There was a small breeze in Ponyville, easily chilling the ponies. The date was Nightmare Night. The moon was in the sky, not yet full, but close. Everypony was dressed up, ready for Nightmare night to start. The sun had set, and everypony was gathering around, the events about to start. Everyone was mingling, and little fillies and colts were gathering in groups, each one with a parent or guardian. The longer furred pegasus walked into the crowd, not sure of what to really do. He had friends in Ponyville, but he couldn't spot them. Ice Dog looked around, knowing that they were all meant to meet in front of the stage during the first event.
He gave a yelp as someone pushed into him. It was a friendly, rough push, and he knew who it was then. An orange colored mare stood behind him, giggling. Ice turned around toward her, and gave a somewhat embarrassed grin. "Hey, Flame Thrower." It had been a while since he had last saw her. They used their wings to hug each other. The last time he had seen the mare, it had been during the beginning of summer. The only reason he was in Ponyville was because he was invited, and pestered to go by his other friend; Golden Writer. The author wanted to spend the night surrounded by friends. Recently she had been upset, as she was getting to much into her writing and getting depressed because her character was.
"Sup, dog boy." Flame said playfully, using her hoof to push his chest some. "How have you been? Dogs good?" Ice nodded, saying he had been fine. When he returned the question, she gave a sigh. "Not a lot is happening. Since it's cold, no fires to really put out. And everyone is busy with work and school, so not a lot of people show up at my shows." She said, but then gently shook her head. "But hey, we're all together, so it'll be a good night." Ice agreed, and they started to get closer to the stage. Ice and Flame could see that Mardi Gras was already waiting, the stallion was swinging on his hooves, looking about.
When he finally saw the two ponies, he ran forward, pushing Ice to the ground. "Oh it's been so long! You too, Flame!" He then went from attacking Ice to attacking Flame. They were all on the ground. Mardi Gras wasn't from Ponyville, but had met Flame when she had traveled through New Orleans. When he visited her, the whole group got to meet him, and they all became friends. Because of being friends with him, sometimes he got to visit New Orleans, and it was never a disappointment. Coming up by them was Golden Writer. "Golden!" He then went onto to attack hug her as well. Once he had gotten all of them, everyone got back on their hooves.
"Hey guys." She said, and looked at their costumes. "Ice, you're a wolf?" He nodded, and moved around some so they could see it better. He had a wolf hood, that attacked to the body that was worn like a coat. The shoes were like paws, and a wolf tail was tied over his real tail. "Flame um, what are you?" Flame scoffed, and stroke some poses to show off her costume. Ice could tell what it was, but not exactly which character.
"And I thought you would have been the one to know, too." Flame said in a fake said tone to Golden. "I'm Poison Ivy, from Batpony." Many vines were wrapped around her, even braided into her mane and tail. Golden Writer seemed to remember then, and then looked at Mardi Gras.
"He's a jester. Again." Flame said with a somewhat bored tone.
"It's what I'm meant to be!" Mardi Gras said dramatically, looking to the sky. For a few seconds they were quiet, but then everyone started to burst out laughing.
"So, what does everypony want to do?" Golden Writer asked, as they all had caught their breath.
"There's a new haunted house we could go to." Flame suggested, pointing down the street. "I think it's also a costume shop. Not sure how good it is, but it could be fun." They all nodded, and soon were walking down the street to the store that said, 'Nightmare House'. It was an average size building, two stories. The outside was painted dark. The decorations were older - this must be an all year place. A little unicorn was sitting in front, with a bowl of candy. She was dressed as a teddy bear, and was passing out candy.
"Welcome to Nightmare House!" She chirped, as the group walked onto the porch. "The next tour of the house will be in about five minutes. Please wait here." The unicorn filly said in a rehearsed voice. The four friends stood on the porch, quiet for a while. They weren't sure what to say. Ice looked around, eyes falling on the tiny little gift shop in the corner. He guessed inside somewhere they had more space, but for Nightmare Night they were only selling a little.
Before he could go any closer to the shop, the door opened, and a small crowd of ponies came out. Each one was shaking somewhat, but a lot of them were smiling. Behind them all came out a pony in an elaborate costume. She had a small top hat on, and a black dress with dark red markings. Lace hung off the ends here and there. As well, Ice could see that she had fake fangs on. On her dress she had fake bat wings folded on her sides. Ice smiled at the earth pony.
"Welcome to Nightmare House. I am Ghost House, I shall be your tour guide." She said with a voice of velvet. Ice guessed she had spent a long time trying to get the voice right. "Follow me. This way, please." She pushed the door open, and everyone followed behind her. Mardi Gras was on Ice's flank, and the pegasus slightly shook to get the pony not to stand as close. They were going through a small, narrow hallway, with doors on both sides. Without warning, loud noises starting coming from behind the doors. Ice yelped, and Golden Writer screamed. Everyone was making panicked noises, until the realized it was part of the act. Though, they still jumped even afterwards.
"I'm sorry. I hope my guests didn't frighten you." Ghost said, glancing back at them all. Instead of going to the door at the end of the hall, she opened a door to a room. They all followed, and to Ice it looked like a real room. But when they entered, the lights went off. When they came back on, they were low, and there was the sound of scratching from the ground. The more Ice listened, he started to realize. The scratching was from under the floor boards, and then some of them started to jump up, pushing against his hooves. Flame gave a squeak when some pushed up at her, and retreated to stand next to Ice.
The distant, gritty voice started to yell. "LET ME OUT!" At first it seemed like it was far below them, but then started to get louder and louder. Then the floor board busted open, and a pony pushed its torso out. "LET ME OUT!" They all screamed. With that, Ghost was quick to lead them through the closet in the room. They had to all push through cloths, and through a smaller door in the back of the closet.
"I don't know how much of this I can take." Golden Writer whimpered, and Flame Thrower walked up beside her.
"Oh dear. Don't worry - I don't believe Grave will leave him room." Obviously she was talking about the animatronic that had come from under the floor. "He doesn't like this room." Ice looked around, and his stomach dropped. All around him were bloody knives, and hammers. It was like a horror doctor's office. Then all the noise started. Chainsaws, car horns, screams. Ice got to the ground, scared. Then, in the dark, a figure came at them. And the closer it got, the more they could see. It was a pony with a chainsaw, and it was close. Ice moved before it could hit him, and Mardi Gras jumped back out of the way.
"This way, everypony! He wasn't meant to escape!" Ghost House opened a door, and they all ran through it. When Ice looked around, he couldn't find where they had come from. And the room looked pretty normal. It was like a dinning room. There was some darker paintings on the walls, but other than that, he didn't see what the scare factor was. That was, until his eyes fell onto who was at the end of the table. It didn't move, but fear made him first think it was a real pony. Then logic took over and he knew it wasn't. Though, that didn't make it any less scary.
Ghost House walked over to the animatronic. "I believe it is dinner time. Won't you all join us?" With that, the lights grew brighter, and quickly went out. The on and off went on for a long time, while a mechanical scream was coming from every direction. Ice had looked away, and when he looked back to where Ghost had been, she was gone. He then felt the movement of the walls through the floors, and looked around. It was hard to see, but many things seemed to be coming at them. Everyone of the creatures made a different, scary sound. It seemed to heard them all toward the other wall, where a door slowly opened. They took that as a chance to escape the room.
Ghost was gone, and no longer leading them. Flame took the lead, though she didn't move along without being pushed. They all knew that to get out of this scary place, they needed to move forward. But this wasn't a hallway, it was another room. Worse, Ice couldn't see any door. Again, the door they had come through seemed to disappear. Ice moved close to Golden Writer, who pushed herself into him. "This is really scary." She stated, and all he could do was nod. So far when he thought a room might not be scary, it managed to surprise him.
This room did as well. There were 'bodies' littering the floor, and fake blood smeared on the walls. It looked as though many ponies had been here, and tried to escape. The only light came from the center of the room, hanging from the ceiling was a single light bulb. It was cliché, but still creepy. As they started to walk around the room, Mardi Gras gave a scream, as the pony grabbed his hoof, but then let go. Then all the bodies started to grab out, and the friends ran to the opposite side from where they had entered.
"This way!" Flame said, as she jumped toward another wall, pushing on where there were hoof marks. The closer he looked, the more he could see it was a door. Flame easily opened the door, and they went through within seconds. On the other side, it looked like they had gone outside. They knew it was impossible - it didn't even look like Ponyville. Ice looked up a tree, but couldn't see past the leaves. He guessed that the leaves were thick so that they wouldn't be able to see the ceiling. There was a path between the trees, and they knew they were meant to follow. Everything was fake, and Ice could tell when he touched it, which helped him calm down.
Soon, though, the haunted house was acting up again. There was scuffling from the bushes, and then they all started to see things in the distance. Black figures moved about, hiding behind trees. Ice feared that something was going to get them, come after them. Everyone else must have felt the same way, because they cautiously started to make their way down the path. Way down the path, something crossed it, making them all stop. Should they move on? Ice moved to the front, knowing the only way to get out of the haunted house was to follow the path. It was the only thing that made sense.
The further they went - at a rather slow pace - they all seemed to see more. But it al disappeared so quickly, it made them question themselves. Had they really seen a pony just beyond the trees? Or had it just been their eyes? Flame Thrower gave a screech, jumping forward, knocking Ice and Mardi Gras out of the way. "Something touched my leg!" She whined, and was bouncing on her feet, not wanting them to be able to touch the ground. The ceiling was too low for her to fly comfortably.
"Let's just keep moving." Mardi Gras said, trying to calm her. She nodded, and the two took the lead. Ice and Golden Writer walked flank by flank, too scared to really walk in a single file line. They all felt something touch their leg at least once, each pony jumping in fear. But soon, they all saw a figure that was unmoving, and they all paused. Should they keep going? The two guys took the lead, deciding to go with the stereotype of guys being braver. Though chances were that Mardi Gras was more frightened than Flame Thrower. The two mares stood back, somewhat pleased not having to do the scary work.
Then a light quickly flashed on, blinding them. The two stallions fell back, scared. Then when they all looked back to where the light had flashed, they all saw Ghost House standing there. "Oh I hope my house didn't frighten you too much?" She gave a small giggle. "Thank you for taking a tour of my house; Nightmare House. I hope to see you all again one day. Maybe then we can all have dinner together." With that, she pushed a door open, and they all walked out back onto the porch. Ice looked around, seeing a lot of the Nightmare Night events had started. Everypony was too busy with the games and activities to enter the haunted house.
"That was so much fun!" Flame Thrower set back onto her hind legs, seining her front legs in the air. Mardi Gras was hiding on the ground, flank in the air. But when everyone looked at him, he was back on his hooves, blushing. They all giggled.
"That was amazing, Haunted House!" Golden Writer cheered.
"It's Ghost House, and thank you." Ghost blushed.
"Haunted House seems fitting." Mardi Gras chimed in, and Flame Thrower nodded.
"I mean, I don't mind the name." Ghost said, lifting a hoof to her chin. "I guess you guys already have a nickname for me, then." She smiled, and Ice stepped forward.
"We should hang out some time." The stallion was almost blushing, but it was hard to see in the night time.
"That'd be fun." Ghost nodded. "You guys can stop by any time you want." She smiled, then turned slightly back toward Nightmare House. "But for now, I think maybe you all should join in the activities. I have to get ready for the story telling." Everypony nodded.
"It's great meeting you, Haunted House." Flame winked, and they all said their goodbyes as they walked off the porch. Ghost went inside her house, going to get ready for her own event.
"I liked her." Ice said, as they all walked over to the bobbing for apples booth.
"She seemed nice." Golden Writer stated. Soon, they were all enjoying themselves at the festival of Nightmare Night. Every once and while, Ice would steal a glance at Ghost, and they'd both smile. It was a fun night, indeed.
