The sunlight streams in through Novella's upstairs loft, throwing sun rays in every direction as it hits the window. A rooster caws loudly outside her window. Novella groans, shaking her head and hiding under her blanket at the invading morning light.
"Five more minutes," Novella grumbles
The rooster caws again as if to tell her there isn’t time for five more minutes of sleepy bliss.
“Fine, fine I’m getting up.” The light blue mare crawls out of bed, making her way to the bathroom. Her wavy lavender hair really took a beating from all the night-time tossing and turning. It sticks out in all different directions.
“Holy Celestia! I look like mad scientist!” Novella’s green eyes widen with shock at the horrible look of her mane. She does a pretend evil scientist laugh and rubs her front hooves together evilly.
She laughs at herself and then goes about getting ready. She turns on the bath and runs her hair under the faucet. She shakes loose the excess water and using her unicorn magic, wraps a towel around her hair to let it briefly dry. She does the rest of her morning routine quickly.
Novella heads down the loft stairs that lead to her coffee shop/bookstore that she manages. There is already a forming line of sleepy-headed ponies outside her door, ready for their morning buzz. She runs down the remaining stairs and begins to start up the coffee pots. Novella throws on her work apron and rushes to unlock the door. The ponies pile in and Novella begins taking orders.
Novella spends the next few hours rushing back and forth, filling up to three coffee orders at one time. Sweat beads on her forehead as the coffee line grows larger with each order filled. Coffee orders are coming faster, and Novella hardly has the time to accept the bits from the previous order before another order is being hollered out.
It is almost noon before the morning rush dies down. Its the month of October and every pony in Ponyville has been ordering Pumpkin Spice flavored coffees. The cafe smells heavily of pumpkins and Novella inhales the delicious scent. October is one of her favorite months, she loves everything autumn.
The bell above the cafe door dings.
Novella rushes to the counter, already weary from the morning rush.
“Welcome to Books N’ Brews, what would you li—” Novella freezes,stunned by who stands before her.
The mayor of Ponyville had just walked into her store. She looked all business and Novella is seriously doubting she was in here to order a coffee.
“What can I do for ya?” Novella asked. She removed her apron and steps out from behind the counter.
“I need a quick moment of your time, do you have somewhere we can sit and talk?” The mayor asks, apparently preferring to get straight to the point.
“Absolutely.”
Novella motions to the Mayor to join her at one of the comfier couches that rested in the middle of her cafe. She sits down and patiently waits for the Mayor to get comfortable in the love seat across from her. A million things race across her mind, wondering why the Mayor would be here. Am I getting shut down? Is she here to buy out the building? Is she wanting someone to take over? Does she want to tell me I’m doing a good job with it and maybe expand elsewhere in Equestria?
Novella bites her lip, a nervous habit. The Mayor sits down across from her, looking mayor-ly and even a bit nervous.
“Novella, I’ve heard from a few of your regulars here that you write stories as a hobby and side job?” The mayor said, making it more of a question.
“Yes that’s right.” Novella says, her stomach in knots.
“I was wondering, if its not too much trouble dear, would you be willing to write a small ghost story for this year’s Nightmare Night celebration?” The Mayor said in a rush, her large blue eyes silently hoping and pleading for Novella to say yes.
Novella is taken aback. She’d never thought her writing would be important enough to get the attention of the mayor. She blushed, the pink really sticking out against her light blue coat.
“Y-Yeah sure I can absolutely do that!” Novella stutters slightly, still surprised by the request. “In fact I’d be more than honored to.” Novella beams happily at the Mayor.
“Oh, what a relief. Thank you so much for accepting.” The Mayor beams happily at Novella. “We are always looking to add more fun frights to the Nightmare Night celebration and I thought a ghost story would be the perfect thing to really put everyone in the frightful spirit.” She laughs.
Novella and the Mayor exchange information about where to turn in the completed story, and then the Mayor takes her leave. She thanks Novella again and shakes her hoof before taking off out the door. Novella turns around, to the small crowd of patrons that had been in her store when the Mayor came in. Applauses and shouts of congratulations were coming from everywhere. A few ponies walked up, clapping Novella on the back.
“Thanks y’all, I’m extremely thrilled to have this opportunity. However, I’d really like to start preparations early. Would you mind if I close down the store early today?” Novella blushes again, worried that the patron ponies are going to be upset with her.
The ponies, however, are more than understanding and they gather their things and wish her well as they file out of the cafe. Novella closes up shop and heads upstairs to begin writing her ghost story. She only has a week to work on it.
Two hours later, its past noon and Novella sits at her writing desk with her head on the table. Crumpled pieces of parchment paper litter her desk and the floor. Novella groans loudly in frustration. Lifting her head off her desk, she uses her magic to pick up the discarded quill and a new sheet of parchment and begins to write. She gets as far as two sentences, before crumbling the paper in anger.
“This is harder than I thought,”she grumbles.
Novella sits back on her haunches, staring up at the ceiling and thinking to herself. I can’t really put my heart in this piece. I’ve never been in a scenario that has truly terrified me. Novella scrunches up her face in concentration.
“That’s it, I have a week to write and edit this story,before it needs to be given to the Mayor. I need to find a terror-filled experience to write about.”
Grabbing her bag, Novella stuffs two small notebooks in it, followed by six quills and three large ink bottles. She leaves the loft and makes her way to the grassy streets of Ponyville.
Two hours spent asking around for any sort of scary locations in Equestria. Almost all of the ponies had the same response; “Go spend some time in the Everfree Forest.”
“But I don’t find the forest all that scary.” Novella grumbles.
She stops at one of the local luncheon cafes, her hopes dashed. She orders a small apple pie. The sudden sound of jangling awakens Novella’s attention to the sight of Zecora slowly walking towards her. She’d always heard stories about the strange Zebra, and her stomach gave a small jolt of excitement to see Zecora up close. The Zebra had a many gold bracelets around her front hooves as well as her neck. Her mane was trimmed in a most unusual, but lovely looking mohawk style. Big golden earrings hung from her earlobes. Her mane matched the same striped pattern as her coat. She was an exotic beauty to behold.
Zecora walked up to Novella, smiled down at the young mare and began to speak;
“For truth to your story, its frights that you want? I’ll show you a place where its said a ghost pony haunts.”
“What? There’s a haunted house here in Ponyville. Please show me!” Novella stands up, eager to find this mysterious house.
The waiter pony suddenly walks outside with her apple pie slice on a platter. He sets it on the table in front of her. She tosses him 8 bits for the pie, but is far too excited to eat it now. She begins to walk away from the slice when Zecora stops her and points back to the table.
“Eat your food, let it not go to waste. You’ll want the energy if a ghost gives chase.” Zecora says ominously.
Novella decides to heed the strange zebra’s warning and quickly eats her pie.
“Okay, I ate. Would you mind showing me now?” Novella asks. Just cause I’m excited does not mean I have to be rude, She thinks angrily to herself. “Please.” She adds, blushing at her slight rude remark just a second before.
Zecora merely nods and began to head off. Novella stays close beside her, while they walk Novella gets a clear mark of the Zebra’s flank and is utterly entranced by the intricacy of the swirling design of her cutie mark. They walk south, past the many shops of Ponyville and in the direction of the Everfree forest.
There, at the very edge of the village was an old decrepit house. The once bright yellow of the house had since faded, making it look like the dull yellow you see when there is a dead patch of grass. The hinges are broken and falling off. The door, surprisingly, is still intact. The grass is overgrown and makes the house look that much scarier. A cool breeze brushes by and Novella shivers.
Novella turns her attention to Zecora to thank her, but finds the zebra gone. Novella gulps, not sure she likes the sudden disappearance.
“Well guess I better get to it,” Novella whispers to herself.
She takes a deep breath and nervously makes her way up the lawn and into the dark, spooky house.
Novella opens the door and it lets out a loud, angry -CREEEAAAAK- as if to ward away its intruder.
“Well that’s not ominous or anything,” Novella mumbles sarcastically as she steps inside. She leaves the door open, enjoying the breeze.
The inside of the house looks just as broken as the outside. The floorboards creak with every step and more than a few are broken. A couch rests against the east wall, a cushion missing and box springs sprouting out like metal flowers. The arm of the couch looks like its been chewed on. The one light in the downstairs was broken and Novella had to maneuver her way around broken shards of the light bulb. Using her unicorn magic she removed one of her quills and notebooks from her pack. She begins to jot down the description of the downstairs. Novella is very thorough in her story telling, making sure to leave nothing out.
Novella makes her way upstairs. Her hooves sounding like thunder in the quiet of the house. There is a single bedroom with the door slightly ajar. She pushes it open and her mouth gapes when she takes in the sight of the bedroom. The bed has been pushed up against the back wall, like someone had thrown it in a fit of rage. The mattress had three long gouges running the length of it, like a timber wolf had lost its temper and decided to take it out on the bed. There was a single window that surprisingly looked untouched. There had once been pillows on the bed, but the feathers inside were strewn all across the room and had turned brown over time.
In the middle of the floor was a strange drawing, the color was a sickly green and looked to be burned into the floorboards. It was a large circle with intersecting lines. The lines cut the circle into eight parts. Each “slice” of the circle had a strange symbol drawn into it’s center. Novella looked at the circle uneasily. She glances away, turning her attention to the right wall. The entire wall had been converted into a long and tall bookshelf. Her mouth gaped open at the vast collection. Curiosity getting the better of her, Novella began to go down the length of the book shelf to see what type of readings the previous owner was interested in.
There were a lot of spell books, some large, some small, and the majority of them looked like dark magic books. The covers were worn and quite a handful of books weren’t even written in any known language. She spots a few candles resting atop the shelf and quickly deposits them into her pack. She makes her way down the line until she comes to a blank spot in the shelf. Wonder what book used to rest here, she thought to herself. She shrugged her shoulders and continued on further until a book caught her attention. It wasn’t the creativeness of the book- in fact it was the utter lack of anything unique.
The book was quite standard sized and color. The book was black and the spine had no title written on it. Novella pulled it down from its spot on the shelf out of curiosity. Novella inhaled a deep breath and let loose a large puff of air to clear the book of its dusty blanket. The cover of the book held the same strange circular drawing as the floor, even the coloring on the book was the same. Novella looked between the two for a moment to confirm that it was the same symbol.
She opens the book to find it impossible to read. Not a single word is in any language that Novella knows. Greatly confused, she lets the book fall to the floor beside her. It is at this time she notices another book lying page down in the edge of the circle. Novella walks to it and turns it over. It appears to be a journal written by the previous owner. The handwriting was quite neat and clean. Based on the amount of spell books (and some quick checking of the journal), Novella was able to determine the writer of the journal was a unicorn.
With her curiosity winning over, Novella flipped to the first journal entry and began to read:
Dear Journal,
I have bought you as a fresh start to my new life. I have recently located to a small town here in Equestria, called Ponyville. I’ve been living here for a month now, finally getting out and exploring things. I discovered a strange book today whilst exploring. It was waiting for me downstairs, resting on the kitchen table. I was worried someone had broken in, but everything seems to still be here.
I am intrigued by the words written on the first page. I know this book holds great things for me.
Novella glances at the black book confused, she opens it once more and still finds the words of the strange book impossible to decipher.
“How in the world?” Novella wonders aloud. The unicorn must have been very knowledgeable indeed if they were able to read it, she thinks to herself.
Returning her attention to the journal, she continues to read through the unicorn’s entries. She sits back on her haunches, not realizing that she is currently in the middle of the strange green circle. The more she reads, the more horrifying it gets. The tone of the journal started out as the writings of someone happy and just venturing into chronicling their life on paper, with long paragraphs written just for a single day. As Novella reads on, the tone changes. The writings are now scribbled, as if the unicorn had to jot them down on the go. The tone is one who is extremely paranoid. Some of the sentences took over two minutes to decipher and understand.
Novella arrives at the last entry of the journal. It reads;
Dear Journal,
I have to be quick with this entry. I can’t trust anyone, everyone is after my book. They say it has corrupted me, but I see clear. IT IS MINE DAMN IT! I haven’t left the house in weeks. I spend every moment reading through the book. Its vast amount of pages seem to grow with every passing moment. I am consumed by it, but nearing the end of my goal. Soon I shall rule, and every pony will bow down to my power!
Novella stares at the journal. Her eyebrows knit together in concern and she shudders at the evil tone the last entry has. She is beyond relieved to know that the unicorn never succeeded in their hunt for total control. She sets the journal back on the floor. Novella is intrigued as to how much devotion the writer gave the strange black book.
Novella picks it up once more and flips to the first page. Her mouth gapes open as she reads the first line.
I hold great power within these pages.
Novella drops the book, startled by the face that the first line is now visible to her. She steps away rapidly, as if she fears the book will harm her. With what she has read from the journal that could turn out to be an all too real possibility. Knowing its probably a horrible idea, Novella packs away both the journal and the strange black book into her pack.
By this point, the sun has set below the horizon and the inky blackness of night has descended. Novella dug around for the candles she had previously packed. Pulling them free she used her unicorn magic to light them. She set the candles down on either side of her. She made fast work of scribbling down notes in one of her notebooks.
A strange breeze kicks up suddenly, threatening to blow out the lit candles. The pages of the notebook Novella’s is currently using begin to flap angrily against the breeze. Novella stands up and rushes over to the window in the bedroom. She feels a pit in her stomach when she sees that the window is shut tight, allowing no air flow to pass through. A loud ghostly wail echoes in the room, startling Novella. She yelps in fear and spins around suddenly.
The room is still once more.