd kill y'all m'self by the time ah get outta here." She said irritably, and moved in the direction that Fluttershy had indicated.

"What a nice pony." Fluttershy said, and disappeared into the stacks of books again.

Applejack found a second door partially hidden behind the aisles at the rear of the library, and was just about to push it open when she noticed a rather strapping young haunt lounging near the end of one of the tables. Recognizing him immediately, her interest was again caught.

"Let me guess, y'aint Shining Armor?" she asked.

The stallion looked over at her. He was dressed in a full uniform, complete with straps on the shoulders and brass buttons down the chest. Tattered pants barely clung to his back end, held in place by the long strap of a canteen which currently doubled as a belt. "I'm afraid I don't know any Shining Armor," he said. His voice was broken and full of sadness, an amount of such mourning that it left Applejack momentarily caught off guard and lost for words.

The farm pony swallowed hard. "Course. Y'jes' look like somepony ah know." She said finally. "Wha's wrong? Y'look more lost'n a penguin in th'desert."

Not-Shining-Armor looked out the window again. "I am separated from the one I love. Many, many years ago, I was set to be married to the love of my life. Our wedding was postponed on short notice when I was called off to battle in the Great Discordian War. I never made it home." He said sadly. "I have nothing but honor for Equestria, and I'd do it again if I had to in order to protect my homeland. But it kills me to know that my fiance is still out there somewhere, restlessly bound to this world, waiting for my return that will never come."

Applejack felt her eyes fill with tears. "That's terrible."

"I discovered this mansion, which appears to be a gate between this world and the next. A place for wandering souls to bide their time until they are at last released. I searched far and wide for my beloved, and could not find her. So now, I wait here, full of hope that one day I shall be reunited with her, and we may have the happy ending that was so suddenly taken from us. Please, I beg of you. If you should see her in your travels, bring us together once more. It pains me to be without her, and although I can only die once, every day that passes without her kills me yet again."

Applejack nodded. "Ah'll look for her." She promised, and exited through the door, leaving the lonely stallion standing by the window.

Comments

[lunabrony]

2745909 Thanks for your comments!
1. The Cast List is meant to generate more of a feeling of watching an old silent film, back when horror was actually... you know. Scary. Phantom of the Opera, Noserfatu, The Mummy. Not this crap we have now. I was never too worried about trying to surprise anyone, so that's alright.
2. I actually never even knew there was a mansion on the map. That's... kinda creepy, actually. I have no idea why that's there or what it is. But no, that was not intended to be THIS mansion. This mansion does not have any exact definable location other than being in the Everfree somewhere, it's 'just one of those things.' Thanks for showing me the map though, that's nifty!

[Einhander]

Well I hope this story is good, because I liked and favorited on the concept alone.

I'm very excited to read this.

[lunabrony]

2746626 I don't have plans for Rarity or Rainbow at this moment, but can easily work them in if something jumps out. As for the hitchhiking ghosts, won't be making that reference for a while seeing as this story roughly follows the actual progression of the ride and those are at the end, but don't you worry, you'll get them!

[Red Bomber]

She didn't ask the soldier what she looked like.

[Lillyfroo]

3021925
Well, if the soldier is Shining Armour, it's obviously Cadence
AJ is smart enough to see a coincidence (or, as i say, coinki-dink,) like that

[Red Bomber]

3364616
That's true.