The cursed resident.by Sylif Daring DooChaptersThe 'cursed' home.Spectral discovery.A revealing night.Better days ahead.More haunting.History lessons with the supernatural.Spark of bravery followed by mischief..tsap seno desruc eht fo elaTNightmare Moon's breakthrough.An enlightening visit.A necessary talk..eramthgin eht fo noissefnoCSemblance of hope.Facing fear.Problems.Aftermath.Nightmare's Nightmare Night..raw nettogroFHearths Screaming Eve.The game.A meeting of fate.Results.Freedom and stress.Of Sisters and Mysteries.Who you gonna call?.tneduts dna rotneMInvitation.Preparing for trouble and an important meeting.A wedding to remember.The week before the celebration.The 'cursed' home.______*Ponyville, Equestria, 1:01 PM.*______ It was another beautiful day in Ponyville, the water from the rain the previous night glistened on the blades of grass, the gentle breeze made the grass and leaves blow in the wind, the white clouds drifted peacefully in the sky, the cool air made the bright glow of the sun not as taxing on the body. The people of Ponyville went about their lives happily and busily, and one mare in particular made her way back to her shop from the market, she had soft white fur, a long and styled purple mane and tail, her eyes were dark blue and she was a unicorn, she hummed a happy tune to herself as she walked. This mare was called Rarity, and she owned a fashion shop called Carousel Boutique, she had aspirations to become a famous designer and was very skilled at making a suit or dress that fit her client perfectly, of course this did lead to some issues from time to time, but nothing that couldn't be fixed. Now, newer residents to Ponyville would assume that Rarity lived at her shop because of the bedroom, bathroom and kitchen, but in truth, she lived in a larger and more mysterious building. Rarity soon passed by her home and she gave it a glance, the walls were made of thick and sturdy oak wood that had been painted to a slightly redder shade, the building was large, at least a third of an acre in length, the second story of the home had four rooms, while the first floor had six rooms. To those that lived in Ponyville long enough, the home was widely believed to be cursed, it had been like this for four or more generations, but no matter what Rarity said, the belief remained, and so she decided to stop trying to convince them. Rarity walked to her shop and entered, it still had the faint vanilla scent from earlier and she took a short breath. Heading to the sewing room upstairs, Rarity used her magic to open the door and put everything away without even looking, in mere seconds, the cloths and fabrics went onto shelves in the correct order, and the sewing thread was placed into a small drawer. Once everything was put away, Rarity walked out of the sewing room and headed downstairs when she heard the door open. "Welcome to Carousel Boutique, where everything is chiq, unique, and mangifique." She greeted professionally. [1] ______*later that day, 9:00 PM*______ Rarity entered her home and closed the door behind her, she turned on the light, revealing her living room, it had a comfy gray couch, and a matching sofa next to it, there was a coffee table in front of the couch, a maple end table in the corner between the two, the carpet was light blue and the curtains were dark gray. Rarity yawned and walked to the kitchen to grab something to eat before going upstairs, she opened her refrigerator and pulled out some leftover salad and a sandwich in a bag, it wasn't much, but it would have to do, after a few minutes, the food was gone and cleaned up afterwards. She walked to the small hallway between the dining room and the family room, she then headed upstairs after turning off the lights, she made her way up the stairs carefully and soon reached the upstairs, the room that connected the four rooms was small with no decorations, there were four doors though, one door led to Rarity's room, another led a guest room, the third door led to an office that her grandfather used. Then there was the fourth door, Rarity simply looked at it, her grandfather was always paranoid of this room, it got so bad that he wouldn't go upstairs anymore, so they moved him downstairs along with his office supplies, the door was locked, but Rarity had the key nearby on a small table, the door was just a plain wooden door with nothing special about it, other than the strange painted crow on the door, her grandfather always told her to stay out of the room, and to never go in. Rarity just shook her head and walked to her room, too tired to care right now, she entered her room and closed the door. Her room was of course the master bedroom, the walls had been painted a soft blue, it had a double bed with lavender sheets and blankets, the pillows were the same color as well, there was a small vanity mirror sitting on a table next to a moderately sized desk, there was a bookshelf holding Rarity's personal books, there was a large window door that led to a small balcony, the curtains were black, in complete contrast to the rest of the room. There was also a door to the master bathroom, she walked into her bathroom and headed for the shower, it wasn't anything special, but it had the bath or shower function and that was good enough. Turning on the water, Rarity stepped inside the shower and began to wash off her makeup and clean her mane up, her hair fell down her head and face, and the makeup washed away after a little work. A few minutes later and Rarity stepped out of the shower, she looked very different without her makeup and her mane styled, but she wasn't concerned about that as she grabbed a towel and dried herself off quickly. She used her magic and set the towel in the laundry basket, she then to walked to her bed and got under the covers, she rested her head on her pillow and closed her eyes. ______*the next day, 8:00 AM*______ Rarity opened her eyes sleepily and with a quiet groan as she shifted in bed, she blinked a few times before getting out of bed begrudgingly. 'I may be closed for today, but that's no excuse to lay around.' She thought as she walked to her bathroom. After five or seven minutes, Rarity walked out of her bathroom and headed for the door to leave her room. She walked out of her room and walked downstairs, then she walked to her kitchen and started to make some breakfast, the kitchen had a double sink, an oven and refrigerator, multiple cabinets, and the walls were gray. After a few minutes, Rarity had just started to plate her food, which was simply eggs and toast, when a knock came at the front door, she blinked and looked over with curiosity. 'No one ever comes here.' She thought to herself. Rarity walked to the door and unlocked it, she opened the door and saw three ponies she wasn't expecting, her parents and her little sister. Her father was a white unicorn stallion with a brown mustache, mane and tail, his cutie mark was that of three footballs, he had blue eyes, his name was Hondo Flanks, but he was called Magnum far more often, he often wore a straw hat on his head. Her mother was a pink unicorn mare with a mane and tail that were two shades of purple, her cutie mark was that of three cookies, one of which had a bite mark and crumbs, her eyes were also blue and she wore two golden earrings and a yellow ascot, her name was Cookie Crumbles, or Betty Bouffant. And then there was Sweetie Belle, she was a unicorn filly with white fur, and a purple and pink mane and tail, she had no cutie mark yet, her eyes were a pale green. Rarity was honestly surprised, she hadn't been expecting them at all today, but she had an idea of what they wanted. "Mom, dad?.....I wasn't expecting you, how are you?" She asked. Magnum smiled. "We're doing alright, we were planning on going to Fillydelphia, but we heard the summer sun celebration was coming up, and that it was here in Ponyville, so we decided to come and stay in town for it." He explained. Rarity nodded In understanding. "I see, well, I there are two open bedrooms here, it will at least save you the trouble of finding a hotel that isn't booked." She offered. It was true, Rarity had heard about this event, and that whenever it happened the motels and hotels were always comepletely booked. Betty smiled and walked up, she gave Rarity a hug. "Thank you, your too generous you know that?" She said. Rarity chuckled a little. "Your family, it's the least I can do." She pulled out of the hug and let them all inside. "Do you remember where the spare rooms are?" She asked. Magnum nodded. "Yea, do you mind if we take the room down here Sweetie Belle?" He asked as he looked at his younger daughter. Sweetie Belle shrugged. "Uh.....no?" She replied. Rarity walked to the kitchen and took her breakfast to the dining room to eat, the dining room had dark brown wooden walls that were personally carved, the table was large enough for eight to sit and eat, she was soon followed by Sweetie Belle who looked up at her. It was awkward silence for a few moments until Rarity spoke. "Is.....something wrong?" She asked. Sweetie Belle shook her head. "No, it's just that...you look a lot different when you don't style your mane." She stated. Rarity nodded. "I suppose I do, why don't you go and check out the upstairs guest room? you always want to see it when you come over." She asked. Sweetie Belle nodded and headed to the stairs, allowing Rarity to eat in silence. ______*upstairs*______ Sweetie Belle walked around, she had always been curious about the upstairs rooms, but she never really had a chance to explore them, she had seen Rarity's room once before, and doubted that her big sister changed it, she walked into one of the rooms and looked around, there was a desk, a few bookshelves and a few file cabinets, the walls were a cozy brown, it didn't take a genius to know that this room was an office mixed with a small library. Sweetie Belle walked to the next room and opened it, there was a simple wooden dresser, an end table, a bed and a small desk, the walls were a plain white, and there was a single window with gray curtains, she walked out of the room. She then walked to the last door, it was different from the others as it had a crow painted onto it, the door was also locked, but Sweetie Belle never knew why, Rarity never said anything after all. "It is curious isn't it?" Rarity's voice said as it came closer. Sweetie Belle looked and saw her sister walking over. "All the years I've lived here, and I've never been inside." Rarity stated. "Why not?" The younger unicorn asked. Rarity looked at her sister. "Because of our grandfather, he told me to never open this door, but he never told me why." She replied. Sweetie Belle watched as Rarity looked to the small table in the room, she used her magic and a single key floated over, it was small and made of brass, Rarity looked at her sister again. "Want to see what's inside?" She asked. The filly nodded eagerly and Rarity took a breath and put the key into the keyhole. "Let's see what our grandfather didn't want us to see." She said as she turned the key. The door clicked and Rarity pulled the key out, she then pushed the door open gently, to the surprise of the sisters, there was a line of salt that got moved at the bottom of the door. "That's......odd." Rarity noted. The sisters entered the room and looked around, the room was comepletely empty aside from salt lining the edges of the entire room. "What's with the salt?" Sweetie Belle asked out of curiosity. "I'm not sure, but there isn't anything here, that's disappointing." Rarity said as she walked out. Sweetie Belle took one last look around. "Yea, I guess your right." She said before walking out. Author's Note [1]i will absolutely NEVER remember that again!......wait, is that the actual greeting? or did I do it wrong?......WHATEVER! So, I don't know if I got the names right for Rarity and Sweetie Belle's parents, if I did, hurrah, if not, no harm done right? Hope you like this, this is a more recent idea I came up with recently. Spectral discovery.______*Ponyville, three days later, the day before the Summer Sun Celebration, 10:03 AM*_____ The haunting had gotten worse over the past few days, while it was mostly just annoying at first, it was now getting stressful just to sit down in either the Boutique or the house now. Rarity was currently finishing up on her last order for the day before focusing entirely on the celebration, and while her work was unaffected by the recent events, she was obviously distracted and acting a bit off. Her thoughts were focused mostly on the events of a couple days ago, when that act of terror from their resident ghost had happened, while Rarity and her family were enjoying dinner, a loud bang came from the direction of the living room, and when they investigated, they discovered a hole in the ceiling. The hole was from the empty room, but it didn't penetrate the carpet, and when they investigated further, they discovered that there was a hollow area built into the floor of the empty room, filled with a thin layer of salt, much to their confusion. The rest of that evening had been spent removing the salt from the hollow area and cleaning up the mess from the hole, and then the next day, Sweetie Belle had explained to Rarity what she had learned about ghosts and spirits from the library, she explained that salt was like a barrier to them, they were unable to cross or touch it In any way, at least not without an object to use, which would explain why there was nothing in the room aside from the salt. As for the iron bars, Sweetie said that iron could actually make a ghost dissipate for a time, making the window unable to be used as an escape route, unfortunately she said that she couldn't find a way to remove the ghost or spirit, and that the only thing she found was some strange spell that she didn't understand. That had piqued Rarity's interest, and she had gone to the library to read up on the spell, as well as to double check Sweetie Belle's findings, what she discovered was quite interesting, the spell itself was called the Spectral Vision spell, and it would allow the caster to see ghosts or spirits, as well as easily communicate with them, however it was deemed useless by the author of the book, who stated in notes that he had used the spell multiple times and had never once seen a spirit, even in some of the most haunted locations in Equestria. The spell had four conditions in order for it to be used however, the first condition was that the caster had to channel magic directly to the eyes in a very specific way, the second condition required the caster to have been affected by a ghost or spirit at least once in their life, the third condition was highlighted in red however, it stated that the caster has to have been present when somepony passed away, experiencing death was apparently the most important requirement, the fourth condition was by far the worst in her opinion, as it required the caster to actually use part of their soul and relive their most tragic memory as well as put their most treasured memory at risk, with the consequences being incredibly severe, the main one being the lost of that memory. Truth be told? Rarity personally did not want to cast this spell, as there was no telling how dangerous it really was, but if this spell could help them with their ghost problem, she was willing to give it a chance at this point, she just needed to be absolutely certain that she didn't mess up. However, right now she simply wanted to focus on the preparations for tommorow, she sighed as she finished the dress she had been working on, she set it aside and walked to over to her desk, she pulled out a list that contained the requested items for the celebration. She found herself in a much better mood when she finally started on her work. 'I have a good feeling about tomorrow, so long as Sweetie Belle doesn't break anything, it should go perfectly.' She thought to herself optimistically. ______*Rarity's house.*______ Sweetie Belle looked down at the book she had brought from the library, it was currently on the Spectral Vision spell, she scrunched up her face a little when she saw the requirements state that she needed to have been present when somepony passed away. "What does that mean?" She wondered aloud. Soon, she remembered seeing her uncle off at the Manehatten train station, and he passed into a whole other city, plus she traveled all the time to other towns and cities with her parents, so that should count. "Not sure why this is a requirement......he must have liked traveling I suppose." She muttered as she closed the book and set it aside. Sweetie Belle then closed her eyes and focused on her magic, while it was true that she was a late bloomer, as her parents and Rarity told her, she was still very capable of channeling her magic, she just didn't usually need to do so. Channeling magic was a bit strange for Sweetie Belle, she was used to feeling her magic build up, but sending it somewhere specific that wasn't the horn tended to feel incredibly uncomfortale. She grunted in slight pain as her magic enveloped her eyes, she would normally stop at this point, but the book had said not to stop because of the initial pain, she pushed on and soon she felt a sinking feeling overtake her for a brief moment before going away, and then a moment later, Sweetie soon found a pounding headache for about ten seconds before it too vanished, just before she could do anything else, her magic severed itself from her eyes and she sighed in dissappointment. Sweetie Belle opened her eyes and gasped, startled by what she saw, the world around her seemed to be shifting around and warping at all times, her eyes widened and she soon heard voices. "Why doesn't dad talk about grandpa?" Sweetie Belle's younger voice asked. "It's just hard for him to talk about, he loved grandfather very much, and doesn't want to talk about him right now, the best thing to do is let him grieve without interruption." Rarity's younger voice replied. Sweetie Belle took a cautious step forward and the world around her seemed to stop warping, she heard more voices and stopped to listen. "Grandfather was a strict stallion, he made it quite clear who made the rules in this house, and knew exactly how to punish you if you broke these rules, it was difficult to live here for a while, at least until I learned these rules." Rarity's voice said. "But the one rule that he enforced more than all the rest, was to never, EVER open that door upstairs." Rarity explained. Sweetie Belle remembered this conversation, and almost mouthed her reply. "Why was that?" Sweetie Belle asked curiously. "I don't know, I never opened it as I never had a reason to do so." Rarity replied. Sweetie Belle gasped in surprise as the world shifted once again, returning her to where she was before she cast the spell. "Wh.....what was that?" She asked herself as she worked to calm her racing heart down. She walked over to the couch and sat down, she took a few deep breaths and after a minute or two, she finally calmed down enough to process what had happened. 'What was that all about? and why did that spell make me relive that conversation?' She wondered. Soon, Sweetie Belle got off the couch and decided to walk around the house. 'If it worked, I should be able to see the ghost or spirit now.' She thought to herself. Unfortunately, she had searched the entire house but was unable to find the ghost, she eventually gave up with a sigh and headed to the living room, she then picked up the book and headed for the library to return it. "That was disappointing." She mumbled. ______*later that day.*______ Rarity was in a much better mood now than she had been earlier, she had met a unicorn mare by the name of Twilight Sparkle, and the baby dragon named Spike, she discovered that the mare was in charge of making sure the preparations were comeplete, Rarity had explained that everything was ready on her end, she just needed to set it up quickly and then she was done, of course, it didn't help that she was using Twiligjt as a sudden model for a few designs, but it didn't take too long anyway. Twilight did seem stressed out, and hearing that things were running smoothly did seem to help, if only for a moment, she then left saying that she needed to check on the rest of the preparations. After that, Rarity had set up everything in the town hall with the help of Sparkler and Flitter, working together, they had everything ready in a half hour, then another five minutes of double checking to make sure nothing was wrong. Rarity was hoping for a few hours of quiet relaxation before going to bed for the night, but when she heard that Pinkie Pie, the towns resident party organizer, was setting up a 'Welcome to Ponyville' party for Twilight Sparkle, she decided that it might be a nice change of pace, she might end up regretting the inevitable headache tomorrow, but it could be worth it. And that's how she ended up at Pinkie's party, and from her perspective, it appeared that Twilight was about to have a heart attack when the light came on, but to her credit, she did seem to recover quickly enough for her to not freak out when Pinkie showed up right next to her in an instant. Rarity did watch with a puzzled expression as Twilight drank from the hot sauce bowl instead of the punch, which she discovered the hard way. Twilight downed at least three cups of punch before she stopped panting from the hot sauce, after which she asked why there was a bowl of hot sauce next to the punch, Pinkie then explained rather rapidly that a bunch of ponies in the party loved to eat spicy nachos and apologized for the mixup. Spike seemed far more eager to enjoy the party than Twilight, as was evident by the mare retreating to the upstairs bedroom while the dragon stayed downstairs to have fun. Rarity herself only stayed for thirty minutes and only played one or two party games, she then said her farewells to anypony who walked up and headed home. The walk home was quiet and peaceful, the cool air and pleasant breeze helped her to think on what to do when she got home. And it was on her walk that she realized something that hit her like a brick, she had comepletely forgotten to ask Sweetie Belle if she wanted to go to the party, to this she sighed sadly and her walk home was now less enjoyable to her as she thought on this the whole way. ______*Rarity's house, 9:00 PM*______ Rarity was in the living room reading one of her romance novels to pass the time, she had already read this one before but that didn't stop it from being enjoyable. Her parents were out in the town at the moment, enjoying a night out, apparently Ponyville was very relaxing compared to the cities they usually visited on business. Sweetie Belle was in bed by now for once, she had seemed rather down when Rarity returned, which didn't help her mood at all, now she felt even worse for not bringing her sister along for the party. Rarity set her book down and went into deep thought as she sat up on her couch, it took about five minutes until she finally moved, she stood up and walked to the center of the living room, she took a breath and channeled her magic as she closed her eyes. 'If I can talk to this ghost, I should be able to handle at least one of my problems before tomorrow.' She then channeled her magic to her eyes as instructed by the Spectral Vision spell, she felt her eyes sting in pain and she eventually felt her magic sever itself from her eyes unexpectedly, she opened her eyes and was startled as the world appeared to be warped and distorted in strange ways. Somepony crying nearby woke her from her stupor and she looked around, she took a various step forward and she was transported to a room with her parents standing next to a bed that crying could be heard from. Rarity walked over and her eyes widened. "I.....had almost forgotten this." She whispered to herself. There was her younger self, crying into the bed while her grandfather lay in it, unmoving and not breathing, her younger self was a mess, her mane was flat and rough, her fur was dirty and her eyes were red from the crying. Rarity didn't need to see her face to know how she looked, she now remembered this perfectly, it was in this room that her grandfather had passed away, and it was in this room that she watched it happen. She had been in the room taking care of him, giving him his food and reading to him, he had a weak smile on his face as she read to him, enjoying the company as much as he could. Rarity forced herself to look away, unable to watch anymore, and as she did, she noticed that the world changed until she was in her living room again. With a sad sigh, Rarity walked upstairs and headed to her room, she closed the door quietly and cleaned off her makeup in silence, afterwards she simply laid down in her bed and closed her eyes. ______*the next day, 7:00 AM*______ Rarity opened her eyes and yawned, she blinked a few times and slowly got out of bed, once up, she headed into the bathroom and stepped into her shower, she turned it on and just stood still as the water soaked her, Rarity sighed and soon began to properly wash herself. After about ten minutes or more, Rarity stepped out of the shower, she then quickly dried herself off with a quick spell, not in the mood to take her time today, she then walked to the mirror and she gasped in horror as she quickly backed away from the mirror. Rarity panted as she slowly approached the mirror, she gulped and focused on what she was seeing now, her left eye had changed, instead of its normal blue, it was now an abnormally pale blue with a ghostly white mist like appearance to it, she hesitantly closed her right eye and was relieved that she could still see out of her left. Rarity took a few deep breaths and focused more closely on her eye, it didn't look horrifying, but it was mostly unsettling to look at. 'Is this what the spell did?' She wondered. Pushing these thoughts from her mind, Rarity focused her attention and energy to getting ready, she combed and brushed her mane until it was in its usual styled condition, she then entered her room and applied a very light coat of makeup before she finally turned her focus on her eye once again. Rarity honestly had no way of hiding this, she did not wear contacts nor did she have any colored contacts to cover it up, she also didn't know any illusion spells so she couldn't use that to hide it. After staring at her now disturbing left eye, Rarity sighed and walked away, if anypony asked, she could just say she tested a new spell and it backfired when she overlooked a small detail, that or she could just say that this was an unintentional side effect of a spell she cast to try and find out what was causing the weird occurrences that had been happening to her. Rarity stepped out of her room and out of curiosity, she checked the formerly locked room, it was still empty and she decided to walk downstairs. Once downstairs, Rarity set to making breakfast for everypony and decided on pancakes, she quickly made the batter and turned on her stove, she poured some batter on the pan and hummed quietly to herself as she cooked her breakfast. Rarity heard a tired yawn and looked in its direction, she spotted Sweetie Belle walking down the stairs and rubbing her eyes tiredly. "Good morning Sweetie Belle." "Morning Rares." Sweetie Belle replied tiredly, Rarity chuckled at the nickname, her sister almost never used it unless she was incredibly tired or just feeling lazy. Rarity levitated a few plates and sets of silverware onto the counter. "I am making pancakes, how would you like yours?" She asked. "Just regular today." Sweetie Belle murmured as she walked to the bathroom tiredly. After about five minutes, Sweetie Belle came out of the bathroom and Rarity gave her a small stack of pancakes. "Butter and syrup are on the dining table." Rarity said. Sweetie Belle nodded and walked to the dining table, clearly just hungry. Rarity got the next pancake cooking and she heard a door open elsewhere in the house, indicating that her parents were awake now. After about twelve minutes, Rarity had managed to make everypony their pancakes, thanks to the burner finally being at the desired temperature, she sat down with her family to eat breakfast, and they noticed the change to her left eye. Rarity calmed them down and explained that she had used a spell called Spectral Vision, she explained the spell in detail and what it was supposed to do, she had to quickly assure her parents and Sweetie Belle that she was fine and was mostly just shocked at what had happened. "Is it permanent?" Betty asked out of concern. Rarity looked at her mother and gave her a small smile. "I'm not sure, the book didn't say anything about this." She pointed at her eye. "But if it is permanent, I'll just learn how to cast a small illusion for it or get contacts to hide it, of course I may get used to it." She replied. "And your sure it doesn't hurt?" Magnum asked worriedly. Rarity nodded. "It doesn't hurt, in fact, if i hadn't seen it in the mirror earlier today, I wouldn't have noticed it until you said something." She stated. None of them even noticed Sweetie Belle unconsciously rub her eyes as they talked. ______*Ponyville, a few hours later.*______ The town was in a state of panic, Princess Celestia hadn't been there and a large Alicorn named Nightmare Moon appeared, stating that she had returned and would bring about an eternal night, she did seem disappointed when nopony remembered her, except for the new mare Twilight Sparkle. Nightmare Moon then laughed manically as she disappeared in a puff of blue smoke, Rarity immediately sent Sweetie Belle home and told her not to leave. Rarity herself went with four mares called Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Applejack and Rainbow Dash as they followed Twilight to the Golden Oaks library. Sweetie Belle was personally confused as she sat in the living room, she was once again alone in the house while her parents were outside working on calming down who they could. Sweetie Belle groaned out of boredom and rolled over on the couch, she had already been here for twenty minutes and still hadn't heard anything aside from the panicked screams of terror outside. After another five minutes, Sweetie Belle stood up and decided that she was going to go outside. Her hooves touched the ground as she got off of the couch and she stretched a little bit, she looked up and her heart stopped for a split second. Walking around the family room was a tall creature with no fur, it's body was see through and it was at least five feet tall, it walked to the window and seemed to chuckle at the spectacle outside, it seemed comepletely oblivious to the fact that Sweetie Belle was watching it. Mustering all of her strength, Sweetie Belle spoke with a raised voice. "Who are you!? how did you get in here!?" She demanded to know, though she was still terrified. The creature simply looked around and then at Sweetie Belle, it apparently thought that she wasn't talking to it, and it looked back outside. Mustering her strength once more, Sweetie Belle talked again. "Don't look away from me! I am talking to you!" She stated, slightly angry at being ignored. The creature stared at Sweetie Belle with a now surprised expression, it mouthed a few words and blinked as it stared at her. Sweetie Belle gulped. "W-well? who are you?" She asked again, her strength wavering as her legs shook and her body shivered. The creature blinked and opened its mouth. "How?.....can you actually see me?" It asked, it's voice was feminine and soft. Sweetie Belle nodded nervously, and the creature seemed to be at a loss for words, she soon spoke a few moments later. "My name?......I, don't remember it." The creature stated out of confusion, clearly she was bothered by not knowing her own name. The creature walked closer to Sweetie Belle and seemed to look her over as she backed up. "As for how I got in here?.....I've been here for a long time, trapped." She replied. Sweetie Belle took a deep breath and spoke. "I uh......w-what are you?" She asked nervously. The creature blinked and looked at its.......appendage. "I'm a ghost, it would seem." She replied. "But I used to be human." She added. "Human?" She asked curiously. The ghost nodded. "Yea, human.......do you, not know what a human is?" She asked curiously. When Sweetie Belle shook her head, the ghost sighed and walked to a window. "Humans are a bipedal species with no fur, they have hands." She held her hands up. "That allow them to grab things, most human hands have four fingers and a thumb, they also have feet that have five toes, usually anyway, like me, most humans have hair on their head to help keep them warm." She then chuckled at something that happened outside. "I'm surprised that you haven't heard of us, don't they teach you about other nations in school?" The ghost asked curiously. Sweetie Belle blinked at the ghost. "I, if they do.....I wouldn't know." She replied honestly. The ghost sighed and looked at Sweetie Belle, making her shiver slightly. "W-why were you doing all those things?" She asked nervously. "Because I was bored." The ghost easily replied. "I also wanted to be able to move around freely, being stuck in a room, unable to really move or leave for six hundred years is horrible." She added casually, as though indifferent to what she just said. Sweetie Belle's eyes widened at the time she mentioned. "S-six hundred years?" She asked quietly. The ghost nodded. "Yea, trust me, not fun when the floor itself hurts you." She replied as she looked outside. "But.....why are you staying? you could leave." Sweetie Belle asked. The ghost shrugged. "I would, but I'm kind of cursed, I literally can't go very far from the house, I can get into the building right next to us, but not for long......huh, I wonder if that would work?" She seemed to ponder something quietly for a moment. Sweetie Belle gulped as the ghost knelt down and stared for a few moments, she felt her heart racing. "W-what are you doing?" She asked. The ghost clicked its non existent tongue and stood up fully. "You were about to go outside right?" She asked. Sweetie Belle hesitantly nodded. "Um.....yea, I guess so." She replied shakily. The ghost smirked. "Good, I want to test something, go on ahead, I'll just be a ride along." She stated before vanishing. Sweetie Belle looked around frantically for a few seconds, looking for the ghost, after a few moments, she felt a chill overtake her and she shivered as she held her hoof. "W-w-why is it s-s-s-so cold?" She asked no one in particular. 'My bad, like I said, I'm a ride along, go on outside.' Came the ghosts voice from inside her head. Sweetie Belle shivered as she walked to the front door, she opened the door and looked around the outside, ponies were running about frantically, clearly in a panic from Nightmare Moon appearing, she let out a breath that she could see, as if she was in a cold environment, she shivered as she walked outside and closed the front door. Sweetie Belle currently felt as though she were frozen, and since the ghost didn't seem to be leaving, she could only hope that walking away would be enough to make the ghost leave. Eventually, Sweetie Belle passed Carousel Boutique and she soon felt the cold going away. 'Not again!' She heard the ghost cry out. Sweetie Belle was no longer shivering, she sat down next to the Boutique and sighed. 'What was that all about? and what was that experiment supposed to be?' She asked herself as she sat there deep in thought. ______*later that day.*______ Sweetie Belle took a deep breath and opened the door, she walked inside the house and looked around curiously. The ghost was nowhere in sight, but that wasn't shocking, she was a ghost after all, Sweetie Belle closed the door and heard a voice. "I'm sorry about that, but I was overly eager to leave this place." The voice of the ghost said from nearby. Sweetie Belle looked and saw the ghost sitting on the stairs looking at her. "How exactly can you see me anyway?" She asked. "I um......." Sweetie Belle paused and the ghost appeared ready to listen, she sighed. "I cast a spell called Spectral Vision, it lets me see you." She stated. The ghost nodded. "I've been thinking ever since I got flung back here, and I remembered one of my names." She replied. Sweetie Belle watched as the ghost stood up and walked over, she then sat down in front of the filly. "Until I remember my full name, you can call me Alecia." The ghost said. "I......I'm Sweetie Belle." The unicorn filly replied nervously. Alecia nodded, which was actually difficult to notice because of her transparent body. "Again, I really am sorry about haunting you and your family, but it was the only thing to do around here." She said quietly. Sweetie Belle nodded slowly in reply, she wasn't sure what to do in this situation. "I uh......I guess I can forgive you." She replied quietly. Alecia stood and crossed her arms, she then walked to the stairs and sat down. "So......can you tell me what I missed these past centuries?" She asked. Sweetie Belle shook her head. "I'm.....not the best with history." She replied. Alecia didn't seem too bothered, that or she was good at hiding it. "Alright then, so what do you want to do until your family gets back?" She asked. Sweetie Belle tapped her chin in thought. 'I guess.........maybe this will help me to calm down?' She pondered. "We could, talk about the differences in our species?" She offered. Alecia didn't seem to like the idea. "If it's alright with you, I would rather not talk about my people right now, besides, you might find out whatever you need to know in a library or something." She said quietly, her eyes seemed to be deep in thought. 'This is awkward.' Sweetie Belle thought to herself. _______*Later that day.*_______ Rarity walked into the house and closed the door, she took a breath and looked around, the house was intact and nothing seemed broken, the only thing out of place was a checkers board that was set up on the living room table. "Sweetie Belle!" She called out. "I'm in here!" Her younger sister called back, giving Rarity a feeling of relief that her sister was alright. Rarity walked to the dining room and froze, her sister was sitting at the table with a strange looking transparent creature, they both looked at her and they shared an awkward silence. "Uh.....are you okay Rarity?" Sweetie Belle asked. With a slight turn of her head, Rarity looked directly at her sister and blinked as another shock came to her. Sweetie Belle's eyes were now similar to her own, her left eye was normal, but her right eye was now the same pale blue as hers, with the same ghostly white mist like look, but that meant...... "Did you cast the Spectral Vision spell Sweetie Belle?" Rarity asked, narrowing her eyes. At this her little sister laughed nervously and looked away while rubbing her left leg, telling Rarity all she needed to know. "Why would you do something like that? you could have hurt yourself!" She said in a scolding tone. Sweetie Belle looked at Rarity. "You cast it too." She pointed out quietly. "Because I have a better knowledge of using magic, with your inexperience you could have easily damaged your eyes or even your horn irreparably." Rarity scolded. At this, the creature stood up and walked out of the room, clearly seeking to avoid this. "And you!" Rarity snapped. The creature froze and looked at Rarity. "Don't you dare go anywhere! we are going to have a talk right here and now!" The mare stated firmly and angrily. The creature blinked. "You uh, realize I'm a ghost right? I could literally just avoid you all day." It said as though it were obvious. "Yes, but doing so would make me WANT to seal you away again." Rarity sat down at the table and glared at the two. "So you had better have a good explanation, starting with who and what you are exactly." She said firmly. The ghost sighed and began to hover just above the table. "Fine then.......i can't remember my full name just yet, but I do remember part of it, Alecia, as for my species, I am a ghost, fomerly a human." She then looked at Rarity. "I was trapped in that room for six hundred years, I couldn't leave or even move around that much." She paused and looked at Sweetie Belle. "I am also cursed, I cannot leave, I was barely even able to enter that building nextdoor and that was only for a few seconds at least." She paused when she saw Rarity's confused expression. "Please tell me you know what a human is?" Alecia said hopefully. When Rarity shook her head, the ghost sighed and explained what humans are. "Seriously, do they not teach you this stuff?" She asked. Rarity shrugged. "I was not big on history or other races for most of my school years, Twilight might know however." She stated, her anger having subsided a little bit. "As for why I'm here.......lets just say I had a disagreement with the owner after I became a ghost." Alecia said. "One thing led to another which led to me being sealed away in that room, I then spent six centuries in there until you two freed me." She explained in a bored tone as she hovered. "You don't seem too bothered by being stuck here." Rarity pointed out. Alecia huffed. "Again, six centuries, I'll take what little freedom I can get." She replied. "Um.....do you know how to break the curse?" Sweetie Belle asked quietly. Alecia rolled her eyes and looked at the filly. "Why would the person who sealed me here tell me how to undo it?" She asked curiously. "Now, since you opened the door, I can only assume you were never told I was in that room, but if you know someone who does know the secret, they might know how to undo the curse, until then you are stuck with me." Alecia stated as she hovered over to the floor and let her feet touch the ground, she then vanished from sight. Sweetie Belle looked at Rarity and leaned on the table. "So uh, how do we explain this to mom and dad?" She wondered. Rarity took a deep breath and stared at the table. "They already know the house is haunted, that or they believe it was you playing jokes somehow......I will tell them that I handled it, but for now, I am going to bed, it's been a long day for me." She stated before standing up and walking out of the dining room. Sweetie Belle sighed and stared at the wall opposite her out of boredom. "Now what am I supposed to do?" She wondered quietly. 'So Rarity's house is haunted, Alecia seems nice enough, Nightmare Moon is running around......maybe, and my parents are outside doing who knows what, why do I have a feeling that things are going to get weird around here?' She asked herself. One thing that Rarity did not realize however, was that after Aleica left, Sweetie Belle's eye had returned to normal. Author's Note Here's another chapter for you all! So now we meet the infamous ghost and have proven the claims of the town to be true, now the question is, what will happen now that they know about Alecia? (As a side note, have any of you thought about the advantage of using both a tablet and a laptop/computer to write fan fiction? you can write on one, while using the other to double check and make sure you haven't forgotten anything, I've never done it, but I probably should!) A revealing night.______*Ponyville, a few days later, 1:30 PM*______ Rarity walked through through the Ponyville market, she was simply shopping for groceries today, her latest shipment of materials came today which was a relief, she had been running low lately. The day was nice, the sun shined brightly but not too bright, and the clouds hovering overhead helped by giving some shade, there was also a slight breeze which helped the ponies to cool off. Of course, the day wasn't perfect, Rarity's parents and Sweetie Belle had left town, and Alecia didn't seem willing to talk much this morning. So Rarity walked in silence through the town, her down mood did seem to be noticed, but nopony spoke up about it, so about ten minutes later, Rarity had filled saddlebags and was walking home when she found Twilight looking around, seeing a chance to lighten her mood, Rarity trotted over. "Hello Twilight." She greeted. Twilight looked at her. "Oh uh.....hi Rarity." She replied, she seemed distracted. Rarity noticed this instantly. "Are you having trouble adjusting?" She asked simply. Twilight nodded and looked around. "Yeah, it's a bit overwhelming to move so suddenly, I'm trying to find a bookstore, the library is a bit......outdated." She replied, trying to find the right words to say without sounding insulting. Rarity smiled. "I'll show you where the bookstore is, I am in no hurry.." She said. "Thank you so much Rarity, this town is like a maze." Twilight replied. The two unicorns walked together and Rarity spoke up first. "Twilight, I was wondering if you might be able to help me with something." Rarity said. Twilight looked at her friend as they walked. "Uh, okay, what did you need?" She asked curiously, hoping that it wasn't about modeling or something. "I was hoping you might know something about humans, I've recently learned about them and I'm curious." Rarity said calmly. Twilight blinked but kept on walking. "I'm no expert on them........but i can tell you what I know." She paused as she summoned a scroll from somewhere. "Humans are a bipedal species with two arms, two legs, two eyes, ten fingers and ten toes." Twilight started as she summoned a quill and wrote what she said. "They lived one thousand years ago and died out before Nightmare Moon arose, there haven't been any descendants or hidden villages discovered, their usual lifespan is around sixty to seventy years, maybe more if they are lucky, for their height, humans are fragile, they bruise easily and are more vulnerable to poisons and toxins." She paused for a moment. "Their hands allow nimble manipulation of devices that ponies struggle with, and they were known to be quite agile and quick on their feet." She looked at Rarity who seemed to be in thought. "That's all I really know, why the interest though?" She asked curiously. Rarity shrugged. "As it turns out, my ancestors actually spoke with a human around six hundred years ago, I'm not sure what happened after that." She stated. 'Perhaps it's time for me to actually read grandfathers journal, it might help me to understand.' Rarity thought. Twilight sent the quill and scroll away and they soon arrived at a Bookstore called Quinn's. "This is our local bookstore, I hope you find what you are looking for." Rarity said. After saying farewell, Rarity went home while Twilight went inside the store. ______*Rarity's house, twenty minutes later.*______ Rarity sighed in relief as she sat down on her couch and relaxed, she had just spent the last fifteen minutes fixing the hole in her ceiling, and even though it had been cleaned up and the old ceiling had been removed already when her family was in town, she still had to find her tools and nails, and then she had to measure the materials and make sure she didn't mess up. And while it wasn't very physically draining, it was the amount of magical exertion combined with holding up everything at once, and even though she was able to easily manipulate her sewing needles and cloths, doing the same for numerous nails and the plywood, it want a perfect fix, but it would have to do until she could get the proper materials or a handyman to fix it correctly. Rarity rested her head on the couch and closed her eyes. "I think I'm going to miss the little kid." Alecia's voice said. "You might not be missing her for that long, my parents have a tendency to leave her with me for a week or more at a time." Rarity replied as she looked in the direction of the ghost. Alecia was currently looking out the window, watching as the ponies of Ponyville went about their day. "Don't they have a home?" She asked as she began to float, her expression was hard to read as she was very blurred. "They do, but they have to travel a lot for work, unfortunately this led to my grandfather raising me and me practically raising Sweetie Belle." Rarity said as she rested her head again. "What about you? what was it like where you came from?" She asked curiously. Alecia said nothing at first, but after a minute, Rarity spoke, her ears flat against her skull. "I.....I'm sorry if I brought up a sore-" "I don't remember." Alecia said, cutting her off. "If I'm being completely honest here? I barely remember anything before those six centuries, all I know is how long I've been a ghost, one part of my name, my species and my family, other than that? it's a blank, unless I focus really hard on it." She explained. Rarity sat up and looked at Alecia. "If you don't mind me asking, how long have you been a ghost?" She wondered. Alecia seemed to shrug as she answered. "One thousand and thirteen years, four months, three weeks and two days." She said casually. Rarity blinked as she stared at the ghost. "How can you remember that?" She asked curiously. Alecia floated over and stopped next to Rarity. "I'm a ghost that was stuck in a room for over six centuries, not much else to do but to count the days." The ghost replied. Before the unicorn could speak, Alecia spoke. "And no, I'm not in the mood to talk about my family, all human, good people, that's about the gist of it." She said before vanishing. Rarity stood up and stretched, she walked over to one of the windows and looked outside, the town had calmed down considerably from the attack, but many were still wary, not that anypony could blame them of course. This was part of the reason that her family left Ponyville, but she understood that much. Rarity sighed to herself, 'It really is lonely here.' She thought to herself. ______*one week later, 1:13 PM.*_______ Rarity was currently outside of the Golden Oaks library along with Applejack, Twilight and several of the townsponies, there was a massive storm scheduled today and they needed to hurry as they pulled some smaller trees down and removed anything that could easily destroy something in the wind, such as a large sledgehammer. While Rarity did of course complain about the storm, Applejack countered by stating that it had been a dry season lately and this storm was to make up for that. More than once, Applejack caught Rarity simply trimming the tree instead of felling it, which had evolved into a heated discussion about how bad of an idea that was. Rarity had countered by saying that knocking the trees down was a bad idea in of itself, as they were safer in the ground. The two were about to go at each other again when Twilight stepped in. "Hey! get inside! the storm is getting too strong!" She said. Rarity and Applejack were about to head to their respective homes when fierce winds, rain and lighting started to pelt Ponyville. They looked and saw that Twilight was inside the doorway to the library. "Get in!" She shouted. Applejack and Rarity immediately ran into the library and Twilight shut the door and locked it, she sighed in relief and looked at her two friends. "Are you alright?" Twilight asked. Rarity and Applejack nodded. "Well, it looks like we're stuck here until the storm passes." Applejack said. As she said this, Twilight got excited and suggested they spend the night, when they agreed, she pulled out a sleepover handbook, which exists for some reason. Rarity was especially amused during truth or dare, where Applejack had to wear a dress for ten minutes, it was almost worth getting drenched and her hooves getting covered in mud for, after that, it was Twilight's turn. "Alright Twi, truth or dare?" Applejack asked. Twilight tapped her chin and shrugged. "Truth." She replied. "Ok, is it true that you knew Nightmare Moon was going to show up?" Applejack asked. Twilight nodded calmly. "Yea, I tried to warn Princess Celestia, but she shrugged it off......at least it worked out though right?" She wondered. Rarity nodded before Applejack could respond. "It did work out, Princess Celestia has her sister back and Ponyville is returning to normal." She said. Twilight nodded. "Alright Rarity, truth or dare?" She asked. "Truth." Rarity said, not willing to risk another dare at the moment. After taking a moment to think of a question, Twilight spoke. "Please don't take this the wrong way, but are the rumors true? that your house is cursed or something?" She asked, not wishing to offend. Applejack was quiet as she waited for the white unicorn to answer, which she did. "In a way." Rarity replied, she held up a hoof to quiet them before they could speak. "My home is not cursed, it is haunted." She said. Twilight was silent for a moment before blinking, she seemed to be amused by something but didn't want to say anything. Rarity recognized the expression, she often saw it or even used it herself, she just laughed quietly. "Quite a claim no? but to answer your question, no it isn't cursed." She said finally. The statement caused them all to share a short laugh, that was of course, until Rarity's next statement. "Seriously however? it is haunted." She said. Before Twilight or Applejack could say anything however, all three of them gasped, but for different reasons, Twilight and Applejack because they watched as Rarity's left eye became a pale blue with a ghostly white mist like appearance. Rarity had gasped because she watched as a ghost walked right behind Twilight and up the stairs, it was clearly a pony but she was unable to determine what kind. "Rarity, your eye!" Twilight said, her eyes wide. "I am aware, would you like me to explain?" Rarity asked, turning her focus to her friends, who seemed creeped by her eye. Twilight nodded and Applejack shivered a little. Rarity shifted a little and got herself more comfortable. "It started a week before the Summer Sun Celebration, my family came to Ponyville for it and were staying with me for the week, that night, I found my sister upstairs, staring at the locked room, I unlocked it and we both entered, disturbing a salt line that had been all around the rooms walls, unbeknownst to us, we had released a ghost into the house." She took a breath and continued. "After a few days of this haunting, my sister had revealed that she found a spell in the library, it is called Spectral Vision, she had used it without telling me or considering the consequences." She sighed and shook her head. "Later, I used the spell myself and the next morning, I looked in the mirror and saw this." Rarity pointed at her eye. "And seeing as nopony noticed this change makes me believe that the change only occurs when we see a ghost." Rarity explained. "From what I was told however, my eye is always like this at home." She added. Twilight seemed thoughtful for a second before she spoke up. "Can I......see the spell?" She asked. Rarity nodded and stood up. "Let me find the book." She said as she walked to the bookshelves. It took a few minutes, but Rarity soon found the book containing the spell she cast, she opened it and flipped through the book until she found it, she then walked back over and sat down, showing Twilight the spell. Twilight took the book and began reading it, her eyes darted back and forth along the page as she read, soon she looked up. "This spell......I don't like it, there's too much risk." She said as she closed the book. Rarity nodded. "I am well aware of the risk I took, but when I cast it I was desperate to find a solution." She replied as she looked at Applejack who seemed to be lost in thought. "Now, let us get back to the game, I don't want to ruin the night anymore with all of this ghost talk." She said as she let out a small smile. The rest of the night was far from perfect, and after a heated argument between Rarity and Applejack, Twilight had shouted at them, stating that they practically ruined the night with their stupid arguments. A tree had also broken the window to the room, and Twilight refused to help get rid of it as she stopped caring how bad the night got. Which meant that Applejack and Rarity were forced to make up and work together to get rid of the tree, once it was gone, Twilight cast a spell and the window fixed itself, the two then sat down and had a long talk, ending in an agreement to try and tolerate the other more. In conclusion, the night wasn't amazing by any means, but it wasn't as bad as it could have been. And in the back of her mind, Rarity felt like life in Ponyville just got a lot more exciting. Author's Note Here you go! I wanted to do a short chapter at first, like 1k to 1400? but I decided not to do so. So here's a chapter for ya to read, and I hope you like it, if not, thanks for the read. Better days ahead._______*a week later, 9:00 AM.*______ Rarity opened her eyes to an invasive bright glare as she woke up, she groaned and covered her eyes with her right hoof, for some reason her curtain was wide open and sunlight shined through. "Wake up mare." Said a familiar ghostly voice. Uncovering her eyes, Rarity turned and glared at the ghost holding the curtain open, even though Alecia was heavily blurred, she could bet the ghost was grinning. "What is with you today?" Rarity asked as she stood up. "To be honest I'm just bored of doing nothing all day, you have no idea how boring it is not being able to actually leave the house." Alecia replied before reappearing at the door to the bathroom. "Now get up and get ready, I specifically remember you saying you had orders to fill." She stated before vanishing. Rarity sighed as she walked to the bathroom to get ready for her day. "It's too early for this." She complained quietly. After getting ready, Rarity went downstairs to get some food, on the way she noticed Alecia floating about, she simply grabbed a bagel from her fridge and put it in the toaster. "How exactly are you able to touch objects?" Rarity asked out of curiosity. Alecia floated over to the kitchen and spoke. "Heck if I know, my only guess is that it has something to do with force of will, or something I can't understand." She replied. "Why do you ask?" The ghost wondered. Rarity stretched a little bit to help loosen her joints. "I was curious, it is not often one can talk to a ghost after all." She answered as the bagel popped up. Alecia disappeared from sight and left Rarity alone as she buttered her bagel and ate. Once Rarity was done eating and she had cleaned up, she headed outside and to the Boutique. And now that she was alone once again, Alecia had only one thought on her mind. 'I wonder what would happen if Rarity came home and every single cabinet, door and drawer was open?' She wondered. ______*hours later, 5:12 PM*______ Rarity was walking through town with a more relaxed expression, she had finished working on a few orders and made incredible progress with another before heading to the Ponyville spa for the first time in a month Apparently, working on the decor for the Summer Sun Celebration, having your family visit out of the blue, discovering your home really was haunted, defeating Nightmare Moon, living with a partial amnesiac ghost, a tree smashing through the window and long work days caused an incredible amount of stress, which really surprised Lotus and Aloe. As she walked, Rarity noticed Spike our and about, he had a rapidly filling bag with him as he went from stall to stall, she decided to walk over and talk with the dragon. Spike noticed her approaching and his expression went from a bored one to an excited one. "Hey Rarity!" He greeted. Rarity smiled at him. "Hello Spike.....what are you doing?" She asked curiously. "And where is Twilight? I haven't seen her in a few days." She added. Spike looked at his bag and shrugged. "Picking up groceries, Twilight's been in 'research' mode for most of the week now, I'm just making sure we have what we need." He replied. Rarity raised an eyebrow. "What is research mode?" She asked. Spike rolled his eyes. "It's when she finds something that really catches her interest, she sorta just tunes the whole world out and focuses on what's she's researching." He explained, as if it were mundane to him. "That doesn't sound healthy for her at all." Rarity commented. Spike nodded. "It isn't, but I'm used to it by now, by the way, can I ask you something?" He wondered. Rarity gave a half shrug. "Of course." She replied. Spike scratched the back of his head as he spoke. "Well, you know how you gave me and the others a tour of the Boutique?" She started. After a confirming nod, the dragon continued. "I was wondering, what's with the bedrooms? i mean, your house is practically right next to it." He asked. Rarity understood what he was asking, and she replied easily. "Just in case, you see, the Boutique used to be a home, but I purchased it for my work, the two bedrooms, kitchen and bathroom are just in case I need to stay the night for whatever reason, I even have a spell on the building, it isn't perfect, but it keeps it mostly clean or helps keep food fresh." She explained. Spike nodded and looked at the bag on his back. "Well, I have to get back, bye Rarity." He said as he ran off. Rarity smiled and started to walk home, and on the way home, she ran into an all too familiar set of faces. "Oh hi Rarity, wasn't expecting to see you outside." Said the voice of Magnum. "We're sorry about the surprise visit, we really are." Betty added. Rarity nodded at her parents. "It's alright." She said before walking with them. _______*Meanwhile*______ Alecia would sigh from boredom, but she was bored of that as well, she floated around the house aimlessly and with no idea what to do next. She had already opened everything that could be open, and left them like that, she had also decided to put random things in random places, for instance, she put the butter in the cabinet for plates and bowls, and the small plates in the silverware drawer. But as she floated aimlessly, Alecia pondered on how to cure her boredom, she had no way of breaking the curse, and if she had a stomach, she would have vomited at the thought of continuing to count her time as a ghost. Most would assume that ghosts would have nothing to be angry about, but that's not true, at least in Alecia's case, her anger mostly came from boredom and being stuck in a house. Eventually, Alecia felt her anger reach its limit. "Grrraaaaaaa!" She screamed out of frustration, she raised her ghostly fists into the air. After she was finished, Alecia just grumbled and floated around, closing the cabinets, doors and drawers as she went, she tuned out the world around her and did this throughout the house. _______*ten minutes later.*_______ Rarity was now alone walking through town, her parents had gone searching for Sweetie Belle, as they walked, her parents asked if she was willing to let her stay in Ponyville, her sister had liked the small town more than any of the other towns or cities she had visited. And while Rarity was all too happy to accept, the choice was ultimately Sweetie Belle's, so while her parents searched for her sister in town, she decided to go back home, she had a feeling that her sister would want to check up on the resident ghost. Rarity passed Rainbow Dash on the way home, and the Pegasus talked to her, mostly asking her if she was messing with Twilight and Applejack about the whole ghost thing, to which Rarity of course said that she wasn't lying. "Prove it then." Rainbow Dash said as she hovered next to the unicorn mare. "Bring us all over at one time, and prove that there's a ghost, and heck from what Applejack said, it sounds like you can talk to them." She shrugged. Rarity sighed as she walked. "This isn't up to me, it is up to her, I can ask if she's willing to prove this to you all, but that's all." She said. "Go ahead then, I'll see you around." Rainbow Dash said before flying off. Rarity just shook her head. "That mare." She mumbled. Rarity eventually reached her house and walked to the door, she opened it and walked inside, she then closed the door and looked around. Rarity noticed a familiar pair of saddlebags and sighed in relief, she then called out. "Alecia?" She said. Soon enough, the ghost in question appeared in front of Rarity.......right next to her face. "Gah!" The mare cried out as she jumped. Alecia laughed quietly, her blurred form floating in place. "Can I help you?" She then asked. Rarity took a deep breath and spoke. "Did anypony come inside?" She asked, pointing at the saddlebags. Alecia nodded and floated to the bags. "Yea, little girl, unicorn with white fur, claims to be your sister." She replied calmly. The ghost then planted her feet on the ground. "it was a pleasant surprise when she got here, I wasn't expecting her at all, talk about surprises." She added, with an amused tone. "So, where's the family? and how long is the kid staying this time?" She asked curiously. "First off, I didn't know they were coming." Rarity replied. "And second, they will probably come here soon, third? that decision is Sweetie Belle's, not yours, not my parents, not mine." She added. Alecia nodded again. "Can I ask one last question?" She wondered. "Of course." Rarity replied. Alecia crossed her arms. "Who was that Pegasus you were talking with? and why did you seem fed up?" She asked. Rarity blinked as she stared at the ghost in shock. "H-how did you see me talking with?.......I wasn't even near the house!?" She asked. Alecia shrugged and pointed up. "I was on the roof, after a lot of experimenting, I learned that as long as I keep touching the house, I can go a short distance away." She explained. Rarity nodded in understanding as she calmed down. "You must have very good eyesight to have seen that." She muttered. "Anyway, where is Sweetie Belle?" She asked. Alecia pointed towards the dining room. "She's waiting for me to get back so we can finish our game." She replied before vanishing. With that, Rarity walked to the dining room, she entered it and saw that Sweetie Belle was playing Game of Life......or rather, just trying to start it. "Perhaps I can help?" She offered. Sweetie Belle smiled and ran over to Rarity, she hugged her excitedly. "Hey Rarity! and uh......" She blushed out of embarrassment. "Yea, I could use some help." She said quietly. Rarity gave her sister a smile and walked over with her before sitting, she looked at Alecia. "How long were you trying to set up?" She asked, pointing to the open instructions and splayed cards. Alecia shrugged. "A few minutes." She replied with a nonchalant tone. "It would have been faster if I could understand your written language." She added. Rarity then looked at her sister who seemed to be calming down, she sighed and cleaned everything up, shuffling the cards and setting them down with her magic, she then ensured that the board was set up before speaking. "Alecia, do you know how this game works?" She asked. Aleica shook her head. "Believe me, I tried to find a memory of this game, couldn't." She said as she leaned back. "That's fine, I'll explain it." Rarity said as the three chose their pieces, Rarity chose the green carriage, Sweetie Belle chose blue, Aleica took red, both Rarity and Sweetie Belle chose the pink piece, while Alecia grabbed a blue. After they were ready, Rarity explained the rules of the game, how to win and to play. Eventually, the game ended with Rarity in first, Sweetie Belle in second, and Alecia in last, and while they were cleaning up, they heard a knock on the front door. Rarity stopped doing what she was doing and walked to the front door, she opened it and saw her parents. "Rarity, is Sweetie Belle here?" Betty asked. With a nod, her parents visibly relaxed. "Thank Celestia...." Magnum replied before staring at something in the house. Rarity looked back and saw Alecia carrying the Life box to the living room. "I'm just going to assume the ghost.....Alecia was it? is still here?" Betty wondered. Inside, Alecia noticed Rarity's parents staring. "They......can't see me can they?" She asked. "I'm afraid not." Rarity said before looking at her parents. "She's still here, but she is annoying at worst." She replied. "I heard that!" Alecia called out from the dining room. Rarity let her parents inside and led them to Sweetie Belle. And while it appeared that the filly was talking to somepony who wasn't there, they all knew the truth, she was talking to Alecia. Alecia stood up as Rarity sat down with her parents. "This is family business I'm guessing." She muttered before vanishing. ______*the next day, 4:00 PM*______ Alecia laid back on the roof of the house, staring up at the bright blue sky, white clouds occasionally floated by, and even the occasional Pegasus flew by heading somewhere. She sighed to herself and closed her eyes. 'At least with the kid here, I won't be as bored now.......at least, that's the hope.' She opened her eyes and blinked in wonder. "That's odd." She muttered. Alecia stood up and watched as an unfamiliar blue whisp of smoke flew down at the house from the sky, it went right through the roof and went inside. "Well, I wanted excitement." She whispered to herself before going down into the rest of the house, she saw the smoke slowly expand and take on a new form, at first it appeared to be a unicorn, but then it grew wings......and then it grew in size until it was at least double Rarity's height. And then the shape gained color and became more clear, it was a mare as was obvious due to the muzzle, it's fur was a very dark blue, it's mane and tail were a wispy blue smoke and its cutie mark was a real crescent moon with a dark blue splotch behind it, the mare raised itself off the floor and looked around. "You mind telling me why you are in my room? Alecia asked. The mare flipped around and her horn glowed furiously, her cyan cat-like eyes glared at the ghost. "Who are you!? and where.....wait, a human?" The mare seemed perplexed before returning to her threatening stance. "Where am I human?" She questioned. Alecia crossed her arms. "First off, you barged into MY room, second, you can't hurt me even if you tried, so threats won't work." She stated. In response, the mare fired a blast of magic from her horn, it simply passed right through Alecia and through the wall, with a sigh, Alecia shook her head as the mare stared in confusion. "I don't understand." The mare muttered. The mare growled and marched up to Alecia. "What have you done human!?" She snapped angrily. Alecia raised an eyebrow. "Me? nothing, and seeing as you don't have that eye and can see me, I can only assume you are dead." She replied. The mare reached out and her hoof went through Alecia, she pulled it out and growled. "Impossible! I am immortal, I cannot die!" She stated, anger and confusion were clear in her voice. Alecia shrugged. "And yet here we are, if you want to leave I won't stop you." She said before appearing at the door to leave the room. The mare seemed skeptical, but followed Alecia as she led her to the front door, when they reached the door, Alecia leaned against the wall. "Here's the door, have fun out there." She said casually. The mare scoffed. "Be grateful I wasn't able to harm you." She stated before lighting her horn, she tried to turn the doorknob but was unable to do so. Alecia couldn't help but smirk inwardly as the mare grew increasingly frustrated, she attempted to turn the knob with her hoof but her hoof went straight through. "Just walk through it." The ghost stated. The mare growled quietly and proceeded to walk out the door, Alecia walked to the steps and sat down. "That was fun while it lasted I guess." She mumbled. It wasn't long however, until Alecia heard screaming, followed by the mare flying through the air in a familiar manner.. "Aaaah!" The mare cried out as she landed on the floor of the living room. Alecia blinked and looked at the mare who stood up and glared at her angrily. "What was that!?" She demanded to know as she marched over. With a shrug, Alecia spoke. "If I had to guess? I would say that it was the curse that keeps me trapped here, but I didn't know it could affect others." She replied as she stood up. After some internal thought which lasted a few minutes, the mare spoke again, in a much more calm tone. "Where am I exactly?" She asked. "We're in a house that's at least six centuries old, it currently belongs to a unicorn mare named Rarity, you can call me Alecia by the way." The ghost said as she crossed her arms. The mare stared at Alecia for several moments before speaking. "My name is Nightmare Moon.....is this, Rarity? the reason we are trapped here?" She asked. Alecia laughed quietly at the question. "No, I remember the people who did this to me, and she wasn't one." She replied. Nightmare Moon stared at Alecia curiously. "Have you not discovered a way to get around the curse?" She asked. "If I did, I wouldn't be here now would I?" The ghost replied as she walked to one of the windows, she then watched the outside world. "Right now I'm waiting on them to get home." She looked at the mare. "I advise that you hide until I break the news about a second ghost." She stated before looking outside again. Nightmare Moon glared at Alecia. "Why do you call me a ghost?" She asked. "You walk through walls, your magic doesn't work, your eyes are normal and you can see me, simple logic." Alecia replied. Nightmare Moon sighed. "Where exactly should I hide?" She asked. Alecia shrugged. "The room we met in, isn't it obvious?" She wondered as she looked outside. The mare headed upstairs, complaining about annoying humans all the way, Alecia simply chuckled. "At least I'm not alone in this anymore." She muttered. Author's Note Here's another chapter for you guys, and things get back to normal........kind of, maybe....ok, not at all. In this one, Sweetie Belle returned, Rainbow asks that Rarity prove Alecia exists, and more. More haunting._______*Ponyville, Rarity's house, the next day, 1:21 PM*_______ Nightmare Moon groaned in frustration as she rebounded back into the house after her seventh attempt to leave. "Why can't I leave!?" The Alicorn screamed. Meanwhile, Alecia watched with a bored yet amused expression, she simply sat back on the couch, reclining, angering the mare even more with the physical action. "Another thing! how are you able to touch objects or even interact with them! while I cannot!" She snapped. "Because I want to do it?" Alecia offered as she went back to staring at the ceiling. Nightmare Moon's left eye twitched violently, she once again attempted magic, but it did nothing at all. "Will you stop trying to leave already? I already told you, ghosts can't leave, at least to my knowledge." Alecia said as she closed her eyes. Nightmare Moon looked at Alecia. "I would rather keep fighting this imprisonment than be trapped once again.....and stop calling me a ghost, I am NOT dead!" She demanded as she cast another useless spell. Alecia just shook her head. "Just keep it down." She muttered. The Alicorn attempted to get away from the house several more times, and at some point she tried to blow the house up, but they all met in failure, after a half hour of sulking, Nightmare Moon approached Alecia. "Why can't I see you properly?" She asked. Alecia opened her eyes and looked at the mare. "I've been a ghost for a long time, and most of that time I was trapped, constantly weak and unable to do anything other than move my eyes, so as far as i can tell, It's a side effect." She answered. Nightmare Moon looked around as she talked. "So, this is the home of one of the Element Bearers?" She asked. "Sure, not that it matters to us, we can't exactly do anything with that information as ghosts now can we?" Alecia replied. Nightmare Moon glared at the ghost. "I did NOT die, I am NOT a ghost, so stop calling me one!" She snapped, her eyes glaring daggers. Alecia chuckled. "The sooner you accept the truth, the better off you will be, but whatever, keep your delusions." She said as she closed her eyes again. _______*Meanwhile.*_______ Sweetie Belle walked through town, eager to truly explore it for once, usually when she came to visit, she never really got to go anywhere, this time however, she was determined to explore on her own. So she walked through town, she was in the shop portion of town, where there were mostly stores or businesses. Sweetie Belle hadn't been to this part of town yet, so she was looking around, examining every detail, however she stopped paying attention to where she was going, and ended up walking into somepony. She and the other pony fell to the ground. "Oof." They both said. Sweetie Belle looked up and saw a Pegasus filly with orange fur and an unkempt purple mane and tail, no cutie mark and purple eyes, her wings were very small. "I'm sorry, are you alright?" She asked out of concern as she stood up. The filly stood up and looked at Sweetie Belle. "Yea, I'm alright......we uh, should really watch where we are going huh?" She said with a nervous chuckle. Sweetie Belle nodded. "Yea....um." She paused for a moment before offering her hoof in a hoofshake. "I'm Sweetie Belle, and I'm sorry for bumping into you." She said with a small smile. The filly returned the gesture and shook Sweetie's hoof. "I'm Scootaloo, and it's my fault too, I wasn't watching where I was going." She replied before stretching a little bit. "So uh, Sweetie Belle? maybe you could show me around town? I'm kind of new." Scootaloo asked. Sweetie Belle scratched the back of her head. "Truth is, I only really know the market and a little bit of this part of Ponyville, so I won't be much of a guide." She said quietly. Scootaloo didn't seem bothered by this. "Then let's explore together! we can save so much time that way!" She stated, her personality just screamed energy. Sweetie Belle considered for a while, before eventually agreeing. "Let's go then." She said. With that, the two fillies explored the town together, stopping at a few places to browse or even just rest. ______*Hours later.*______ Rarity sighed as she walked up to the front door of her house, it had been a long day at work, and she just wanted some alone time to cool off. She opened the door and stepped inside, she closed the door and looked around, she saw Alecia sitting in the middle of the floor in the living room, she was about to talk when she heard another voice. "This house is far too small, how you did not lose your mind is beyond me." A hauntingly familiar voice said. Rarity felt her heart pound while her eyes widened as the owner of the voice walked into the room, a very familiar Alicorn mare that she hoped to never see again. Nightmare Moon was in her living room, looking around with an aggravated expression, she then looked at Alecia and paused as her gaze landed on Rarity. Alecia looked over her shoulder and shrugged. "Better sooner than later I suppose." She muttered. Nightmare Moon growled and her horn glowed, firing a magic blast at the unicorn. Rarity cried out as the blast.......went straight through her? she waited for a few moments before opening her eyes, she looked around and blinked. "I.....what happened?" She asked curiously as she stared at the equally shocked face of Nightmare Moon. Alecia stood up and floated over to Rarity. "Allow me to introduce our new ghost, Nightmare Moon." She said as she looked at the Alicorn. "This is Rarity, the owner of this house." She added. Needless to say, Rarity screamed loudly for a good ten seconds before fainting, leaving Alecia to carry her to the couch. _______*later that day.*_______ Rarity sat at her dining room table, silently sipping on some wine that she had hidden away for special occasions, only now she simply wanted to try to ease her mind, for what it was worth. It was now seven fifty four and she had only woken up a half hour ago, Alecia had explained things as best as she could, but it was still a shock to learn that Nightmare Moon was now here in her house, Rarity took another sip and heard the front door open. "Rarity! I'm back!" Sweetie Belle's voice called out. Rarity sighed and stood up, she walked to the front door and saw her sister, she smiled. "Welcome back Sweetie Belle." She said. Sweetie Belle smiled at first, but her smile faded when she saw Rarity's face. "Are you ok? you don't look so good." She asked. Rarity nodded. "I will be alright, I just had a long day." She replied simply as her sister closed the door. Sweetie Belle gaze her sister a curious gaze as she walked to the stairs. "If you say so." She mumbled before heading to her room. Rarity took the time to put her wine away and cleaned up, as she put her glass in the sink, she spoke. "Alecia, are you listening?" She asked quietly. Not a few seconds later, Alecia appeared on the other side of the counter. "I'm here, what do you need?" She asked as she leaned on the counter. "Do you think I should have told her the truth?" Rarity asked. Alecia seemed to think on it for a moment before shrugging. "Look, I'll let you in on something, I had a little brother, I loved him, and I still do, but as much as we trusted the other, we still kept secrets." She then began to float up until she was over the counter. "She will find out eventually, i advise you to say something and give her a heads up, better than finding out from out of the blue like you." She stated. Rarity sighed as she rubbed her forehead. "If my parents ever find out who's in the house, I'll never live it down......and they probably won't let Sweetie Belle visit again." She said with worry as she leaned her left foreleg on the counter. "Look, I'll do what I can to help Nightmare Moon adjust, as well as to keep damage to a minimun, you just work on breaking the news to your sister." Alecia said before vanishing, Rarity sighed to herself once again as she walked to the stairs. Rarity headed upstairs and stopped when she heard Sweetie Belle talking. "Is she alright?" Her voice asked. Alecia could be heard next. "She is, like Rarity said, she had a long day." The ghost said. Rarity stopped listening in and walked up, she headed for her room and opened the door, she entered her room and closed the door. Upon turning around she felt her heart skip a beat as she stared into the cat-like eyes of Nightmare Moon. "Let's get one thing straight, we are still enemies, the only reason I will not be harming you is because i cannot do so, but once I learn how to interact with the physical world once again, you had best watch your back." The Alicorn warned before leaving the room. Rarity took a few moments to calm down before walking to her bathroom, she then washed her makeup off and headed straight for her bed, she climbed under the covers and closed her eyes. "Why me?" She asked herself as she drifted off to sleep. Author's Note A bit shorter but still important nonetheless. This is mostly because I didn't feel up to making another 4K word chapter for once. History lessons with the supernatural.______*the next day, Ponyville, 3:00 PM*______ Rarity once again found herself walking through town, this time however she was going to the Library to visit Twilight. The mare had practically holed herself up in the library for a while, only occasionally leaving to get some air, she had stated that she was working on a project when asked what she was up to, but she refused to say any more. Rarity had also done everything she could to break the news about Nightmare Moon being in the house gently, Sweetie Belle's response was simple and expected, she immediately evacuated the house and ate her breakfast outside, it took fifteen minutes to just get her to calm down, and another ten to get her back inside. Sweetie Belle had simply cleaned up and then left the house, saying she would be back later. Rarity was now walking to the Golden Oaks Library, hoping that talking to Twilight would help raise her spirits, or even to help her with the curse on her home. A cool breeze blew through town and a low hanging white cloud zoomed by, Rarity blinked and watched as the cloud flew off into the distance, she simply shrugged and continued walking, saying hello to the ponies who greeted her. After a few more minutes of walking, Rarity arrived at the tree, she walked up to the door and knocked on the door, she heard some talking on the other side but she couldn't make out what was said. Soon though, the door opened to reveal Twilight standing on the other side. "Rarity! just who I was going to look for!" She said, moving to allow her friend inside. Rarity noticed that Twilight looked tired, she had dark circles under her eyes and they seemed to be a little bloodshot. "Twilight dear, are you alright?" She asked out of concern as she walked inside. Twilight nodded before yawning. "Yea.......just a little tired, regardless! I figured it out!" She stated with a large smile. Rarity looked around and saw numerous books lying around seemingly haphazardly, there was a large blackboard with chalk lines making what appeared to be formulas and theories. "Figured what out?" She asked. Twilight floated over a familiar book. "The Spectral Sight spell! it works but it has a terrible flaw, one that I have successfully fixed!" She stated happily. Rarity blinked and raised an eyebrow. "What exactly does that mean?" She asked out of genuine curiosity. At this, Twilight happily went into 'lecture mode' to explain. "Normally, Spectral Sight requires that the caster relive their most tragic memory and risk their most precious one to act as a mental safeguard, but with the version I created, you can give the Sight to anypony without such risk.......and all it takes is a little magic!" She explained. At Rarity's confused expression, Twilight cleared her throat. "Well......basically, by using some magic, I can give anypony the ability to see ghosts or spirits, sadly, I can't undo the old version......I'm afraid your stuck with it." She explained, she seemed to be upset that she couldn't help. Rarity smiled. "Think nothing of it Twilight dear, I'm used to how my eye changes, as for the memories? I can't do anything about it......so why worry about it right now?" She asked. Twilight lit her horn and the books started to go back onto the shelves, after they were all away, Twilight took a deep breath and looked at Rarity. "Can I ask you something?" She asked curiously. "Of course, what is it?" Rarity replied, walking over and picking up a letter, it had the details of the new spell. "Who is the ghost in your house?" Twilight asked. At this, Rarity sighed, she set the letter on Twilight's desk. "Unfortunately, there is another ghost in my home, making it two.......the first ghost is Alecia, a human who was cursed to be bound to the home forever, you......aren't going to like who the second ghost is." She stated. After Twilight got over the initial shock of what Alecia was, she spoke. "Who is it?" She asked, genuinely curious. Rarity looked right at Twilight, she waited a little before speaking. "Nightmare Moon." She stated. At the mere mention of that name, Twilight's eyes widened, her jaw dropped, and her hairs stood on end. "B-b-but that's impossible! we freed Luna!" She stated. Rarity nodded. "We did, but nevertheless, she is there, and not exactly in a forgiving mood, personally I'm still shaken up about it, the air in my house is tense lately." She replied. Twilight seemed to ponder this for a while before speaking. "Well......we can't just leave her there unattended, what do you think about us all going and seeing this for ourselves?" She asked. "I have no problem with this, but I must warn you.....Alecia is a bit odd." Rarity replied. _______*later, 5:00 PM*_______ Rarity stood outside her house with Twilight, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, at first, Rainbow Dash was by far the most skeptical out of them all, but they were all a little concerned about Nightmare Moon being there. "I did forget to mention one thing however." Twilight said before they could go the front door. "I also have another spell, it's an old one, but it's supposed to reveal a ghost or spirits true self, of course, this was back when superstition ran wild, so it may or may not work." She explained. "Assuming there is a ghost!" Rainbow interrupted as they headed to the door. Rarity walked up to the front door. "Welcome to my home everypony." She said as she opened the door and let them inside. After everypony was inside, Twilight lit her horn and began to cast her spell on them all, all they could feel was a slight tingle but that was it. Once she was done, Rarity looked at her friends, they were looking around curiously. "Do you want me to call them?" She asked. Rainbow crossed her hooves. "Sure, why not call Nightmare Moon here? nothing could go wrong." She said dismissively, she was sarcastic, but in truth, she seemed a little curious. Rarity rolled her eyes, she then opened her mouth. "Alecia I'm back!" She called out. Almost immediately a familiar female voice spoke up from the living room. "I'm dead Rarity, not blind or deaf." The six mares looked and five of them were startled, Rarity was actually surprised as Alecia was no longer blurred out, she could actually make out the details of the ghost. Alecia was laying on the couch looking up at the ceiling, her skin was a pinkish white. (basically she looks like a white female, I'm just describing it like this because I am too lazy to learn the actual color of skin.) Her eyes were dark blue with a strange purple glow in them, her hair was a slightly faded dark red with purple streaks, she wore a pair of thick black pants of some kind, she also had a white shirt on, as well as a dark green shoulderless vest, her face was slightly rounded, her nose was small. "Thanks for the spell by the way, it's annoying not being able to see your fingers accurately." The ghost wiggled her fingers for emphasis. Rarity looked around a little before Alecia spoke. "She's upstairs brooding, don't bother her right now." Alecia said. Rainbow Dash was the first to speak up. "Your a ghost?" She asked curiously. Alecia nodded and promptly stared at the ceiling again. "You don't look like a ghost." The Pegasus stated. Rarity sighed as the others gasped, Alecia had immediately disappeared from sight, and then they all jumped when they heard her behind them. "And you look like a child's art project, I wasn't going to say it, but it's true." Alecia countered as she walked through the Pegasus, sending an unnatural chill through her. "I have admit it though, the rainbow hair does look cool, even if you do look like a doodle." The ghost said as she turned to face the mares, crossing her arms, strangely enough, a spark of black electricity arced across her arms for a brief second. "Alecia, leave the poor mare alone, she doesn't need you haunting her." Rarity said. Alecia raised an eyebrow and looked at Rarity. "I've been stuck in this house for six centuries, and an opportunity to have some fun shows up, of course I'm going to take it!" She countered easily. Twilight spoke up as she approached. "Excuse me, not to be rude......but could you tell me why your here? or what it's like to be a ghost?" She asked out of curiosity. Alecia shrugged and began floating, she held her arms behind her head and closed her eyes. "Being a ghost is mostly boring, maddening at first, but I got used to it.......its different for everyone though, so I can't give you a general idea." She then looked up at the ceiling. "As for why I'm here? I was sealed away in a room for six centuries and unable to do anything execpt count the time." She looked at unicorn. "I heard about you Twilight Sparkle." She said, surprising the mare. "You love to learn new things like a scientist, but you also like to document your discoveries more like an archeologist." Alecia then vanished and a second later was in front of Twilight's face, almost giving the mare a heart attack, while also sending a chill down her spine. "Let me ask you something, are humans considered common knowledge?" She asked. Still recovering from the immediate shock, Twilight answered. "Um.....could you be more specific?" She asked. Alecia sighed and walked through Twilight and spoke. "What I mean is this, is knowledge about humans restricted, or do people just see no need to learn about them?" She asked, slightly annoyed. The other four mares talked amongst themselves while Twilight thought on her answer, and after a minute, she spoke. "As far as I know, it isn't illegal to learn about humans." She said. Alecia shook her head and lifted herself off the ground so that she was floating a couple of feet in the air. "Disappointing, anyway, I can tell you have questions, so go ahead and ask, and all I want in return, is for one simple thing.......but that can wait." She said, she then held up her hand. "Two questions each, just to make sure you don't ask stupid ones." She added with a grin. Before Twilight could speak, Rarity spoke up. "Do humans need to wear clothing? or is it just a choice?" She asked curiously. "Of course the fashion pony asks that." Alecia muttered quietly. "It's both a survival and modesty thing, the human body can survive some strange eviroments on its own, clothing helps with the colder and wetter ones, modesty? that should be obvious as to why and I am done answering that question." She stated firmly as she closed her eyes, slowly floating around the group. "How many humans were there back where you used to live?" Rarity asked. Alecia shrugged. "I don't know the exact number, but they had three kingdoms, and they did take up vast amounts land.....so maybe?.......a few million give or take?" She estimated. Twilight had been taking notes on a piece of paper with a quill she got from somewhere. "You misspelled kingdoms." Alecia pointed out from behind the mare. Twilight once again jumped in surprise, she took a few deep breaths and examined her notes. "Ooh ooh! me next! me next!" Came Pinkie Pie's voice. Alecia looked at the pink earth pony with a raised eyebrow, she then went back to floating around. "Alright then, what are your questions?" She asked. The pink mare bounced over as she spoke. "Do humans have any interesting party games?" She asked eagerly. Alecia smirked. "Unless you count ale pong, then no." She replied. Pinkie paused for a moment before speaking again. "What's ale pong?" She asked curiously. "It's a game played between two people, there are ten cups placed in a pyramid shape, every time you get a ball in, you have to drink, it gets harder as you go on." Alecia explained simply. [1] "Why would it get harder?" Pinkie asked. Alecia wiggled her finger back and forth. "Ah ah ah, that was your last question." She chided. Applejack pulled Pinkie aside and started to talk to her while Rainbow Dash flew up to the ghost and looked her in the eye, the ghost just stared back, unmoving. "So.......who managed your weather? or did humans have magic for that?" She asked. Alecia grinned and planted a finger on the pagasus' forehead. "No one managed it, they survived without it being controlled, and humans don't have magic." She then pushed lightly on Rainbow Dash's forehead. "By the way, that was two questions." She teased. Twilight was about to talk when Applejack stepped up. "What was the currency for humans? Ah'm curious." She asked. Aleica looked at the earth pony. "Similar to ponies, they used silver or pyrite coins, pyrite might not have been real gold, but it was incredibly common so they used it as the basic currency, silver was far more valuable." She stated calmly. Applejack thought on her next question for a moment before speaking. "Why were humans split into three kingdoms?" She asked. This question definitely made Twilight ready to write. "Cultural differences." Alecia said simply. "They each had their own cultures and the people often clashed with one another about it, so they divided the human lands into three, made three kingdoms and declared themselves independent of one another." She shrugged. "Not that it matters much now though." She muttered. "Okay, my turn." Twilight said. Alecia turned her attention to Twilight. "What is this, a game?......nevermind." She muttered. "Do all humans look similar to you?" Twilight asked. "No." Came Alecia's immediate reply. The speed of the reply stunned Twilight for a moment, but she continued. "I see, then would I be correct in assuming that you had somepony enchant your eyes to look like that?" She asked. "Next question." Alecia said, she no longer looked neutral and she actually seemed to be......upset? she wasn't even floating now. "I.....was just-" Twilight didn't get to finish her sentence before the ghost held a hand up, silencing her. "It actually doesn't bother me, but I would prefer not to answer that question right now, I'll give you your question back." She replied. Taking the hint to change the subject, Twilight spoke. "What do most humans look like then?" She asked. Alecia soon perked up a little at that, as she was now floating around just like before. "Black, brown, red or blonde, hair, as well as varying shades of them......age or too much stress can cause hair to go gray or white." She then stretched her limbs. "Skin color is similar to mine for most, but there are those who have pale or dark skin, but I personally haven't seen many of them." Alecia paused as Twilight wrote this down. "The human male averages around five foot to six foot three or some crap, never cared to learn the specifics." Alecia continued. "The human female averages around five foot to five foot seven or eight." She stated. Twilight wrote down her findings and much to the surprise of the five mares, Fluttershy spoke up. "I-if you don't mind me asking.......what kind of animals were in the human lands?" She asked. "Boars, pigs, cows, deer, chickens, foxes, bears, wargs." Alecia replied. Fluttershy seemed curious as the last species. "I've never heard of wargs, what are they? don't you mean wolves?" She asked curiously. Alecia shook her head. "Wargs are cousins of wolves, giant creatures that are twice your size, wild ones are very hostile and protective of their territory, but if you befriend one? you have a lifelong companion." She stated before setting her feet on the floor. Once Twilight finished writing down her notes, she looked up at Alecia. "I have one last question, this is completely serious and i would appreciate it if you answered it." She said. Alecia thought on it for a moment before shrugging. "Nightmare Moon isn't a threat, she doesn't know how to interact with the physical world like I do, but with my help she'll be good to go in about.......a week?" She replied, apparently knowing the question. "Why would you help her to be able to attack us without us being able to fight back?" Rainbow Dash demanded to know. Alecia gave the Pegasus a cold glare, she appeared right in front of her face. "Every ghost has the right to know how to interact with the physical world, whatever she did when she was alive is irrelevant to me, am I clear?" She asked in a flat voice. Rainbow nodded quickly and Alecia appeared in the living room, a smile on her face. "Good!" She said with a cheerful tone, apparently back to her more carefree self. "Now, if you don't mind, let me tell you what I want." She said. Alecia was instantly over by a window and looked outside. "I want you to find the source of this curse, not unreasonable, considering I'm giving you firsthand knowledge of my old species." She stated calmly. Twilight blinked in confusion for a moment, before she answered. "There is no such thing as a curse, maybe a spell with negative properties, but no curses." She stated. Alecia looked over at Twilight. "Bullshit, a negative spell requires a constant source of magic from the one who cast it, so unless an immortal cast it, which they didn't, it's a curse bound to something, feeding itself to last until broken.....believe me, I know." She went silent again as her expression darkened, she then stared out the window. Twilight lit her horn. "Fine, I'll scan for any magic, I should be able to detect anything keeping you here." She stated. However, as soon as Twilight cast her spell, a powerful surge shot through her horn, she cried out in pain and cut the spell, everyone looked at her in concern, Alecia was indifferent as she looked over. Twilight panted and took several deep breaths to calm down, after a minute or two, she spoke up again. "That......was weird." She muttered. Applejack walked over and checked for any obvious injuries. "What was weird?" She asked. "The exact second I cast my spell, there was magical feedback right away." She shook her head. Alecia sighed. "So you found nothing? wonderful." She muttered quietly. "Not necessarily." Twilight replied as she finally finished recovering. "I sensed something powerful, it was really strong but I wasn't able to pinpoint it." She explained. Alecia nodded and returned to looking outside. "I see.....thanks for trying I guess." She said. ______*the next day, 1:00 AM*______ Alecia stood in the downstairs bathroom staring into her reflection in the mirror. "That spell did more than I thought." She whispered to herself. The rest of the day had been alright, they talked for a while, mostly about what to do about Nightmare Moon, but it shifted to more lighthearted banter later on, they all left, and Rarity stayed to read one of her books. Alecia stared into her own eyes and felt sadness as she did so, she reached for them and felt the skin under her eyes, she closed her eyes and sighed. "What do you want Nightmare? I'm not in the mood." She stated. Nightmare Moon became visible, she was standing next to the door. "I am curious as to why your staring into your own eyes." She replied. Alecia looked at the Alicorn. "That's my concern, now leave me alone." She stated before vanishing. 'I need some quiet.' Alecia thought. Almost immediately she appeared on the roof of the house, she looked up at the sky and smiled. "At least the stars don't judge people." She whispered. And for hours, Alecia simply stared at the sky, content to just sit and admire the stars. Author's Note [1]I have no idea if this is how the game is actually played, and I changed the name because......well, why not? Here you go, another one! and this time you get a little information about this worlds humans, nothing special mind you, just some basics. Spark of bravery followed by mischief._______*Ponyville, three days later, Rarity's house, 3:00 PM*_______ Alecia and Nightmare Moon watched in curious amusement as Sweetie Belle paced frantically, the filly had come home mumbling. "What do I do? what do I do?" Of course, neither of the ghosts asked what was wrong, deciding to instead let the filly work it out, the only problem with this was that she had been doing this for thirty minutes, it was confusing for the first five, irritating for the next ten, and then amusing until now. The filly seemed to be going on and on, and for another two minutes she paced and muttered quietly to herself, and the two ghosts were now taking bets on how long she would go on like this. What were they betting you may ask? the only thing they had, dares and embarrassing stories. Soon, after hitting the forty three minute mark, Sweetie Belle looked at Alecia and Nightmare Moon. "Can you help me?" She asked. Nightmare Moon was the first to speak, giving a slightly confused expression. "I am not sure why you want ME of all ponies to help you, or what exactly you want?" She replied. "I was invited to Diamond Tiara's cu.....uh......" She paused for a moment before continuing. "Her party to celebrate her getting her cutie mark." She explained. [1] Alecia blinked. "So what's the problem?" She wondered. Sweetie Belle sighed. "Isn't it obvious? I don't have one! almost everypony in my class has one!" She pointed out, frustration was clear. "How are we supposed to help with that? and more to the point, WHY should we help?" Nightmare Moon asked, but before Sweetie could protest, the Alicorn mare held a hoof up. "In case you forgot, we can't leave the house, I can't interact with the physical world yet, and your sister is somehow responsible for this, and to that end, I have no desire to help her or give her any reason to bother me." The mare explained. "It may be selfish of me to say so, but I'm standing by it." She added. Alecia shrugged. "And on top of that, what does it matter if you have a cutie mark?" She asked, upon seeing the fillies wide eyes at her statement, the ghost rolled her eyes and appeared next to Sweetie Belle. "I don't have one, and yet I have things I'm great at doing, if you ask me, you shouldn't put too much stock into cutie marks, if it appears hurrah, if not? whatever." She then walked in front of the filly and looked down at her. "Why are you so concerned anyway? you don't even know this Diamond Tiara, not that much anyway." She wondered. Sweetie Belle went to speak again, but she stopped herself and thought on it for a while, she then looked at Alecia. "What do you think I should do? if she just wants ponies to be there, I should probably just avoid it right?" She asked. This time Nightmare Moon spoke up. "No, you should go." The mare walked over and sighed. "I can't believe I'm going to say this, but you'll be better off if you do go." She said. Alecia looked at her fellow ghost. "I didn't know you cared." She said. Nightmare Moon huffed. "I don't, but I am first and foremost a ruler, and it's my responsibility to ensure my subjects are safe and happy.......the latter comes second." She then looked at the filly. "Let me tell you the first thing I learned about pony society, when you are invited to a party, you have to attend unless you refuse then and there, or later if you tell them you'll think about it." She raised an eyebrow. "Did you refuse or say you'll think about it?" The Alicorn asked. Sweetie Belle shook her head. "No......but I don't think things are the same now as they used to be." She replied. Alecia rolled her eyes. "Look, the decision is up to you, we aren't going to even try to convince you to go or stay." She crossed her arms. "Now, let's change the subject, earlier at breakfast you wanted to talk to us about something, what was it?" She wondered. At the change of topic, Sweetie Belle seemed to calm down slightly. "Yea, I was just wondering if you could clarify a few things for me." She said. Alecia motioned for the filly to continue, and Nightmare walked over to the window and looked outside. "Ok......so how much weight can you lift? I mean, you don't have muscle." The filly wondered. Alecia smirked. "Believe it or not, muscle has no relevance to me anymore, it's all a matter of energy, the more energy I use up, the heavier I can lift, and the older the ghost, the more power they hold." She pointed down with a finger. "I can't exactly prove it right now, but if i tried, I could probably drag the house a little." Nightmare Moon gave Alecia a stare, comepletely doubting her. "And why do I doubt that?" She asked. Alecia shrugged. "Because your a pessimist." She stated before Sweetie Belle asked another question. "Do ghosts sleep at all?" The filly wondered. "Yes." The ghost replied as she let her arms hang at her sides. "Sleep is optional, I can't get tired, but I can be drained from using too much energy, time recovers me, sleep does give me a boost however, I'm guessing it's because then my mind rests when I sleep." She shrugged again. "Or its just coincidence." She added. "Do you dream at all?" Sweetie Belle asked. Alecia frowned for a split second before answering. "Yes, but it hasn't happened since I was sealed." She replied. Nightmare Moon spoke up next. "And if we can dream, then it's only a matter of time before Luna discovers us while dream walking, she of course will want my destruction." She stated calmly. Alecia looked at the Alicorn. "Your awfully calm about that." She observed, she appeared in front of the Alicorn. "You don't care if you get destroyed do you?" She asked. Nightmare sighed. "Luna doesn't know how to harm a ghost, let alone destroy one, so I have time to learn to interact with the physical world." She stated. Alecia stared deep into Nightmare's cat like eyes for a moment before speaking. "Your afraid of Luna, and why is that?" She asked. Nightmare rolled her eyes and walked through Alecia and towards the stairs. "I am not afraid of Luna, she is weak compared to me." She proclaimed. Aleica simply grinned. "And yet she's alive, and you are not." She stated before vanishing. Sweetie Belle looked over at Nightmare Moon who seemed annoyed, judging by the twitching eye. "Are you.....annoyed?" She wondered curiously. Nightmare Moon looked at the filly with a surprised expression. "No I am not!" She snapped, she then shook her head as she flew upstairs, muttering something under her breath. Sweetie Belle blinked. "Huh.....she really did seem annoyed." She said to herself before going back to her thinking. _______*Later, 4:13 PM*_______ Nightmare Moon watched in silence as Alecia stared into the bathroom mirror, the ghost hadn't moved for a long time, but a saddened expression was plain as day. 'At first, I brushed it off as her examine her face after not seeing it for so long, but now it seems like she's remembering something.' She thought. While the Alicorn disliked hiding, she was curious as to what was causing the ghost to be sad, then she blinked and looked away for a moment. 'Wait....why do I care? I just need this girl to help me escape and learn how to touch things again, why should I care what she feels?' She questioned herself. Upon looking back, and seeing Alecia looking at her with pained eyes, Nightmare sighed and walked to the empty room, her words from earlier haunted her. 'It's my responsibility to ensure my subjects are safe and happy.' She sighed. "What is wrong with me?.....must be this place." She muttered. Soon enough, Alecia entered the room with a neutral expression. "Did you meet any humans?" The ghost asked. Nightmare Moon shook her head. "No, i wasn't concerned with that, and now that I think about it, I was obsessed with eternal night." She replied. Alecia sat down on the floor and motioned for the Alicorn to join her, and while cautious, Nightmare did sit down with the ghost. "Back in the kingdom......well, empire really, that I lived in, it was considered rude and creepy to watch someone from afar." She looked at the Alicorn. "But if you really want to know what's going on inside my head, I have been digging through my memories, I'm almost done actually. and I would rather tell everyone at once, so please be patient, I just need to work up the nerve to do so." She said. "Are you afraid of that mare?" Nightmare asked with a perplexed expression. Alecia rolled her eyes. "No, but these memories aren't easy for me to talk about, so I would rather get it out only once." She stated. ______*a few days later*______ Sweetie Belle walked into the house with a large smile, she spotted Rarity who looked like she was in a sour mood, mostly because Alecia and Nightmare had grins on their faces, she looked at the ghosts. "What did I miss?" She asked. Alecia shrugged. "Simple mind games." She replied easily. "Seeing as I cannot yet touch objects or anything physical, we have been.......teasing, your sister." Nightmare Moon replied. Rarity gave the two a look that could kill........assuming they were alive, she then began to tell her sister what had happened. _______*earlier that day.*______ Rarity had just gotten out of bed and stretched her legs to work out any stiff muscles, she blinked and rubbed her eyes before walking to the bathroom, she walked through the open door and turned on the shower to have it start heating up. That was when she paused, she looked back and saw that the door was indeed open. "I could have sworn I closed it." She whispered before shaking her head clear. "Nevermind." She then opened the shower curtains and stepped into the shower, she closed the curtains and let the water soak in. "Raaarrrityy."A voice whispered into her ear. Rarity looked over her shoulder and saw nothing, she sighed to herself. "I must be losing it." She muttered. After she was ready, she grabbed the shampoo and opened it, but just as she went to apply it, the shower curtains opened quickly. "We're haunting you!" Both Alecia and Nightmare Moon stated loudly. Rarity reacted just as anypony could expect when faced with two ghosts that appeared as severed heads, she screamed. ______*later.*______ Rarity was now in the living room reading a book, her boutique was closed today and she intended to relax, she took a sip of her grape juice and set the cup down, she flipped the page and heard shuffling from the window behind her, she bookmarked the page before she set the book down and stood up. Rarity walked to the window and looked outside, she saw nothing at all aside from the townsponies going about their day, she walked to her chair and sat down, she shook her head and picked up her book. She opened it to her bookmarked page and screamed in terror as Nightmare Moon's head emerged from the page with a cry of fury. Rarity immediately ran away and headed outside. _______*the present.*________ "It was just harmless pranks." Alecia stated. Rarity's glare intensified. "Says the one scaring me half to death." She angrily said. Nightmare Moon shook her head and looked at the filly. "You seem to be in a good mood, what happened?" She wondered. Sweetie Belle smiled and told the two ghosts and her sister about her day, how she and her friend Scootaloo stood up for Apple Bloom, their new friend and swore to help each other find their cutie marks together. Rarity was proud and happy for her sister, while Alecia and Nightmare Moon were kind of indifferent, Sweetie Belle didn't seem to notice, and if she did she wasn't saying anything. Alecia began to float around as she talked. "Do they know about me and Nightmare?" She wondered. "Not that I know of......why?" Sweetie Belle replied as she watched the ghost. Alecia chuckled. "It'll be a great way to mess with them on Hallows Eve." She stated mischievously. Sweetie Belle glanced at her grouchy sister and looked at the ghost. "Maybe not, I don't want to scare them off." She replied. "Fair enough." Alecia said before vanishing. Author's Note [1]If someone could show me how to actually spell the word/words, that would be appreciated. .tsap seno desruc eht fo elaT______*Ponyville, Rarity's house, a week later, 7:24 PM*_____ The house was quiet and dark, all of the lights were off, save one, Twilight was staying the night along with Spike, who was absolutely horrified of the two ghosts at first. It had taken several hours to calm him down enough so that he wasn't actively avoiding them, and even then he was still wary, especially of Nightmare Moon. Now though, the three unicorns, the two ghosts and dragon were all downstairs in the family room, the furniture was repositioned so that they could all sit around the single lantern on the table. Most of the night was spent telling stories of all kinds, tall tales, family stories, funny ones, embarrassing ones even, so far, all but Nightmare Moon and Alecia had told a story. And after enough convincing, Nightmare told them all a horrifying story, involving special effects and sounds from her magic, which, while able to be used normally, couldn't affect the physical world correctly, which gave them all a ghostly echo or appearance, adding to the scare factor. Needless to say, after the Alicorn's story, the four living beings needed a break to calm down, leaving the ghost with a triumphant grin. "That was evil." Alecia said quietly as she sat on the couch. Nightmare looked at the other ghost with a smirk. "I can't do anything to them physically, so I might as well scare them." She replied in a whisper. A few minutes later, and the others returned, they took their seats. "So Alecia, what about you?" Rarity asked. Alecia looked at the unicorn. "I don't have any interesting stories." She said. "Over a thousand years old? and no story to tell?" Nightmare asked, clearly not believing Alecia. "I don't buy it, they may not be interesting to you, but they may be to us." She added. Sweetie Belle looked between her sister and the Alicorn. "I can't believe they are agreeing." She whispered. Alecia looked around the room, seeing them waiting made her sigh. "Well, what the hell? It can't hurt." She muttered. The ghost floated up and then above the lantern and spoke. "Alright listen closely, cause you got me in a good mood." She stated before telling her story. ______*A long time ago.*______ The air was calm today as the light shone brightly over the lush green fields and forests, there were no clouds today and the air was warm, in one of many forests were a group of people. Alecia ran through the forest, several sets of footsteps followed her as she ran, she looked around her environment quickly before she stopped moving, she then held her left hand up flat, and the footsteps slowed. "Captain?" A young male voiced said behind her. Alecia looked back at the others, three male humans wearing similar outfits to her own brown jacket and light leather pants, the only difference was that the three males each had a different colored eagle on the backs of their jackets. The first of the group was a six foot male with short black hair and a small mustache, he had wrinkles on his forehead and had hazel eyes, he was up there in years, but was still very fast, his name was Vigo. The second man in the group was six foot three and had balding brown hair, his almost pale skin contrasted with his dark green eyes, he had a rounded head and only had eight fingers, missing his right index and his left pinkie, his name was Karl, but most called him Eight. The last man was five foot seven tall, he had slightly tanned skin and had brown eyes, he had blonde hair that had recently been cut to a barely three inches long, he had smooth looking skin and was the youngest of the males, his name was Frederick. "Why are we stopping?" Frederick asked. Alecia blew a bit of her red hair out of her eyes. "We lost the trail, and you are going to find it." She said calmly. "But captain!..." He was cut off as Alecia raised her hand, silencing him. "Your my student Frederick, and it's time for a lesson on tracking." She motioned for him to follow and he did so. Alecia knelt down to the ground, nothing but leaves were in sight. "What are we supposed to see here? there's nothing but leaves." Fred wondered. "The leaves are both friend and enemy in forests Frederick, they can give away your direction, as well as to help you track your prey." She said as she pointed at small portion of leaves that were crushed. "These leaves were crushed by a boot, which means that he went this way, now, find the next clue." She ordered as she stood up and back up. Frederick took a few moments, but he eventually found the path and pointed them in the direction. "That way." He said. Alecia patted her student on the back. "Let's get moving then boys." She said before running in the direction of their prey. "Who were you chasing?" Rarity asked out of curiosity. "A criminal, he assaulted several citizens before resisting arrest, nothing more." Alecia said. "Now don't interrupt." She added as she continued. The chase went on for an hour, but the group eventually caught the man and arrested him, they brought him back to the nearby town. Alecia waited outside of the guard station with Frederick as the others went inside to deliver the criminal to the guards. "Captain, can I ask you something?" Fred asked. She looked at him and nodded. "What is it?" She wondered. Frederick seemed nervous, but he spoke anyway. "I uh.......well I was wondering, about the Lost Legion, what's it like?" He asked. Aleica chuckled. "Don't be so nervous rookie, the boys will sense it and pick on you for weeks." She rolled her eyes at the panicked man. "I'm joking by the way." This did little to ease his mind. "It's not that bad actually, we are just scouts and trackers, we don't do much frontline combat if any, we stick together though, we don't leave anyone behind and we cover each other's backs." She looked up at the clear sky. "We also take care of one another, despite our differences we are like one big family." She looked at Frederick. "You have nothing to worry about, just try to learn about how to fit in, don't butt in to the brawls, and most importantly, repay the trust we give with your own, loyalty is a big thing with us." She stated. Frederick nodded and crossed his arms, waiting for the others to come back out. It took a few minutes, but Karl and Vigo finally walked out. "He's in the guards custody now." Vigo said. With that, Alecia nodded. "Let's get going then." She said before started to walk. The three men followed her as they headed towards the current headquarters of the Lost Legion. "I thought we operated out of the capital?" Frederick said out of bewilderment. "The Legion doesn't operate out of just one place, our HQ is where we say it is, it pisses off the higher ups, but they can't do anything about it." Karl stated calmly. "Isn't that inefficient though?" The rookie wondered, he held his hands up when he got a glare from Vigo. "Hey, I'm just curious." He said defensively. Alecia shook her head with a smirk. "Vigo." She said simply, her voice betraying no emotion. "Yes captain?" The older man asked. Alecia chuckled. "Seven." She stated calmly. Frederick was about to ask what that meant when he recieved a quick slap to the back of his head, he flinched and held his head. "Gah!" He exclaimed as he looked at Vigo. "What was that for?" He asked as he rubbed the back of his head. "Captains orders." Vigo said without any further explanation. Aleica simply stifled a laugh as the group walked, after a few minutes, Karl eventually explained that 'seven' was a response order, meaning 'slap the newbie' to those that knew the order. The group walked for around fifteen minutes, but they soon reached the current HQ for the Lost Legion, which was just an old barracks compound that they inhabited. Alecia looked at the three men. "Your all dismissed, do whatever." She said before heading for the main building. The barracks had three buildings and two towers, the main buidling had two stories to it, with three rooms on the first floor, one for storing equipment, one that was designed for managing the barracks, complete with ledgers and a desk with papers and quills to write with, the last room was small, but had the stairs for the second floor. The second floor only had two rooms, one for planning and tactics, and the other room was another storage, but this one was for documents, papers, maps and writing supplies. The other buildings were the mess hall, and the bunks for the troops. Needless to say, the compound wasn't large enough for them all, and the troops had put up tents to act as additional sleeping quarters. Alecia entered the main building and closed the door, she immediately headed for the planning room upstairs, she passed a few soldiers talking on the steps and crossed her arms. "Ahem, mind letting me through?" She asked. The soldiers looked at her and one of them, a blonde haired woman stood up. "Sorry Alecia, didn't know you were back." She said. The soldiers stood up and moved out of the way. "Thanks, see you at the brawl?" Alecia asked as she headed upstairs. "You know it Captain." One of the men said. Alecia walked to the planning room door, she heard raised voices on the other side and opened the door. Inside were two men, one of them was tall and old, gray hair, short beard and tired blue eyes, he had darker skin that bordered on dark brown, he was obviously on edge and tense, he was the head of the town guard, Stephen. "Good day Commander." He said before walking to the door and leaving. The other man was Commander Cory, a young six foot four man with scruffy brown hair and pale skin, he had brown eyes and wore black trousers, he wore steel boots on his feet and had a dark blue shirt and a black vest, and while his facial expression was neutral, his eyes betrayed his irritation, he glanced over and he visibly brightened when he saw Alecia. "Ah! my favorite captain!" He said, he was excited as he walked around the map table and looked down at the map. Alecia closed the door and walked over. "The guard still giving us problems?" She asked. Cory nodded, he frowned for a brief second but it was replaced by a smirk. "Of course, but we always have that problem." He stated. The commander then looked at Alecia again. "How are the troops?" He asked. "Eager to get back into the wild, but patient." She said. Cory placed a finger on a forest on the map and looked at Alecia. "We won't be here much longer, we're being sent to the southern front." He stated. Alecia raised an eyebrow. "Why? we don't belong on the front." She wondered. Cory shrugged and crossed his arms. "Don't ask me, we're heading back to Arness soon and after that, it's to the front." He replied. Alecia nodded and walked to the door to leave, but Cory's voice stopped her. "Alecia." He said. She turned and looked at her commander, he looked back at her with a small smile. "What is it Cory?" She asked. "Don't forget to visit your husband, you haven't talked in a while." Cory stated teasingly. Alecia rolled her eyes. "If i have time, I'm still pissed at Douglas." She said before leaving the room. ______*The present day.*______ Alecia said nothing to break the silence that dominated the room after she finished her story, she looked around at the surprised expressions and scoffed. "What? surprised I was in an army? that I was married? I am one hell of a charmer after all." She bragged as she appeared behind Rarity, startling the mare. "Don't be so surprised, I am over a thousand years old you know." She stated as she floated around lazily. The surprise soon faded away and Twilight was the first to speak. "Do you mind if I ask what Douglas was like?" She wondered. "He was a merchant." Alecia said. "We were married for five years when I joined the Lost Legion, the first time I came home seven months later, I learned he had an affair with another woman, we argued for a while, I got sent out again." She sighed. "He was a good guy though, he had heart and knew how to cheer people up, he had his downsides, but doesn't everyone?" Alecia then grinned and looked at Twilight. "What about you Sparkle? any lucky guy?" She teased. Twilight felt her face heat up as she stammered. "N-n-n-n-no! there's no 'lucky' guy!" She blurted out, she immediately covered her mouth, much to Nightmare Moon's amusement. Alecia smirked and floated above Twilight. "Ah, no lucky guy......so I'm guessing there's a.....mare you have eyes on?" She said in an amused tone. Twilight buried her face in her hooves. "No!" She denied adamantly. While Sweetie Belle and Spike remained ignorant to the joke that Nightmare was howling in laughter about, Rarity could only sigh and feel pity for her friend, as well as concern for both herself and Sweetie Belle. Why? because they have to live with the ghosts of course, and they love to torment the living in their own way. Author's Note I felt that Alecia deserved a little more backstory this time, and while the 'present' scenes may feel rushed, I am happy with how they turned out. (Grammar issues and autocorrect changes not withstanding.) Nightmare Moon's breakthrough.Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.An enlightening visit.Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.A necessary talk.Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter..eramthgin eht fo noissefnoCSomething has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.Semblance of hope.Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.Facing fear.Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.Problems.Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.Aftermath.Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.Nightmare's Nightmare Night.Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter..raw nettogroFSomething has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.Hearths Screaming Eve.Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.The game.Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.A meeting of fate.Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.Results.Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.Freedom and stress.Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.Of Sisters and Mysteries.Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.Who you gonna call?Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter..tneduts dna rotneMSomething has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.Invitation.Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.Preparing for trouble and an important meeting.Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.A wedding to remember.Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.The week before the celebration."I really don't know Sweetie." Magnum said. Rarity and Sweetie Belle told their parents that they opened the locked door upstairs, and they asked if they knew why it was locked in the first place, but neither of them knew why, apparently their grandfather never said. "I think what I'm most confused about is that salt line, and the iron bars on the window, what exactly was your grandfather trying to hide in there anyway?" Betty wondered. Rarity shrugged. "I am not sure, but it is not important now, maybe he just wanted to scare us or something." She said. Sweetie Belle took the time to walk away from the three older unicorns, she looked out the window and took a breath, and to her surprise, she could see it as though it were freezing. 'That's......odd.' She thought as she looked outside in silence. Soon enough, Rarity walked over to her sister. "Are you alright?" She asked curiously. Sweetie Belle looked at her sister and nodded. "Yea, I'm just wondering what grandpa was thinking, making that salt line and barring the window." She replied. Rarity nodded. "I know what you mean, but I'll clean up the salt and remove the bars." She tapped her chin in thought for a second. "Well, I need to buy some new carpet for the floor anyway, why don't you go up and see if you can find something a while? grandfather was a master of hiding things after all." She said. Sweetie nodded. "Sure thing, but I get first pick on anything I find." She replied. Rarity walked to the stairs and headed up stairs to get ready for the day. _____*ten minutes later.*_____ Sweetie Belle finally returned to the formerly locked room, she immediately began to search for any secret panels or holes in the floor, she used her hooves to feel over the wall carefully, but by the time she finished the first wall, she had found nothing. "Nothing here." She muttered as she walked to the next wall. Suddenly, the door to the room slowly creaked as it slowly closed on its own, Sweetie Belle's eyes widened as the door had no magical aura, and there wasn't any wind today, she placed her hooves on the nearby wall, hoping that her search would distract her from the door. But as soon as she placed her hooves on the wall, she felt her body grow cold quickly and she shivered. "Why.....is it so cold?" She asked herself as she removed her hooves. As soon as she did so, the cold vanished, Sweetie Belle gulped and catiously placed a hoof on the wall, but now there was no cold. "What is going on?" She asked herself quietly. ______*Ponyville, twenty minutes later*______ Rarity walked back home with the new carpet in tow, main advantage of having magic, you could lift things that were larger than yourself easily with enough practice. Although, it was weirdly difficult to find pale blue carpet these days, even more so to find a store that it isn't sold out in, but she was happy, she found the carpet and that was good enough. She walked around seven minutes and finally reached her house, she walked to the door and opened it, she saw her parents sitting on the couch having a conversation. "I really don't understand why it got so cold all of a sudden." Magnum stated, he sounded spooked. "It happened so fast, there wasn't any warning." Betty replied, her tone the same as her husbands. Rarity raised an eyebrow but paid no mind as she closed the door and headed upstairs. "Oh hey Rarity!" Betty said happily. "Do you need help?" She offered. With a shake of her head, Rarity walked up the stairs. "I'm fine mother, just relax and let your back heal." She replied. Betty had damaged her back by falling down some stairs at a hotel in Manehatten, so she wasn't supposed to go up any stairs, or do any heavy lifting or excessive magic usage. Rarity walked to the formerly locked room and stepped inside, the room was empty just like before, aside from a very puzzled looking Sweetie Belle. "Are you alright?" She asked. Sweetie Belle looked at her sister and nodded. "Yea, but for some reason, when I put my hoof on walls, sometimes they feel ice cold, other times they feel like the same temperature from the rest of the house." She replied, she didn't sound confused, she sounded intrigued. "Maybe it's just your imagination?" Rarity suggested. Sweetie Belle blinked. "Maybe, but dad felt it too." She countered. _______*the next day.*_______ Rarity was busy working at her boutique while her family enjoyed the town, it was very quiet today as she worked, but for once she wished it wasn't so quiet, because there was a feeling of unease around her ever since she opened the room. She had replaced the carpet and threw away the old carpet, Rarity wasn't sure what to do with the room yet, but she had time to figure that out, one thing that did help with the boredom and on the income front, was that she was chosen to handle decorations for the town hall during the summer sun celebration. Rarity was in the middle of one of her last minute orders when she heard a thud downstairs, her ears perked up in alarm and she set her sewing needle and cloth aside, she then headed downstairs to find the source. The main show room was empty however, aside from the usual equipment, however, one of the ponyquins were toppled and the suit it displayed was on the floor. Rarity put it back up and cleaned the suit off with her magic, and once things were back to normal, Rarity sighed. "Now how did that happen?" She wondered. Just as she spoke, one of the vases holding flowers fell off its small table and smashed on the floor, making Rarity jump in surprise and shock at the random occurrence. Before she could clean it up, the table itself was flipped upside down and the legs were smashed off by an invisible force, Rarity's eyes widened and she quickly bolted out of the building screaming. _______*later, Rarity's house.*_______ Sweetie Belle grumbled as she sat on her bed, she was grumpy now because her hair was standing straight up and looking like she was electrocuted, she was also grounded for something she didn't do which didn't help her mood. Earlier in the day, she had been standing by a case of flowers which then shattered suddenly by something unseen, of course Magnum and Betty thought she had broken it and grounded her, regardless of her protests of innocence. So now she was alone in her room waiting for dinner to be done or to not be grounded anymore, the problem was that the air had become charged and caused her hair to stand on end. 'It'll take me forever to fix this.' She complained mentally. Sweetie Belle laid in complete silence up until she felt her hair being messed with, she sighed. "Can you not mess with me any more today? I'm already grounded because of you." She said. Whatever was messing with her hair stopped and the air immediately warmed up in the room. "Thanks." She mumbled. It took about five minutes until Sweetie Belle realized that she had spoken to something that wasn't there, and that it had responded, she quickly looked around her room. "Are you in here right now?" She asked quietly. As if on cue, the air grew cold and the filly felt something brush against her forelegs, she shivered at the strange sensation. "I'll take that as a yes." She whispered. ______*the next day.*______ Rarity stepped out of the shower with a slightly annoyed expression, yesterday during dinner, her plates and silverware had floated on their own and seemed to have minds of their own as they avoided the family, and if that weren't bad enough, her shampoo and soap were moving around in the shower. Right now she was very annoyed because all of her brushes and combs were nowhere to be found, Rarity soon found them by her vanity mirror and walked back into the master bathroom after grabbing them. Rarity soon set about fixing her mane and tail for the day. "Don't you dare mess with me right now." Soon enough, Rarity groaned as she realized how foolish that statement was. 'There's nothing there, why am I so on edge?' She asked herself mentally. _______*meanwhile*_______ Sweetie Belle sat in her room in silence as she listened and waited for anything to happen. "If you are here.......knock once." She said. For a while, there was silence, and just as Sweetie Belle went to get up and leave, a single loud knock came from the desk, Sweetie blinked in surprise and sat down again. "This......is incredible." She muttered. "Did we do something to make you angry?" She asked. "Two knocks for no and one for yes." She added a moment later. Much to her annoyance, there was no reply, Sweetie Belle grunted and stood up, she soon walked out of the room and headed downstairs. ______*later.*______ While Rarity focused on her work for the upcoming celebration, Sweetie Belle searched the Golden Oaks library for information on her current predicament. She figured it would be best to look under anything paranormal, but she had no idea where to start, so when she found a book called 'Your haunted home' she figured that would be a good place to start. Sweetie delved into the book but was disappointed to find that the book was just a story, she continued her frantic search through the books and soon discovered at least one that looked like it might help. The book, was called 'haunting ghosts and ways to communicate', which appeared to be exactly what was needed as she read. "To determine if your house is truly haunted, you must first work to find proof, the easiest way to do so is find some friends. agitate the spirit and go from there." She spoke aloud to herself. 'But what do I do about one who is in my home?' She wondered. Sweetie Belle searched for a long time, and eventually she found a chapter that seemed to be relevant. "Trapping a spirit?" She wondered curiously. Inside the book were instructions that went into a disturbing amount of detail on how to trap a spirit, according to the book, ghosts and spirits were unable to pass a line of salt, silver or iron had the ability to disperse them for a time. But what set Sweetie Belle on edge was some of the more severe methods of containment, one of which required the user to paint a crow out of crows blood, which reminded her of the door back at Rarity's home, according to the book, this was one of the most powerful seals for ghosts or spirits, only broken by the painted crow being defaced by any means. She soon closed the book and returned it to where it was, she left the library with multiple questions running through her mind. 'So far, this is more annoying than anything else, so why did grandpa seal that room so heavily?' She wondered curiously. ______*later that day, Rarity's house, 7:00 PM*______ Rarity and Sweetie Belle were upstairs in the empty room, they had just replaced the carpet and were now sitting in silence. "So, what are you going to do with this room?" Sweetie Belle asked. "I am not sure, I don't need another bedroom or office, and I have all the work space I need in the Boutique, maybe I will just leave it empty for now, and think on it later." Rarity replied. Sweetie Belle was about to reply when the door threw itself open and slammed against the wall, startling the sisters. Rarity walked over to the door and examined it, the crow that was painted on it was broken by a large scratch down the center, she sighed. "I'll need to replace the door now." She muttered. Sweetie Belle gulped, if the book from the library was right, then the crow was the strongest seal against ghosts or spirits, and now it was broken. 'That's not good.' She thought as she exited the room with Rarity. "Are you concerned that maybe we freed something?" She asked with curiosity. Rarity closed the door and looked at Sweetie Belle. "Something strange did happen over in the boutique, so it's possible, that or we are both going crazy." She replied. When the sisters reached the downstairs, they noticed that the front door opened and then closed by itself. "We are so haunted." Sweetie Belle remarked. Rarity's left eye twitched and she seemed to just ignore it. "I suppose so." She replied. Author's Note I know this one isn't as detailed as the first, but that's because I just wanted to get a second chapter out for you guys/girls, sorry if it's lower quality. Also, I didn't expect this story to be so well recieved, so thanks for that guys!
The 'cursed' home.______*Ponyville, Equestria, 1:01 PM.*______ It was another beautiful day in Ponyville, the water from the rain the previous night glistened on the blades of grass, the gentle breeze made the grass and leaves blow in the wind, the white clouds drifted peacefully in the sky, the cool air made the bright glow of the sun not as taxing on the body. The people of Ponyville went about their lives happily and busily, and one mare in particular made her way back to her shop from the market, she had soft white fur, a long and styled purple mane and tail, her eyes were dark blue and she was a unicorn, she hummed a happy tune to herself as she walked. This mare was called Rarity, and she owned a fashion shop called Carousel Boutique, she had aspirations to become a famous designer and was very skilled at making a suit or dress that fit her client perfectly, of course this did lead to some issues from time to time, but nothing that couldn't be fixed. Now, newer residents to Ponyville would assume that Rarity lived at her shop because of the bedroom, bathroom and kitchen, but in truth, she lived in a larger and more mysterious building. Rarity soon passed by her home and she gave it a glance, the walls were made of thick and sturdy oak wood that had been painted to a slightly redder shade, the building was large, at least a third of an acre in length, the second story of the home had four rooms, while the first floor had six rooms. To those that lived in Ponyville long enough, the home was widely believed to be cursed, it had been like this for four or more generations, but no matter what Rarity said, the belief remained, and so she decided to stop trying to convince them. Rarity walked to her shop and entered, it still had the faint vanilla scent from earlier and she took a short breath. Heading to the sewing room upstairs, Rarity used her magic to open the door and put everything away without even looking, in mere seconds, the cloths and fabrics went onto shelves in the correct order, and the sewing thread was placed into a small drawer. Once everything was put away, Rarity walked out of the sewing room and headed downstairs when she heard the door open. "Welcome to Carousel Boutique, where everything is chiq, unique, and mangifique." She greeted professionally. [1] ______*later that day, 9:00 PM*______ Rarity entered her home and closed the door behind her, she turned on the light, revealing her living room, it had a comfy gray couch, and a matching sofa next to it, there was a coffee table in front of the couch, a maple end table in the corner between the two, the carpet was light blue and the curtains were dark gray. Rarity yawned and walked to the kitchen to grab something to eat before going upstairs, she opened her refrigerator and pulled out some leftover salad and a sandwich in a bag, it wasn't much, but it would have to do, after a few minutes, the food was gone and cleaned up afterwards. She walked to the small hallway between the dining room and the family room, she then headed upstairs after turning off the lights, she made her way up the stairs carefully and soon reached the upstairs, the room that connected the four rooms was small with no decorations, there were four doors though, one door led to Rarity's room, another led a guest room, the third door led to an office that her grandfather used. Then there was the fourth door, Rarity simply looked at it, her grandfather was always paranoid of this room, it got so bad that he wouldn't go upstairs anymore, so they moved him downstairs along with his office supplies, the door was locked, but Rarity had the key nearby on a small table, the door was just a plain wooden door with nothing special about it, other than the strange painted crow on the door, her grandfather always told her to stay out of the room, and to never go in. Rarity just shook her head and walked to her room, too tired to care right now, she entered her room and closed the door. Her room was of course the master bedroom, the walls had been painted a soft blue, it had a double bed with lavender sheets and blankets, the pillows were the same color as well, there was a small vanity mirror sitting on a table next to a moderately sized desk, there was a bookshelf holding Rarity's personal books, there was a large window door that led to a small balcony, the curtains were black, in complete contrast to the rest of the room. There was also a door to the master bathroom, she walked into her bathroom and headed for the shower, it wasn't anything special, but it had the bath or shower function and that was good enough. Turning on the water, Rarity stepped inside the shower and began to wash off her makeup and clean her mane up, her hair fell down her head and face, and the makeup washed away after a little work. A few minutes later and Rarity stepped out of the shower, she looked very different without her makeup and her mane styled, but she wasn't concerned about that as she grabbed a towel and dried herself off quickly. She used her magic and set the towel in the laundry basket, she then to walked to her bed and got under the covers, she rested her head on her pillow and closed her eyes. ______*the next day, 8:00 AM*______ Rarity opened her eyes sleepily and with a quiet groan as she shifted in bed, she blinked a few times before getting out of bed begrudgingly. 'I may be closed for today, but that's no excuse to lay around.' She thought as she walked to her bathroom. After five or seven minutes, Rarity walked out of her bathroom and headed for the door to leave her room. She walked out of her room and walked downstairs, then she walked to her kitchen and started to make some breakfast, the kitchen had a double sink, an oven and refrigerator, multiple cabinets, and the walls were gray. After a few minutes, Rarity had just started to plate her food, which was simply eggs and toast, when a knock came at the front door, she blinked and looked over with curiosity. 'No one ever comes here.' She thought to herself. Rarity walked to the door and unlocked it, she opened the door and saw three ponies she wasn't expecting, her parents and her little sister. Her father was a white unicorn stallion with a brown mustache, mane and tail, his cutie mark was that of three footballs, he had blue eyes, his name was Hondo Flanks, but he was called Magnum far more often, he often wore a straw hat on his head. Her mother was a pink unicorn mare with a mane and tail that were two shades of purple, her cutie mark was that of three cookies, one of which had a bite mark and crumbs, her eyes were also blue and she wore two golden earrings and a yellow ascot, her name was Cookie Crumbles, or Betty Bouffant. And then there was Sweetie Belle, she was a unicorn filly with white fur, and a purple and pink mane and tail, she had no cutie mark yet, her eyes were a pale green. Rarity was honestly surprised, she hadn't been expecting them at all today, but she had an idea of what they wanted. "Mom, dad?.....I wasn't expecting you, how are you?" She asked. Magnum smiled. "We're doing alright, we were planning on going to Fillydelphia, but we heard the summer sun celebration was coming up, and that it was here in Ponyville, so we decided to come and stay in town for it." He explained. Rarity nodded In understanding. "I see, well, I there are two open bedrooms here, it will at least save you the trouble of finding a hotel that isn't booked." She offered. It was true, Rarity had heard about this event, and that whenever it happened the motels and hotels were always comepletely booked. Betty smiled and walked up, she gave Rarity a hug. "Thank you, your too generous you know that?" She said. Rarity chuckled a little. "Your family, it's the least I can do." She pulled out of the hug and let them all inside. "Do you remember where the spare rooms are?" She asked. Magnum nodded. "Yea, do you mind if we take the room down here Sweetie Belle?" He asked as he looked at his younger daughter. Sweetie Belle shrugged. "Uh.....no?" She replied. Rarity walked to the kitchen and took her breakfast to the dining room to eat, the dining room had dark brown wooden walls that were personally carved, the table was large enough for eight to sit and eat, she was soon followed by Sweetie Belle who looked up at her. It was awkward silence for a few moments until Rarity spoke. "Is.....something wrong?" She asked. Sweetie Belle shook her head. "No, it's just that...you look a lot different when you don't style your mane." She stated. Rarity nodded. "I suppose I do, why don't you go and check out the upstairs guest room? you always want to see it when you come over." She asked. Sweetie Belle nodded and headed to the stairs, allowing Rarity to eat in silence. ______*upstairs*______ Sweetie Belle walked around, she had always been curious about the upstairs rooms, but she never really had a chance to explore them, she had seen Rarity's room once before, and doubted that her big sister changed it, she walked into one of the rooms and looked around, there was a desk, a few bookshelves and a few file cabinets, the walls were a cozy brown, it didn't take a genius to know that this room was an office mixed with a small library. Sweetie Belle walked to the next room and opened it, there was a simple wooden dresser, an end table, a bed and a small desk, the walls were a plain white, and there was a single window with gray curtains, she walked out of the room. She then walked to the last door, it was different from the others as it had a crow painted onto it, the door was also locked, but Sweetie Belle never knew why, Rarity never said anything after all. "It is curious isn't it?" Rarity's voice said as it came closer. Sweetie Belle looked and saw her sister walking over. "All the years I've lived here, and I've never been inside." Rarity stated. "Why not?" The younger unicorn asked. Rarity looked at her sister. "Because of our grandfather, he told me to never open this door, but he never told me why." She replied. Sweetie Belle watched as Rarity looked to the small table in the room, she used her magic and a single key floated over, it was small and made of brass, Rarity looked at her sister again. "Want to see what's inside?" She asked. The filly nodded eagerly and Rarity took a breath and put the key into the keyhole. "Let's see what our grandfather didn't want us to see." She said as she turned the key. The door clicked and Rarity pulled the key out, she then pushed the door open gently, to the surprise of the sisters, there was a line of salt that got moved at the bottom of the door. "That's......odd." Rarity noted. The sisters entered the room and looked around, the room was comepletely empty aside from salt lining the edges of the entire room. "What's with the salt?" Sweetie Belle asked out of curiosity. "I'm not sure, but there isn't anything here, that's disappointing." Rarity said as she walked out. Sweetie Belle took one last look around. "Yea, I guess your right." She said before walking out. Author's Note [1]i will absolutely NEVER remember that again!......wait, is that the actual greeting? or did I do it wrong?......WHATEVER! So, I don't know if I got the names right for Rarity and Sweetie Belle's parents, if I did, hurrah, if not, no harm done right? Hope you like this, this is a more recent idea I came up with recently.
Spectral discovery.______*Ponyville, three days later, the day before the Summer Sun Celebration, 10:03 AM*_____ The haunting had gotten worse over the past few days, while it was mostly just annoying at first, it was now getting stressful just to sit down in either the Boutique or the house now. Rarity was currently finishing up on her last order for the day before focusing entirely on the celebration, and while her work was unaffected by the recent events, she was obviously distracted and acting a bit off. Her thoughts were focused mostly on the events of a couple days ago, when that act of terror from their resident ghost had happened, while Rarity and her family were enjoying dinner, a loud bang came from the direction of the living room, and when they investigated, they discovered a hole in the ceiling. The hole was from the empty room, but it didn't penetrate the carpet, and when they investigated further, they discovered that there was a hollow area built into the floor of the empty room, filled with a thin layer of salt, much to their confusion. The rest of that evening had been spent removing the salt from the hollow area and cleaning up the mess from the hole, and then the next day, Sweetie Belle had explained to Rarity what she had learned about ghosts and spirits from the library, she explained that salt was like a barrier to them, they were unable to cross or touch it In any way, at least not without an object to use, which would explain why there was nothing in the room aside from the salt. As for the iron bars, Sweetie said that iron could actually make a ghost dissipate for a time, making the window unable to be used as an escape route, unfortunately she said that she couldn't find a way to remove the ghost or spirit, and that the only thing she found was some strange spell that she didn't understand. That had piqued Rarity's interest, and she had gone to the library to read up on the spell, as well as to double check Sweetie Belle's findings, what she discovered was quite interesting, the spell itself was called the Spectral Vision spell, and it would allow the caster to see ghosts or spirits, as well as easily communicate with them, however it was deemed useless by the author of the book, who stated in notes that he had used the spell multiple times and had never once seen a spirit, even in some of the most haunted locations in Equestria. The spell had four conditions in order for it to be used however, the first condition was that the caster had to channel magic directly to the eyes in a very specific way, the second condition required the caster to have been affected by a ghost or spirit at least once in their life, the third condition was highlighted in red however, it stated that the caster has to have been present when somepony passed away, experiencing death was apparently the most important requirement, the fourth condition was by far the worst in her opinion, as it required the caster to actually use part of their soul and relive their most tragic memory as well as put their most treasured memory at risk, with the consequences being incredibly severe, the main one being the lost of that memory. Truth be told? Rarity personally did not want to cast this spell, as there was no telling how dangerous it really was, but if this spell could help them with their ghost problem, she was willing to give it a chance at this point, she just needed to be absolutely certain that she didn't mess up. However, right now she simply wanted to focus on the preparations for tommorow, she sighed as she finished the dress she had been working on, she set it aside and walked to over to her desk, she pulled out a list that contained the requested items for the celebration. She found herself in a much better mood when she finally started on her work. 'I have a good feeling about tomorrow, so long as Sweetie Belle doesn't break anything, it should go perfectly.' She thought to herself optimistically. ______*Rarity's house.*______ Sweetie Belle looked down at the book she had brought from the library, it was currently on the Spectral Vision spell, she scrunched up her face a little when she saw the requirements state that she needed to have been present when somepony passed away. "What does that mean?" She wondered aloud. Soon, she remembered seeing her uncle off at the Manehatten train station, and he passed into a whole other city, plus she traveled all the time to other towns and cities with her parents, so that should count. "Not sure why this is a requirement......he must have liked traveling I suppose." She muttered as she closed the book and set it aside. Sweetie Belle then closed her eyes and focused on her magic, while it was true that she was a late bloomer, as her parents and Rarity told her, she was still very capable of channeling her magic, she just didn't usually need to do so. Channeling magic was a bit strange for Sweetie Belle, she was used to feeling her magic build up, but sending it somewhere specific that wasn't the horn tended to feel incredibly uncomfortale. She grunted in slight pain as her magic enveloped her eyes, she would normally stop at this point, but the book had said not to stop because of the initial pain, she pushed on and soon she felt a sinking feeling overtake her for a brief moment before going away, and then a moment later, Sweetie soon found a pounding headache for about ten seconds before it too vanished, just before she could do anything else, her magic severed itself from her eyes and she sighed in dissappointment. Sweetie Belle opened her eyes and gasped, startled by what she saw, the world around her seemed to be shifting around and warping at all times, her eyes widened and she soon heard voices. "Why doesn't dad talk about grandpa?" Sweetie Belle's younger voice asked. "It's just hard for him to talk about, he loved grandfather very much, and doesn't want to talk about him right now, the best thing to do is let him grieve without interruption." Rarity's younger voice replied. Sweetie Belle took a cautious step forward and the world around her seemed to stop warping, she heard more voices and stopped to listen. "Grandfather was a strict stallion, he made it quite clear who made the rules in this house, and knew exactly how to punish you if you broke these rules, it was difficult to live here for a while, at least until I learned these rules." Rarity's voice said. "But the one rule that he enforced more than all the rest, was to never, EVER open that door upstairs." Rarity explained. Sweetie Belle remembered this conversation, and almost mouthed her reply. "Why was that?" Sweetie Belle asked curiously. "I don't know, I never opened it as I never had a reason to do so." Rarity replied. Sweetie Belle gasped in surprise as the world shifted once again, returning her to where she was before she cast the spell. "Wh.....what was that?" She asked herself as she worked to calm her racing heart down. She walked over to the couch and sat down, she took a few deep breaths and after a minute or two, she finally calmed down enough to process what had happened. 'What was that all about? and why did that spell make me relive that conversation?' She wondered. Soon, Sweetie Belle got off the couch and decided to walk around the house. 'If it worked, I should be able to see the ghost or spirit now.' She thought to herself. Unfortunately, she had searched the entire house but was unable to find the ghost, she eventually gave up with a sigh and headed to the living room, she then picked up the book and headed for the library to return it. "That was disappointing." She mumbled. ______*later that day.*______ Rarity was in a much better mood now than she had been earlier, she had met a unicorn mare by the name of Twilight Sparkle, and the baby dragon named Spike, she discovered that the mare was in charge of making sure the preparations were comeplete, Rarity had explained that everything was ready on her end, she just needed to set it up quickly and then she was done, of course, it didn't help that she was using Twiligjt as a sudden model for a few designs, but it didn't take too long anyway. Twilight did seem stressed out, and hearing that things were running smoothly did seem to help, if only for a moment, she then left saying that she needed to check on the rest of the preparations. After that, Rarity had set up everything in the town hall with the help of Sparkler and Flitter, working together, they had everything ready in a half hour, then another five minutes of double checking to make sure nothing was wrong. Rarity was hoping for a few hours of quiet relaxation before going to bed for the night, but when she heard that Pinkie Pie, the towns resident party organizer, was setting up a 'Welcome to Ponyville' party for Twilight Sparkle, she decided that it might be a nice change of pace, she might end up regretting the inevitable headache tomorrow, but it could be worth it. And that's how she ended up at Pinkie's party, and from her perspective, it appeared that Twilight was about to have a heart attack when the light came on, but to her credit, she did seem to recover quickly enough for her to not freak out when Pinkie showed up right next to her in an instant. Rarity did watch with a puzzled expression as Twilight drank from the hot sauce bowl instead of the punch, which she discovered the hard way. Twilight downed at least three cups of punch before she stopped panting from the hot sauce, after which she asked why there was a bowl of hot sauce next to the punch, Pinkie then explained rather rapidly that a bunch of ponies in the party loved to eat spicy nachos and apologized for the mixup. Spike seemed far more eager to enjoy the party than Twilight, as was evident by the mare retreating to the upstairs bedroom while the dragon stayed downstairs to have fun. Rarity herself only stayed for thirty minutes and only played one or two party games, she then said her farewells to anypony who walked up and headed home. The walk home was quiet and peaceful, the cool air and pleasant breeze helped her to think on what to do when she got home. And it was on her walk that she realized something that hit her like a brick, she had comepletely forgotten to ask Sweetie Belle if she wanted to go to the party, to this she sighed sadly and her walk home was now less enjoyable to her as she thought on this the whole way. ______*Rarity's house, 9:00 PM*______ Rarity was in the living room reading one of her romance novels to pass the time, she had already read this one before but that didn't stop it from being enjoyable. Her parents were out in the town at the moment, enjoying a night out, apparently Ponyville was very relaxing compared to the cities they usually visited on business. Sweetie Belle was in bed by now for once, she had seemed rather down when Rarity returned, which didn't help her mood at all, now she felt even worse for not bringing her sister along for the party. Rarity set her book down and went into deep thought as she sat up on her couch, it took about five minutes until she finally moved, she stood up and walked to the center of the living room, she took a breath and channeled her magic as she closed her eyes. 'If I can talk to this ghost, I should be able to handle at least one of my problems before tomorrow.' She then channeled her magic to her eyes as instructed by the Spectral Vision spell, she felt her eyes sting in pain and she eventually felt her magic sever itself from her eyes unexpectedly, she opened her eyes and was startled as the world appeared to be warped and distorted in strange ways. Somepony crying nearby woke her from her stupor and she looked around, she took a various step forward and she was transported to a room with her parents standing next to a bed that crying could be heard from. Rarity walked over and her eyes widened. "I.....had almost forgotten this." She whispered to herself. There was her younger self, crying into the bed while her grandfather lay in it, unmoving and not breathing, her younger self was a mess, her mane was flat and rough, her fur was dirty and her eyes were red from the crying. Rarity didn't need to see her face to know how she looked, she now remembered this perfectly, it was in this room that her grandfather had passed away, and it was in this room that she watched it happen. She had been in the room taking care of him, giving him his food and reading to him, he had a weak smile on his face as she read to him, enjoying the company as much as he could. Rarity forced herself to look away, unable to watch anymore, and as she did, she noticed that the world changed until she was in her living room again. With a sad sigh, Rarity walked upstairs and headed to her room, she closed the door quietly and cleaned off her makeup in silence, afterwards she simply laid down in her bed and closed her eyes. ______*the next day, 7:00 AM*______ Rarity opened her eyes and yawned, she blinked a few times and slowly got out of bed, once up, she headed into the bathroom and stepped into her shower, she turned it on and just stood still as the water soaked her, Rarity sighed and soon began to properly wash herself. After about ten minutes or more, Rarity stepped out of the shower, she then quickly dried herself off with a quick spell, not in the mood to take her time today, she then walked to the mirror and she gasped in horror as she quickly backed away from the mirror. Rarity panted as she slowly approached the mirror, she gulped and focused on what she was seeing now, her left eye had changed, instead of its normal blue, it was now an abnormally pale blue with a ghostly white mist like appearance to it, she hesitantly closed her right eye and was relieved that she could still see out of her left. Rarity took a few deep breaths and focused more closely on her eye, it didn't look horrifying, but it was mostly unsettling to look at. 'Is this what the spell did?' She wondered. Pushing these thoughts from her mind, Rarity focused her attention and energy to getting ready, she combed and brushed her mane until it was in its usual styled condition, she then entered her room and applied a very light coat of makeup before she finally turned her focus on her eye once again. Rarity honestly had no way of hiding this, she did not wear contacts nor did she have any colored contacts to cover it up, she also didn't know any illusion spells so she couldn't use that to hide it. After staring at her now disturbing left eye, Rarity sighed and walked away, if anypony asked, she could just say she tested a new spell and it backfired when she overlooked a small detail, that or she could just say that this was an unintentional side effect of a spell she cast to try and find out what was causing the weird occurrences that had been happening to her. Rarity stepped out of her room and out of curiosity, she checked the formerly locked room, it was still empty and she decided to walk downstairs. Once downstairs, Rarity set to making breakfast for everypony and decided on pancakes, she quickly made the batter and turned on her stove, she poured some batter on the pan and hummed quietly to herself as she cooked her breakfast. Rarity heard a tired yawn and looked in its direction, she spotted Sweetie Belle walking down the stairs and rubbing her eyes tiredly. "Good morning Sweetie Belle." "Morning Rares." Sweetie Belle replied tiredly, Rarity chuckled at the nickname, her sister almost never used it unless she was incredibly tired or just feeling lazy. Rarity levitated a few plates and sets of silverware onto the counter. "I am making pancakes, how would you like yours?" She asked. "Just regular today." Sweetie Belle murmured as she walked to the bathroom tiredly. After about five minutes, Sweetie Belle came out of the bathroom and Rarity gave her a small stack of pancakes. "Butter and syrup are on the dining table." Rarity said. Sweetie Belle nodded and walked to the dining table, clearly just hungry. Rarity got the next pancake cooking and she heard a door open elsewhere in the house, indicating that her parents were awake now. After about twelve minutes, Rarity had managed to make everypony their pancakes, thanks to the burner finally being at the desired temperature, she sat down with her family to eat breakfast, and they noticed the change to her left eye. Rarity calmed them down and explained that she had used a spell called Spectral Vision, she explained the spell in detail and what it was supposed to do, she had to quickly assure her parents and Sweetie Belle that she was fine and was mostly just shocked at what had happened. "Is it permanent?" Betty asked out of concern. Rarity looked at her mother and gave her a small smile. "I'm not sure, the book didn't say anything about this." She pointed at her eye. "But if it is permanent, I'll just learn how to cast a small illusion for it or get contacts to hide it, of course I may get used to it." She replied. "And your sure it doesn't hurt?" Magnum asked worriedly. Rarity nodded. "It doesn't hurt, in fact, if i hadn't seen it in the mirror earlier today, I wouldn't have noticed it until you said something." She stated. None of them even noticed Sweetie Belle unconsciously rub her eyes as they talked. ______*Ponyville, a few hours later.*______ The town was in a state of panic, Princess Celestia hadn't been there and a large Alicorn named Nightmare Moon appeared, stating that she had returned and would bring about an eternal night, she did seem disappointed when nopony remembered her, except for the new mare Twilight Sparkle. Nightmare Moon then laughed manically as she disappeared in a puff of blue smoke, Rarity immediately sent Sweetie Belle home and told her not to leave. Rarity herself went with four mares called Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Applejack and Rainbow Dash as they followed Twilight to the Golden Oaks library. Sweetie Belle was personally confused as she sat in the living room, she was once again alone in the house while her parents were outside working on calming down who they could. Sweetie Belle groaned out of boredom and rolled over on the couch, she had already been here for twenty minutes and still hadn't heard anything aside from the panicked screams of terror outside. After another five minutes, Sweetie Belle stood up and decided that she was going to go outside. Her hooves touched the ground as she got off of the couch and she stretched a little bit, she looked up and her heart stopped for a split second. Walking around the family room was a tall creature with no fur, it's body was see through and it was at least five feet tall, it walked to the window and seemed to chuckle at the spectacle outside, it seemed comepletely oblivious to the fact that Sweetie Belle was watching it. Mustering all of her strength, Sweetie Belle spoke with a raised voice. "Who are you!? how did you get in here!?" She demanded to know, though she was still terrified. The creature simply looked around and then at Sweetie Belle, it apparently thought that she wasn't talking to it, and it looked back outside. Mustering her strength once more, Sweetie Belle talked again. "Don't look away from me! I am talking to you!" She stated, slightly angry at being ignored. The creature stared at Sweetie Belle with a now surprised expression, it mouthed a few words and blinked as it stared at her. Sweetie Belle gulped. "W-well? who are you?" She asked again, her strength wavering as her legs shook and her body shivered. The creature blinked and opened its mouth. "How?.....can you actually see me?" It asked, it's voice was feminine and soft. Sweetie Belle nodded nervously, and the creature seemed to be at a loss for words, she soon spoke a few moments later. "My name?......I, don't remember it." The creature stated out of confusion, clearly she was bothered by not knowing her own name. The creature walked closer to Sweetie Belle and seemed to look her over as she backed up. "As for how I got in here?.....I've been here for a long time, trapped." She replied. Sweetie Belle took a deep breath and spoke. "I uh......w-what are you?" She asked nervously. The creature blinked and looked at its.......appendage. "I'm a ghost, it would seem." She replied. "But I used to be human." She added. "Human?" She asked curiously. The ghost nodded. "Yea, human.......do you, not know what a human is?" She asked curiously. When Sweetie Belle shook her head, the ghost sighed and walked to a window. "Humans are a bipedal species with no fur, they have hands." She held her hands up. "That allow them to grab things, most human hands have four fingers and a thumb, they also have feet that have five toes, usually anyway, like me, most humans have hair on their head to help keep them warm." She then chuckled at something that happened outside. "I'm surprised that you haven't heard of us, don't they teach you about other nations in school?" The ghost asked curiously. Sweetie Belle blinked at the ghost. "I, if they do.....I wouldn't know." She replied honestly. The ghost sighed and looked at Sweetie Belle, making her shiver slightly. "W-why were you doing all those things?" She asked nervously. "Because I was bored." The ghost easily replied. "I also wanted to be able to move around freely, being stuck in a room, unable to really move or leave for six hundred years is horrible." She added casually, as though indifferent to what she just said. Sweetie Belle's eyes widened at the time she mentioned. "S-six hundred years?" She asked quietly. The ghost nodded. "Yea, trust me, not fun when the floor itself hurts you." She replied as she looked outside. "But.....why are you staying? you could leave." Sweetie Belle asked. The ghost shrugged. "I would, but I'm kind of cursed, I literally can't go very far from the house, I can get into the building right next to us, but not for long......huh, I wonder if that would work?" She seemed to ponder something quietly for a moment. Sweetie Belle gulped as the ghost knelt down and stared for a few moments, she felt her heart racing. "W-what are you doing?" She asked. The ghost clicked its non existent tongue and stood up fully. "You were about to go outside right?" She asked. Sweetie Belle hesitantly nodded. "Um.....yea, I guess so." She replied shakily. The ghost smirked. "Good, I want to test something, go on ahead, I'll just be a ride along." She stated before vanishing. Sweetie Belle looked around frantically for a few seconds, looking for the ghost, after a few moments, she felt a chill overtake her and she shivered as she held her hoof. "W-w-why is it s-s-s-so cold?" She asked no one in particular. 'My bad, like I said, I'm a ride along, go on outside.' Came the ghosts voice from inside her head. Sweetie Belle shivered as she walked to the front door, she opened the door and looked around the outside, ponies were running about frantically, clearly in a panic from Nightmare Moon appearing, she let out a breath that she could see, as if she was in a cold environment, she shivered as she walked outside and closed the front door. Sweetie Belle currently felt as though she were frozen, and since the ghost didn't seem to be leaving, she could only hope that walking away would be enough to make the ghost leave. Eventually, Sweetie Belle passed Carousel Boutique and she soon felt the cold going away. 'Not again!' She heard the ghost cry out. Sweetie Belle was no longer shivering, she sat down next to the Boutique and sighed. 'What was that all about? and what was that experiment supposed to be?' She asked herself as she sat there deep in thought. ______*later that day.*______ Sweetie Belle took a deep breath and opened the door, she walked inside the house and looked around curiously. The ghost was nowhere in sight, but that wasn't shocking, she was a ghost after all, Sweetie Belle closed the door and heard a voice. "I'm sorry about that, but I was overly eager to leave this place." The voice of the ghost said from nearby. Sweetie Belle looked and saw the ghost sitting on the stairs looking at her. "How exactly can you see me anyway?" She asked. "I um......." Sweetie Belle paused and the ghost appeared ready to listen, she sighed. "I cast a spell called Spectral Vision, it lets me see you." She stated. The ghost nodded. "I've been thinking ever since I got flung back here, and I remembered one of my names." She replied. Sweetie Belle watched as the ghost stood up and walked over, she then sat down in front of the filly. "Until I remember my full name, you can call me Alecia." The ghost said. "I......I'm Sweetie Belle." The unicorn filly replied nervously. Alecia nodded, which was actually difficult to notice because of her transparent body. "Again, I really am sorry about haunting you and your family, but it was the only thing to do around here." She said quietly. Sweetie Belle nodded slowly in reply, she wasn't sure what to do in this situation. "I uh......I guess I can forgive you." She replied quietly. Alecia stood and crossed her arms, she then walked to the stairs and sat down. "So......can you tell me what I missed these past centuries?" She asked. Sweetie Belle shook her head. "I'm.....not the best with history." She replied. Alecia didn't seem too bothered, that or she was good at hiding it. "Alright then, so what do you want to do until your family gets back?" She asked. Sweetie Belle tapped her chin in thought. 'I guess.........maybe this will help me to calm down?' She pondered. "We could, talk about the differences in our species?" She offered. Alecia didn't seem to like the idea. "If it's alright with you, I would rather not talk about my people right now, besides, you might find out whatever you need to know in a library or something." She said quietly, her eyes seemed to be deep in thought. 'This is awkward.' Sweetie Belle thought to herself. _______*Later that day.*_______ Rarity walked into the house and closed the door, she took a breath and looked around, the house was intact and nothing seemed broken, the only thing out of place was a checkers board that was set up on the living room table. "Sweetie Belle!" She called out. "I'm in here!" Her younger sister called back, giving Rarity a feeling of relief that her sister was alright. Rarity walked to the dining room and froze, her sister was sitting at the table with a strange looking transparent creature, they both looked at her and they shared an awkward silence. "Uh.....are you okay Rarity?" Sweetie Belle asked. With a slight turn of her head, Rarity looked directly at her sister and blinked as another shock came to her. Sweetie Belle's eyes were now similar to her own, her left eye was normal, but her right eye was now the same pale blue as hers, with the same ghostly white mist like look, but that meant...... "Did you cast the Spectral Vision spell Sweetie Belle?" Rarity asked, narrowing her eyes. At this her little sister laughed nervously and looked away while rubbing her left leg, telling Rarity all she needed to know. "Why would you do something like that? you could have hurt yourself!" She said in a scolding tone. Sweetie Belle looked at Rarity. "You cast it too." She pointed out quietly. "Because I have a better knowledge of using magic, with your inexperience you could have easily damaged your eyes or even your horn irreparably." Rarity scolded. At this, the creature stood up and walked out of the room, clearly seeking to avoid this. "And you!" Rarity snapped. The creature froze and looked at Rarity. "Don't you dare go anywhere! we are going to have a talk right here and now!" The mare stated firmly and angrily. The creature blinked. "You uh, realize I'm a ghost right? I could literally just avoid you all day." It said as though it were obvious. "Yes, but doing so would make me WANT to seal you away again." Rarity sat down at the table and glared at the two. "So you had better have a good explanation, starting with who and what you are exactly." She said firmly. The ghost sighed and began to hover just above the table. "Fine then.......i can't remember my full name just yet, but I do remember part of it, Alecia, as for my species, I am a ghost, fomerly a human." She then looked at Rarity. "I was trapped in that room for six hundred years, I couldn't leave or even move around that much." She paused and looked at Sweetie Belle. "I am also cursed, I cannot leave, I was barely even able to enter that building nextdoor and that was only for a few seconds at least." She paused when she saw Rarity's confused expression. "Please tell me you know what a human is?" Alecia said hopefully. When Rarity shook her head, the ghost sighed and explained what humans are. "Seriously, do they not teach you this stuff?" She asked. Rarity shrugged. "I was not big on history or other races for most of my school years, Twilight might know however." She stated, her anger having subsided a little bit. "As for why I'm here.......lets just say I had a disagreement with the owner after I became a ghost." Alecia said. "One thing led to another which led to me being sealed away in that room, I then spent six centuries in there until you two freed me." She explained in a bored tone as she hovered. "You don't seem too bothered by being stuck here." Rarity pointed out. Alecia huffed. "Again, six centuries, I'll take what little freedom I can get." She replied. "Um.....do you know how to break the curse?" Sweetie Belle asked quietly. Alecia rolled her eyes and looked at the filly. "Why would the person who sealed me here tell me how to undo it?" She asked curiously. "Now, since you opened the door, I can only assume you were never told I was in that room, but if you know someone who does know the secret, they might know how to undo the curse, until then you are stuck with me." Alecia stated as she hovered over to the floor and let her feet touch the ground, she then vanished from sight. Sweetie Belle looked at Rarity and leaned on the table. "So uh, how do we explain this to mom and dad?" She wondered. Rarity took a deep breath and stared at the table. "They already know the house is haunted, that or they believe it was you playing jokes somehow......I will tell them that I handled it, but for now, I am going to bed, it's been a long day for me." She stated before standing up and walking out of the dining room. Sweetie Belle sighed and stared at the wall opposite her out of boredom. "Now what am I supposed to do?" She wondered quietly. 'So Rarity's house is haunted, Alecia seems nice enough, Nightmare Moon is running around......maybe, and my parents are outside doing who knows what, why do I have a feeling that things are going to get weird around here?' She asked herself. One thing that Rarity did not realize however, was that after Aleica left, Sweetie Belle's eye had returned to normal. Author's Note Here's another chapter for you all! So now we meet the infamous ghost and have proven the claims of the town to be true, now the question is, what will happen now that they know about Alecia? (As a side note, have any of you thought about the advantage of using both a tablet and a laptop/computer to write fan fiction? you can write on one, while using the other to double check and make sure you haven't forgotten anything, I've never done it, but I probably should!)
A revealing night.______*Ponyville, a few days later, 1:30 PM*______ Rarity walked through through the Ponyville market, she was simply shopping for groceries today, her latest shipment of materials came today which was a relief, she had been running low lately. The day was nice, the sun shined brightly but not too bright, and the clouds hovering overhead helped by giving some shade, there was also a slight breeze which helped the ponies to cool off. Of course, the day wasn't perfect, Rarity's parents and Sweetie Belle had left town, and Alecia didn't seem willing to talk much this morning. So Rarity walked in silence through the town, her down mood did seem to be noticed, but nopony spoke up about it, so about ten minutes later, Rarity had filled saddlebags and was walking home when she found Twilight looking around, seeing a chance to lighten her mood, Rarity trotted over. "Hello Twilight." She greeted. Twilight looked at her. "Oh uh.....hi Rarity." She replied, she seemed distracted. Rarity noticed this instantly. "Are you having trouble adjusting?" She asked simply. Twilight nodded and looked around. "Yeah, it's a bit overwhelming to move so suddenly, I'm trying to find a bookstore, the library is a bit......outdated." She replied, trying to find the right words to say without sounding insulting. Rarity smiled. "I'll show you where the bookstore is, I am in no hurry.." She said. "Thank you so much Rarity, this town is like a maze." Twilight replied. The two unicorns walked together and Rarity spoke up first. "Twilight, I was wondering if you might be able to help me with something." Rarity said. Twilight looked at her friend as they walked. "Uh, okay, what did you need?" She asked curiously, hoping that it wasn't about modeling or something. "I was hoping you might know something about humans, I've recently learned about them and I'm curious." Rarity said calmly. Twilight blinked but kept on walking. "I'm no expert on them........but i can tell you what I know." She paused as she summoned a scroll from somewhere. "Humans are a bipedal species with two arms, two legs, two eyes, ten fingers and ten toes." Twilight started as she summoned a quill and wrote what she said. "They lived one thousand years ago and died out before Nightmare Moon arose, there haven't been any descendants or hidden villages discovered, their usual lifespan is around sixty to seventy years, maybe more if they are lucky, for their height, humans are fragile, they bruise easily and are more vulnerable to poisons and toxins." She paused for a moment. "Their hands allow nimble manipulation of devices that ponies struggle with, and they were known to be quite agile and quick on their feet." She looked at Rarity who seemed to be in thought. "That's all I really know, why the interest though?" She asked curiously. Rarity shrugged. "As it turns out, my ancestors actually spoke with a human around six hundred years ago, I'm not sure what happened after that." She stated. 'Perhaps it's time for me to actually read grandfathers journal, it might help me to understand.' Rarity thought. Twilight sent the quill and scroll away and they soon arrived at a Bookstore called Quinn's. "This is our local bookstore, I hope you find what you are looking for." Rarity said. After saying farewell, Rarity went home while Twilight went inside the store. ______*Rarity's house, twenty minutes later.*______ Rarity sighed in relief as she sat down on her couch and relaxed, she had just spent the last fifteen minutes fixing the hole in her ceiling, and even though it had been cleaned up and the old ceiling had been removed already when her family was in town, she still had to find her tools and nails, and then she had to measure the materials and make sure she didn't mess up. And while it wasn't very physically draining, it was the amount of magical exertion combined with holding up everything at once, and even though she was able to easily manipulate her sewing needles and cloths, doing the same for numerous nails and the plywood, it want a perfect fix, but it would have to do until she could get the proper materials or a handyman to fix it correctly. Rarity rested her head on the couch and closed her eyes. "I think I'm going to miss the little kid." Alecia's voice said. "You might not be missing her for that long, my parents have a tendency to leave her with me for a week or more at a time." Rarity replied as she looked in the direction of the ghost. Alecia was currently looking out the window, watching as the ponies of Ponyville went about their day. "Don't they have a home?" She asked as she began to float, her expression was hard to read as she was very blurred. "They do, but they have to travel a lot for work, unfortunately this led to my grandfather raising me and me practically raising Sweetie Belle." Rarity said as she rested her head again. "What about you? what was it like where you came from?" She asked curiously. Alecia said nothing at first, but after a minute, Rarity spoke, her ears flat against her skull. "I.....I'm sorry if I brought up a sore-" "I don't remember." Alecia said, cutting her off. "If I'm being completely honest here? I barely remember anything before those six centuries, all I know is how long I've been a ghost, one part of my name, my species and my family, other than that? it's a blank, unless I focus really hard on it." She explained. Rarity sat up and looked at Alecia. "If you don't mind me asking, how long have you been a ghost?" She wondered. Alecia seemed to shrug as she answered. "One thousand and thirteen years, four months, three weeks and two days." She said casually. Rarity blinked as she stared at the ghost. "How can you remember that?" She asked curiously. Alecia floated over and stopped next to Rarity. "I'm a ghost that was stuck in a room for over six centuries, not much else to do but to count the days." The ghost replied. Before the unicorn could speak, Alecia spoke. "And no, I'm not in the mood to talk about my family, all human, good people, that's about the gist of it." She said before vanishing. Rarity stood up and stretched, she walked over to one of the windows and looked outside, the town had calmed down considerably from the attack, but many were still wary, not that anypony could blame them of course. This was part of the reason that her family left Ponyville, but she understood that much. Rarity sighed to herself, 'It really is lonely here.' She thought to herself. ______*one week later, 1:13 PM.*_______ Rarity was currently outside of the Golden Oaks library along with Applejack, Twilight and several of the townsponies, there was a massive storm scheduled today and they needed to hurry as they pulled some smaller trees down and removed anything that could easily destroy something in the wind, such as a large sledgehammer. While Rarity did of course complain about the storm, Applejack countered by stating that it had been a dry season lately and this storm was to make up for that. More than once, Applejack caught Rarity simply trimming the tree instead of felling it, which had evolved into a heated discussion about how bad of an idea that was. Rarity had countered by saying that knocking the trees down was a bad idea in of itself, as they were safer in the ground. The two were about to go at each other again when Twilight stepped in. "Hey! get inside! the storm is getting too strong!" She said. Rarity and Applejack were about to head to their respective homes when fierce winds, rain and lighting started to pelt Ponyville. They looked and saw that Twilight was inside the doorway to the library. "Get in!" She shouted. Applejack and Rarity immediately ran into the library and Twilight shut the door and locked it, she sighed in relief and looked at her two friends. "Are you alright?" Twilight asked. Rarity and Applejack nodded. "Well, it looks like we're stuck here until the storm passes." Applejack said. As she said this, Twilight got excited and suggested they spend the night, when they agreed, she pulled out a sleepover handbook, which exists for some reason. Rarity was especially amused during truth or dare, where Applejack had to wear a dress for ten minutes, it was almost worth getting drenched and her hooves getting covered in mud for, after that, it was Twilight's turn. "Alright Twi, truth or dare?" Applejack asked. Twilight tapped her chin and shrugged. "Truth." She replied. "Ok, is it true that you knew Nightmare Moon was going to show up?" Applejack asked. Twilight nodded calmly. "Yea, I tried to warn Princess Celestia, but she shrugged it off......at least it worked out though right?" She wondered. Rarity nodded before Applejack could respond. "It did work out, Princess Celestia has her sister back and Ponyville is returning to normal." She said. Twilight nodded. "Alright Rarity, truth or dare?" She asked. "Truth." Rarity said, not willing to risk another dare at the moment. After taking a moment to think of a question, Twilight spoke. "Please don't take this the wrong way, but are the rumors true? that your house is cursed or something?" She asked, not wishing to offend. Applejack was quiet as she waited for the white unicorn to answer, which she did. "In a way." Rarity replied, she held up a hoof to quiet them before they could speak. "My home is not cursed, it is haunted." She said. Twilight was silent for a moment before blinking, she seemed to be amused by something but didn't want to say anything. Rarity recognized the expression, she often saw it or even used it herself, she just laughed quietly. "Quite a claim no? but to answer your question, no it isn't cursed." She said finally. The statement caused them all to share a short laugh, that was of course, until Rarity's next statement. "Seriously however? it is haunted." She said. Before Twilight or Applejack could say anything however, all three of them gasped, but for different reasons, Twilight and Applejack because they watched as Rarity's left eye became a pale blue with a ghostly white mist like appearance. Rarity had gasped because she watched as a ghost walked right behind Twilight and up the stairs, it was clearly a pony but she was unable to determine what kind. "Rarity, your eye!" Twilight said, her eyes wide. "I am aware, would you like me to explain?" Rarity asked, turning her focus to her friends, who seemed creeped by her eye. Twilight nodded and Applejack shivered a little. Rarity shifted a little and got herself more comfortable. "It started a week before the Summer Sun Celebration, my family came to Ponyville for it and were staying with me for the week, that night, I found my sister upstairs, staring at the locked room, I unlocked it and we both entered, disturbing a salt line that had been all around the rooms walls, unbeknownst to us, we had released a ghost into the house." She took a breath and continued. "After a few days of this haunting, my sister had revealed that she found a spell in the library, it is called Spectral Vision, she had used it without telling me or considering the consequences." She sighed and shook her head. "Later, I used the spell myself and the next morning, I looked in the mirror and saw this." Rarity pointed at her eye. "And seeing as nopony noticed this change makes me believe that the change only occurs when we see a ghost." Rarity explained. "From what I was told however, my eye is always like this at home." She added. Twilight seemed thoughtful for a second before she spoke up. "Can I......see the spell?" She asked. Rarity nodded and stood up. "Let me find the book." She said as she walked to the bookshelves. It took a few minutes, but Rarity soon found the book containing the spell she cast, she opened it and flipped through the book until she found it, she then walked back over and sat down, showing Twilight the spell. Twilight took the book and began reading it, her eyes darted back and forth along the page as she read, soon she looked up. "This spell......I don't like it, there's too much risk." She said as she closed the book. Rarity nodded. "I am well aware of the risk I took, but when I cast it I was desperate to find a solution." She replied as she looked at Applejack who seemed to be lost in thought. "Now, let us get back to the game, I don't want to ruin the night anymore with all of this ghost talk." She said as she let out a small smile. The rest of the night was far from perfect, and after a heated argument between Rarity and Applejack, Twilight had shouted at them, stating that they practically ruined the night with their stupid arguments. A tree had also broken the window to the room, and Twilight refused to help get rid of it as she stopped caring how bad the night got. Which meant that Applejack and Rarity were forced to make up and work together to get rid of the tree, once it was gone, Twilight cast a spell and the window fixed itself, the two then sat down and had a long talk, ending in an agreement to try and tolerate the other more. In conclusion, the night wasn't amazing by any means, but it wasn't as bad as it could have been. And in the back of her mind, Rarity felt like life in Ponyville just got a lot more exciting. Author's Note Here you go! I wanted to do a short chapter at first, like 1k to 1400? but I decided not to do so. So here's a chapter for ya to read, and I hope you like it, if not, thanks for the read.
Better days ahead._______*a week later, 9:00 AM.*______ Rarity opened her eyes to an invasive bright glare as she woke up, she groaned and covered her eyes with her right hoof, for some reason her curtain was wide open and sunlight shined through. "Wake up mare." Said a familiar ghostly voice. Uncovering her eyes, Rarity turned and glared at the ghost holding the curtain open, even though Alecia was heavily blurred, she could bet the ghost was grinning. "What is with you today?" Rarity asked as she stood up. "To be honest I'm just bored of doing nothing all day, you have no idea how boring it is not being able to actually leave the house." Alecia replied before reappearing at the door to the bathroom. "Now get up and get ready, I specifically remember you saying you had orders to fill." She stated before vanishing. Rarity sighed as she walked to the bathroom to get ready for her day. "It's too early for this." She complained quietly. After getting ready, Rarity went downstairs to get some food, on the way she noticed Alecia floating about, she simply grabbed a bagel from her fridge and put it in the toaster. "How exactly are you able to touch objects?" Rarity asked out of curiosity. Alecia floated over to the kitchen and spoke. "Heck if I know, my only guess is that it has something to do with force of will, or something I can't understand." She replied. "Why do you ask?" The ghost wondered. Rarity stretched a little bit to help loosen her joints. "I was curious, it is not often one can talk to a ghost after all." She answered as the bagel popped up. Alecia disappeared from sight and left Rarity alone as she buttered her bagel and ate. Once Rarity was done eating and she had cleaned up, she headed outside and to the Boutique. And now that she was alone once again, Alecia had only one thought on her mind. 'I wonder what would happen if Rarity came home and every single cabinet, door and drawer was open?' She wondered. ______*hours later, 5:12 PM*______ Rarity was walking through town with a more relaxed expression, she had finished working on a few orders and made incredible progress with another before heading to the Ponyville spa for the first time in a month Apparently, working on the decor for the Summer Sun Celebration, having your family visit out of the blue, discovering your home really was haunted, defeating Nightmare Moon, living with a partial amnesiac ghost, a tree smashing through the window and long work days caused an incredible amount of stress, which really surprised Lotus and Aloe. As she walked, Rarity noticed Spike our and about, he had a rapidly filling bag with him as he went from stall to stall, she decided to walk over and talk with the dragon. Spike noticed her approaching and his expression went from a bored one to an excited one. "Hey Rarity!" He greeted. Rarity smiled at him. "Hello Spike.....what are you doing?" She asked curiously. "And where is Twilight? I haven't seen her in a few days." She added. Spike looked at his bag and shrugged. "Picking up groceries, Twilight's been in 'research' mode for most of the week now, I'm just making sure we have what we need." He replied. Rarity raised an eyebrow. "What is research mode?" She asked. Spike rolled his eyes. "It's when she finds something that really catches her interest, she sorta just tunes the whole world out and focuses on what's she's researching." He explained, as if it were mundane to him. "That doesn't sound healthy for her at all." Rarity commented. Spike nodded. "It isn't, but I'm used to it by now, by the way, can I ask you something?" He wondered. Rarity gave a half shrug. "Of course." She replied. Spike scratched the back of his head as he spoke. "Well, you know how you gave me and the others a tour of the Boutique?" She started. After a confirming nod, the dragon continued. "I was wondering, what's with the bedrooms? i mean, your house is practically right next to it." He asked. Rarity understood what he was asking, and she replied easily. "Just in case, you see, the Boutique used to be a home, but I purchased it for my work, the two bedrooms, kitchen and bathroom are just in case I need to stay the night for whatever reason, I even have a spell on the building, it isn't perfect, but it keeps it mostly clean or helps keep food fresh." She explained. Spike nodded and looked at the bag on his back. "Well, I have to get back, bye Rarity." He said as he ran off. Rarity smiled and started to walk home, and on the way home, she ran into an all too familiar set of faces. "Oh hi Rarity, wasn't expecting to see you outside." Said the voice of Magnum. "We're sorry about the surprise visit, we really are." Betty added. Rarity nodded at her parents. "It's alright." She said before walking with them. _______*Meanwhile*______ Alecia would sigh from boredom, but she was bored of that as well, she floated around the house aimlessly and with no idea what to do next. She had already opened everything that could be open, and left them like that, she had also decided to put random things in random places, for instance, she put the butter in the cabinet for plates and bowls, and the small plates in the silverware drawer. But as she floated aimlessly, Alecia pondered on how to cure her boredom, she had no way of breaking the curse, and if she had a stomach, she would have vomited at the thought of continuing to count her time as a ghost. Most would assume that ghosts would have nothing to be angry about, but that's not true, at least in Alecia's case, her anger mostly came from boredom and being stuck in a house. Eventually, Alecia felt her anger reach its limit. "Grrraaaaaaa!" She screamed out of frustration, she raised her ghostly fists into the air. After she was finished, Alecia just grumbled and floated around, closing the cabinets, doors and drawers as she went, she tuned out the world around her and did this throughout the house. _______*ten minutes later.*_______ Rarity was now alone walking through town, her parents had gone searching for Sweetie Belle, as they walked, her parents asked if she was willing to let her stay in Ponyville, her sister had liked the small town more than any of the other towns or cities she had visited. And while Rarity was all too happy to accept, the choice was ultimately Sweetie Belle's, so while her parents searched for her sister in town, she decided to go back home, she had a feeling that her sister would want to check up on the resident ghost. Rarity passed Rainbow Dash on the way home, and the Pegasus talked to her, mostly asking her if she was messing with Twilight and Applejack about the whole ghost thing, to which Rarity of course said that she wasn't lying. "Prove it then." Rainbow Dash said as she hovered next to the unicorn mare. "Bring us all over at one time, and prove that there's a ghost, and heck from what Applejack said, it sounds like you can talk to them." She shrugged. Rarity sighed as she walked. "This isn't up to me, it is up to her, I can ask if she's willing to prove this to you all, but that's all." She said. "Go ahead then, I'll see you around." Rainbow Dash said before flying off. Rarity just shook her head. "That mare." She mumbled. Rarity eventually reached her house and walked to the door, she opened it and walked inside, she then closed the door and looked around. Rarity noticed a familiar pair of saddlebags and sighed in relief, she then called out. "Alecia?" She said. Soon enough, the ghost in question appeared in front of Rarity.......right next to her face. "Gah!" The mare cried out as she jumped. Alecia laughed quietly, her blurred form floating in place. "Can I help you?" She then asked. Rarity took a deep breath and spoke. "Did anypony come inside?" She asked, pointing at the saddlebags. Alecia nodded and floated to the bags. "Yea, little girl, unicorn with white fur, claims to be your sister." She replied calmly. The ghost then planted her feet on the ground. "it was a pleasant surprise when she got here, I wasn't expecting her at all, talk about surprises." She added, with an amused tone. "So, where's the family? and how long is the kid staying this time?" She asked curiously. "First off, I didn't know they were coming." Rarity replied. "And second, they will probably come here soon, third? that decision is Sweetie Belle's, not yours, not my parents, not mine." She added. Alecia nodded again. "Can I ask one last question?" She wondered. "Of course." Rarity replied. Alecia crossed her arms. "Who was that Pegasus you were talking with? and why did you seem fed up?" She asked. Rarity blinked as she stared at the ghost in shock. "H-how did you see me talking with?.......I wasn't even near the house!?" She asked. Alecia shrugged and pointed up. "I was on the roof, after a lot of experimenting, I learned that as long as I keep touching the house, I can go a short distance away." She explained. Rarity nodded in understanding as she calmed down. "You must have very good eyesight to have seen that." She muttered. "Anyway, where is Sweetie Belle?" She asked. Alecia pointed towards the dining room. "She's waiting for me to get back so we can finish our game." She replied before vanishing. With that, Rarity walked to the dining room, she entered it and saw that Sweetie Belle was playing Game of Life......or rather, just trying to start it. "Perhaps I can help?" She offered. Sweetie Belle smiled and ran over to Rarity, she hugged her excitedly. "Hey Rarity! and uh......" She blushed out of embarrassment. "Yea, I could use some help." She said quietly. Rarity gave her sister a smile and walked over with her before sitting, she looked at Alecia. "How long were you trying to set up?" She asked, pointing to the open instructions and splayed cards. Alecia shrugged. "A few minutes." She replied with a nonchalant tone. "It would have been faster if I could understand your written language." She added. Rarity then looked at her sister who seemed to be calming down, she sighed and cleaned everything up, shuffling the cards and setting them down with her magic, she then ensured that the board was set up before speaking. "Alecia, do you know how this game works?" She asked. Aleica shook her head. "Believe me, I tried to find a memory of this game, couldn't." She said as she leaned back. "That's fine, I'll explain it." Rarity said as the three chose their pieces, Rarity chose the green carriage, Sweetie Belle chose blue, Aleica took red, both Rarity and Sweetie Belle chose the pink piece, while Alecia grabbed a blue. After they were ready, Rarity explained the rules of the game, how to win and to play. Eventually, the game ended with Rarity in first, Sweetie Belle in second, and Alecia in last, and while they were cleaning up, they heard a knock on the front door. Rarity stopped doing what she was doing and walked to the front door, she opened it and saw her parents. "Rarity, is Sweetie Belle here?" Betty asked. With a nod, her parents visibly relaxed. "Thank Celestia...." Magnum replied before staring at something in the house. Rarity looked back and saw Alecia carrying the Life box to the living room. "I'm just going to assume the ghost.....Alecia was it? is still here?" Betty wondered. Inside, Alecia noticed Rarity's parents staring. "They......can't see me can they?" She asked. "I'm afraid not." Rarity said before looking at her parents. "She's still here, but she is annoying at worst." She replied. "I heard that!" Alecia called out from the dining room. Rarity let her parents inside and led them to Sweetie Belle. And while it appeared that the filly was talking to somepony who wasn't there, they all knew the truth, she was talking to Alecia. Alecia stood up as Rarity sat down with her parents. "This is family business I'm guessing." She muttered before vanishing. ______*the next day, 4:00 PM*______ Alecia laid back on the roof of the house, staring up at the bright blue sky, white clouds occasionally floated by, and even the occasional Pegasus flew by heading somewhere. She sighed to herself and closed her eyes. 'At least with the kid here, I won't be as bored now.......at least, that's the hope.' She opened her eyes and blinked in wonder. "That's odd." She muttered. Alecia stood up and watched as an unfamiliar blue whisp of smoke flew down at the house from the sky, it went right through the roof and went inside. "Well, I wanted excitement." She whispered to herself before going down into the rest of the house, she saw the smoke slowly expand and take on a new form, at first it appeared to be a unicorn, but then it grew wings......and then it grew in size until it was at least double Rarity's height. And then the shape gained color and became more clear, it was a mare as was obvious due to the muzzle, it's fur was a very dark blue, it's mane and tail were a wispy blue smoke and its cutie mark was a real crescent moon with a dark blue splotch behind it, the mare raised itself off the floor and looked around. "You mind telling me why you are in my room? Alecia asked. The mare flipped around and her horn glowed furiously, her cyan cat-like eyes glared at the ghost. "Who are you!? and where.....wait, a human?" The mare seemed perplexed before returning to her threatening stance. "Where am I human?" She questioned. Alecia crossed her arms. "First off, you barged into MY room, second, you can't hurt me even if you tried, so threats won't work." She stated. In response, the mare fired a blast of magic from her horn, it simply passed right through Alecia and through the wall, with a sigh, Alecia shook her head as the mare stared in confusion. "I don't understand." The mare muttered. The mare growled and marched up to Alecia. "What have you done human!?" She snapped angrily. Alecia raised an eyebrow. "Me? nothing, and seeing as you don't have that eye and can see me, I can only assume you are dead." She replied. The mare reached out and her hoof went through Alecia, she pulled it out and growled. "Impossible! I am immortal, I cannot die!" She stated, anger and confusion were clear in her voice. Alecia shrugged. "And yet here we are, if you want to leave I won't stop you." She said before appearing at the door to leave the room. The mare seemed skeptical, but followed Alecia as she led her to the front door, when they reached the door, Alecia leaned against the wall. "Here's the door, have fun out there." She said casually. The mare scoffed. "Be grateful I wasn't able to harm you." She stated before lighting her horn, she tried to turn the doorknob but was unable to do so. Alecia couldn't help but smirk inwardly as the mare grew increasingly frustrated, she attempted to turn the knob with her hoof but her hoof went straight through. "Just walk through it." The ghost stated. The mare growled quietly and proceeded to walk out the door, Alecia walked to the steps and sat down. "That was fun while it lasted I guess." She mumbled. It wasn't long however, until Alecia heard screaming, followed by the mare flying through the air in a familiar manner.. "Aaaah!" The mare cried out as she landed on the floor of the living room. Alecia blinked and looked at the mare who stood up and glared at her angrily. "What was that!?" She demanded to know as she marched over. With a shrug, Alecia spoke. "If I had to guess? I would say that it was the curse that keeps me trapped here, but I didn't know it could affect others." She replied as she stood up. After some internal thought which lasted a few minutes, the mare spoke again, in a much more calm tone. "Where am I exactly?" She asked. "We're in a house that's at least six centuries old, it currently belongs to a unicorn mare named Rarity, you can call me Alecia by the way." The ghost said as she crossed her arms. The mare stared at Alecia for several moments before speaking. "My name is Nightmare Moon.....is this, Rarity? the reason we are trapped here?" She asked. Alecia laughed quietly at the question. "No, I remember the people who did this to me, and she wasn't one." She replied. Nightmare Moon stared at Alecia curiously. "Have you not discovered a way to get around the curse?" She asked. "If I did, I wouldn't be here now would I?" The ghost replied as she walked to one of the windows, she then watched the outside world. "Right now I'm waiting on them to get home." She looked at the mare. "I advise that you hide until I break the news about a second ghost." She stated before looking outside again. Nightmare Moon glared at Alecia. "Why do you call me a ghost?" She asked. "You walk through walls, your magic doesn't work, your eyes are normal and you can see me, simple logic." Alecia replied. Nightmare Moon sighed. "Where exactly should I hide?" She asked. Alecia shrugged. "The room we met in, isn't it obvious?" She wondered as she looked outside. The mare headed upstairs, complaining about annoying humans all the way, Alecia simply chuckled. "At least I'm not alone in this anymore." She muttered. Author's Note Here's another chapter for you guys, and things get back to normal........kind of, maybe....ok, not at all. In this one, Sweetie Belle returned, Rainbow asks that Rarity prove Alecia exists, and more.
More haunting._______*Ponyville, Rarity's house, the next day, 1:21 PM*_______ Nightmare Moon groaned in frustration as she rebounded back into the house after her seventh attempt to leave. "Why can't I leave!?" The Alicorn screamed. Meanwhile, Alecia watched with a bored yet amused expression, she simply sat back on the couch, reclining, angering the mare even more with the physical action. "Another thing! how are you able to touch objects or even interact with them! while I cannot!" She snapped. "Because I want to do it?" Alecia offered as she went back to staring at the ceiling. Nightmare Moon's left eye twitched violently, she once again attempted magic, but it did nothing at all. "Will you stop trying to leave already? I already told you, ghosts can't leave, at least to my knowledge." Alecia said as she closed her eyes. Nightmare Moon looked at Alecia. "I would rather keep fighting this imprisonment than be trapped once again.....and stop calling me a ghost, I am NOT dead!" She demanded as she cast another useless spell. Alecia just shook her head. "Just keep it down." She muttered. The Alicorn attempted to get away from the house several more times, and at some point she tried to blow the house up, but they all met in failure, after a half hour of sulking, Nightmare Moon approached Alecia. "Why can't I see you properly?" She asked. Alecia opened her eyes and looked at the mare. "I've been a ghost for a long time, and most of that time I was trapped, constantly weak and unable to do anything other than move my eyes, so as far as i can tell, It's a side effect." She answered. Nightmare Moon looked around as she talked. "So, this is the home of one of the Element Bearers?" She asked. "Sure, not that it matters to us, we can't exactly do anything with that information as ghosts now can we?" Alecia replied. Nightmare Moon glared at the ghost. "I did NOT die, I am NOT a ghost, so stop calling me one!" She snapped, her eyes glaring daggers. Alecia chuckled. "The sooner you accept the truth, the better off you will be, but whatever, keep your delusions." She said as she closed her eyes again. _______*Meanwhile.*_______ Sweetie Belle walked through town, eager to truly explore it for once, usually when she came to visit, she never really got to go anywhere, this time however, she was determined to explore on her own. So she walked through town, she was in the shop portion of town, where there were mostly stores or businesses. Sweetie Belle hadn't been to this part of town yet, so she was looking around, examining every detail, however she stopped paying attention to where she was going, and ended up walking into somepony. She and the other pony fell to the ground. "Oof." They both said. Sweetie Belle looked up and saw a Pegasus filly with orange fur and an unkempt purple mane and tail, no cutie mark and purple eyes, her wings were very small. "I'm sorry, are you alright?" She asked out of concern as she stood up. The filly stood up and looked at Sweetie Belle. "Yea, I'm alright......we uh, should really watch where we are going huh?" She said with a nervous chuckle. Sweetie Belle nodded. "Yea....um." She paused for a moment before offering her hoof in a hoofshake. "I'm Sweetie Belle, and I'm sorry for bumping into you." She said with a small smile. The filly returned the gesture and shook Sweetie's hoof. "I'm Scootaloo, and it's my fault too, I wasn't watching where I was going." She replied before stretching a little bit. "So uh, Sweetie Belle? maybe you could show me around town? I'm kind of new." Scootaloo asked. Sweetie Belle scratched the back of her head. "Truth is, I only really know the market and a little bit of this part of Ponyville, so I won't be much of a guide." She said quietly. Scootaloo didn't seem bothered by this. "Then let's explore together! we can save so much time that way!" She stated, her personality just screamed energy. Sweetie Belle considered for a while, before eventually agreeing. "Let's go then." She said. With that, the two fillies explored the town together, stopping at a few places to browse or even just rest. ______*Hours later.*______ Rarity sighed as she walked up to the front door of her house, it had been a long day at work, and she just wanted some alone time to cool off. She opened the door and stepped inside, she closed the door and looked around, she saw Alecia sitting in the middle of the floor in the living room, she was about to talk when she heard another voice. "This house is far too small, how you did not lose your mind is beyond me." A hauntingly familiar voice said. Rarity felt her heart pound while her eyes widened as the owner of the voice walked into the room, a very familiar Alicorn mare that she hoped to never see again. Nightmare Moon was in her living room, looking around with an aggravated expression, she then looked at Alecia and paused as her gaze landed on Rarity. Alecia looked over her shoulder and shrugged. "Better sooner than later I suppose." She muttered. Nightmare Moon growled and her horn glowed, firing a magic blast at the unicorn. Rarity cried out as the blast.......went straight through her? she waited for a few moments before opening her eyes, she looked around and blinked. "I.....what happened?" She asked curiously as she stared at the equally shocked face of Nightmare Moon. Alecia stood up and floated over to Rarity. "Allow me to introduce our new ghost, Nightmare Moon." She said as she looked at the Alicorn. "This is Rarity, the owner of this house." She added. Needless to say, Rarity screamed loudly for a good ten seconds before fainting, leaving Alecia to carry her to the couch. _______*later that day.*_______ Rarity sat at her dining room table, silently sipping on some wine that she had hidden away for special occasions, only now she simply wanted to try to ease her mind, for what it was worth. It was now seven fifty four and she had only woken up a half hour ago, Alecia had explained things as best as she could, but it was still a shock to learn that Nightmare Moon was now here in her house, Rarity took another sip and heard the front door open. "Rarity! I'm back!" Sweetie Belle's voice called out. Rarity sighed and stood up, she walked to the front door and saw her sister, she smiled. "Welcome back Sweetie Belle." She said. Sweetie Belle smiled at first, but her smile faded when she saw Rarity's face. "Are you ok? you don't look so good." She asked. Rarity nodded. "I will be alright, I just had a long day." She replied simply as her sister closed the door. Sweetie Belle gaze her sister a curious gaze as she walked to the stairs. "If you say so." She mumbled before heading to her room. Rarity took the time to put her wine away and cleaned up, as she put her glass in the sink, she spoke. "Alecia, are you listening?" She asked quietly. Not a few seconds later, Alecia appeared on the other side of the counter. "I'm here, what do you need?" She asked as she leaned on the counter. "Do you think I should have told her the truth?" Rarity asked. Alecia seemed to think on it for a moment before shrugging. "Look, I'll let you in on something, I had a little brother, I loved him, and I still do, but as much as we trusted the other, we still kept secrets." She then began to float up until she was over the counter. "She will find out eventually, i advise you to say something and give her a heads up, better than finding out from out of the blue like you." She stated. Rarity sighed as she rubbed her forehead. "If my parents ever find out who's in the house, I'll never live it down......and they probably won't let Sweetie Belle visit again." She said with worry as she leaned her left foreleg on the counter. "Look, I'll do what I can to help Nightmare Moon adjust, as well as to keep damage to a minimun, you just work on breaking the news to your sister." Alecia said before vanishing, Rarity sighed to herself once again as she walked to the stairs. Rarity headed upstairs and stopped when she heard Sweetie Belle talking. "Is she alright?" Her voice asked. Alecia could be heard next. "She is, like Rarity said, she had a long day." The ghost said. Rarity stopped listening in and walked up, she headed for her room and opened the door, she entered her room and closed the door. Upon turning around she felt her heart skip a beat as she stared into the cat-like eyes of Nightmare Moon. "Let's get one thing straight, we are still enemies, the only reason I will not be harming you is because i cannot do so, but once I learn how to interact with the physical world once again, you had best watch your back." The Alicorn warned before leaving the room. Rarity took a few moments to calm down before walking to her bathroom, she then washed her makeup off and headed straight for her bed, she climbed under the covers and closed her eyes. "Why me?" She asked herself as she drifted off to sleep. Author's Note A bit shorter but still important nonetheless. This is mostly because I didn't feel up to making another 4K word chapter for once.
History lessons with the supernatural.______*the next day, Ponyville, 3:00 PM*______ Rarity once again found herself walking through town, this time however she was going to the Library to visit Twilight. The mare had practically holed herself up in the library for a while, only occasionally leaving to get some air, she had stated that she was working on a project when asked what she was up to, but she refused to say any more. Rarity had also done everything she could to break the news about Nightmare Moon being in the house gently, Sweetie Belle's response was simple and expected, she immediately evacuated the house and ate her breakfast outside, it took fifteen minutes to just get her to calm down, and another ten to get her back inside. Sweetie Belle had simply cleaned up and then left the house, saying she would be back later. Rarity was now walking to the Golden Oaks Library, hoping that talking to Twilight would help raise her spirits, or even to help her with the curse on her home. A cool breeze blew through town and a low hanging white cloud zoomed by, Rarity blinked and watched as the cloud flew off into the distance, she simply shrugged and continued walking, saying hello to the ponies who greeted her. After a few more minutes of walking, Rarity arrived at the tree, she walked up to the door and knocked on the door, she heard some talking on the other side but she couldn't make out what was said. Soon though, the door opened to reveal Twilight standing on the other side. "Rarity! just who I was going to look for!" She said, moving to allow her friend inside. Rarity noticed that Twilight looked tired, she had dark circles under her eyes and they seemed to be a little bloodshot. "Twilight dear, are you alright?" She asked out of concern as she walked inside. Twilight nodded before yawning. "Yea.......just a little tired, regardless! I figured it out!" She stated with a large smile. Rarity looked around and saw numerous books lying around seemingly haphazardly, there was a large blackboard with chalk lines making what appeared to be formulas and theories. "Figured what out?" She asked. Twilight floated over a familiar book. "The Spectral Sight spell! it works but it has a terrible flaw, one that I have successfully fixed!" She stated happily. Rarity blinked and raised an eyebrow. "What exactly does that mean?" She asked out of genuine curiosity. At this, Twilight happily went into 'lecture mode' to explain. "Normally, Spectral Sight requires that the caster relive their most tragic memory and risk their most precious one to act as a mental safeguard, but with the version I created, you can give the Sight to anypony without such risk.......and all it takes is a little magic!" She explained. At Rarity's confused expression, Twilight cleared her throat. "Well......basically, by using some magic, I can give anypony the ability to see ghosts or spirits, sadly, I can't undo the old version......I'm afraid your stuck with it." She explained, she seemed to be upset that she couldn't help. Rarity smiled. "Think nothing of it Twilight dear, I'm used to how my eye changes, as for the memories? I can't do anything about it......so why worry about it right now?" She asked. Twilight lit her horn and the books started to go back onto the shelves, after they were all away, Twilight took a deep breath and looked at Rarity. "Can I ask you something?" She asked curiously. "Of course, what is it?" Rarity replied, walking over and picking up a letter, it had the details of the new spell. "Who is the ghost in your house?" Twilight asked. At this, Rarity sighed, she set the letter on Twilight's desk. "Unfortunately, there is another ghost in my home, making it two.......the first ghost is Alecia, a human who was cursed to be bound to the home forever, you......aren't going to like who the second ghost is." She stated. After Twilight got over the initial shock of what Alecia was, she spoke. "Who is it?" She asked, genuinely curious. Rarity looked right at Twilight, she waited a little before speaking. "Nightmare Moon." She stated. At the mere mention of that name, Twilight's eyes widened, her jaw dropped, and her hairs stood on end. "B-b-but that's impossible! we freed Luna!" She stated. Rarity nodded. "We did, but nevertheless, she is there, and not exactly in a forgiving mood, personally I'm still shaken up about it, the air in my house is tense lately." She replied. Twilight seemed to ponder this for a while before speaking. "Well......we can't just leave her there unattended, what do you think about us all going and seeing this for ourselves?" She asked. "I have no problem with this, but I must warn you.....Alecia is a bit odd." Rarity replied. _______*later, 5:00 PM*_______ Rarity stood outside her house with Twilight, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, at first, Rainbow Dash was by far the most skeptical out of them all, but they were all a little concerned about Nightmare Moon being there. "I did forget to mention one thing however." Twilight said before they could go the front door. "I also have another spell, it's an old one, but it's supposed to reveal a ghost or spirits true self, of course, this was back when superstition ran wild, so it may or may not work." She explained. "Assuming there is a ghost!" Rainbow interrupted as they headed to the door. Rarity walked up to the front door. "Welcome to my home everypony." She said as she opened the door and let them inside. After everypony was inside, Twilight lit her horn and began to cast her spell on them all, all they could feel was a slight tingle but that was it. Once she was done, Rarity looked at her friends, they were looking around curiously. "Do you want me to call them?" She asked. Rainbow crossed her hooves. "Sure, why not call Nightmare Moon here? nothing could go wrong." She said dismissively, she was sarcastic, but in truth, she seemed a little curious. Rarity rolled her eyes, she then opened her mouth. "Alecia I'm back!" She called out. Almost immediately a familiar female voice spoke up from the living room. "I'm dead Rarity, not blind or deaf." The six mares looked and five of them were startled, Rarity was actually surprised as Alecia was no longer blurred out, she could actually make out the details of the ghost. Alecia was laying on the couch looking up at the ceiling, her skin was a pinkish white. (basically she looks like a white female, I'm just describing it like this because I am too lazy to learn the actual color of skin.) Her eyes were dark blue with a strange purple glow in them, her hair was a slightly faded dark red with purple streaks, she wore a pair of thick black pants of some kind, she also had a white shirt on, as well as a dark green shoulderless vest, her face was slightly rounded, her nose was small. "Thanks for the spell by the way, it's annoying not being able to see your fingers accurately." The ghost wiggled her fingers for emphasis. Rarity looked around a little before Alecia spoke. "She's upstairs brooding, don't bother her right now." Alecia said. Rainbow Dash was the first to speak up. "Your a ghost?" She asked curiously. Alecia nodded and promptly stared at the ceiling again. "You don't look like a ghost." The Pegasus stated. Rarity sighed as the others gasped, Alecia had immediately disappeared from sight, and then they all jumped when they heard her behind them. "And you look like a child's art project, I wasn't going to say it, but it's true." Alecia countered as she walked through the Pegasus, sending an unnatural chill through her. "I have admit it though, the rainbow hair does look cool, even if you do look like a doodle." The ghost said as she turned to face the mares, crossing her arms, strangely enough, a spark of black electricity arced across her arms for a brief second. "Alecia, leave the poor mare alone, she doesn't need you haunting her." Rarity said. Alecia raised an eyebrow and looked at Rarity. "I've been stuck in this house for six centuries, and an opportunity to have some fun shows up, of course I'm going to take it!" She countered easily. Twilight spoke up as she approached. "Excuse me, not to be rude......but could you tell me why your here? or what it's like to be a ghost?" She asked out of curiosity. Alecia shrugged and began floating, she held her arms behind her head and closed her eyes. "Being a ghost is mostly boring, maddening at first, but I got used to it.......its different for everyone though, so I can't give you a general idea." She then looked up at the ceiling. "As for why I'm here? I was sealed away in a room for six centuries and unable to do anything execpt count the time." She looked at unicorn. "I heard about you Twilight Sparkle." She said, surprising the mare. "You love to learn new things like a scientist, but you also like to document your discoveries more like an archeologist." Alecia then vanished and a second later was in front of Twilight's face, almost giving the mare a heart attack, while also sending a chill down her spine. "Let me ask you something, are humans considered common knowledge?" She asked. Still recovering from the immediate shock, Twilight answered. "Um.....could you be more specific?" She asked. Alecia sighed and walked through Twilight and spoke. "What I mean is this, is knowledge about humans restricted, or do people just see no need to learn about them?" She asked, slightly annoyed. The other four mares talked amongst themselves while Twilight thought on her answer, and after a minute, she spoke. "As far as I know, it isn't illegal to learn about humans." She said. Alecia shook her head and lifted herself off the ground so that she was floating a couple of feet in the air. "Disappointing, anyway, I can tell you have questions, so go ahead and ask, and all I want in return, is for one simple thing.......but that can wait." She said, she then held up her hand. "Two questions each, just to make sure you don't ask stupid ones." She added with a grin. Before Twilight could speak, Rarity spoke up. "Do humans need to wear clothing? or is it just a choice?" She asked curiously. "Of course the fashion pony asks that." Alecia muttered quietly. "It's both a survival and modesty thing, the human body can survive some strange eviroments on its own, clothing helps with the colder and wetter ones, modesty? that should be obvious as to why and I am done answering that question." She stated firmly as she closed her eyes, slowly floating around the group. "How many humans were there back where you used to live?" Rarity asked. Alecia shrugged. "I don't know the exact number, but they had three kingdoms, and they did take up vast amounts land.....so maybe?.......a few million give or take?" She estimated. Twilight had been taking notes on a piece of paper with a quill she got from somewhere. "You misspelled kingdoms." Alecia pointed out from behind the mare. Twilight once again jumped in surprise, she took a few deep breaths and examined her notes. "Ooh ooh! me next! me next!" Came Pinkie Pie's voice. Alecia looked at the pink earth pony with a raised eyebrow, she then went back to floating around. "Alright then, what are your questions?" She asked. The pink mare bounced over as she spoke. "Do humans have any interesting party games?" She asked eagerly. Alecia smirked. "Unless you count ale pong, then no." She replied. Pinkie paused for a moment before speaking again. "What's ale pong?" She asked curiously. "It's a game played between two people, there are ten cups placed in a pyramid shape, every time you get a ball in, you have to drink, it gets harder as you go on." Alecia explained simply. [1] "Why would it get harder?" Pinkie asked. Alecia wiggled her finger back and forth. "Ah ah ah, that was your last question." She chided. Applejack pulled Pinkie aside and started to talk to her while Rainbow Dash flew up to the ghost and looked her in the eye, the ghost just stared back, unmoving. "So.......who managed your weather? or did humans have magic for that?" She asked. Alecia grinned and planted a finger on the pagasus' forehead. "No one managed it, they survived without it being controlled, and humans don't have magic." She then pushed lightly on Rainbow Dash's forehead. "By the way, that was two questions." She teased. Twilight was about to talk when Applejack stepped up. "What was the currency for humans? Ah'm curious." She asked. Aleica looked at the earth pony. "Similar to ponies, they used silver or pyrite coins, pyrite might not have been real gold, but it was incredibly common so they used it as the basic currency, silver was far more valuable." She stated calmly. Applejack thought on her next question for a moment before speaking. "Why were humans split into three kingdoms?" She asked. This question definitely made Twilight ready to write. "Cultural differences." Alecia said simply. "They each had their own cultures and the people often clashed with one another about it, so they divided the human lands into three, made three kingdoms and declared themselves independent of one another." She shrugged. "Not that it matters much now though." She muttered. "Okay, my turn." Twilight said. Alecia turned her attention to Twilight. "What is this, a game?......nevermind." She muttered. "Do all humans look similar to you?" Twilight asked. "No." Came Alecia's immediate reply. The speed of the reply stunned Twilight for a moment, but she continued. "I see, then would I be correct in assuming that you had somepony enchant your eyes to look like that?" She asked. "Next question." Alecia said, she no longer looked neutral and she actually seemed to be......upset? she wasn't even floating now. "I.....was just-" Twilight didn't get to finish her sentence before the ghost held a hand up, silencing her. "It actually doesn't bother me, but I would prefer not to answer that question right now, I'll give you your question back." She replied. Taking the hint to change the subject, Twilight spoke. "What do most humans look like then?" She asked. Alecia soon perked up a little at that, as she was now floating around just like before. "Black, brown, red or blonde, hair, as well as varying shades of them......age or too much stress can cause hair to go gray or white." She then stretched her limbs. "Skin color is similar to mine for most, but there are those who have pale or dark skin, but I personally haven't seen many of them." Alecia paused as Twilight wrote this down. "The human male averages around five foot to six foot three or some crap, never cared to learn the specifics." Alecia continued. "The human female averages around five foot to five foot seven or eight." She stated. Twilight wrote down her findings and much to the surprise of the five mares, Fluttershy spoke up. "I-if you don't mind me asking.......what kind of animals were in the human lands?" She asked. "Boars, pigs, cows, deer, chickens, foxes, bears, wargs." Alecia replied. Fluttershy seemed curious as the last species. "I've never heard of wargs, what are they? don't you mean wolves?" She asked curiously. Alecia shook her head. "Wargs are cousins of wolves, giant creatures that are twice your size, wild ones are very hostile and protective of their territory, but if you befriend one? you have a lifelong companion." She stated before setting her feet on the floor. Once Twilight finished writing down her notes, she looked up at Alecia. "I have one last question, this is completely serious and i would appreciate it if you answered it." She said. Alecia thought on it for a moment before shrugging. "Nightmare Moon isn't a threat, she doesn't know how to interact with the physical world like I do, but with my help she'll be good to go in about.......a week?" She replied, apparently knowing the question. "Why would you help her to be able to attack us without us being able to fight back?" Rainbow Dash demanded to know. Alecia gave the Pegasus a cold glare, she appeared right in front of her face. "Every ghost has the right to know how to interact with the physical world, whatever she did when she was alive is irrelevant to me, am I clear?" She asked in a flat voice. Rainbow nodded quickly and Alecia appeared in the living room, a smile on her face. "Good!" She said with a cheerful tone, apparently back to her more carefree self. "Now, if you don't mind, let me tell you what I want." She said. Alecia was instantly over by a window and looked outside. "I want you to find the source of this curse, not unreasonable, considering I'm giving you firsthand knowledge of my old species." She stated calmly. Twilight blinked in confusion for a moment, before she answered. "There is no such thing as a curse, maybe a spell with negative properties, but no curses." She stated. Alecia looked over at Twilight. "Bullshit, a negative spell requires a constant source of magic from the one who cast it, so unless an immortal cast it, which they didn't, it's a curse bound to something, feeding itself to last until broken.....believe me, I know." She went silent again as her expression darkened, she then stared out the window. Twilight lit her horn. "Fine, I'll scan for any magic, I should be able to detect anything keeping you here." She stated. However, as soon as Twilight cast her spell, a powerful surge shot through her horn, she cried out in pain and cut the spell, everyone looked at her in concern, Alecia was indifferent as she looked over. Twilight panted and took several deep breaths to calm down, after a minute or two, she spoke up again. "That......was weird." She muttered. Applejack walked over and checked for any obvious injuries. "What was weird?" She asked. "The exact second I cast my spell, there was magical feedback right away." She shook her head. Alecia sighed. "So you found nothing? wonderful." She muttered quietly. "Not necessarily." Twilight replied as she finally finished recovering. "I sensed something powerful, it was really strong but I wasn't able to pinpoint it." She explained. Alecia nodded and returned to looking outside. "I see.....thanks for trying I guess." She said. ______*the next day, 1:00 AM*______ Alecia stood in the downstairs bathroom staring into her reflection in the mirror. "That spell did more than I thought." She whispered to herself. The rest of the day had been alright, they talked for a while, mostly about what to do about Nightmare Moon, but it shifted to more lighthearted banter later on, they all left, and Rarity stayed to read one of her books. Alecia stared into her own eyes and felt sadness as she did so, she reached for them and felt the skin under her eyes, she closed her eyes and sighed. "What do you want Nightmare? I'm not in the mood." She stated. Nightmare Moon became visible, she was standing next to the door. "I am curious as to why your staring into your own eyes." She replied. Alecia looked at the Alicorn. "That's my concern, now leave me alone." She stated before vanishing. 'I need some quiet.' Alecia thought. Almost immediately she appeared on the roof of the house, she looked up at the sky and smiled. "At least the stars don't judge people." She whispered. And for hours, Alecia simply stared at the sky, content to just sit and admire the stars. Author's Note [1]I have no idea if this is how the game is actually played, and I changed the name because......well, why not? Here you go, another one! and this time you get a little information about this worlds humans, nothing special mind you, just some basics.
Spark of bravery followed by mischief._______*Ponyville, three days later, Rarity's house, 3:00 PM*_______ Alecia and Nightmare Moon watched in curious amusement as Sweetie Belle paced frantically, the filly had come home mumbling. "What do I do? what do I do?" Of course, neither of the ghosts asked what was wrong, deciding to instead let the filly work it out, the only problem with this was that she had been doing this for thirty minutes, it was confusing for the first five, irritating for the next ten, and then amusing until now. The filly seemed to be going on and on, and for another two minutes she paced and muttered quietly to herself, and the two ghosts were now taking bets on how long she would go on like this. What were they betting you may ask? the only thing they had, dares and embarrassing stories. Soon, after hitting the forty three minute mark, Sweetie Belle looked at Alecia and Nightmare Moon. "Can you help me?" She asked. Nightmare Moon was the first to speak, giving a slightly confused expression. "I am not sure why you want ME of all ponies to help you, or what exactly you want?" She replied. "I was invited to Diamond Tiara's cu.....uh......" She paused for a moment before continuing. "Her party to celebrate her getting her cutie mark." She explained. [1] Alecia blinked. "So what's the problem?" She wondered. Sweetie Belle sighed. "Isn't it obvious? I don't have one! almost everypony in my class has one!" She pointed out, frustration was clear. "How are we supposed to help with that? and more to the point, WHY should we help?" Nightmare Moon asked, but before Sweetie could protest, the Alicorn mare held a hoof up. "In case you forgot, we can't leave the house, I can't interact with the physical world yet, and your sister is somehow responsible for this, and to that end, I have no desire to help her or give her any reason to bother me." The mare explained. "It may be selfish of me to say so, but I'm standing by it." She added. Alecia shrugged. "And on top of that, what does it matter if you have a cutie mark?" She asked, upon seeing the fillies wide eyes at her statement, the ghost rolled her eyes and appeared next to Sweetie Belle. "I don't have one, and yet I have things I'm great at doing, if you ask me, you shouldn't put too much stock into cutie marks, if it appears hurrah, if not? whatever." She then walked in front of the filly and looked down at her. "Why are you so concerned anyway? you don't even know this Diamond Tiara, not that much anyway." She wondered. Sweetie Belle went to speak again, but she stopped herself and thought on it for a while, she then looked at Alecia. "What do you think I should do? if she just wants ponies to be there, I should probably just avoid it right?" She asked. This time Nightmare Moon spoke up. "No, you should go." The mare walked over and sighed. "I can't believe I'm going to say this, but you'll be better off if you do go." She said. Alecia looked at her fellow ghost. "I didn't know you cared." She said. Nightmare Moon huffed. "I don't, but I am first and foremost a ruler, and it's my responsibility to ensure my subjects are safe and happy.......the latter comes second." She then looked at the filly. "Let me tell you the first thing I learned about pony society, when you are invited to a party, you have to attend unless you refuse then and there, or later if you tell them you'll think about it." She raised an eyebrow. "Did you refuse or say you'll think about it?" The Alicorn asked. Sweetie Belle shook her head. "No......but I don't think things are the same now as they used to be." She replied. Alecia rolled her eyes. "Look, the decision is up to you, we aren't going to even try to convince you to go or stay." She crossed her arms. "Now, let's change the subject, earlier at breakfast you wanted to talk to us about something, what was it?" She wondered. At the change of topic, Sweetie Belle seemed to calm down slightly. "Yea, I was just wondering if you could clarify a few things for me." She said. Alecia motioned for the filly to continue, and Nightmare walked over to the window and looked outside. "Ok......so how much weight can you lift? I mean, you don't have muscle." The filly wondered. Alecia smirked. "Believe it or not, muscle has no relevance to me anymore, it's all a matter of energy, the more energy I use up, the heavier I can lift, and the older the ghost, the more power they hold." She pointed down with a finger. "I can't exactly prove it right now, but if i tried, I could probably drag the house a little." Nightmare Moon gave Alecia a stare, comepletely doubting her. "And why do I doubt that?" She asked. Alecia shrugged. "Because your a pessimist." She stated before Sweetie Belle asked another question. "Do ghosts sleep at all?" The filly wondered. "Yes." The ghost replied as she let her arms hang at her sides. "Sleep is optional, I can't get tired, but I can be drained from using too much energy, time recovers me, sleep does give me a boost however, I'm guessing it's because then my mind rests when I sleep." She shrugged again. "Or its just coincidence." She added. "Do you dream at all?" Sweetie Belle asked. Alecia frowned for a split second before answering. "Yes, but it hasn't happened since I was sealed." She replied. Nightmare Moon spoke up next. "And if we can dream, then it's only a matter of time before Luna discovers us while dream walking, she of course will want my destruction." She stated calmly. Alecia looked at the Alicorn. "Your awfully calm about that." She observed, she appeared in front of the Alicorn. "You don't care if you get destroyed do you?" She asked. Nightmare sighed. "Luna doesn't know how to harm a ghost, let alone destroy one, so I have time to learn to interact with the physical world." She stated. Alecia stared deep into Nightmare's cat like eyes for a moment before speaking. "Your afraid of Luna, and why is that?" She asked. Nightmare rolled her eyes and walked through Alecia and towards the stairs. "I am not afraid of Luna, she is weak compared to me." She proclaimed. Aleica simply grinned. "And yet she's alive, and you are not." She stated before vanishing. Sweetie Belle looked over at Nightmare Moon who seemed annoyed, judging by the twitching eye. "Are you.....annoyed?" She wondered curiously. Nightmare Moon looked at the filly with a surprised expression. "No I am not!" She snapped, she then shook her head as she flew upstairs, muttering something under her breath. Sweetie Belle blinked. "Huh.....she really did seem annoyed." She said to herself before going back to her thinking. _______*Later, 4:13 PM*_______ Nightmare Moon watched in silence as Alecia stared into the bathroom mirror, the ghost hadn't moved for a long time, but a saddened expression was plain as day. 'At first, I brushed it off as her examine her face after not seeing it for so long, but now it seems like she's remembering something.' She thought. While the Alicorn disliked hiding, she was curious as to what was causing the ghost to be sad, then she blinked and looked away for a moment. 'Wait....why do I care? I just need this girl to help me escape and learn how to touch things again, why should I care what she feels?' She questioned herself. Upon looking back, and seeing Alecia looking at her with pained eyes, Nightmare sighed and walked to the empty room, her words from earlier haunted her. 'It's my responsibility to ensure my subjects are safe and happy.' She sighed. "What is wrong with me?.....must be this place." She muttered. Soon enough, Alecia entered the room with a neutral expression. "Did you meet any humans?" The ghost asked. Nightmare Moon shook her head. "No, i wasn't concerned with that, and now that I think about it, I was obsessed with eternal night." She replied. Alecia sat down on the floor and motioned for the Alicorn to join her, and while cautious, Nightmare did sit down with the ghost. "Back in the kingdom......well, empire really, that I lived in, it was considered rude and creepy to watch someone from afar." She looked at the Alicorn. "But if you really want to know what's going on inside my head, I have been digging through my memories, I'm almost done actually. and I would rather tell everyone at once, so please be patient, I just need to work up the nerve to do so." She said. "Are you afraid of that mare?" Nightmare asked with a perplexed expression. Alecia rolled her eyes. "No, but these memories aren't easy for me to talk about, so I would rather get it out only once." She stated. ______*a few days later*______ Sweetie Belle walked into the house with a large smile, she spotted Rarity who looked like she was in a sour mood, mostly because Alecia and Nightmare had grins on their faces, she looked at the ghosts. "What did I miss?" She asked. Alecia shrugged. "Simple mind games." She replied easily. "Seeing as I cannot yet touch objects or anything physical, we have been.......teasing, your sister." Nightmare Moon replied. Rarity gave the two a look that could kill........assuming they were alive, she then began to tell her sister what had happened. _______*earlier that day.*______ Rarity had just gotten out of bed and stretched her legs to work out any stiff muscles, she blinked and rubbed her eyes before walking to the bathroom, she walked through the open door and turned on the shower to have it start heating up. That was when she paused, she looked back and saw that the door was indeed open. "I could have sworn I closed it." She whispered before shaking her head clear. "Nevermind." She then opened the shower curtains and stepped into the shower, she closed the curtains and let the water soak in. "Raaarrrityy."A voice whispered into her ear. Rarity looked over her shoulder and saw nothing, she sighed to herself. "I must be losing it." She muttered. After she was ready, she grabbed the shampoo and opened it, but just as she went to apply it, the shower curtains opened quickly. "We're haunting you!" Both Alecia and Nightmare Moon stated loudly. Rarity reacted just as anypony could expect when faced with two ghosts that appeared as severed heads, she screamed. ______*later.*______ Rarity was now in the living room reading a book, her boutique was closed today and she intended to relax, she took a sip of her grape juice and set the cup down, she flipped the page and heard shuffling from the window behind her, she bookmarked the page before she set the book down and stood up. Rarity walked to the window and looked outside, she saw nothing at all aside from the townsponies going about their day, she walked to her chair and sat down, she shook her head and picked up her book. She opened it to her bookmarked page and screamed in terror as Nightmare Moon's head emerged from the page with a cry of fury. Rarity immediately ran away and headed outside. _______*the present.*________ "It was just harmless pranks." Alecia stated. Rarity's glare intensified. "Says the one scaring me half to death." She angrily said. Nightmare Moon shook her head and looked at the filly. "You seem to be in a good mood, what happened?" She wondered. Sweetie Belle smiled and told the two ghosts and her sister about her day, how she and her friend Scootaloo stood up for Apple Bloom, their new friend and swore to help each other find their cutie marks together. Rarity was proud and happy for her sister, while Alecia and Nightmare Moon were kind of indifferent, Sweetie Belle didn't seem to notice, and if she did she wasn't saying anything. Alecia began to float around as she talked. "Do they know about me and Nightmare?" She wondered. "Not that I know of......why?" Sweetie Belle replied as she watched the ghost. Alecia chuckled. "It'll be a great way to mess with them on Hallows Eve." She stated mischievously. Sweetie Belle glanced at her grouchy sister and looked at the ghost. "Maybe not, I don't want to scare them off." She replied. "Fair enough." Alecia said before vanishing. Author's Note [1]If someone could show me how to actually spell the word/words, that would be appreciated.
.tsap seno desruc eht fo elaT______*Ponyville, Rarity's house, a week later, 7:24 PM*_____ The house was quiet and dark, all of the lights were off, save one, Twilight was staying the night along with Spike, who was absolutely horrified of the two ghosts at first. It had taken several hours to calm him down enough so that he wasn't actively avoiding them, and even then he was still wary, especially of Nightmare Moon. Now though, the three unicorns, the two ghosts and dragon were all downstairs in the family room, the furniture was repositioned so that they could all sit around the single lantern on the table. Most of the night was spent telling stories of all kinds, tall tales, family stories, funny ones, embarrassing ones even, so far, all but Nightmare Moon and Alecia had told a story. And after enough convincing, Nightmare told them all a horrifying story, involving special effects and sounds from her magic, which, while able to be used normally, couldn't affect the physical world correctly, which gave them all a ghostly echo or appearance, adding to the scare factor. Needless to say, after the Alicorn's story, the four living beings needed a break to calm down, leaving the ghost with a triumphant grin. "That was evil." Alecia said quietly as she sat on the couch. Nightmare looked at the other ghost with a smirk. "I can't do anything to them physically, so I might as well scare them." She replied in a whisper. A few minutes later, and the others returned, they took their seats. "So Alecia, what about you?" Rarity asked. Alecia looked at the unicorn. "I don't have any interesting stories." She said. "Over a thousand years old? and no story to tell?" Nightmare asked, clearly not believing Alecia. "I don't buy it, they may not be interesting to you, but they may be to us." She added. Sweetie Belle looked between her sister and the Alicorn. "I can't believe they are agreeing." She whispered. Alecia looked around the room, seeing them waiting made her sigh. "Well, what the hell? It can't hurt." She muttered. The ghost floated up and then above the lantern and spoke. "Alright listen closely, cause you got me in a good mood." She stated before telling her story. ______*A long time ago.*______ The air was calm today as the light shone brightly over the lush green fields and forests, there were no clouds today and the air was warm, in one of many forests were a group of people. Alecia ran through the forest, several sets of footsteps followed her as she ran, she looked around her environment quickly before she stopped moving, she then held her left hand up flat, and the footsteps slowed. "Captain?" A young male voiced said behind her. Alecia looked back at the others, three male humans wearing similar outfits to her own brown jacket and light leather pants, the only difference was that the three males each had a different colored eagle on the backs of their jackets. The first of the group was a six foot male with short black hair and a small mustache, he had wrinkles on his forehead and had hazel eyes, he was up there in years, but was still very fast, his name was Vigo. The second man in the group was six foot three and had balding brown hair, his almost pale skin contrasted with his dark green eyes, he had a rounded head and only had eight fingers, missing his right index and his left pinkie, his name was Karl, but most called him Eight. The last man was five foot seven tall, he had slightly tanned skin and had brown eyes, he had blonde hair that had recently been cut to a barely three inches long, he had smooth looking skin and was the youngest of the males, his name was Frederick. "Why are we stopping?" Frederick asked. Alecia blew a bit of her red hair out of her eyes. "We lost the trail, and you are going to find it." She said calmly. "But captain!..." He was cut off as Alecia raised her hand, silencing him. "Your my student Frederick, and it's time for a lesson on tracking." She motioned for him to follow and he did so. Alecia knelt down to the ground, nothing but leaves were in sight. "What are we supposed to see here? there's nothing but leaves." Fred wondered. "The leaves are both friend and enemy in forests Frederick, they can give away your direction, as well as to help you track your prey." She said as she pointed at small portion of leaves that were crushed. "These leaves were crushed by a boot, which means that he went this way, now, find the next clue." She ordered as she stood up and back up. Frederick took a few moments, but he eventually found the path and pointed them in the direction. "That way." He said. Alecia patted her student on the back. "Let's get moving then boys." She said before running in the direction of their prey. "Who were you chasing?" Rarity asked out of curiosity. "A criminal, he assaulted several citizens before resisting arrest, nothing more." Alecia said. "Now don't interrupt." She added as she continued. The chase went on for an hour, but the group eventually caught the man and arrested him, they brought him back to the nearby town. Alecia waited outside of the guard station with Frederick as the others went inside to deliver the criminal to the guards. "Captain, can I ask you something?" Fred asked. She looked at him and nodded. "What is it?" She wondered. Frederick seemed nervous, but he spoke anyway. "I uh.......well I was wondering, about the Lost Legion, what's it like?" He asked. Aleica chuckled. "Don't be so nervous rookie, the boys will sense it and pick on you for weeks." She rolled her eyes at the panicked man. "I'm joking by the way." This did little to ease his mind. "It's not that bad actually, we are just scouts and trackers, we don't do much frontline combat if any, we stick together though, we don't leave anyone behind and we cover each other's backs." She looked up at the clear sky. "We also take care of one another, despite our differences we are like one big family." She looked at Frederick. "You have nothing to worry about, just try to learn about how to fit in, don't butt in to the brawls, and most importantly, repay the trust we give with your own, loyalty is a big thing with us." She stated. Frederick nodded and crossed his arms, waiting for the others to come back out. It took a few minutes, but Karl and Vigo finally walked out. "He's in the guards custody now." Vigo said. With that, Alecia nodded. "Let's get going then." She said before started to walk. The three men followed her as they headed towards the current headquarters of the Lost Legion. "I thought we operated out of the capital?" Frederick said out of bewilderment. "The Legion doesn't operate out of just one place, our HQ is where we say it is, it pisses off the higher ups, but they can't do anything about it." Karl stated calmly. "Isn't that inefficient though?" The rookie wondered, he held his hands up when he got a glare from Vigo. "Hey, I'm just curious." He said defensively. Alecia shook her head with a smirk. "Vigo." She said simply, her voice betraying no emotion. "Yes captain?" The older man asked. Alecia chuckled. "Seven." She stated calmly. Frederick was about to ask what that meant when he recieved a quick slap to the back of his head, he flinched and held his head. "Gah!" He exclaimed as he looked at Vigo. "What was that for?" He asked as he rubbed the back of his head. "Captains orders." Vigo said without any further explanation. Aleica simply stifled a laugh as the group walked, after a few minutes, Karl eventually explained that 'seven' was a response order, meaning 'slap the newbie' to those that knew the order. The group walked for around fifteen minutes, but they soon reached the current HQ for the Lost Legion, which was just an old barracks compound that they inhabited. Alecia looked at the three men. "Your all dismissed, do whatever." She said before heading for the main building. The barracks had three buildings and two towers, the main buidling had two stories to it, with three rooms on the first floor, one for storing equipment, one that was designed for managing the barracks, complete with ledgers and a desk with papers and quills to write with, the last room was small, but had the stairs for the second floor. The second floor only had two rooms, one for planning and tactics, and the other room was another storage, but this one was for documents, papers, maps and writing supplies. The other buildings were the mess hall, and the bunks for the troops. Needless to say, the compound wasn't large enough for them all, and the troops had put up tents to act as additional sleeping quarters. Alecia entered the main building and closed the door, she immediately headed for the planning room upstairs, she passed a few soldiers talking on the steps and crossed her arms. "Ahem, mind letting me through?" She asked. The soldiers looked at her and one of them, a blonde haired woman stood up. "Sorry Alecia, didn't know you were back." She said. The soldiers stood up and moved out of the way. "Thanks, see you at the brawl?" Alecia asked as she headed upstairs. "You know it Captain." One of the men said. Alecia walked to the planning room door, she heard raised voices on the other side and opened the door. Inside were two men, one of them was tall and old, gray hair, short beard and tired blue eyes, he had darker skin that bordered on dark brown, he was obviously on edge and tense, he was the head of the town guard, Stephen. "Good day Commander." He said before walking to the door and leaving. The other man was Commander Cory, a young six foot four man with scruffy brown hair and pale skin, he had brown eyes and wore black trousers, he wore steel boots on his feet and had a dark blue shirt and a black vest, and while his facial expression was neutral, his eyes betrayed his irritation, he glanced over and he visibly brightened when he saw Alecia. "Ah! my favorite captain!" He said, he was excited as he walked around the map table and looked down at the map. Alecia closed the door and walked over. "The guard still giving us problems?" She asked. Cory nodded, he frowned for a brief second but it was replaced by a smirk. "Of course, but we always have that problem." He stated. The commander then looked at Alecia again. "How are the troops?" He asked. "Eager to get back into the wild, but patient." She said. Cory placed a finger on a forest on the map and looked at Alecia. "We won't be here much longer, we're being sent to the southern front." He stated. Alecia raised an eyebrow. "Why? we don't belong on the front." She wondered. Cory shrugged and crossed his arms. "Don't ask me, we're heading back to Arness soon and after that, it's to the front." He replied. Alecia nodded and walked to the door to leave, but Cory's voice stopped her. "Alecia." He said. She turned and looked at her commander, he looked back at her with a small smile. "What is it Cory?" She asked. "Don't forget to visit your husband, you haven't talked in a while." Cory stated teasingly. Alecia rolled her eyes. "If i have time, I'm still pissed at Douglas." She said before leaving the room. ______*The present day.*______ Alecia said nothing to break the silence that dominated the room after she finished her story, she looked around at the surprised expressions and scoffed. "What? surprised I was in an army? that I was married? I am one hell of a charmer after all." She bragged as she appeared behind Rarity, startling the mare. "Don't be so surprised, I am over a thousand years old you know." She stated as she floated around lazily. The surprise soon faded away and Twilight was the first to speak. "Do you mind if I ask what Douglas was like?" She wondered. "He was a merchant." Alecia said. "We were married for five years when I joined the Lost Legion, the first time I came home seven months later, I learned he had an affair with another woman, we argued for a while, I got sent out again." She sighed. "He was a good guy though, he had heart and knew how to cheer people up, he had his downsides, but doesn't everyone?" Alecia then grinned and looked at Twilight. "What about you Sparkle? any lucky guy?" She teased. Twilight felt her face heat up as she stammered. "N-n-n-n-no! there's no 'lucky' guy!" She blurted out, she immediately covered her mouth, much to Nightmare Moon's amusement. Alecia smirked and floated above Twilight. "Ah, no lucky guy......so I'm guessing there's a.....mare you have eyes on?" She said in an amused tone. Twilight buried her face in her hooves. "No!" She denied adamantly. While Sweetie Belle and Spike remained ignorant to the joke that Nightmare was howling in laughter about, Rarity could only sigh and feel pity for her friend, as well as concern for both herself and Sweetie Belle. Why? because they have to live with the ghosts of course, and they love to torment the living in their own way. Author's Note I felt that Alecia deserved a little more backstory this time, and while the 'present' scenes may feel rushed, I am happy with how they turned out. (Grammar issues and autocorrect changes not withstanding.)
Nightmare Moon's breakthrough.Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.
An enlightening visit.Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.
.eramthgin eht fo noissefnoCSomething has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.
Nightmare's Nightmare Night.Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.
Hearths Screaming Eve.Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.
Of Sisters and Mysteries.Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.
Preparing for trouble and an important meeting.Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.
A wedding to remember.Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.
The week before the celebration."I really don't know Sweetie." Magnum said. Rarity and Sweetie Belle told their parents that they opened the locked door upstairs, and they asked if they knew why it was locked in the first place, but neither of them knew why, apparently their grandfather never said. "I think what I'm most confused about is that salt line, and the iron bars on the window, what exactly was your grandfather trying to hide in there anyway?" Betty wondered. Rarity shrugged. "I am not sure, but it is not important now, maybe he just wanted to scare us or something." She said. Sweetie Belle took the time to walk away from the three older unicorns, she looked out the window and took a breath, and to her surprise, she could see it as though it were freezing. 'That's......odd.' She thought as she looked outside in silence. Soon enough, Rarity walked over to her sister. "Are you alright?" She asked curiously. Sweetie Belle looked at her sister and nodded. "Yea, I'm just wondering what grandpa was thinking, making that salt line and barring the window." She replied. Rarity nodded. "I know what you mean, but I'll clean up the salt and remove the bars." She tapped her chin in thought for a second. "Well, I need to buy some new carpet for the floor anyway, why don't you go up and see if you can find something a while? grandfather was a master of hiding things after all." She said. Sweetie nodded. "Sure thing, but I get first pick on anything I find." She replied. Rarity walked to the stairs and headed up stairs to get ready for the day. _____*ten minutes later.*_____ Sweetie Belle finally returned to the formerly locked room, she immediately began to search for any secret panels or holes in the floor, she used her hooves to feel over the wall carefully, but by the time she finished the first wall, she had found nothing. "Nothing here." She muttered as she walked to the next wall. Suddenly, the door to the room slowly creaked as it slowly closed on its own, Sweetie Belle's eyes widened as the door had no magical aura, and there wasn't any wind today, she placed her hooves on the nearby wall, hoping that her search would distract her from the door. But as soon as she placed her hooves on the wall, she felt her body grow cold quickly and she shivered. "Why.....is it so cold?" She asked herself as she removed her hooves. As soon as she did so, the cold vanished, Sweetie Belle gulped and catiously placed a hoof on the wall, but now there was no cold. "What is going on?" She asked herself quietly. ______*Ponyville, twenty minutes later*______ Rarity walked back home with the new carpet in tow, main advantage of having magic, you could lift things that were larger than yourself easily with enough practice. Although, it was weirdly difficult to find pale blue carpet these days, even more so to find a store that it isn't sold out in, but she was happy, she found the carpet and that was good enough. She walked around seven minutes and finally reached her house, she walked to the door and opened it, she saw her parents sitting on the couch having a conversation. "I really don't understand why it got so cold all of a sudden." Magnum stated, he sounded spooked. "It happened so fast, there wasn't any warning." Betty replied, her tone the same as her husbands. Rarity raised an eyebrow but paid no mind as she closed the door and headed upstairs. "Oh hey Rarity!" Betty said happily. "Do you need help?" She offered. With a shake of her head, Rarity walked up the stairs. "I'm fine mother, just relax and let your back heal." She replied. Betty had damaged her back by falling down some stairs at a hotel in Manehatten, so she wasn't supposed to go up any stairs, or do any heavy lifting or excessive magic usage. Rarity walked to the formerly locked room and stepped inside, the room was empty just like before, aside from a very puzzled looking Sweetie Belle. "Are you alright?" She asked. Sweetie Belle looked at her sister and nodded. "Yea, but for some reason, when I put my hoof on walls, sometimes they feel ice cold, other times they feel like the same temperature from the rest of the house." She replied, she didn't sound confused, she sounded intrigued. "Maybe it's just your imagination?" Rarity suggested. Sweetie Belle blinked. "Maybe, but dad felt it too." She countered. _______*the next day.*_______ Rarity was busy working at her boutique while her family enjoyed the town, it was very quiet today as she worked, but for once she wished it wasn't so quiet, because there was a feeling of unease around her ever since she opened the room. She had replaced the carpet and threw away the old carpet, Rarity wasn't sure what to do with the room yet, but she had time to figure that out, one thing that did help with the boredom and on the income front, was that she was chosen to handle decorations for the town hall during the summer sun celebration. Rarity was in the middle of one of her last minute orders when she heard a thud downstairs, her ears perked up in alarm and she set her sewing needle and cloth aside, she then headed downstairs to find the source. The main show room was empty however, aside from the usual equipment, however, one of the ponyquins were toppled and the suit it displayed was on the floor. Rarity put it back up and cleaned the suit off with her magic, and once things were back to normal, Rarity sighed. "Now how did that happen?" She wondered. Just as she spoke, one of the vases holding flowers fell off its small table and smashed on the floor, making Rarity jump in surprise and shock at the random occurrence. Before she could clean it up, the table itself was flipped upside down and the legs were smashed off by an invisible force, Rarity's eyes widened and she quickly bolted out of the building screaming. _______*later, Rarity's house.*_______ Sweetie Belle grumbled as she sat on her bed, she was grumpy now because her hair was standing straight up and looking like she was electrocuted, she was also grounded for something she didn't do which didn't help her mood. Earlier in the day, she had been standing by a case of flowers which then shattered suddenly by something unseen, of course Magnum and Betty thought she had broken it and grounded her, regardless of her protests of innocence. So now she was alone in her room waiting for dinner to be done or to not be grounded anymore, the problem was that the air had become charged and caused her hair to stand on end. 'It'll take me forever to fix this.' She complained mentally. Sweetie Belle laid in complete silence up until she felt her hair being messed with, she sighed. "Can you not mess with me any more today? I'm already grounded because of you." She said. Whatever was messing with her hair stopped and the air immediately warmed up in the room. "Thanks." She mumbled. It took about five minutes until Sweetie Belle realized that she had spoken to something that wasn't there, and that it had responded, she quickly looked around her room. "Are you in here right now?" She asked quietly. As if on cue, the air grew cold and the filly felt something brush against her forelegs, she shivered at the strange sensation. "I'll take that as a yes." She whispered. ______*the next day.*______ Rarity stepped out of the shower with a slightly annoyed expression, yesterday during dinner, her plates and silverware had floated on their own and seemed to have minds of their own as they avoided the family, and if that weren't bad enough, her shampoo and soap were moving around in the shower. Right now she was very annoyed because all of her brushes and combs were nowhere to be found, Rarity soon found them by her vanity mirror and walked back into the master bathroom after grabbing them. Rarity soon set about fixing her mane and tail for the day. "Don't you dare mess with me right now." Soon enough, Rarity groaned as she realized how foolish that statement was. 'There's nothing there, why am I so on edge?' She asked herself mentally. _______*meanwhile*_______ Sweetie Belle sat in her room in silence as she listened and waited for anything to happen. "If you are here.......knock once." She said. For a while, there was silence, and just as Sweetie Belle went to get up and leave, a single loud knock came from the desk, Sweetie blinked in surprise and sat down again. "This......is incredible." She muttered. "Did we do something to make you angry?" She asked. "Two knocks for no and one for yes." She added a moment later. Much to her annoyance, there was no reply, Sweetie Belle grunted and stood up, she soon walked out of the room and headed downstairs. ______*later.*______ While Rarity focused on her work for the upcoming celebration, Sweetie Belle searched the Golden Oaks library for information on her current predicament. She figured it would be best to look under anything paranormal, but she had no idea where to start, so when she found a book called 'Your haunted home' she figured that would be a good place to start. Sweetie delved into the book but was disappointed to find that the book was just a story, she continued her frantic search through the books and soon discovered at least one that looked like it might help. The book, was called 'haunting ghosts and ways to communicate', which appeared to be exactly what was needed as she read. "To determine if your house is truly haunted, you must first work to find proof, the easiest way to do so is find some friends. agitate the spirit and go from there." She spoke aloud to herself. 'But what do I do about one who is in my home?' She wondered. Sweetie Belle searched for a long time, and eventually she found a chapter that seemed to be relevant. "Trapping a spirit?" She wondered curiously. Inside the book were instructions that went into a disturbing amount of detail on how to trap a spirit, according to the book, ghosts and spirits were unable to pass a line of salt, silver or iron had the ability to disperse them for a time. But what set Sweetie Belle on edge was some of the more severe methods of containment, one of which required the user to paint a crow out of crows blood, which reminded her of the door back at Rarity's home, according to the book, this was one of the most powerful seals for ghosts or spirits, only broken by the painted crow being defaced by any means. She soon closed the book and returned it to where it was, she left the library with multiple questions running through her mind. 'So far, this is more annoying than anything else, so why did grandpa seal that room so heavily?' She wondered curiously. ______*later that day, Rarity's house, 7:00 PM*______ Rarity and Sweetie Belle were upstairs in the empty room, they had just replaced the carpet and were now sitting in silence. "So, what are you going to do with this room?" Sweetie Belle asked. "I am not sure, I don't need another bedroom or office, and I have all the work space I need in the Boutique, maybe I will just leave it empty for now, and think on it later." Rarity replied. Sweetie Belle was about to reply when the door threw itself open and slammed against the wall, startling the sisters. Rarity walked over to the door and examined it, the crow that was painted on it was broken by a large scratch down the center, she sighed. "I'll need to replace the door now." She muttered. Sweetie Belle gulped, if the book from the library was right, then the crow was the strongest seal against ghosts or spirits, and now it was broken. 'That's not good.' She thought as she exited the room with Rarity. "Are you concerned that maybe we freed something?" She asked with curiosity. Rarity closed the door and looked at Sweetie Belle. "Something strange did happen over in the boutique, so it's possible, that or we are both going crazy." She replied. When the sisters reached the downstairs, they noticed that the front door opened and then closed by itself. "We are so haunted." Sweetie Belle remarked. Rarity's left eye twitched and she seemed to just ignore it. "I suppose so." She replied. Author's Note I know this one isn't as detailed as the first, but that's because I just wanted to get a second chapter out for you guys/girls, sorry if it's lower quality. Also, I didn't expect this story to be so well recieved, so thanks for that guys!