Act 1
A warm ocean breeze blew across her face, lifting her hair as she stepped from the traincar and into the calm autumn air of the seaside town’s edge. A road led from the station to the market, unpaved, and she could see the divots where the wheels of the town’s single delivery cart would be pulled back once they were done unloading the cargo from that section of the train.
“Come on Spike,” she gave a nod, glancing back to where he was carefully stepping over the gap and onto the platform, “The inn isn’t far from here...”
They walked down from the simple platform, and began down that road, alone. They’d been the only passengers coming out this far, and had spent the last stretch alone. This station was new, and the track to it had only been laid a few years back. The route had been established with the idea that, eventually, this area could be a shortcut to the Griffon lands, now that trade was expected to pick up.
Behind them, the train gave a chugging hiss, and began to pull backwards, down towards the rest of civilization, not to return for a few days. This was the end of the line, a relatively remote region of Equestria, and the next train wouldn't be in for several days. The nearest major city was Manhattan, and the train ride from there had lasted several hours.
“You think the inn will have lunch?” Spike piped up from beside her, “It’s getting close to noon, and we didn’t eat a good breakfast.”
Twilight shook her head, “I don’t know. When I checked, it was the only inn in town, and didn’t seem to have too many rooms. They don’t always have food service in towns like this: it’s not exactly a tourist destination. The ocean view is lovely, but the cliffs make swimming impossible, and they’re pretty far from being hooked up to any sort of utilities. You have to remember, there’s nothing but logging for miles out here, Serenity Falls is just the largest town in the area that happened to be near the planned route...”
“About that,” Spike shifted the straps of his backpack, “why do they call it ‘Serenity Falls’ anyway? I checked the map, and there isn't even a river going through here, and it’s not low enough compared to the Inland areas that there ever could have been...”
“I think it's more abstract, like, ‘Serenity Falls on the town’. You're right though, it is a bit odd. You'd think they'd name it something like ‘Serenity Peaks’ or ‘Serenity Woods’.”
“Or maybe there was a pony who fell off the cliff a long time ago.” he offered, “Serenity isn’t that strange for a pony name...”
Twilight furrowed her brow, then shook her head, “I don’t think so. Towns are named after the area they’re in, the ponies who found them, or some major event. I can’t think of any town named after a tragedy like that... You might be right about that second part though. This place is so old, I doubt they have a record, but who knows? Maybe we’ll find out while we’re poking around...”
The owner of the Ocean Lookout Inn was a head shorter than Twilight, but made up for it with his portly stature. She wondered if that had to do with the limp in his hindleg, which seemed a bit twisted above his wooden hoof. The building itself only had a few rooms, and a large window in the back looked out through the buildings towards the sea. From the second floor balcony, one could see the entire cliffside...
“The ah, letter didn’t mention that the guest we were to expect would be a princess...”
“I didn’t feel it was necessary.” she tried to sound friendly, “Whatever accomodations you’ve prepared should be enough.”
“Ah, yes, well, even our best room wasn’t really intended for, ah, royalty, your highness. I ah, do hope you find it comfortable...”
She gave him a smile, “Don’t worry. I may have grown up in Canterlot, but I’m used to some pretty mundane spaces.” she reached out to take the key.
The innkeep held it up, but glanced past her, looking at Spike, who was looking out the window at the ocean in the distance. “And will your, ah, pet be staying in the room as well?”
Twilight’s brow furrowed slightly, “He’s not my pet.”
The innkeep seemed a bit confused, “Ah... Servant?”
“No.” she withheld the annoyance from her voice, “He’s my assistant, and a very close friend. Really, he’s like family to me.”
“I... see...?” the pony offered weakly, giving a forced smile, not wanting to offend a princess.
Twilight sighed and rolled her eyes. This sort of thing was common in these backwoods parts of Equestria. The most they’d ever seen or heard of other creatures tended to be stories from afar, mostly fictional, mostly depicting ponies as civilized heroes and other creatures as brutes and villains. She felt a bit guilty to be spending so much time on such a personal project when speciesism and xenophobia were still so prevalent. She’d have to look into doing something about that once she was finished with this.
She took the key and pushed a few bits forward, “Thank you for the room, sir. Might I be able to have some lunch sent up while we settle in?”
“Ah,” he hesitated for a moment, “Yes. I do believe I could have something made, ah, Princess. I must warn you though, we ah, don’t have much more than oat soup prepared at the moment...”
“That’s fine, we’re not picky eaters. It’s just been a long morning, and we could really use a warm meal before we head back out...” she tilted her head, “Say, you wouldn’t happen to know about any... strange occurrences in this town, would you?”
“Ah... Strange how?”
“I came here to investigate reports of some sort of... supernatural apparition?”
His injured hind leg twitched at the notion, “You're, ah... Looking for the mare?”
“Yes.” her smile widened, “I’m here to investigate the Mare in White.”
He stepped back from the counter ever so slightly at the mention of her name, his voice lowering to a hush “You aren't likely to find her... She only shows herself to ponies when she wants to.”
“Have you seen her?”
“...once... when I was young, and foolish... And I don't ever want to see her again.”
The rest of the day was uneventful.
They’d seen the sights of the town, what few there were. In a town of well under a thousand ponies, they was only one place to buy most things, and certainly not much in the way of entertainment. This town wasn't a tourist destination, and even though, as she'd said, the railroad was supposed to cause an expansion, that wasn't happening here. It was as if the town had been frozen at its current size.
A surprising few were interested in telling her about the Mare in White, and even then, they only spoke frightfully, as if even speaking of her might bring some wrath upon them. Some of them had outright told her she should stop looking.
Spike had rolled his eyes at the notion, “Twilight? Stop? Yeah, as if that would ever happen.”
Twilight became increasingly frustrated as the afternoon dragged on. She couldn't fathom this: everypony in town seemed to agree that the Mare was real, but none of them seemed the least bit curious about who she was, or where she'd come from. A few had mentioned that she was some sort of ancient demon or “witch”. She’d pieced together that local folklore spoke of her dragging off foals in the night to feast upon them in her lair, or something like that. Even the town records hadn't been any use: only four mentions of the Mare in them, all off-hoot, the earliest one dating back to the beginning of the recording, a little over two hundred years ago. The town had existed for quite some time before that: ponies had been settling this region since before the princesses first came to power.
They had returned to the hotel, empty hooved, and eaten their dinner in quiet before retiring to their room. Twilight might’ve otherwise gone back out, but after a day without any excited stories or grandiose claims or even ponies trying to sell her a “ghost tour”, she didn’t feel up to more disappointment.
“I don't get it Spike, in every other town, there were ponies rushing to capitalize on the ‘tourists’ looking for the ‘spoooky ghost’, but here, it's like they don't want anything to do with it.”
“Maybe it's a group of criminals, trying to hide some sort of smuggling ring, and they don't want them bringing ponies around to look at where they work.”
“But that doesn't make any sense! A supposed haunting is bound to bring somepony around to look at it, and even then, what could possibly be out here? We're too far from anything else for it to be on any smuggling routes, and any infrastructure out here would stick out like a sore hoof...”
She stepped over to the window, her hooves clacking against the faded wooden floor of their room. This town didn't even have a nice hotel, it seemed nopony even cared about this supposed “ghost”, despite multiple ponies claiming to have seen it. It was as if she was the only pony who cared to look into the so-called “Mare in White”.
She sighed as she placed her hooves against the window and looked out over the treeline, wondering if being here was even worth it, or if she should just give up on it and enjoy the seaside...
And that's when she saw Her.
There, amid the trunks of the great pine trees, a white figure, glowing pale in the night, as if made of moonbeam, white rags swirling around her, staring at her with empty white eyes...
Twilight scrambled with her hooves on the latch, jumping forward and bursting out the window, flapping her wings hard as Spike gave a yelp behind her. She dove downward to pick up momentum and rushed for the woods, flying as fast as she could, but the figure seemed to retreat just as fast, gliding gently backwards between the pines.
“H-Hey!!” Twilight called over the rush of air, “Hey!! Get back here!”
But the Mare was silent, staring back at her with those empty eyes, shining like pale lanterns through the trees, rags rippling in the wind.
“Please!” Twilight called out, “I just want to talk to you! Please come back!!”
The Mare either didn’t hear her, or didn’t care, sliding backwards, stiff, as if she were some sort of weightless corpse being pulled by an invisible wire.
Just ahead, she suddenly dropped out of view...
Twilight burst through the treeline, coming out on an empty cliff.
“...What?” she scoffed, glancing around... She couldn’t see for the life of her where the pony had gone. She walked to the edge of the cliff, glancing down. Far below her, the waves crashed loud against jagged rocks.
Nothing.
Turning and glancing up and down at the treeline, she saw the ruin of what looked like an old building of some sort, perhaps once a lighthouse or a guard post, only a single wall remaining, the windows long since turned to powder, and the lunar symbols engraved on the tidal chart were long since faded. There wasn’t a place for a pony to hide there, only rubble.
She’d lost the trail.
“Damnit!” she stomped a hoof. Then, with an angry toss of her head, she spread her wings, flying back towards the inn.
Within minutes, she slipped back in through the still-open window, setting down on the wooden floor with a huff of annoyance.
“What the hay was that all about?” Spike asked.
“Nothing, apparently.” she scowled, “Just... saw something weird.”
“Was it her?” his eyes widened, “Was it The Mare in White?”
Twilight rolled her eyes, “It was probably a group of locals trying to spook us.” She glanced over at the cozy looking bed the inkeep had set up for her, “Come on, let’s just get some sleep. We have a bit more investigation to do tomorrow...”
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Oh boy. I'm gonna have to keep an eye on this.
9260171
9260180
Thanks! I thought it was a fun little ghost story myself. :3
This story has 2 more "Act" chapters, and then an Epilogue. I'll try and stick the next chapter up here before I go to bed tonight.
YAY GHOST STORY! I haven't felt like this has been Halloween this month until now.
9260195
Yeah, I know, right? There really aren't enough seasonally thematic stories coming out right now...
I'm not usually a fan of death of ponies and such but rather how the ghosts and skeletons tell their history of what happened to them. I'm really interested in this and I hope everyone else likes this too. Btw thanks for explaining the tag. ( °v°)
9260295
Interesting you should say that, considering the upcoming skeleton scene...
9260411
Well I do try to find stories on those but the only ones I can find is 'Blanked'. Which was really good if Applebloom didn't make it out but unfortunately it never finished.
...oh, you don't always need blood and gore to make a horror story...
9260488
I know, I get really annoyed with these writers who think that horror just means you have lots of death and Gore.
9260672
Ah... Those would be slashers. Honestly, if done right, the genre can be pretty good... the thrill of the hunt, the terror of the prey, as the hunter chases them down... picking them off, one by one... until no one is left. But yes there is way more to horror than Slashers.
9260791
The death and gore isn't what makes it Horror though. It's the suspense, the creeping feeling that something is wrong, and the unease it leaves you with once it's over. Some of the best horror stories don't even feature an on-screen death, or even that level of peril, only the idea that something is very, very wrong...
9260914
Agreed.
I got a call from my doctor, he said the cancer was terminal. I'm sending you the medical bill, it's the least you can do.
Not this social justice bullshit. Just cuz they're unfamiliar with other creatures doesn't mean they hate or fear them lol.
Other than that, good story. That kinda threw me off a little bit, but the rest has been great so far.
Hi! I have to say I really enjoyed this story, I've started doing a reading of it on my YouTube channel, I'll leave a link to the video below if you'd like to check it out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Prdb5_2Q-NU&t=347s
Perfect story for spooktober