A Night in the Mansion

by The Maelstrom

When hinges creak in doorless chambers

'When hinges creak in Doorless chambers,

and strange and frightening sounds echo through the halls,

whenever candle lights flicker when the air is deathly still,

that is the time when ghosts are present, practicing their terror with ghoulish delight!'

Such said the first paragraph to 'Happy Haunting 101: All you need to know about the Spectral World, by Falling Gracey', a book that half of Ponyville must of suggested to Twilight Sparkle, due to it's knowledge about a world that most ponies never see! The book, in fanciful detail, explained many concepts on ghosts, specters, wraiths, pretty much anything that was able to float in the ethereal realm.

And Twilight did not believe a word it said; just by reading the pages with the table of contents 'Thirteen chapters on this silly subject? This stallion is both superstitious as well as paranoid! And this sentience, he claims to be living in the most haunted house in Equestria, almost one thousand spirits between it's walls. What a bunch of hooey' Twilight thought as she put the set of a dozen books neatly on a shelf in the library, under the category: Myths and Legends.

"Only a crazy pony gripped with paranoia would believe in all this ghost business" She said to herself as she walked over to the window, "I'm sure everypony has forgotten about it by now" She said as she magicked aside the curtain; and seeing nearly everypony outside going about their day, with their muzzles in that mocking book.

"Gah!" She couldn't help but to yell in anger, "What does everypony see in this silly book!?" She continued to huff as one particular copy floated over to her and began to flip through pages as Twilight skimmed them

"What's up with you? It's only a little book." Said a small purple dragon as he came into the same room with Twilight, "I'm in the other end of the Library, and I can hear you ramble on about that book as if you're right next to me!" Spike said as Twilight skimmed through the book a twelfth time

"What's up with me is how a book on a subject that doesn't even exist can garner so much interest! Ghosts don't exist! It's science!" Twilight said as she repeated her skimming adventure,

"Look, if you're so keen on the idea of proving to everypony that ghosts don't exist, why don't you go over to this Gracey guy's mansion and stay a night?" Spike explained while he flipped the pages of the book in Twilight's grasp to the back cover, which had the address to the author

"Spike, I don't have time to go on a wild goose cha-wait...Yes! That's perfect!" Twilight shouted before zipping off to a desk and began writing on a sheet of parchment as she started to look through travel books, "If I stay just a night in a house that he says has a thousand ghosts in it, if these ghosts exist, I would surely meet a few during the night, but since they don't exist; I'll be perfectly fine, in fact, I'll go by myself! I'll only bring a satchel of food to keep my strength up, that'll prove to everypony that Ghosts don't exist!" She finished her ramble as she perked her head out of the large travel book.

"Spike! Pack a dinner and breakfast! I'll go and get a ticket to New Oatleans!" Twilight said confidently before she teleported out of the library

Spike sighed before going into the kitchen, "This will be a story for the papers..." He said sulkily as he left the room

---

A few hours later, in the Ponyville Train station, Twilight says her goodbyes to her friends before getting on the train,

"Yer sure you don't want any of yer friends to come along?" Applejack asked through the open window of the train,

"Positive," Twilight responded, "I won't be taken as serious as one pony if there was someone with me, don't worry, I'll be back sometime tomorrow"

Before Applejack or any of the other four Ponies surrounding her could say anything else, the train's whistle blew and it started to lurch it's way out

The five of Twilight's friends waved goodbye as the train pulled from the station on it's long ride to New Oatleans.

---

The train stopped in New Oatleans later that day, as Twilight left the train car, she was struck by the beauty of the area of town she found herself in, everything was just like it was in the books she read on the Prance Quarter of the city, all the twisty streets and iron decorated fences on the second floor of almost every building.

Twilight stopped herself, 'Twilight, you don't have time to go gallivanting around the city! You have science to prove!' She nodded to the voice in her head before going off to ask for directions. It wasn't long before she came upon a small jazz band playing by the street. It was wonderful, upbeat hoof-tapping music one would expect to come from the Jazz Center of Equestria

When the song ended, Twilight went up to the trumpeter, a dark green coated stallion with a straw hat, "What can Ah do yeh for, Miss?" He asked in an accent similar to Applejack's.

"Yes, I need directions to..."Twilight started as she remembered the address, "1313 Mockinbird Lane?"

The Jazzy Stallions eyes lit up at the mention of the address, before narrowing as he spoke "What's yer business at Gracey Mansion? Here to take notes before tearin' the whole place down?" He asked

"No. I'm here to prove to everypony that ghosts don't exist!" Twilight answered proudly as if she did a heroic deed, the Stallion coughed, which turned her face into confusion,

"If yer here fer Ghost proving, yeh can't go worse then Gracey's, that place is chock full of spirits" He said before raising a hoof in one direction, "The Mansion is off near the Bayou, yeh'll notice it when you see it." He continued, though with a much somber tone then before. Twilight thanked the stallion before walking off in the direction to the Mansion

'That Mare's in fer a heap o' trouble' The Jazzy Stallion thought to himself as Twilight disappeared from his view

---

There it was, Gracey Mansion, home of Falling Gracey and his so-called Happy Haunts. Twilight stood outside the mansions front gates, closed shut and slightly rusty, as she took in the sights of the house. Three Stories, wrap-around porches on first two floors, four large marble columns adorned the front hiding the front door behind them, and a small cupola was on the very top. It all looked normal, except not a single light was coming from the house,

"That's odd, shouldn't this Gracey stallion live here?" Twilight pondered out loud as the sounds of a noisy bayou at night began to speak up. Twilight, her curiosity getting the better of her, reached out and touched the rusty old gates, and they moved...

'They were unlocked?' Twilight thought as she pushed the gates open, the 'G' on the top of the gates becoming severed down the middle as the gates separated, and the front yard was opened.

"Ergh, when was the last time the Groundskeeper came through here?" Twilight said to No-one-in-particular as she stepped over cracks in the walkway and overgrowth, which was a stark contrast to the white and pristine condition of the Mansion. As she continued to waltz strangely around the invading plants, Twilight noticed a couple of gravestones near a wall close to her, small gravestones, for pets.

Twilight thanked herself mentally for not bringing Fluttershy as she got past the overgrowth and walked up the few steps to the porch between the large columns. There were only two doors on the front of the building, one in the center and the other off to the left, hidden behind the wrought iron fencing and bushes. Twilight walked up to the middle door, the fancier looking of the two, and knocked three times on it,

"Hello? Is anypony home?" She called out, as she waited outside, the sun slowly setting as night quickly approached.

Then, the other door to the left opened, letting out a flood of light that was welcome to Twilight. She carefully trotted over to the open door and peered inside.

It was an empty foyer with two large wooded double doors on the adjacent walls opposite to the corner Twilight entered, the floor was stylized to look like a large spiderweb and above was a large beautiful chandelier illuminating the room with it's wax candles on it and around the walls. Twilight, mesmerized by how the door opened with no magic aura, carefully entered the Foyer-like room and studied her surroundings.

"When hinges creak in Doorless chambers,"

Twilight stopped when the low voice came from all around, and jumped when the door behind her shut tight

"And strange and frightening sounds echo through the halls,"

Twilight looked around the foyer for anypony,

"Whenever candle lights flicker when the air is deathly still,"

'Wait, why does this sound familiar?'

"That is the time when ghosts are present, practicing their terror with ghoulish delight!"

'That's....that's the passage from the book!' Twilight thought as the low voice continued

"Welcome, Foolish Mortal, to Gracey Mansion. I am your Host, your Ghost Host" The voice said before stifling a small laugh

Only then, when Twilight's eyes grew to the size of saucer plates did she realize what she got herself into...

Comments

[Pilate]

...Kindly step all the way in please and make room for everyone. There's no turning back now.
Oh, wait, just Twi... um..
Our tour begins here!

Heh, nice crossover. Though, I can't help but feel like I've read a MLP/HM crossover somewhere before, hmm..

[Pilgrims Progress]

I Offer you this Chilling Challenge: To Find a Way Out!

Of Course, There's always My Way......

This is gonna be good.

[Fire Soul]

Didn't I go on this ride when I went to Disney World?