NaPoWriMo 2014: A Compilation of Pony Tales

by Fluttercheer

Day 3: Haunting for Two -Part 1-

It was midnight and the moon shone bright. Everything was bathed in his silver light, except..... the old building in the suburbs of Fillydelphia. The windows were pitch-black; no light of the bright, celestial body could shine through the thick stone walls. If a pony would stand in front of the structure that towered over the surrounding landscape it would find nothing special about the windows. Except that the glass in them disappeared a long time ago. But from the distance, the glass-less holes in the walls seemed like big, open mouths, ready to swallow an unsuspecting pony coming to near to them or to spit out gruesome monstrosities from another world that lied beyond spiritual borders.

This view was it that greeted the two ponies that were on their way to this scary, old place. One of them was barely distinguishable from the night around, it while the other one would have sticked out of the environment with his rainbow-colored mane and tail and a light blue coat if it wouldn't have been too dark to see those colors properly. They trotted one after another to the monumental building in front of them, the rainbow pony behind the one that resembled the night. His eyes were fixated on the countless black windows.

“Are you ready to enter, Rainbow Dash?” The pony that was leading the way stopped.

Rainbow Dash twitched and then turned round, facing the Princess of the Night with a slight glimmer of fear in her eyes, that she tried to hide from her companion.

“We're there already?”, she asked.

“We are”, Luna answered. “I was telling you it wouldn't take long, Rainbow Dash.”

Luna let her eyes wander across the building, from the big, ironclad entrance door over the mouth-like windows up to the flat roof.

Rainbow Dash set up a brave face and moved forward, standing closer at the building than Luna now. “So, that's the asylum you talked about? It doesn't look that scary”, she pretended.

“Wait until you are inside, Rainbow. This place has scared ponies long before you were born.”

Rainbow Dash gulped. “Well, then what are we waiting for? I want some action!” She motioned towards the entrance.

“Wait, Rainbow Dash, not so fast. I will go ahead. I know this place better than you and getting lost in it is something you wouldn't want, trust me. And besides, I am the only one that is able to bring some light into this dark place.” With this words, she lit up her horn and a bright, blue light illuminated their surroundings. Then she moved forward, ready to open the door and to begin her creepy tour through the haunted asylum.

What she told Rainbow Dash wasn't completely the truth; it was a big building, but it was well organized and there were many signs and plans, showing you the way to the different floors and staircases, and all of them were still very readable, despite the traces that the time had left on them. But it was her turn to lead Rainbow Dash nonetheless. She wanted to show her that she knew how to give a pony a good scare in a night like this and that they had something in common. She wanted to impress her and this was a chance that she didn't wanted to let slip between her hooves.

“It's time to enter now. I assure you that you will like this place, my dear Rainbow Dash!” Luna concentrated herself on a different spell, levitation this time, and proceeded to open the door with it. The door was very rusty and the ravages of time had taken their toll on it. It was harder to open than the last time Luna was here. Maybe the signs and plans in the buildings weren't that readable anymore then. One more reason for her to go ahead. Luna grunted while working the door open with her magic, but last but not least, it worked. The door swung open with a long-stretched creak that echoed through the building.

Rainbow Dash and Luna entered the open entrance and then stood still for a moment, listening to the echo that was reflected by the walls. It slowly wore off and when it was gone, they heard a scraping from farther inside of the building, like something was answering the echoing sound of the door.

“W-What was this?”, Rainbow Dash stuttered.

“It's the asylum's way to greet us. It welcomes us and says that we should feel free to enter”, Luna explained, making her voice sound as dark as possible.

“B-But it's just a building! Nothing more than dead stones. It can't greet anypony!”

“This building can”, Luna answered. “That it is dead does not change that. In fact, death is the reason why it can. You will soon see what I mean.”

Rainbow Dash hesitated. She didn't feel welcome at this place. The only reason why she agreed on this trip was because she didn't want to come across as a scaredy-pony in front of Luna. She watched her surroundings, checking if there wasn't something that could touch her. Or worse.

The pegasus let her eyes fly over the walls. Rainbow Dash assumed that they were white once, but now they were just gray, with brown dirt, that formed strange shapes and patterns at some points, speckled on them. They obviously weren't cleaned for a long time. “How long?”, she wondered. “Hundred years? Two-hundred?” Pondering about it how long this building was already abandoned eased her a little. It was distracting from the scary environment around her to think about that question.

The light around her faded suddenly, making it harder to see the brown dirt on the walls, and this brought Rainbow back into reality. She released her fixation on the walls, looking into the hallway before her. Luna was already making her way through it. “Hey, wait!”, the scared pegasus shouted and ran up to her. “We're exploring this place together, have you forgot?”

“I haven't. But you shouldn't forget to stay close to me. To stay alone at this place is not recommended.”

“Yes, why? What should happen? It's just an old building.” Rainbow Dash was determined to not show Luna how much she feared this place.

“You will see soon enough, impatient pegasus!” Luna smiled. Rainbow Dash didn't seemed to be impressed very much by the scaryness of the old asylum yet, but her questions already showed some interest in it. She was sure that she was able to impress the pegasus she was attracted too.

They reached the end of the hallway and stood in a big room now. “This was the lobby”, Luna said taut. The room was as dirty as the hallway and the walls were lined with small, uncomfortable looking seats. Four hallways led away from the lobby, the one where they just came from and three that led deeper into the spooky building. “There's not much of interest here. Let's go into this direction.” Luna pointed to the hallway that was directly in front of them. “There is a room far more interesting than this one that I want to show you.”

Without further hesitation, she headed into the hallway, closely followed by Dash. While walking throug the hallway, Rainbow looked at the doors at their sides. Some of them had small holes in them, like there were once signs on them that told a pony who wanted to enter which room it was.

“What were these rooms for?”, she asked the princess.

“Nothing exciting”, she said. “On this floor there were only lounges, restrooms, offices and the rooms of the staff who worked in this asylum. The examination rooms and the rooms for the patients are on the upper floors.”

“You mean the staff slept here?”

“Yes. The patients who were treated here needed constant supervision. Even at night. They were dangerous, either for themselves or for other ponies.”

“All of them?”

“Most of them. Some were just here because it was the only institution who was prepared for cases like them and that had doctors with the necessary medical knowledge to treat their psychological ailments. And some of them were not e–“ *BAM*

Luna stopped mid-sentence.

“W-Where did that come from?” Rainbow Dash looked around nervously.

“Most likely from upstairs”, Luna replied. “Let's go ahead and take a look.” She went ahead, but Rainbow Dash was frozen at the spot. As she didn't follow, Luna stopped and turned around. “Do I have to remind you to not stay behind?”, she asked.

Rainbow Dash didn't move. “I hope you are not scared yet.” She snickered. “This is just the beginning, there are many things to see here.”

This brought back Dash's spirit. “Scared? I'm not scared! Nothing scares me! Let's check this out! I want to see what it was!” She passed her guide.

Luna saw her quickening her pace until she was out of sight, swallowed by the darkness of the hallway. Luna smiled. Everything went according to plan. She went after Rainbow Dash to catch up and to lighten her way again. Suddenly, she heard a thump from ahead. Then a scream from Rainbow Dash.

Luna gasped. “Rainbow Dash!” She ran into the direction Dash went until the light of her horn was falling on her body. “Rainbow Dash! Are you alright?” Luna bent down to her, lifting her up with her hooves.

“Uuuuh.....”, Rainbow Dash groaned. “Yeah, I'm okay. Just my head hurts. What happened?”

Luna looked up. “You ran into the hoofrail of the staircase. You were too fast, my dear Rainbow Dash.”

“The staircase?” Rainbow Dash turned round to check in what she was running into.

“Oh, yeah. I didn't see it coming.” She smiled sheepishly.

“Better be careful, my boisterous pegasus. You don't want that we have to cancel our exploration because you have hurt yourself”, Luna advised her.

“My?” Rainbow Dash looked puzzled. “You call me that a lot. What's about this 'my'?”

Luna's face turned deep red for a moment. She hoped that Rainbow Dash couldn't see it in the dim light of her horn. “I..... I.....” She shook her head. She had to keep herself together now. It was too early to tell it to her. “This is part of the old, archaic way of speaking Celestia and I used back in the days. In these times, ponies referred to each other with 'my' often, even when they were just friends. I try to change my way of talking, but sometimes that old way of talking still comes through.” Luna wasn't sure if that explanation worked, but Rainbow Dash seemed to buy it.

“Okay, then let's go upstairs. You said that sound came from there? I still want to know what that was.” Rainbow Dash's knees began to shake after she said that. She was not very fond of finding it out, of course, but she had to stick to her role of the fearless pegasus now. “Can you lead the way again?”

Luna nodded and her horn began to glow brighter. Then she aimed for the stairs and went up. Rainbow Dash followed her closely, occasionally rubbing her head. The stairs were of metal and their hooves made a clucking sound on them. Halfway up, they heard the bang again and Rainbow Dash jumped a little. When they reached the top of the stairs, she was slightly cowering behind Luna, but quickly jumped back into her upright position as Luna turned her head to her.

She put a hoof to her mouth and was pointing to a door a few meters away. The door stood open, but Rainbow Dash couldn't see what was in the dark room behind it. Luna waved at Rainbow and then moved up to the door, slowly and careful. Rainbow Dash followed her. Something in her was curious, but she also feared what would wait in the room. As they had almost reached the door, they heard the sound again; louder now, of course. And Rainbow Dash could swear she could see a quick shadowy movement inside of the room.

Luna entered the room first. Rainbow Dash stopped for a moment and gulped. But she was following the moon princess. The room was not very big. And it was almost empty. The only remarkable thing was in the middle of the room. It was a small toy ball, not unlike the ones the foals on the Ponyville school's playground used to play with. And it was bouncing.

Up and down. Up and down. Up and down.

Rainbow Dash looked at it; awe-struck and not able to move, her eyes following the movement of the ball. She watched the ball bouncing until it stopped. Luna did the same. After the ball stopped, she walked up to it and gave it a small nudge with her hoof.

It rolled away a few inches and then stopped. She turned away from the ball, ready to leave the room, as the ball suddenly set itself into motion again. It rolled in a fast speed up to the wall at the end of the room. The sound when it hit the wall sounded similar to the one they heard on the way here, although much quieter this time. Rainbow Dash could swear that she heard the giggling of a filly for a moment. She looked at Luna, a scared expression emblazoning her face.

“Have you heard that?”, she asked her. Her voice was shaking.

“What do you mean?”, Luna was clueless.

“I heard somepony laughing”, Rainbow Dash said, explaining her what she just heard.

“I did not hear anything”, Luna answered. “It was probably just your imagination, my dear–“ She stopped and hemmed. “I mean, it was just your imagination, Rainbow Dash”, she corrected herself. “Though, the movement of the ball was real and I saw it too. You now know that it was true what I told you about this asylum.” She trotted out of the room. “Come, Rainbow Dash. This was not the room I wanted to show you.”

“Not?” Rainbow Dash's heart did a jump while she followed her out of the room.

“No. This room was just a storage room. We are on the way to one of the surgeries. It is not far away from here.”

Rainbow Dash followed Luna only very slowly, her tail lightly pressed between her hind legs, her head kept low. As Luna noticed her slow tempo, she reduced her own too, to avoid losing Rainbow Dash again in the dark asylum. A grin appeared on her face. Rainbow Dash was very much scared now. She did not even try to hide it anymore, as she did when they entered the asylum. She was even more confident now that this place would impress Rainbow Dash, of who she still thought that she enjoyed exploring creepy places like this at night. She had not yet noticed how wrong she was with that conclusion.

The minutes they needed to get to the surgery Luna was talking about passed rather uneventful. Here and there, they heard something scratching on the floor or on the walls and Rainbow Dash could see shadows scurrying in the corner of her eyes. But she attributed that to her agitated imagination, more out of fear, than of actually believing that there was nothing. What she saw in the storage room was more than enough for her to believe everything what Luna said about this asylum and it was too much to shrug off the shadows and the sounds around them. But she didn't allow herself to think about it, otherwise, so she feared, she would snap and running outside of the asylum screaming; making a fool of herself in front of Luna. So she suppressed this thought as best as she could.

“We are there”, Luna suddenly said. Rainbow Dash twitched a little as she heard her words.

They stood in front of a broad, closed door. The sign on the door was still there and Rainbow Dash could barely decipher the words “Examination Room 1” on it.

Luna didn't waste much time. She used her magic and swung the door open. A gust of warm air blew into their faces. Rainbow Dash inched a little closer to Luna and then they entered the examination room. Here, Luna lit up her horn more again, to make them able to see the room's interior better.

Several boards were on one side of the room, a small table and, in front of it, an examination bench. Rainbow Dash noticed that the whole interior was black. She took a look at the walls and found them in the same condition. They were burned. It looked a big fire happened here.

“This room is completely burnt down”, she said reverently.

Luna just nodded and then moved on to the other side of the room.

On the wall was a big machine. It was as black as the other interior in the room and the walls, except that the burning was even stronger here. “This is what is important here and why we came into this room”, Luna said.

They walked up to the machine. Rainbow Dash inspected it. A big screen adorned the machine and an input console was underneath it. Some of the buttons were molten; partially revealing the components under them. Several wires stuck out of the machine and there were also ankles attached to it, four in total.

“What is with this machine?”, she asked Luna.

“There is a story that is connected to this machine that I will tell you now”, Luna answered. “One of the patients here, a unicorn, was literally living in her own world”, she began. “She was always telling other ponies that nothing was real. That Equestria was just an illusion, born from her mind, and that she was imprisoned in the 'real world', her mind captured in this illusion to control her.”

Rainbow Dash choked.

“Her hallucinations were so strong that she even thought that she weren't a pony. And in the same way she was denying her ability to use magic. She believed that in this real world, she was speaking about all the time, magic didn't exist. And so she told everypony that she couldn't use magic.”

Luna lifted up the ankles with her magic and continued. “She was brought into this asylum and the medical personal here believed that the best way to heal her mental condition was to proof her that she was able to use magic. This mare had very rich parents and they funded the development of this machine here. A machine that could control the magic of a pony.”

She motioned the ankles over to Rainbow Dash. “She was tied to the machine with these ankles.”

Rainbow Dash shivered as she took a closer look at them. They were stained with blood on the inside. Apparently, the medical personal here did not care about being gentle to their patients and strapped the ankles to tight around the mares' hooves.

Luna let the ankles fall and lifted up the wires. “And these wires”, she said, “were attached to her head and horn. As they switched on the machine while she was connected to it, the machine made her using all sorts of different spells. The current spell was displayed on the big screen”, she explained. “It was never of any use for the mare. She still denied her magical ability and yet the doctors still believed it would help one day and so they continued; giving her a treatment with his machine every single day.” She let the wires fall to the ground again.

“But one day, something has gone terribly wrong. The machine was forcing her to use a teleportation spell. Her connection to the machine was interrupted suddenly as she teleported to the middle of the room and this caused a strong magical outburst.”

She went back to the middle of the room and pointed to the floor. Rainbow motioned closer slowly and followed Luna's hoof. What she saw there was a big scorch mark.

“When she appeared in the middle of the room after the teleportation happened, her body was already completely in flames.”

Rainbow Dash screwed her face, both disgusted and shocked.

“She was screaming for help, screaming for her parents, but nopony could help her anymore. Her parents had to helplessly watch how she burned alive. The machine was destroyed in the fire and my sister forbad per royal decree to build a machine like that ever again.”

Rainbow was shocked and wished that she never heard what Luna just told her.

“A- A- And that's really true? You're not making this up?”

“It is true”, Luna answered calmly. “It happened during my absence, but Celestia told me about it. You can ask her when we're back if you like.”

“No, it's okay”, Rainbow answered. “I believe you.”

“But this is not the end of the story”, Luna continued. “This room here was never used again and there was a reason for that.”

Luna paused a little to increase the suspense.

“A few days later, as the cleaning staff was still busy with cleaning up the room, strange events started to happen. The temperature in this room suddenly increased and they could hear the screams of the poor mare sounding through the room. They fled and when they got out of the room, they had small burns on their body. The cleaning staff told other staff members what happened and it quickly made rounds in the asylum. Even the patients heard about it. Everypony was convinced that her soul couldn't find rest and was seeking revenge on the ones who were responsible for her death. Nopony wanted to enter this room anymore.

The administration of the asylum did not believe in ghosts and insisted on it to use the room again. But the protest was too big. Even the patients refused to enter the room for treatment and had to be moved to other examination rooms. The administration gave in at the end and since then, the room was abandoned. Nopony entered it anymore, but some who had to pass through the corridor past the door sweared that they heard screams and the sound of a burning fire behind the door.”

Rainbow Dash's body shaked and her teeth clattered while she listened to Luna's story.

“And you?”, she asked her. “Have you ever seen or heard something here?”

“No”, the princess replied. “I can only assume that her spirit finally found rest somewhen in this long period of time since it happened.”

Rainbow Dash sighed relieved.

“But we can't be sure”, Luna said to her disfavor. “You felt the warm breeze in your face after I opened the door. Something of the energy is still here.”

This was too much for Rainbow Dash. “Okay, that's it. Let's get out of here. There are sure other rooms you want to show me, right?” She didn't wanted to stay one minute longer in this room and quickly trotted towards the door.

Luna just nodded and followed her then. Rainbow Dash was right. There were indeed other rooms she wanted to show her. Other rooms to show and other stories to tell. As Luna wanted to go through the door, Rainbow Dash was blocking her way.

“What is it?”, she asked. “Didn't you want to leave?”

No answer came from Rainbow Dash. Her mouth stood open and her face was frozen in terror. Something outside of the room truly terrified her, yet Luna couldn't see what it was. She shoved Rainbow Dash aside a little and managed it to squeeze herself through the door. She followed Rainbow Dash's shocked eyes and then she saw it.

The ball they saw in the storage room was bouncing along the floor, slowly approaching them.

Now Luna was shocked a little too. She did not froze like Rainbow Dash, because she was more familiar with situations like this, but this was something she had not expected nonetheless. She had visited the asylum quite a few times already, sometimes even with members of her night guard or other ponies, but the activities were never so strong as they were today. It seemed that they catched one of the more active days of the asylum, which just came in useful to Luna and her plan.

Luna and Rainbow Dash were following the movements of the ball. Rainbow Dash was just afraid, but Luna was excited for what would happen now.

As the ball had almost reached them it stopped it's bouncing and slowly rolled the last couple of inches over to them. Now that the ball was nearer, Luna could see that it was precisely aiming at Rainbow Dash.

A cheerful, happy giggling, akin to the giggling of a little filly, and the same that Rainbow Dash thought to have heard in the storage room, sounded through the corridor in front of the examination room suddenly. But this time Luna heard it too. “Rainbow Dash was right”, she thought.

The ball had covered the last distance between itself and Rainbow Dash and it stopped directly in front of her. Rainbow Dash's eyes were still fixated on the ball and when it stopped, all the color vanished from her face. She could see that something was written on the ball, in small, clumsy hoof-writing:

You're cool, Rainbow Dash! Come play with me!