It was one night, as Spike, Twilight, her friends, the Dazzlings, and the Cryptid Club were in Applejack’s truck driving out of the city and through the woods with their destination being the Night Shine Hotel, reportedly by legend to be haunted.

The truck ended up pulling into the parking lot outside the hotel which looked scarier in person, “This is it?” Sonata asked.

“This is it.” Lyra confirmed.

“Whoa.” Spike and Sandbar gasped, as they piled out of the truck and walked up to it.

“You do know that it's locked up tight?” Applejack reminded them.

“Chillax, I got this one.” Aria pulled out a lock picking kit, and picked the doors lock before it clicked.

“Torches everyone.” Bonbon said, as everyone pulled out a flashlight and turned them on.

“Here we go.” Spike said, as they opened the door and walked inside.

They entered the foyer and looked around the pitch dark room that was indeed dirty and dusty, “Ugh, what a dump.” Smolder looked around in repulse.

“Quite so.” Rarity gagged, while trying to keep away from all the cobwebs.

“Just what you'd expect from a haunted place.” Spike told them.

“Yeah, they're all the same. Cold and Spooky.” Rainbow joked.

“HELLO!” Pinkie shouted scaring everyone, as Pinkie's voice echoed through the run down hotel.

“Thanks, I may never get the hiccups again.” Gallus said sarcastically.

“So where do we even start looking?” Applejack asked.

Moondancer pulled up the map of the building, “Well, we best look around here, and start from top to bottom.”

“Then we better move.” Adagio said, as the group started walking around the foyer while shining their lights all around.

They walked up the stairs leading to the upper floors, while taking notice of all knocked over food carts, trays, and other hotel equipment used by the staff, “It is such a shame this place had to close down because of what happened.” Rarity said disappointingly.

“Would you ever wanna stay at a place that was the site of a mass murder?” Twilight asked rhetorically.

“Good point.” Rarity admitted.

As Silverstream walked, she saw a rat run right past her feet, and she screamed while jumping into Sandbar's arms, “What? What is it?” Sandbar asked frantically.

“I just saw a rat!” she cried.

“For a second I thought it could've been something else.” Pinkie said in relief.

“Something else?” Fluttershy asked, as she and Ocellus trembled.

“Let's not jump to any conclusions this quickly.” Twilight dismissed their worry about it being something else.

As they walked past another hall, a faint moan could be heard. The group raced back to the other hall and looked down in, “Did you all hear that?” Yona asked.

“I sure did.” Spike agreed.

“Maybe it was the wind.” Twilight relied.

“Twilight, it's never just the wind.” Rainbow reminded her.

“Whatever it was sounded close.” Lyra said, as they proceeded forwards while keeping their ears opened.

They walked past several rooms, before Spike spotted one partly opened, “Hey, guys. This one's opened.”

The others went back to Spike as he opened the room. They shined their lights inside and looked around. Lyra suddenly gasped, “Do you realize what room we're standing in?”

“What?” Aria asked.

“This is the room where it all went down,” Lyra began, “This is where the first murder took place.”

“Where the woman murdered her husband, her child, and the cleaning lady.” Adagio noted.

“It must've taken the people hours to clean this place up after that mess.” Rainbow joked.

As they continued to look around, Sandbar suddenly heard a child's whimpering. He peeked out of the room and looked down the halls right from left. When he looked to the left again he spotted a little girl with curly hair and big bright eyes, “Hey!” Sandbar called, only for the girl to turn tail and run away, “Come back!”

The others came to Sandbar, as Spike spoke, “Sandbar, who're you talking to?”

“There's a little girl in here.” he answered.

“What?” the group asked.

“How'd a kid get in here when the door was locked?” Smolder asked.

“I don't know, but she looked scared.” Sandbar recalled.

“We better find her.” Bonbon said.

“She ran this way.” Sandbar led the way down the hall.

They stopped upon hearing the whimpering sound, and peeked into another room seeing said girl was curled up on the floor as moonlight shined down through a window onto her, “That's her.” Sandbar confirmed.

They approached slowly, as Twilight spoke up, “Um, excuse me.”

The girl looked up and gasped in worry, “It's ok, darling. We're not going to hurt you.” Rarity promised.

“We just wanna help.” Sonata said.

“Help?” the girl asked.

“That's right,” Lyra assured her, “My name's Lyra. This is Bonbon, Moondancer, Adagio, Aria, Sonata, Spike, Gallus, Sandbar, Smolder, Yona, Ocellus, Silverstream, Twilight, Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy.”

“I'm Cozy Glow,” the girl introduced herself, “It's very nice to meet you all.”

“Feeling's mutual.” Pinkie smiled.

“What're you doing here all alone?” Moondancer asked.

“I was dared to come in here by others, but they tricked and left me in here,” Cozy whimpered, “I've been trying to find a way out, but I couldn't find one.”

“Poor thing.” Rarity said in sorrow.

“Don't worry, we'll help you get out of here.” Spike offered.

“You will?” Cozy asked hopefully.

“Of course.” Twilight agreed.

“Thank you all so much.” Cozy got up and went to them.

Suddenly the group noticed their breath, “Did the temp suddenly drop?” Rainbow asked.

“Yeah, it's getting cold.” Yona added.

“Lyra, we may have to postpone our investigation here until Cozy Glow is safe.” Bonbon noted.

Lyra sighed, “You're right. Come on, guys. Back to the entrance.”

So they all headed down, as Sandbar spoke to Cozy, “Was that moaning sound you?”

“Moaning? I didn't moan, just cried a bit.” Cozy explained.

The group was concerned, but saw the entrance up ahead, “We'll take Cozy back to town and notify the cops.” Applejack told the group.

Before they could reach the door, it slammed shut, “Hey!” Spike called, as he and Smolder ran to it and tried opening it to no avail.

“It's locked!” Smolder gasped.

“We're trapped!” Fluttershy cried.

“There's got to be another way out.” Adagio said, as they started looking around the foyer.

Twilight looked down at Cozy who was looking at the floor, “Don't worry Cozy, we're going to get you out of here?”

Suddenly Cozy snickered, much to everyone's confusion, “Why would I want to get out of here? I'm where I want to be!” she looked up revealing her eyes were glowing red. She let out a diabolical laugh, as her body was phasing in and out causing several stuff around her to levitate and swirl around the girl.

The group backed away, as Spike spoke to everyone, “I think we found a ghost here.”

“Cozy, you're really a ghost?” Moondancer asked in shock.

“Yes. And I've been here for decades capturing any foolish mortal stupid enough to try and come here.” the ghost girl explained.

“But why?” Twilight asked.

“I'm a ghost, it's what I do.” she answered dryly.

Lyra looked Cozy Glow over and gasped, “Are you the child of the woman who killed her husband, herself, and everyone here?”

“Why yes, yes I am. As for mother? The details of her mass murder spree here was greatly exaggerated.” Cozy explained.

“What do you mean?” Gallus asked, as everyone was confused.

“My mother didn't murder my father and everyone else. I did it!” she declared.

“You?” the group gasped.

“Yona so confused.” Yona said not understanding anything.

“Why would you commit something so horrible?” Fluttershy asked the ghost.

“My parents and I were always traveling on business. I never had a chance to make a single friend. And when the opportunity came we just picked up and left never to go back. My parents didn't care about my desires, only their own! When we came here, I saw so many people and children my age here. It was the perfect place to make friends. But I knew none of us would be here forever. Soon I or anyone else would leave. Then I had a genius idea.”

Pinkie spoke up, “Let me guess. You had everyone murdered here including yourself while you'd pin the blame on your mom so you and their spirits could be here forever and ever.” she grinned.

Everyone including Cozy blinked in shock, “Well... Yes.” Cozy admitted.

“How did you frame your mother?” Lyra asked.

“And how could you?” Applejack asked in shock.

“Simple, I had murdered everyone else in the hotel leaving her the last one. She saw I was not the daughter she thought I was so she aimed to finish me. But in the end we both dealt a blow to each other. And everyone foolishly passed it off as her killing everyone because she thought daddy had an affair with the maid.”

“How would they have thought of that?” Sonata asked.

“When I killed my daddy first, I killed the cleaning woman after and set them up in a compromising position to make the police deduce that theory.”

“Girl, you are twisted.” Aria said while sounding disturbed.

“Call me what you will, but you will remain trapped here for eternity with me and all my other friends!” Cozy laughed as the moans of all the lost souls who were murdered in the hotel could be heard around them.

"So that's who was moaning before." Spike gasped.

"I knew we shouldn't have come." Fluttershy clung to Rainbow Dash.

The group huddled together knowing they were in deep trouble, and had to find some way out of this mess or risk being stuck in the hotel forever.

Author's Note

How's that for a twist? They thought they had the legend right, but were they all wrong. Don't miss next time where they have to stop Cozy Glow and set the spirits free.

Until then everyone have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.