• Published 3rd Oct 2014
  • 855 Views, 62 Comments

Thirteen Little Ponies - trombrony98



One fall evening, thirteen guests are invited under odd circumstances to an Everfree Forest manor. Little do they realize that there's a mole among them. Can they stop them before it's too late?

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Chapter 4- Yoshi89

Author's Note:

By Yoshi89

Crackling thunder shook the windows of the mansion and and rang out through the halls. Inside one of the grand bedrooms, Lyra Heartstrings smothered herself with the blankets of the four-poster bed, the racket making her teeth chatter. The terrified unicorn slithered out from under the covers, tears of fright streaming down her muzzle as she looked at the alarm clock on the dresser next to her. After reading the time—a quarter past nine—she turned her head and found the shadow of another unicorn staring out the window across the room.

"Trenderhoof, what was that?" she asked.

He tilted his head to let her know he was there but did not answer her immediately. He squinted one of his eyes to get a better view of something that fell on the mansion's front steps. By this time, Lyra had gotten out from under the covers and had sat upright on the bed, a position no other pony would find comfortable. She folded her forehooves as Trenderhoof bobbed his head around the lower corner of the window.

"The lightning struck a tree," he invented, the pouring rain clouding his vision. "A limb fell near the porch."

"I hope Thunderlane comes back soon," Lyra said, trying her best to mask the quiver in her voice. "First Cherry and now Pinkie Pie. What if Twilight Sparkle comes after us next?"

"What are you talking about?" Trenderhoof wrinkled his snout, walking away from the window. "I highly doubt she would do such a thing."

Outside in the hallway, Rarity's ears perked as she followed the conversation. Who in their right mind would speak that way about Twilight, the princess of friendship? After all, she was one of the first friends Rarity ever made in Ponyville and the gossip spread about her would ruin her reputation. As the discussion inside the room dragged, Rarity flung the door open with an ear-splitting creak. Lyra's eyes bulged out of her face and she screamed like a banshee when she saw the vague figure of the fashionista. Trenderhoof joined her on the bed and they clung to each other, shivering even as Rarity approached them.

"Who, Twilight?" she scoffed, walking inside the bedroom. "You could say she has those tendencies."

"Oh!" Lyra gasped, clutching her heart as Trenderhoof let her go. "Rarity, you scared us."

"I apologize, darlings," Rarity said. "By the looks of things, you two may have seen a ghost."

"Who wouldn't scream if they saw one in a place like this?" Lyra swallowed hard.

"Do you believe in ghosts, Rarity?" Trenderhoof wanted to know.

Rarity rolled her eyes. "My sister does. After all, little fillies need something to believe in, do they not?"

"What makes you say that?" Lyra questioned.

"I remember the time she told me she met a ghost in the Everfree," Rarity went on. "I could not for the life of me believe such a thing could exist."

"Well, as long as we're waiting for Thunderlane, we may as well pass some time," Trenderhoof suggested, shuffling on his haunches next to Lyra. "How about some ghost stories?"

"That sounds like fun, actually," Lyra agreed.

"You can go first, Trenderhoof," Rarity insisted.

"Well, all right," he accepted. "As you two may have known, I have traveled throughout Equestria and have heard many stories from Manehattan to Las Pegasus."

"I haven't," Lyra interrupted, shaking her head.

"By any chance, Lyra, have you been to Baltimare?" Trenderhoof wanted to know.

"Once or twice."

"Baltimare was home to many Equestrian poets," Trenderhoof went on. "Among them Pegasar Allen Poe."

"I never knew that." Rarity's beamed. "The Tell-Tale Hoof is one of my favorite stories."

"What's that about?" Lyra asked.

"It's about—" Rarity and Trenderhoof started in unison before they simultaneously burst into laughter.

"You explain," Rarity gave in, catching her breath.

"If you insist," Trenderhoof sighed. "The Tell-Tale Hoof is about a stallion who lived with his henpecking wife. One day, the stallion decided enough was enough so he grabbed an ax and dismembered the poor mare."

"No!" Lyra gasped.

Trenderhoof solemnly nodded before he continued the story. "Then, he removed the floorboards of his kitchen and put the pieces of his wife in them. That night, he heard the thumping of hoofsteps against the floorboards but when he ran downstairs, the kitchen was silent. He dismissed it as a nightmare but later that night, he heard the hoofsteps again. He trotted back to the kitchen but still no sound. Somepony heard his pacing about and alerted the authorities who came in two shakes of a lamb's tail."

"Then what happened?" Lyra leaned right next to Trenderhoof.

"He invited the constables into his house," he said. "They made themsleves at home in his kitchen of all places where he assured them that everything was fine. He heard his wife's hoof pounding against the floorboards until the guilt finally got to him. He removed the boards and showed the authorities the heinous crime. Free of the culpability, he willingly gave himself up."

"My goodness," Lyra gulped. "It's as if she was getting her revenge from beyond the grave."

"Paranoia can be a powerful thing," Rarity told her. "If that stallion did not have a conscience, he would have gotten away with it scot-free."

"What about you, Lyra?" Trenderhoof suggested. "Do you have a ghost story?"

"Now that you mentioned it," she said. "When I was a filly, I heard from one of Celestia's guards that a ghost haunted a cell in Canterlot Castle's dungeon."

"Perhaps a former prisoner?" Rarity guessed.

"Makes sense." Lyra replied. "Each time the guard passed by the cell, he felt a cold wind and heard rattling chains."

"Maybe he starved to death," Trenderhoof estimated.

"When I got old enough to find out," Lyra said, "I invited Bon Bon over to investigate with me. The guard was kind enough to walk us to the dungeon. Bon Bon wanted to get out of there, not because it was supposedly haunted, but because it stank down there."

"Did you see the ghost?" Trenderhoof asked.

"We heard the moans the guard was talking about," Lyra continued. "At this point, Bon Bon really wanted to get out for fear that the ghost would get us. We walked closer and closer to the cell and lo and behold, we found something there."

"What was it?" Rarity questioned.

"Just a guard pulling a mean prank," Lyra huffed. "He covered himself in flour and chained himself to the bars."

"And the one who told you the story believed it?" Trenderhoof lowered his brow.

"We got our revenge," Lyra recalled with a chuckle. "Bon Bon bucked him in the face, giving him a black eye."

"Then where did the wind come from?" Trenderhoof asked.

"From the window at the top of the cell," Lyra answered.

"That was nothing," Rarity snorted. "You should have been with us when we stayed at the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters, Lyra. Then you would have known what true fear is like."

"Spare us the details," Trenderhoof said, rolling his eyes. "What about Ponyville, Rarity? Does that town have any haunted history?"

"Well, the ghost of the 'Mad Gagger' is a pretty popular story," Rarity began. "They called him that because he stabbed his victims and left their witnesses bound and gagged."

"Mad Gagger?" Trenderhoof gasped. "As if we didn't have enough to worry about here."

"Did this Mad Gagger have hands?" Lyra wanted to know.

"Well, no," Rarity shook her head. "He was a unicorn just like us. They say the stallion lived a normal life in his Ponyville flat. Then the day before he was to wed, his fiance ran off with his brother. Furious, the Mad Gagger got his name when he tracked the couple down to the Ponyville Inn and stabbed his brother to death. Fearful that his ex-marefriend would turn him in, he tied her to the bed and gagged her. Anypony suspicious of the unthinkable crimes would suffer the same fate, leaving him off the hook."

"What happened to the Mad Gagger?" Lyra asked.

"His ending was pretty anticlimactic," Rarity explained. "He tripped down his stairs and died of a broken neck."

"Served him right," Trenderhoof said.

"They also say if word goes out any of the Mad Gagger's wrongdoings, his ghost stalks around, stabbing the ones who spread rumors about him and tying up those who listen."

"But Rarity!" Lyra gasped. "How do you know about this? That ghost could be hearing us right now!"

"We should be safe," Rarity assured her. "He lived in Ponyville, not here."

CLICK!

The lights went out and the three ponies screamed, not moving a muscle.

"Oh no!" Rarity gasped. "What do we do?"

"Let's stay close," Trenderhoof suggested.

"Good idea," Rarity complimented. "We need to—MMF!"

"Rarity!" Trenderhoof shouted. "Lyra, let's get—hey! MMP!"

Lyra said nothing after hearing her friends get cut off for fear that she would be next. Rarity and Trenderhoof emitted muffled shouting until they heard a loud thump followed by the lights clicking back on. Trenderhoof looked his helpless body over, tied to the bed with a pillowcase wrapped around his muzzle. Across from him, Rarity struggled in her bonds, gagged with her limbs tied to the chair. They both froze at the sound of the hallway clock ringing the first if its ten chimes. Out of the corner of Trenderhoof's eye, he could see a blood stain in the carpet.

In the center of the bedroom, a knife stuck out of the spine of Lyra Heartstrings' lifeless body.

**=***=***=**
To be continued...