The Haunting in Ponyville

by JasonTheHuman

Epilogue

Bon-Bon stood in the front hallway of the new house. The stairs were to her left, a doorway into the living room was at her right, and at the end of the hall was her new kitchen. It was unseasonably sunny outside, considering that it would be winter soon.

After two weeks of searching, they were finally here at their new house. It was a typical thatched-roof cottage, on the opposite side of Ponyville from where they had lived before. It would be hard to reorient herself to the new location, but it would work. There was no way in the world they were going back to that house.

Ponies had been talking about it around town. How something had forced her and Lyra to flee their house in the middle of the night, and leaving three young fillies from the local school terrified out of their wits. No doubt there were dozens of insane theories about what had happened, but Bon-Bon didn’t even care anymore. Let them talk. Whatever they came up with couldn’t be half as bizarre as the truth. As time went on, Bon-Bon wasn’t sure how much of that last night had even been real. It felt like a nightmare.

Finding a new house on such short notice had also been a nightmare, but a decidedly more normal and manageable one.

The historic Ponyville Inn wasn’t exactly the kind of place you wanted to stay for two weeks, but there was no other choice. Even one week would have been pushing it. It had occasionally given them a quiet night’s sleep, though for one weekend there had been a noisy family with three hyperactive foals next door. The service desk seemed to be entirely run by two lazy young ponies, probably barely out of school, who wouldn’t even replace the towels unless you went up and specifically asked them to.

Bon-Bon knew this was no way to live, so she had been talking to real estate agents from the very start. There weren't many options available. Not to mention they weren't in the best state financially, not after having one of the most critical seasons for business utterly ruined.

And Nightmare Night itself? It had been quiet. Lyra had put on her freakish costume—normal clothes, but with some kind of odd mask and strange tentacled things at the ends of her hooves—and gathered what candy she could. The town seemed to be in short supply. Bon-Bon had spent the night with her face buried in her pillow and tried to sleep through the humiliation.

A few days after that, Lyra had convinced her to go back to the house. Everything was still inside, including her lyre. It was a custom-made instrument from the best craftspony in Canterlot, not to mention it had been a birthday present from her parents. Bon-Bon didn’t really have the option to say no.

They had decided to go in together, never alone. It had been at noon, on a clear sunny day, and they had propped the front door open with a chair so it couldn't swing shut on them. They had only grabbed what was important and taken it back to the hotel. They could hire movers to recover the rest, as soon as they found a new house.

She was willing to take whatever was available, and this had been it. Not bad, admittedly. Not bad at all.

As a whole, the house was larger than their last, but the kitchen was just a bit smaller. She paced around, measuring it. Maybe it wasn’t too big of a difference. She mentally planned out how she would organize everything once they really got moved in. Candy season was over—finally, she thought, rolling her eyes—but cookie season would start in just a few more weeks.

The last dead leaves had been shaken off the trees by now, and the air was nearly freezing. It was that time of year that everypony was just waiting for the pegasi to get the snowfall out of the way so it could be winter already, but fall still had a few more weeks to go.

Bon-Bon could still remember the chill in their old house. This place was absolutely cozy by comparison. And those frantic, galloping hoofsteps from upstairs were just Lyra checking out every single room.

She moved on to the living room, noticing the fireplace. Now this would be a perfect place to relax in the winter. It would be best to get some firewood as soon as possible and really feel at home. Once furniture had been brought in, it would be something to be envied. She could almost laugh. Maybe that ghost had done them a favor.

Lyra came running down from the second floor. She glanced from side to side, noticed Bon-Bon in the living room, and ran up to her. “I looked all over. This place is in amazing condition. No leaks or anything! How did you find it?”

“I wasn’t about to spend any more time living in a hotel,” Bon-Bon said with a shrug. “This house was available, so I took it.”

“And the price tag wasn’t too bad, either…” Lyra shook her head. “Seriously, nobody else picked up this place? I thought for sure there would be some kind of catch.”

“Nope,” Bon-Bon said. “No catch.”

“Just a nice, if a bit plain, Ponyville cottage…” Lyra said. “You know, I’m almost going to miss our little friend back in the old house.”

Bon-Bon gaped at her. “You’re not serious. Don’t you even remember what happened?”

Lyra shrugged. “Well, yeah. But up until that point, don’t you think it was fun? You have to admit it made things interesting.”

Bon-Bon shook her head. “You’ll never change, will you?”

“It was an adventure. And now we’ve got all kinds of great stories to tell everybody for years to come.” Lyra gave a sly grin. “Seriously, Bon-Bon, you can be really boring sometimes.”

“I’d rather be boring than completely insane.”

“Suit yourself,” Lyra said. “So which room do you want? I call the one at the end of the hall on the left.”

“I don’t really have a preference. I’ll take a look around later,” Bon-Bon said.

Lyra smiled and walked around the living room. She looked out the window for a moment, then circled back around and sat herself down on a chair. “Yeah, I think I’ll be able to get used to this place.”

Bon-Bon nodded. “It should be quiet, at least.”

“It’ll take me forever to get the address right, though. It’s so similar to the last one,” Lyra said. “Now we’re at 41 Blackberry Lane, instead of 41 Blueberry Lane. Weird. You didn’t notice?”

“Well, um…” Bon-Bon gave a nervous smile. “Now that you mention it, that is kind of strange…”

The front door creaked slowly and slammed shut.

Comments

[Diabolic Gnome]

THE NEWEST STORY FROM JASONTHEHUMAN WHY DID YOU HAVE TO BE SO GOOD AND SO SHORT

*Craws into corner and cries*

[Spica]

Here we go!

[Silver Temper]

>Now we’re at 41 Blackberry Lane
Saw that coming, but I loved it all the same.

[The philosopher]

I just knew they would end up there. Love the full cirlcle ending.

[HiveLordLusa]

I guessed something was up with their new house as soon as it said 'on the opposite side of town'
I was 50% sure something was wrong when they mentioned the price.
And then they mention the house number. From one 'haunt' to another. How do they have such awful luck with ghosts?
It's a shame that the story's over already, but it was short (compared to Anthropology, anyway) and sweet. Excellent job as usual, Jason!

[Jiray]

^^ Oh, the murder house. ^^

[Bree R]

Hehe. Such poor Ponies. Don't really think the story called for the Dark tag, though its presence did keep scaring me. Especially with the ending where I expected them to be the dead ones and the ghosts. Anyway lovely story regardless and thanks a lot for sharing. Only wish it was longer and maybe Princess Luna had gotten involved.

[Steady State]

Wow, that was brilliant, just well done. Additionally, I only caught on to the ending just as they had moved in .
Finishing posting on Nightmare Night, you clever pony you.

[The Princess Rarity]

Ah, buck. Am I the only one who didn't notice that they moved into the murder house? I had to read the comments, I'm pathetic.
And NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Y U END THIS STORY?
There better be a sequel.

[Fourpony]

And now for the ghosts brother! Another good story Jason, I really enjoyed myself.

[Katamariguy]

Aw crap.

[Xerzes]

Must admit, i kind of expected there to be some measure of explanation for it all, but oh well.

[the other sans]

And more cliffs... all them CLIFFS!

Might as well just let Lyra and Bon Bon stay together with Pinkie, least she would get some work done... if they had room in the first place

[Ledomare]

Jason, you never disappoint.

Now write more.

[paul]

Ewww, why so short ???
Things just got interesting dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/misc_Lyra.png and kaboom here is the end. dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/misc_Bonbon_gaze.png

I mean the story is brilliant but the mystery was left unsolved. I understand that it was planned tha way, but still I hope you will come back to it sometime in the future and may be there will be a sequel. dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/misc_Bonbon_grin.png

Thank you for the story! It was great joy to read it.

[JonOfEquestria]

1537590

Me too. Not, admittedly, very far in advance (thought 'that's weird' roundabout 'larger', and 'oh', just at 'on the other side of Ponyville').

J.

[Rabbitude101]

This calls for a sequel! But I love that ending. Totally uncalled for. You are awesome.

[Swashbucklist]

My theory is that both houses are connected by an underground passage accessed from the basements.

[Aurum]

Totally saw that one coming. Also, I'm really interested in what happened in that new house. Wish Colgate would have explained a bit more.

[Brony Scout]

Excellent timing when posting the last chapters at Nightma- I mean Halloween.
As usual, great story!

[Serpentking789]

Well... that was certainly something.

Then fact that NONE of the supernatural occurrences are given a proper explanation other than the fact that they are indeed supernatural in origin (where did the ghost come from? What did it want? What happened on 41 Blackberry Lane?) makes the story all the more scarier (since it allows the mind to make things up that would be way scarier (though at the same time it's still a tad frustrating that we're never given any answers to the various questions that have arisen).

In summary, I still say that this fic deserves a thumbs up.

[Azure Quill]

How hilarious! Bon Bon set off his trap card! Her death approaches

[onsholo]

lol! bon-bon just cant catch a break when it comes to ghosts

[cheerilee-party-hard]

Oh yes! Potential for a sequel!
Great timing by the way!

[Alphaetus_Prime]

That brick joke.

[Tadpole]

I don't know much about Blackberry lane.

[Xenonic]

WE NEED SEQUELS!

[Dennis the Menace]

A simple little Nightmare Night story with a fun twist at the end, lighthearted and whatnot. I like.

[Spamotron]

If I know Twilight she's going to feel guilty for blowing off Bon-Bon's concerns and is going to be determined to get at the bottom of things. But that's a story for another time.

[Silverstein]

I wonder if Bon-Bon was blacking out...or what? Anyways, next October...new sequel! How does that sound?

Silver out!

[VGFanatic20]

as soon as they started talking about how easy it was to afford the place, i knew it was that one mentioned earlier on Blackberry.
and sure enough, those two just can't catch a break.

[Malicious_Magician]

Nice. The ending was a nice final touch.

[Mr Bones]

24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m1iycfzd2w1qap3ouo1_400.jpg MR. BONES SAYS THE HAUNTINGS NEVER END.

[BronySeven]

Loved it. And it sure is laid out for a sequel. Next year.

[Luckysweep]

Out of one haunted house, and into a more devious haunted house. Oh, the irony. But, who knows? Maybe the ghosts in THIS house will be nicer than the last one was.

[Minitheif]

Note to self: Never take up residence at number 41 on a street named after a fruit, that I may avoid ghosts.

[Toonwatcher]

That's how these ghost stories often end, with the young couple/family driven out of the house in the dark of the night in terror, usually after the supernatural presence in their house actually tries to kill them. They then start moving out the very next day, but usually they aren't so unlucky as to move into another haunted house afterwards.

Good story. Shame it was so short, though.

[Samurai_Shippo]

muahahahaha. Nice.

[Personifire]

Oh, poor bon-bon. She didn't even remember Rarity's story when buying the new house.

[Fanthrose]

It was a fun experience while it lasted, but I saw the ending coming from a mile away.

[Brony606]

NEEDS A SEQUEL!!!!!!!

[Alondro]

*Alondro takes up residence in the house on 41 Blueberry Lane.* Nice place. Just one little thing to take care of... *He reaches into a shadow suddenly and rips a dark spirit from it!* GTF OUT OF MY HOUSE!!!

*shadow squeals fearfully and scurries away, taking residence instead in Blueblood's house in Canterlot, forcing his neighbors to endure his girlish screams*

*chuckles* Ponies, I live in the Jersey Pine Barrens. I am often the thing people scream "OH GOD THE JERSEY DEVIL" about when I roam the woods at night.

The real Jersey Devil fled in terror the day I was born.

It's hard to be afraid when evil things wet their pants (assuming they have legs upon which to wear pants and urinary bladders or some equivalent organ) when you merely look at them.

[Shanenator]

Nice little ending to a nice little story. Fun to have something a little spooky to read this Halloween season. Hope ya had a good one, thanks for sharing .

[Upinsmoke47]

1541938 Well, hello Mr. Gary Stu, how are you today?

[nemryn]

Poor Bon-Bon.

[Alondro]

1542309 I'm doing quite well! I killed Discord with a Magic Spork and then beat up the Smooze with an omniscient 2x4 inhabited by the soul of Randy Savage.

(Have you ever danced with devil in the pale moonlight?)

[Solid Sun]

That ending... saw it coming, but hey, it's one of those stories.

[Fishberry]

Slender Man appeared to me. He gave me a piece of paper with a website address, told me it was a link to his favourite pony fic, and then vanished.

I put the paper in my wallet and discovered 20 dollars was missing...

Then I came here and read this! Great work, I <3 Lyra/Bon-Bon.

[Zero Moment]

Just realized that the story URL is 54666. Appropriate.

[MillenniumFalsehood]

Fantastic little story!