A Dark and Pony Night

by Epsilon-Delta

Knock Knock

Everything was black. The furniture was and walls were draped in black and everypony was wearing black. A portrait of Pinkie Pie sat just above a desk where Mayor Mare sat. All of Pinkie's friends were here, some of them holding back tears, but Pinkie herself was absent.

“S-she was just about to tell me a joke and-and then-” Fluttershy couldn't finish that sentence without tearing up again. Her voice cracked and she began weeping into her hooves.

“There there, Fluttershy,” Rarity said, patting her on the back. It had been days since the funeral, but having your friend die right in front of your eyes so suddenly like that couldn't be easy.

Dash, meanwhile, looked bored, if a bit distant.

“I dunno why I had to come to the will reading, though,” said Dash. “In fact, why does she even have a will? To leave her cupcakes to somepony? We're already eating them.”

And with that, Dash thew yet another cupcake in the air, leaving it to fall into her open mouth.

“Rainbow Dash!” Twilight began to scold her, but Maud interrupted.

“Actually,” said Maud, “Pinkie was worth over eight hundred million bits.”

Twilight flinched and Dash began coughing, choking on the cupcake she was just eating.

“Did you say million?” Twilight asked. “Pinkie didn't seem nearly that wealthy to me! How did she even get that much?”

“I guess her cupcakes really were that good,” said Maud. “It's how she was able to afford all those helicopters and candy necklaces made of priceless gemstones.”

Dash pounded her chest a few times, trying to regain her breath.

“S-so that means we're all about to become incredibly rich, right?” Dash asked, then turned to Twilight who was giving her a dangerous look. “I mean, I'm sad and all! It's just, you know, becoming a millionaire would be pretty nice is all I'm saying.”

“We won't know who has what till the will is read,” said Maud.

“Yeah, Rainbow Dash,” said Twilight. “She probably left most of it to her family.”

“Ahem!” The Mayor cleared her throat. “If you are all ready I will begin the reading of the will.”

Everypony settled down, ready to listen. Dash leaned forward with anticipation, now knowing millions were up for grabs.

“Let's see here.” The mayor skimmed over the will. “Heartfelt goodbye saying she loved all of you, blah blah blah, ah! Here's the good part. 'To my sister Maud I leave one rock.'”

“Wow,” said Maud, “she did care.”

“To the rest of my family I leave the recipe for my rock cupcakes,” read Mayor Mare. “The secret ingredient is rocks, but don't read that part aloud when you're reading the- oh. Um. Never mind.”

“Wait, she didn't leave her family any money?” Twilight asked. “I hope you're not upset, Maud.”

“Of course I'm not,” said Maud, with no emotion or expression at all. “Why would I be upset that all my sister left us was a single rock and an alligator?”

“I um, can't tell if you're being sarcastic,” said Twilight.

“No, really,” said Maud in a completely neutral voice. “I'm completely fine with my sister forsaking us and not leaving us a single dime. We really could have used the money, but it's no big deal. Really. I'm not mad at all.”

Twilight just stared at her. Again, Maud made no facial expressions and there was no hint of malice, or anything else, in her voice. That pony was harder to read than one of those eldrich horror languages. She felt Dash elbow her.

“Though on the bright side, this does mean we're probably getting something good,” Dash whispered to Twilight. “I mean, who else is even left?”

“To my dear friends I leave a stack of one thousand birthday cards each to be opened at a rate of one per year for the next thousand years. They are presently hidden under Sugarcube Corner,” said Mayor Mare. “She notes that she wanted to cover her bases just in case cybernetics are invented soon or any more of you become alicorns.”

“Cards?” Dash sank back into her chair. “All we get is cards? There isn't even gonna be any money in them, is there?”

“It's the thought that counts,” said Rarity. “I think it was very nice of Ms. Pie to leave us thousands of birthday cards to remember her by.”

“Well yeah,” said Dash, “but if she didn't leave her fortune to her family or to us who did she give her money to? Gummy?”

“I would like ten million bits to be set aside as a donation to my favorite charity,” read the mayor, “the Alligator Dentistry Foundation. Hopefully this will help them in their quest to end alligator tooth decay.”

“Dang it! She did leave more to Gummy!” Dash folded her hooves and sulked in her chair.

“Rainbow Dash,” Twilight growled at her.

“And the vast majority of my fortune,” read the Mayor, “including half a billion bits in cold hard cash, an extra hundred million in lukewarm cash, all real estate, cupcake business assets, worldly possessions, stocks, bonds, IRAs and all other bank accounts, to Fluttershy!”

Everypony, save Maud, gasped at the news.

“What? Me?” Fluttershy pointed at herself and looked around the room in disbelief, making sure there wasn't some other Fluttershy in the room. “B-but why?”

“It says that your hair was the pinkest, therefore you were her favorite,” said Mayor Mare.

“Oh my,” said Fluttershy. “I didn't know she liked my hair that much.”

“Congratulations, Fluttershy!” Rarity patted her on the back.

“Eh, at least one of us gets to be super-rich.” Dash shrugged.

“I'm so happy for you,” Maud said. “It's great that my sister gave everything to you.”

Twilight glanced at Maud sideways.

“However!” the mayor continued. “Fluttershy will only inherit my fortune if she can spend one night alone in my spooky, haunted mansion in the middle of the Everfree Forest. That way it's more fun.”

“Spooky mansion?” Fluttershy quivered in her chair. “I don't like spooky mansions!”

“Is that really legal?” Twilight raised an eyebrow. “I'm not sure if you're actually allowed to put something like that in your will.”

“Oh you are,” said the mayor. “There's a whole list of laws related to inheritance via haunted mansion based tests of courage.”

“Should probably read those,” Twilight muttered to herself.

“Did I mention I don't like spooky mansions?” Fluttershy's eyes flicked from pony to pony, desperate for one of them to save her from this fate. “Ever since I was a little filly spooky mansions have terrified me! One time I got lost in one and– oh! I don't even want to remember that!

“Don't worry, Fluttershy!” Dash slapped her on the back. “How spooky could a mansion owned by Pinkie Pie be? You'll be fine!”

“There's more,” the mayor interrupted. “If Fluttershy fails to spend the entire night there, then my fortune will instead revert to Rainbow Dash, the second closest to having a pink mane.”

“Though, you know,” Dash pulled back, “if you really don't want to that's fine too. There's more to life than money.”

“Rainbow Dash,” Twilight said sternly, “if you're thinking about trying to scare Fluttershy away, then-”

“Hey! Hey! Give me some credit over here!” Dash said. “I'm not a total jerk! I would never screw Fluttershy over! Now if it was you on the other hoof-”

Twilight gave an annoyed snort.

“Kidding! Sheesh!”

“The will further stipulates that Fluttershy must stay in the mansion on the night following the reading of this will, that is to say, this very nigh,” said the Mayor. “And then it abruptly ends.”

“Tonight?” Fluttershy squaked, bouncing up just a little before becoming frozen with terror. “I have to go tonight?”

“We all believe in you, Fluttershy.” Rarity gently patted Fluttershy on the back.

“Yeah, you'll be fine,” said Dash. “Unfortunately.”

“And I'll make sure to give you all the support you can get,” Twilight promised. “I'm going to go review those insane laws that apparently exist. Maybe there's something that will help.”

“Thank you, Twilight,” said Fluttershy. “I guess I'll see you tonight.”

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

That night, at sunset.

Fluttershy and Twilight stood at the gates of Pink Manor.

The mansion was more than a little intimidating. It was three stories tall, and made even higher by being on the top of a hill. The front of it lurched forward, the top floor jutting out over top the entrance. It gave Fluttershy the impression that it was leaning out to grab her.

“Alright,” said Twilight, “so I went over Pinkie Pie's will, and all the obscure inheritance laws that we apparently have for some reason. It turns out that I can stay in the guest house near-by and come to check on you every two hours for five minutes at a time. Any more than that and you'd get disqualified.”

“Thanks for helping me out,” said Fluttershy. “I know it doesn't seem like much, but that will really help me out a whole lot!”

“Yep. Just remember that Spike and me will be right next door.” Twilight gestured to the guest house with her head. “But only come get us if it's a real emergency. Otherwise, you'll lose your inheritance.”

Twilight bid her farewell and trotted off to the guest house, leaving Fluttershy to enter the mansion herself. She swallowed hard and with some difficulty managed to push open the unecessarily large door. That door was just so heavy, and is creaked as she pushed it open. It was like the house simply didn't want her to enter.

The entrance room didn't make up for the exterior. Immediately you came to a vast, open space going all the way up to the top floor. There were two tiers of balconies hanging over Fluttershy, the stairs in this room only leading to the lower one. You could almost fit a house in this one room.

This huge, open space did nothing for Fluttershy's nerves, nothing good anyway. She did not want to stay in this vast room all night. At the same time, Fluttershy wasn't eager to explore this place, she just wanted to find a room where she could hole up until morning. She doubted she'd be able to sleep here, whether it was haunted or not.

Eventually, Fluttershy did find a cozy room, on the second floor just past a library and short hallway. It looked like a spare bedroom. There were a few blankets and cabinets in it and a bed and fire place. What caught her attention about the room, though, was this huge padded chair sitting near the fireplace. Fluttershy sat down in it, deciding she liked this room.

Yes, this room was nice and cozy, unlike that huge, empty entrance hall.

So Fluttershy lit a fire and locked the door (ghost couldn't get through locked doors, right?) before taking a better look around the room.

Fluttershy found an old phonograph and some records on one side of the room. She found lots of encouraging titles amongst them such as 'Smile Everypony', 'Sunshine and Rainbows' and 'The All Kitten Cutesy Band's Greatest Hits'.

“Well that's good,” said Fluttershy. “These should lighten the mood even more! Maybe this won't be so bad.”

She put on a record labeled 'Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy', threw another log on the fire, sat down on the big chair and wrapped her blanket around herself. The song was catchy, but a little repetitive. Still, Fluttershy found herself bouncing back and forth a little, humming the tune to herself.

Heck, Fluttershy might even get some sleep in later at this rate. It really was cozy despite being so empty. She felt awfully silly for being so scared of this house just a little while ago. It wasn't so bad once you got to know it!

And then there was a knock at the door.

Knock. Knock.

Being all the way inside and surrounded by music, Fluttershy faintly heard it at all. Her ears perked up just a little at the sound of it, but she wasn't sure she heard anything at all. Still, she got a chill. Maybe a book would distract her?

She got up and walked over to the nightstand where a book still sat. '1001 Jokes' was the title. Fluttershy picked it up and looked inside. A zebra and a pegasus walk into a juice bar-

Knock. Knock.

No. She absolutely heard something this time, some kind of knocking sound coming from downstairs. Maybe it was a tree blowing in the wind or the record player skipping or-

Knock! Knock!

It wasn't a quiet knock this time. It was a big, loud, heavy knock, like the kind you'd get from a metal knocker. It shocked Fluttershy enough for her to tumble over.

Was that Twilight? Fluttershy glanced at the clock. It wasn't time for Twilight to come over just yet.

Knock! Knock!

The noise came again. Her mind immediately went to the worst possible conclusion. She couldn't imagine the worst possible conclusion, but that just made it far worse! Fluttershy really, really didn't want to leave her little comfort zone.

Knock! Knock!

Every time it came she flinched. Did they have to knock so loudly? Well to be fair it was a very large house so you'd have to knock loudly. Maybe they were just a normal pony.

Come to think of it, it could be Twilight or the Mayor with some kind of news. She probably shouldn't be so scared of them.

Knock! Knock!

But she was! So Fluttershy got a candle but also the fire poker (so she could hit it if it was a monster) and crept through the library and hall, across the balcony, down the stairs and up to the door. All the while her heart beat wildly.

She put the fire poker behind her back and braced herself. She counted to three, then cracked the door open just a little.

“H-hello?”

Nothing.

Nothing was on the other side of the door, just silence and darkness and the empty path leading to the woods where the dark outline of trees swayed slightly. Nothing was the only thing worse than something.

Fluttershy fell silent and opened the door all the way to peek outside. She only dared to poke her head out the door and into the night, but there was nothing there, nopony in any direction and nothing nearby to hide behind. The nearest tree was leaps away and even that was too small to cover a pony.

She didn't like this. She backed away a little.

Everything was dead silent. The loudest thing was the sound of the candle flickering in a wind Fluttershy couldn't even feel. And Fluttershy just stared out into the empty, dark, silent forest. There was nothing there. Absolutely nothing.

A little voice in the back of her head spoke. 'You let it in'.

She didn't know where that thought came from, but it scared her so much that she snapped out of her silence and into a panic.

Fluttershy slammed the door shut and turned all three locks, then put the fire poker over the handles for extra measure. She went to light all the candles in the room, frantically grabbing one from her candle holder, but her hooves wouldn't stand still. She dropped one and had to quickly stamp out the flames, but her second attempt went much better. Soon the entire room was filled with burning candles, nice and bright.

Still, she couldn't shake the feeling that something was right behind her the whole time. Putting her back to the wall helped a little, but not much.

Fluttershy tried to think of an explaination. It couldn't have been somepony knocking then running away, there was nowhere to hide! Could it have been the wind blowing the knocker?

She watched the door carefully for several minutes after that. It seemed like the knocking had stopped, at least. It hardly mattered what it was so long as it was gone, right? Fluttershy turned to leave, deciding to leave the candles down here burning. It may be a slight fire hazard, but she'd feel a lot better if she had some light down here too. It'd make it easier to come back if she needed to.

Fluttershy climbed up the stairs and started down the balcony.

Knock. Knock.

Fluttershy looked down a the door with a certain sense of dread. Okay. There was no way Fluttershy was going to be able to ignore this. She had to get to the bottom of it. At least it was light down here now and it could still be the wind, right? Right?

She trotted over to the door and sat down in front of it with a gulp.

“H-hello?” she called out to it. “Who is it?”

Knock! Knock!

Fluttershy staggered back. It almost sounded like the knocker was offended at the question.

“W-what do you want?” she asked it.

Knock.

Knock.

That time it had a slightly different rhythm. Maybe Fluttershy really was talking to the wind. She crept over to the window and pulled back the blind to check outside, but couldn't see anything. It was just too dark out there and too bright in here.

Did she dare blow out the lights?

No.

Though the only other option was opening the door.

Fluttershy opened the door just a crack again to peek outside. Again there was nothing there. But the moment she closed the door-

Knock. Knock.

She'd absolutely get it next time! Fluttershy sat right next to the door, her hoof on the handle, ready to throw it open. After a tense minute of anticipation.

Knock. Knock.

Fluttershy threw the door open as fast as she could.

Nothing.

What?! How?! Nothing was that fast! This proved it was just the wind blowing the knocker somehow. I-it had to be!

Fluttershy scrambled around the room and eventually found some tape. She opened the door again to reveal nothing.

She looked over the knocker. It was big and heavy, which didn't bode well for her wind idea. Still, Fluttershy covered it with tape! That would keep the wind from knocking on the door.

She closed it and waited, staring at the door in determination. It was so silent, unnervingly silent as she waited. Fluttershy wondered if it'd be a good idea to bring the record player down here. On the one hoof she wouldn't hear any noises coming from outside that might be a monster. On the other, well she wouldn't hear any noises coming from outside that might be a monster.

She decided against it in the end and just kept waiting. An entire hour past! Or so she thought. Looking at the clock it was actually only fifteen minutes.

Still! It was the longest the door had gone without knocking so that meant the tape worked and she could go hide in the bedroom again. Everything was settled.

Fluttershy turned to leave and then.

Knock knock knock. Knock!

That last one was from the door knocker, but the others were clearly different! They were unmistakably the sound of hooves! This was too much! Fluttershy curled up in the corner and whimpered.

“Fluttershy!” Twilight called from the other side. “It's me!”

Oh the relief! Fluttershy rushed to the door and threw it open and there was Twilight.

“Twilight!” Fluttershy eagerly wrapped her legs around her.

“Oh, uh. Hi Fluttershy!” Twilight patted her on the back. “I guess you were really scared of this place after all.”

“You have no idea.” Fluttershy burried her face in Twilight's chest. “Something's been trying to get me! You have to help!”

“W-what? What's trying to get you?” Twilight asked.

“Well I didn't see it,” said Fluttershy. She stopped abruptly when Twilight gave her a skeptical look. “B-but I'm sure it's not just my imagination! Really! It – whatever it is keeps knocking on the door, but whenever I go to look there's nothing there.”

“Rainbow Dash.” Twilight deadpanned.

“Rainbow-?”

“Yeah, it looks like maybe she is trying to scare you out of the house,” said Twilight. “I can't believe her sometimes.”

“Are you sure it's Rainbow Dash?”

“What else could it be?”

“Um. A ghost?”

Twilight shook her head.

“A monster?”

“Well,” Twilight tapped her chin. “I guess it could be a monster, though I don't know why it would be knocking on the door.”

Fluttershy whimpered.

“I'll tell you what,” said Twilight, “I can't stay inside the house, but like I said I'm near by. Me and Spike will keep watch on the front door and if anything shows up we'll rush over.”

“Oh. That would make me feel so much better,” said Fluttershy, hugging Twilight again. Now if it showed up again she could just hide until Twilight came to save the day! “Thank you so much.”

Twilight hugged Fluttershy back. Fluttershy felt so much better now, though there was one thought in the back of her head that kept coming up, keeping her from relaxing totally.

“Um. How did you get the tape off the knocker so quickly, though?” Fluttershy asked. “I put a whole lot on. The entire roll.”

“There wasn't any tape on the knocker.” Twilight raised a concerned eyebrow.

Fluttershy began to tremble again.

“Okay. If you really are sure it's a monster,” said Twilight, “it might be best to just leave now. Do you want to call it quits?”

“I dunno. It might be somepony playing a prank on me, but, um.” Fluttershy bit her lip. She was always such a scardie pony. She really did want to be brave just this one time. And also she wanted hundreds of millions of bits. “I think if you're going to be on lookout I'll keep it going for a little while longer.”

“That's the spirit! I know you can do this, Fluttershy! And I promise we won't take our eyes off the door for one second! There's even a huge telescope we can watch through.”

“A-and do you really think Rainbow Dash could knock on the door and run away that fast? I opened the door just a second after the last knock.”

“Who knows.” Twilight shrugged. “She is the ding dong ditch champion, though, and a prankster. If anyone could pull off this trick it's her.”

Fluttershy nodded.

“Well, okay. Yeah,” Fluttershy said. “A little longer.”

Twilight hugged her back.

“Ah dang! My time's up,” said Twilight. “But I'll be back in a few more hours! Oh! You can also open and close the blinds real quick if you need to call us over too.”

“Thanks.”

And Twilight left and Fluttershy was alone again.

Well, if it was Rainbow Dash all Fluttershy had to do was ignore the knocking. Maybe that would work even if it was a ghost too! It could be one of those knocking ghosts or something. A ghost didn't have to want to get you, maybe some of them just had a thing for knocking on doors!

Knock! Knock!

The house shook that time! That was not the sort of thing you could ignore. Maybe Twilight saw that? Fluttershy bit her lip as she wondered.

Fluttershy had another idea. One that may or may not be brilliant, actually, she didn't know yet.

She'd leave the door open! Then no one could knock on it! If someone came up to knock on the door, well at least she'd finally see them. The fact that it was an invisible nothing was really driving her mad.

And so Fluttershy dragged the big, comfy chair to the entrance, grabbed the fire poker and turned on the phonograph and sat facing the now open door and the dark, empty forest beyond it. And she sat. Then she sat some more.

Fluttershy didn't dare take her eyes off the entrance or her hooves off the fire poker. Sure enough, the knocking did stop! That didn't do much to ease Fluttershy's horror, of course, she still had to stare out into the empty night, wondering what horrible things may be out there.

But it did do a little! Almost an hour passed without anything bad happening. Maybe this idea actually worked?

A few of the candles were getting low and that repetitive song was getting a bit too repetitive, so Fluttershy, feeling a little more confident, decided to go and change the candles and record. It'd only take a second!

She successfully changed the record, then moved on to the candles. It was in the middle of lighting a new one that she thought she heard something. Something outside.

Fluttershy backed up until she was closer to the door, then peeked her head around the corner.

And something peeked back!

It was something black, something with bright, white eyes, smiling a massive smile made of fangs.

Nope!

Fluttershy slammed the door shut. Her heart stopped beating.

“Nope! Nope! Closing the door!” Fluttershy screamed hysterically locking the door, then throwing the fire poker across the handles, then pushing the chair and a few bookshelves in front of it. “Closing the door! Closing the door!”

Knock! Knock!

Knock! Knock!

It was pounding on the door now. Fluttershy scurried backwards away from the door until she was at the foot of the stairs. The door shook so hard it nearly knocked the cabinet out of the way. It was going to break through the door!

And then the noise stopped.

Everything was dead silent again, only the flickering of the flames.

Twilight! That's right, Twilight had to have seen the monster now. It was right there in front of the door and she was watching for it.

But what if Twilight and Spike both had to go to the bathroom at the same time and weren't watching? Or what if the thing was too black to be seen at night? Then they might not come!

Wait! The SOS signal! Fluttershy just needed to open and close the blinds somewhere.

She ran up the stairs. She ran across the balcony and into the library, back towards the bedroom. But then, in the middle of the library, from behind her she heard it.

Knock. Knock.

Fluttershy stopped in her tracks and slowly turned around. The door had closed behind her and something on the other side was knocking.

Knock. Knock.

It was inside! It must have gotten inside through the window or something but it was inside!

The door behind her, to the bedroom, was closed too. The library was dark. There was only a crack of light through the edges of the closed door to the hallway and entrance room, where the candles were lit.

Fluttershy stared breathlessly at the light coming from beneath the door in front of her. The dim, yellow light formed a broken line, blacked out in the middle. That must have been the monster, but it just stood there, unmoving.

Then suddenly, the blackness moved to the side and disappeared, leaving the glow undisturbed.

Maybe it didn't know which room she was in? Fluttershy didn't dare make a noise to find out.

Fluttershy heard something, not a knocking, but something similar. Footsteps. Footsteps just above her. She ducked down and looked up at the ceiling. From the sound of it, the thing was walking over top her, circling around to the other side of the room. Celestia knew why, but Fluttershy didn't want to.

But if it was there, then it wasn't in front of the door. This might be the best time to escape. Rainbow Dash could have the money, Fluttershy just wanted to keep her skin!

“Okay,” Fluttershy whispered to herself, “you can do this. You've been through worse.”

Fluttershy threw open the door. Nothing was there and that was good this time. She ran for her life, down the hall, through the library and onto the balcony.

It was there that she ran into problems. Fluttershy only got a glimps of whatever it was, but it was sitting on the second tier of balconies overlooking the front door.

Maybe it didn't see her! Maybe she'd be fast enough! Fluttershy ran and ran!

The thing jumped down and landed in front of Fluttershy.

“Boo,” it said.

“Aaaaaah!” Fluttershy screamed and stumbled back, crashing into a wall.

She was trapped! The only way out was through the creature!

Though, now that she thought of it, it looked a bit different. This one was white and blobby, almost like a pony wearing a-

“Oh wait,” said the monster. “I probably shouldn't have frightened you from this angle.”

The ghost trotted over to Fluttershy's other side, putting her between itself and the door.

“Boo,” said the ghost.

“Wait. I know that voice,” said Fluttershy. She trotted over to the 'ghost' and tore the sheet off of it. “Maud?”

“Oh no you found me,” Maud said without passion. “I was so close.”

“It was you?” Fluttershy asked in disbelief. “Y-you were trying to scare me out of the mansion? But why?”

“Yes. I was trying to scare you out of the mansion,” said Maud. “It's nothing personal. I just needed the money to get my mother an operation. Pinkie was going to pay for it, but then she died without putting that in the will.”

“Well if that's the case why didn't you just ask me for the money?” Fluttershy asked. “I would absolutely pay for Pinkie's mom's operation.”

“You would? That's so nice.” Maud's voice had no enthusiasm. “I suppose all of this was completely pointless. I'll see you later.”

Maud threw the sheet over her back and began trotting over to the door, Fluttershy following close behind. The two of them had to dig through the mountain of a barracade Fluttershy had made, but soon enough the door was opened. Fluttershy plunked back down onto her chair with a sigh of relief.

“You really did have me scared out of my mind, though,” said Fluttershy. “The way you were knocking on the doo-! Oh, but how did you make that crazy black costume? And why did you switch to a sheet? The first one was amazingly well made.”

“I didn't have a black costume,” said Maud, “just the sheet. Also I never knocked on any doors. Knocking on doors isn't scary. See you later.”

And the door closed.

It wasn't Maud.

Fluttershy stood there in silence for a moment before finally coming to her sense and running after Maud. She threw open the door and saw Maud walking away, far off into the distance, just barely close enough to make out.

“Maud!” Fluttershy yelled, waving her hooves frantically. “Maud!”

Maud casually waved back and kept walking, disappearing into the dark a moment later.

Fluttershy collapsed back into the house and closed the door. Hopefully-

Knock.

Knock.

Oh no. No no no no!

Fluttershy glanced at the clock and felt a tiny bit of relief. It was almost time for Twilight to come back, it could be her knocking. It wasn't the loud knock from before.

Knock! Knock!

Or maybe it was that horrible, black monster! Fluttershy decided it would be best to just politely ask.

“Um. Who's there?” Fluttershy dared to ask.

The door burst open, literally flying off their hinges! It wasn't Maud or Rainbow Dash or anypony else.

It was the monster!

It flew all the way across the room before Fluttershy could even register its presence and pounced atop the terrified pegasus.

The thing was pitch black all over, vaguely pony-shaped but elongated in every direction, its blackness stretching out, reaching for every corner of the room. Its black paws held Fluttershy down with her face right in front of its own.

Its eyes were two white glowing lights that stood in contrast with the rest of its ragged body, open wide with mad excitement. So too was its mouth, smiling an insane grin filled with razor sharp fangs.

“Owls!” it shouted in its raspy voice.

Fluttershy, understandably cowered beneath it. This was it! She was going to be devoured!

It seemed to be taking its time, though, waiting for something with great anticipation. Did it want something? Something to do with...

“O-owls?” Fluttershy whimpered, daring to speak. It could speak, whatever it was. But what was it? Who was it. “W-who-?”

“That's right!” it screamed even louder than before, its grin widening till it stretched all around its head and out of sight.

Then it melted away. The blackness oozed into the ground, off what appeared to be the true body of the monster. Fluttershy gasped when she saw what was beneath it.

Pinkie!

Pinkie Pie's mangled remains, that is. It stood there, atop Fluttershy, for another moment, smiling an absolutely giddy smile, then collapsed onto the floor, dead. Well, dead again.

Fluttershy sat there shocked, mouth agape, heart beating hard, wondering what the buck just happened or why.

She looked at the door, then at Pinkie, and suddenly it came to her.

“Oh!” Fluttershy smacked her forehead. “I get it now! Owls who!”

She looked down at the body of Pinkie one last time.

“I guess she really did want to tell me that joke.”

Comments

[new55]

That was a really good series of stories. My favorite was the ghost one.

[overdue]

11274226
yeah, its premise was so clever

[Epsilon-Delta]

11579929
I hardly remember anything about this story and have half a mind to delete it TBH.

[mishun]

Fluttershy sat there shocked, mouth agape, heart beating hard, wondering what the buck just happened or why.

Not you alone, Fluttershy

11580392

and have half a mind to delete it TBH.

Aww, but it's nice!

The only note I have is that the first chapter may need some kind of separate warning since for someone who saw Comedy tag and cute picture discussion of quadruple amputation and pony burning alive may be a bit too intense.

[Epsilon-Delta]

11581393
Well I reread the paranormal investigation one at least. That one's fine... though I did need to fix about 200 mistakes. Yeesh.