Good Feelings, Payments, And The Contracts Made Of Flesh

The warnings that he had been told by his parents echoed through Rumble’s head as he snuck through the halls of the mansion, flashlight clenched in between his teeth.

He had no idea why he was sneaking, this mansion had been long since abandoned by its owners a long time ago. Maybe something in his subconscious was telling him he shouldn’t be in the old empty place that was on the edge of the Everfree and it was manifesting itself in his light wing beats. He was nervous, of course.

The thought that any and every creak of the old house could be something dangerous, like a timberwolf or a cockatrice did put him on edge but he did have the advantage of flight to get away fast before something happened.

Yet, this was something he had planned to do even before school was out for the summer after Family Appreciation Day. He remembered Granny Smith’s visit to his class clearly in his mind and the questions that followed after she explained Ponyville’s founding.

One student, he couldn’t remember who, asked if she knew any scary stories from when she was young.

She did.

It was about some very greedy family of ponies named the Pinchers that, in their attempt to get rich as quick as they could, built a mansion on the edge of the Everfree forest and bought up the surrounding land to have first pickings of the very zap apples that helped get the town started in the first place.

According to Missus Smith, since the apple family didn’t own the land and she hadn’t known how to get the zap apples to Sweet Apple Aches trees yet it gave the Pinchers a mono- mona- monop… total control of the zap apples and how much they were sold for.
Of course, everypony thought they were crazy to settle so close to the dangerous area even for zap apples but the Pinchers seemed fine with the risks. They came into town and bought supplies and life went on.

Until they disappeared, leaving their mansion and everything in it.
Rumble had liked the story a lot, so when another pony asked if it was true, he was shocked when Missus Smith not only said that it had really happened but that mansion was still there.

Which was why the light grey pegasus was currently gliding his way through the halls right now. He liked the idea of exploring abandoned places. Having read all the Daring Do novels, the guess that there could be a secret treasure somewhere in here was tempting and he had put a lot of thought into his adventure over the months leading to spring break.

It was actually pretty well thought out. He even went to the library to prepare in his free time.

His saddlebags were stuffed to the brim with everything an adventurer needed.

Notebooks for writing, drawing, or mapmaking in case he had to backtrack and leave before it got dark.

A water canteen just like Daring’s.

A magnifying glass for looking at clues.

A fedora because he couldn’t find a pith helmet in his parents’ closet.

A compass.

A some food, mostly his favorite tarts from Sugarcube Corner.

The watch he got for his birthday.

His dad’s lightning flashlight that the Pegasus was careful to use. (Dad would flip if he broke it.)

Bobby pins to unlock doors.

And various pencils and pens with a box of crayons.

The Pegasus paused as he passed another hallway, setting down on the very creaky floor and digging through his saddle bags to pull out the notebook with MAP written on the cover. He set it on the floor, flipping it open and began to draw out another two lines from the hallway he was already in making sure they pointed…He checked his compass.

North. This hall was going north.

Once it was drawn, he gave the map a once over and frowned at the other diverting lines. He had only just started and already he had four more halls to go back to if this one was a bust. Maybe they didn’t have a ton of locked doors.

He sighed in disappointment at the little red ‘X’ marks he had put down for locked doors. There was six for the first hallway alone, each one Rumble tried to buck open to no avail when the knobs wouldn’t move. They didn’t even have locks to pick. Daring Do might have gotten them open with something cool like some kind of trick with light through a magnifying glass and a box of matches but he wasn’t Daring.
In fact, the front door along had been boarded up from the get-go and it had only been the broken window on third floor that allowed him to fly up and get in.

Swiftly packing his things and picking up his light, the colt continued his half-glide half-flight down the hall. This adventure wasn’t turning out like he expected, it was a little…boring if he was honest.

While the odd starspider web and creak of the house had caught him off guard at times, he expected exploring a abandoned house would have been a little more exciting. So far it hadn't been just barren walls and locked doors he might have made some progress by now.

“Aw.” He groaned a little as the hallway came to an abrupt end at yet another locked door. He turned around backtracking to the nearest hallway, and took his time trying the first door he saw.

Surprise. Surprise. It would budge.

He sighed, continuing the make his way through the house.

Now that he thought about it, Missus Smith had said that the family living here didn’t take anything with them and that the home had been abandoned shortly after, but Rumble didn’t see anything that suggested that anypony had lived here. No pictures were on the walls, no carpets on the floor, no anything really…

Until he noticed a set of double doors at the end of the hallway.

Unlike the plain ones that he couldn’t get through, their design was very different. They were huge, stretching from floor to ceiling, with a dull brass plaque on it that read: Study.

Rumble swallowed a squeal of excitement as he noticed a keyhole under the knob as he landed at the threshold.

Finally! Progress.

Pulling a bobby pin from the saddle bags, he gave the handle a test turn out of habit and very nearly fell flat on his face when the doors swung open with a rusty SQUEAK.

Recovering his balance, he scrunched up his nose at the dry, musty smell of…oldness from the air that wafted from the room as he stepped inside.

Bookshelves. Dozens of them were lined up in rows and along the walls, each one stuffed to the brim with more books and scrolls than the colt could count. Possibilities of fake bookcases leading to a secret chamber or maps hidden in a scroll that needed to be deciphered ran through the Rumble’s mind as he galloped along the nearest row.

This was going to be so—

THWACK!!!

The pegasus vision exploded into stars as he was knocked off his hooves and to the floor, not noticing one of the shelves hanging loose from a bookcase right in his path.

The sudden jolt of the shelves caused a large worn tome on the very top of the shelf to topple off, landing right at his hooves.

He gripped his muzzle with a hoof as tears clouded his vision, the hot pain rushing up and out his nose as he stood back up. He felt a liquidly warmth spread across his hoof as he grit his teeth, refusing to let himself cry. He was an adventurer like Daring Do and Daring Do didn’t cry and…Oh, that was blood.

Never mind.

He sniffed, tears running down his cheeks while a sob escaped his lips, not noticing the drops of blood falling from his hoof and onto the open pages of the book as he pinched his nose. Nor did he notice the drops spread along the pages, turning from tan to red to black in seconds.

Slowly, he picked up his dad’s flashlight and stuffed into his saddlebags then took to the air to leave, another sob leaving his chest.

Only for the room to explode.

The shockwave knocked the Pegasus cold out of the air and sent him into the floor. Darkness washed over the room, seeming to engulf every crack of light from the boarded-up windows and shot straight at a now panicking Rumble. What he could only describe as a sticky, clinging nastiness washed over him, making his stomach flop as it pinned him in place. He tried to get to his hooves or off the floor but his body refused to move.

A wave of cold, wet, miserable darkness washed over him, as though he had slipped into a murky black pool. No, he hadn’t slipped in it. He was drowning in it! He opened his mouth to scream, to breath, to do something and the darkness swept down his yawing mouth and his nose and down his throat. He struggled and thrashed as it smothered him and then…

It was gone.

Coughing and gagging, Rumble’s lungs felt like they were on fire. He scrambled to his hooves, wheezing as eyes flitted around frantically for that...shade.

Nothing. Not even the webs on the walls had been disturbed.

What was that? repeated in his mind like broken record. Wanting to put as much space between him and the mansion as possible, the Pegasus beat his wings as hard as he could, taking off a flying down the hall.

In his panic, Rumble didn't notice that his dad's flashlight had fallen out of his bags in his hasty escape...

Or that his nose had stopped bleeding.

As it turned out, if the pegasus had stayed a minute or two longer the answer would have been provided. A now large ancient book fluttered gently to the floor, settling next to an unmoving body.

A hideous and fearsome monster was far more appropriate for this moment than the figure that was sprawled across the floor, lying upon its back motionlessly. It was assuredly male from the way it's body was shaped.

The figured stirred, opened its eyes, and in one strange and somehow unnatural motion that seemed to defy gravity itself in order to push away from the floor.

The first thing it settled its eyes upon was the room as a whole. The head turned left and right, it thick mane of black standing wild and scraggly but doing nothing to conceal the pair of long yellow-orange horns that were sprouting from his forehead and swept low along his pointed ears.

Whatever this thing was it appeared deceptively pony like, if you ignored the unnaturally dark red fur, the pair of horns coming out of it's head, and the disquieting quality of it’s gaze from it purple, orange and black eyes. Such gaze was finally focused upon the one thing that looked out of place.

A tool made out of cloud, that glowed brighter than any lantern. It stepped closer to it, not trotting or walking, it just took one step and it was in front of the item. It stared at it in curiosity before it caught the scent attached to it.

The eyes blinked, before sharpening all at once. The situation changed rapidly after that; the creature shifted its weight forward, lowering it’s head to the item and breathing deep. To memorize the scent and the intent behind it.

Escape.

That was what it told.

When something tried to escape from a predator, it automatically painted itself as prey. So it was only natural that the being would respond appropriately, by tracking it down.

By hunting it.

It sniffed again before it’s eyes widened slightly and it’s lips pulled around its razor sharp teeth in a horrible smile.

It’s caller.

The scent belonged to it’s caller.

Interesting.