It's going to be a long night...
“H-hello?” I call out, my weak voice echoing through the empty house. I was challenged by my friends, Applebloom and Sweetie Belle to stay one night in the abandoned house just outside of Ponyville. A house that once belonged to a friend of mine. Well, I guess a more accurate description would be it belonged to a friend of a friend… It was Fluttershy’s Cottage. Since she moved into the castle with her friends, the cottage has been overgrown, reclaimed by the fringe of the Everfree. And it felt much bigger than it used to, despite me having grown up quite a fair bit since then.
I clear my throat and shake my head, ‘Of course there’s not going to be anypony here’ I thought to myself. ‘There’s not been anypony here for years.’ Not even Fluttershy’s animals remained here. They all left when she did. Some did follow her to the castle, but the others moved into the forest on the other side of Ponyville.
I slowly walk into the dark house, everything was messy and dis-organized by having some of the Everfree plants growing up through the floor, a table has been overturned by a small sapling that now is growing in the middle of what used to be the living room. The upstairs portion of the house are now inaccessible, since the staircase has collapsed.
Slowly becoming more and more brave, I venture deeper into the once familiar house, but now, it may as well be on another world. Darkness and just messiness really does change how a house looks and feels. I notice my heart racing, seemingly trying to break out of my chest. I close my eyes, and attempt to calm down… rather unsuccessfully. Ever since I was a filly, I’d let the silliest things go to my head, and let myself be scared really easily… Which is where I got my nickname “Chicken” from my friends... Also the reason I’m taking this stupid dare in the first place. I want to prove to my friends that I’m not a chicken anymore.
I just have to last out the night.
I look to the small clock I’d brought with me that I’d borrowed from Twilight, 11 pm… Okay… Only 8 hours to go. I can do this. I know I can.
It hadn’t been long, and I’d found the spot where I decided to sleep the night. I’d a spot right in front of the fireplace, which I’ve now cleaned out and gotten a small fire going. It’s quite cold in here with all the windows broken. I’ve just finished setting up my sleeping bag, when I thought I heard a creak coming from upstairs.
My breath catches in my throat, and I stand utterly still, my ears attuned to the ceiling. After a few seconds… Or it could have been a few minutes, I start to breathe again, thinking that the house was just settling… Old houses made strange noises, right?
That’s when I heard it again… Very localized… right above my head. “H-hello?” I call out. “Is there anypony up there?” I wait, heart pounding in my chest, as nothing but silence answered my words.
I grab a torch I had with me in my saddlebag, and light it in the fire. I make my way to the collapsed staircase, and shine the light up to the second floor landing, which if I had to describe it in one word… eerie. That’s when I saw it… Or I thought I did. A shadow, vaguely pony-shaped darting across the landing. Only about the size of a small foal, but a very distinct shape, and a very fast moving one. “W-who’s up there?” I call out, once again, only silence.. But then, I hear the creak again… This time, coming from the direction that the shadow ran to. I slowly back away from the staircase, and return to the fire and sleeping bag, and extinguish my torch.
“Okay,” I whisper to myself. “It’s alright.. it’s just in your head… You’re letting the small things get to you again. It’s probably just a rat… a very large rat… But it’s upstairs… You’re down here. It can’t hurt you here.” I realized that telling myself it was a rat was a mistake… I hate rats.
I check the watch again, and it showed 12:30. It had only been 90 minutes since I arrived here… Still six and a half hours to go. This was going to be a long night. I pull out my copy of the latest Daring Do book, and start to read, trying to ignore the random sounds that kept happening.
I read for I don’t know how long, and had actually started to get used to the creaking noises from upstairs, and if they remained up there, I really didn’t have anything to worry about… That’s when I realized that I hadn’t heard them for some time. I pull myself away from my book, and angle my ears upward… trying to catch even the slightest bump from upstairs… Nothing… The air was completely still in the house.
I look toward the fire, most of the wood I’d put into it had burned away while I’d been reading, the light from it slowly getting dimmer and dimmer by the second. I stand up and go to the wood pile I’d made next to the fireplace, that’s when I saw… something. Only for a split-second, and just out of the corner of my eye, but I thought I saw soft, glowing eyes. I turn to look toward it, but as soon as I do, they vanish.
I quickly re-build the fire. Letting the soft light fill the room. I look around, and couldn’t see anything. I grab my torch, and once again, light it. I start to investigate around where I thought I saw the eyes, which turned out to be the kitchen. Which I hadn’t yet explored while being here. But if I hadn’t gone into the kitchen… then why were there fresh hoof-prints… and why didn’t they match mine?
Not for the first time that night… My heart started beating rapidly, and my breath catches in my throat. I backpedal, straight back to my sleeping bag, which was strangely dark. That’s when I realized the only light in the room was coming from my torch. The fire had been put out.
I go to the fireplace to see that all the logs, even the ones that I had only just put in there, had vanished, as had the ones that I had gathered and placed next to the fireplace for later use. There wasn’t any sign of them. I also noticed more of those hoof prints in the dust. The same ones from the kitchen.
That’s when I heard the breathing.
Author's Note
This is my first attempt at writing something of the horror/thriller genre. Please let me know what you think in the comments.
I completely freeze up. I can distinctly hear deep, slow breaths from very close by. I spin around, shining the torch everywhere I could, which makes the flickering, uneven light almost go out, from me moving too much. I take a deep breath myself, and consentrate on where the sound was coming from. I slowly turn to face it, with a bright set of eyes, and a large grin of glowing, white, pointy teeth looking at me.I want to scream, but as I blink it disappears. It couldn’t have been more than a few feet in front of me, but whatever that was, it’s gone now… Or was it?
BANG!
There was a loud noise coming from the upstairs portion of the house, followed by a low, throaty growl, which seemed to make my very bones rattle. The horrifying sound which seemed to go on forever eventually faded out, leaving me in complete silence once again. I look to the watch. 2 am. The next five hours could not come fast enough. Now that I caught a glimpse of what I was sharing a house with for the night, I wasn’t too sure if I wanted to keep sharing a house with it. I decided that if I saw it down here again, I would just leave and spend the rest of the night in the Everfree… It’d be less scary than sharing a house with… whatever that was. If it stayed up there, though. I think I might be able to last out the night. I can say goodbye to any sleep for the next month though.
Using some of the furniture, I managed to get another small fire going, but this time, I didn’t have any extra fuel. I didn’t dare leave the house to get more wood, so whatever I had there, had to last. I pulled out my book, and began to read once again, and as before, I try to shut out the occasional noises from the second floor. Despite them being right above me. I considered moving to a different place in the room, when I heard the voice.
“Little girl, little girl, so far away from home.
Little girl, little girl, in the dark all alone.
Little girl, little girl, laying by the fire.
Little does she know, her situation is dire.”
The haunting rhyme echoes in my head long after it had actually ended. I squeeze my eyes shut, and try to forget it, but it only comes back stronger. I was stuck with that rhyme in my head until morning at the very least. Then that last line comes back to me. “Little does she know, her situation is dire?” I say aloud to myself. What was that supposed to mean? Was it a warning? Or was it a threat?
“Little girl, little girl, trying to be brave.
Little girl, little girl, her friends she never forgave
Little girl, little girl, to last out the night
But before it’s over, she might die of fright.”
The voice came again, in another rhyme. “W-was that to scare me? Because it’s not working!”
I shout up to the next landing, which was answered with just silence.
“Come on, Scootaloo” I say to myself. “You can’t let that big bully scare you out of it. You need to do this. Not for them… but for yourself.”
I tried to re-enforce this over and over again, but with each new sound coming from the upstairs landing, I get more and more frightened. No matter how much I try to ignore it.
3 am. 4 hours to go.
I can do this.
I know I can…
At least, I think I can…
I hope I can.
Author's Note
New chapter! What will happen to poor Scootaloo next? Honestly, I don't know. I look forward to writing the next chapter so I can find out as well. 
Also, the picture I linked isn't as good quality as the one I originally wanted to link, but I unfortunately could not find the original posting of that picture. So this one will have to do.
