A Night in the Mansion

by The Maelstrom

Strange and Frightening sounds echo through the halls

After a few seconds, Twilight's eyes returned to their normal, gigantic eyes, before one of the two double doors seemed to move out of the way.

"Kindly step all the way in please, and make room for everypony. There's no turning back now..."

Twilight wondered what the Voice meant by 'Everypony', technically, she was the only one in the foyer. At least, that's what she told herself.

The room that revealed itself was a rather tall octagonal room with four paintings alternating on the walls. There was a beautiful pink mare holding a parasol on one, an older stallion in a waistcoat with a piece of parchment in his magical grasp on another, an elderly white mare in a shawl with a rose in a third, and a smug looking stallion who appears to be standing with his front legs crossed in the last.

"Our tour begins here in this gallery, where you see paintings of some of our guests as they appeared in their corruptible, mortal state."

Twilight continued to examine the paintings and at one point stopped to look at one of the candelabras dimly lighting the upper half of the room. The more she stared at it, the more it looked like a demon was staring back at her, she shook her head before walking over to the dead center of the room, and noticing the door she came into was gone

"Your cadaverous pallor betrays an aura of foreboding, almost as though you sense a disquieting metamorphosis."

It was true that Twilight was becoming a little frightened at how she became boxed into a room, and now she was looking all over the gallery to find a right or reason, before she notices something: "Weren't those paintings...shorter?" She asks nervously

"Is this haunted room actually stretching? Or is it your imagination, hmm?" The Voice mocked as Twilight continued to look at the stretching portraits in the now really tall room.

"And consider this dismaying observation: This chamber has no windows and no doors, which offers you this chilling challenge: to find a way out!" The Voice continued before laughing maniacally.

Twilight was now going all over the room, using her magic to search for anything to get her out. She couldn't help but to look up and cringe slightly at the four changed paintings: The young mare now revealed to be on a breaking high wire above an open mouthed alligator; The older stallion was now shown to be wearing striped under-trousers atop a barrel of dynamite with a nearby candle lighting the fuse; The Elderly mare now sat on top of a gravestone with a bust of a stallion named 'George' on it, with a freshly placed axe in the busts head; and the smug stallion was now on top of another stallion's shoulders, who was also on top of a third's shoulders, who was realizing quickly that he was sinking in quicksand.

"Of course, there's always my way." The Voice said, just before all of the candles were snuffed out from a sudden blast of wind as a large bolt of lightning illuminated the gallery and causing Twilight to glance upward, and reel back in horror.

Above her wasn't the ceiling of the gallery anymore, instead above her was a straight shot to the Cupola at the top of the mansion. From the lightning strikes she could see a pony's skeleton in a weathered and tarnished suit hanging from a noose in the tattered and aging cupola's rafters. When the lightning stopped she was surrounded in darkness until a ear-retching scream could be heard falling from above.

In almost an instant the screaming was cut-off when it hit the floor in a bang of wood and breaking bone, but there was still a scream in the gallery, and soon Twilight noticed this and cut herself off from the terrifying event.

"Oh, I didn't mean to frighten you prematurely," The Voice said before chuckling a small bit, "The real chills come later. Now, as they say, look alive, and we'll continue our little tour." It continued before one of the walls of the gallery moved aside and revealed a new hallway.

Twilight, still shaken from the Stretching Gallery, remembered her mission, she made sure to have her satchel and walked into the hallway.

"And let's all stay together, please." The Voice added as Twilight stopped in the hallway when she noticed another set of four paintings on one of the walls: a mare with a toga in a temple in one, a stallion in armor on his hind legs with his front two waving in the air in another, a wooden ship floating calmly in the sea, and a black coated mare laying sideways on a long fancy couch.

Twilight was caught off guard when thunder and lightning bolted outside the row of windows on the other side of the hallway, causing her to duck to the ground in fear. When Twilight got up from cowering under her hooves on the floor, she could see that every time the lightning stuck through the rain coated windows, the paintings changed for only an instant.

The mare in the Temple changed into the Pony Medusa of ancient hoofenistic legend; The armored stallion turned into a ghostly skeletal version of itself; The ship became tattered and dilapidated as it's thrown around in a hurricane; and the black mare became a strange tiger-pony hybrid.

"There are several prominent ghosts who have retired here from creepy old crypts all over the world. Actually, we have 999 happy haunts here, but there's room for a thousand. Any volunteers?" The Voice stated, joking a bit on the last part as Twilight continued to the end of the hallway and couldn't help but stare at the pair of marble busts that just seemed to follow her every move.

"If you insist on lagging behind, you may not need to volunteer." The Voice said, this time adding a bit of force in his voice to get Twilight to continue.

The room Twilight entered as she turned from the hallway was an odd one: on three sides had the same halfway siding as the hallway, but the fourth side just led into absolute darkness. Another two of the large elaborate chandeliers hanged from the seemingly non-existent ceiling as red tattered carpets formed a line to another hallway after a set of stairs and to the beginning of a set of larger more rounded stairs that led into nothing.

Twilight walked onto the red carpet before the Voice continued, "And now, a carriage approaches to carry you into the boundless realm of the supernatural." It said as Twilight began to look around, "Take your possessions by the hoof, please, and kindly watch your step." It continued before Twilight became confused. There was no carriage here to take her anywhere, all she saw was the darkness beyond the fourth wall.

Then she took a step. She didn't mean too, but she took one anyway. Then another, then another until Twilight found herself walking down the red carpet toward the stairs. Twilight then thought to use a light spell to give her some light, but when her horn light up in a white light, it sputtered and fizzled away.

"Oh yes, and no flash magic, please! We spirits are frightfully sensitive to bright lights." The Voice said as Twilight started to ascend the small set of stairs, as she climbed she could fell something press against her horn. She recognized this feel from an entry in one of her books, it was a Magic Lock.

"Do not pull down on the magic bar, please; I will lower it for you. And heed this warning: the spirits will materialize only if you remain quietly together at all times." It said in a reminding tone as Twilight walked down a very small corridor and was greeted by a welcome sight.

A library, with walls stretching higher then her Tree-home that were covered with books,tomes, anything of reading material. As she entered further, a few books flew above and around her like bats with their covers flapping like wings; there were a few chairs with open books floating carefully above them. There were more of the busts she saw before that followed her every move, and even a few books that moved with out magic along the floor. Twilight thought she would stop here for a quick read...

"Our library is well stocked with priceless first editions, only ghost stories of course," The Voice said before Twilight put back the book she had in her mouth with a slightly aggravated look before she continued through the library, "And marble busts, of the greatest ghost writers, the literary world has ever known." The Voice continued as the said busts continued to look menacingly in Twilight's direction as she exited the library into another corridor.