A Night in the Mansion

Twilight finished her sandwich and got up from the balcony floor. She was done with this ghost hunt. She just wanted to go back home to Ponyville and read up on the theory of relativity.

"Come on, Twilight" She said to herself, "I really doubt these ghosts will do much more. What can they do? Throw a big get together in the backyard? Though I'll kick myself if they do..." She continued before walking down the balcony's corridor.

At the end of the hallway was a door, not at all different then any other door Twilight had passed in the mansion. Yet, something compelled Twilight to open the door, not really knowing if it was the ghosts or her own curiosity. Still the door opened in an aura of magic and went through.

When Twilight went through the door, she felt an odd tingle, like she does when she teleports. She had no idea how to explain the feeling or the fact that she was standing possibly in the mansions attic. Of which was filled with clutter consisting of trunks, old record players and even wedding decorations, celebrating the marriage of Death Veil and Hatter. Twilight looked behind her, but the only thing behind her was a door covered in cobwebs, obvious to the decades it hasn't been used.

As Twilight walked through the maze of the attic, the only other things she could hear besides her own hoofsteps were the slow methodical keystrokes of the Bridal March in a slightly off key, and the ever present heartbeat from something on the other end of the room.Curiosity overtaking her, Twilight carefully walked around the clutter through the attic.

Before long the Unicorn reached the other end of the attic, and found the source of the heartbeat. Over in front of a broken window stood a pegasus in a tattered flowing bridal dress, a red pulsating orb clearly showing where her heart would have been, she just stood there, staring off into the distance. Twilight decided to leave her be and continue on.

That's when she noticed the other spook in the attic.

Over on the other side of the attic, staring at the forlorn bride, was an old stallion ghost with a cloak that framed his skeletal face, he had a cane in one hoof and a hatbox in the other, and right on top of his head was a frail battered top hat.

His unnerving smile disturbed Twilight, especially when it started to disappear, as well as his whole head, before materializing in his hatbox, leaving only a floating top hat.

Twilight continued to stare at the ghostly groom waiting to see if anything else would happen. When it didn't, she continued to a small balcony outside of the attic.

There she saw something she truly couldn't explain; Behind the mansion was an extensive graveyard, possibly containing crypts, mausoleums and graves from before Luna was imprisoned. But that wasn't it, the graveyard was filled with spirits that were singing, playing music, and just all around having fun. Twilight softly kicked one of her front legs at this.

Twilight walked around the small alcove of the balcony she was in, kicking around the wet leaves from the thunderstorm that had passed. Unfortunately, Twilight tripped on the soaked leaves and flooring and tumbled backwards over the rusted railing; through the dead, clingy trees, down to the hard ground, screaming all the way.

Thankfully, through her screaming, Twilight panicked and grabbed onto the trunk of the nearest tree. Her hoof caught onto an opening stopping her descent from becoming fatal.

Looking around as her breathing calmed, Twilight looked up at what she caught onto and seeing that the opening on the tree looked suspiciously like a pointy mouth, she had little time to think about haunted trees before another raven cawed above her, breaking her concentration, and her grip, making her fall the last few feet to the ground.

"It's okay, Twilight. This is almost over, I just need to find a way back outside to the front" Twilight told herself as she walked into the graveyard.

In the graveyard the entire menagerie of spooks were either playing some sort of instrument, whether it was bagpipes from Coltsland, or an xylophone made from tombstones; or were singing. But Twilight didn't think too much on what they were singing, she was too busy looking at the ghosts themselves. There were ponies dressed in old Canterlot clothing, to an executioner singing with a rather short prisoner and a decapitated Royal Guard. There was even a Mummy from the cat-based Jackal Empire.

Twilight continued to look around the graveyard until she noticed she stopped, in front of her was an open crypt. She didn't know why, but something was compelling her to go into it. Curiosity, once again getting the better of her, Twilight entered the crypt before a familiar voice returned.

"Ah, there you are, and just in time! There's a little matter I forgot to mention. Beware of hitchhiking ghosts!" The Voice said as Twilight came upon a trio of specters; one was the prisoner from before, another was a tall and thin stallion in a trench coat, and the third was a larger stallion with a top hat and travel bag. All three of them looked at Twilight with expectant smiles while they waved their hoofs in the familiar hitchhiker way.

"They have selected you to fill our quota, and they'll haunt you until you return!" The Voice continued as Twilight went further into the crypt. The further she went in, Twilight continued to pass mirrors that showed the trio of ghosts following her as she passed
If would like to join our jamboree there's a simple rule that's compulsory.
"Now I will raise the safety bar, and a ghost will follow you home!"
Mortals pay a token fee. Rest in peace, the haunting's free;
Twilight didn't pay much attention to the Voice, she was just happy her magic was back, and to show it, she cast a simple spell of lighting up the dim corridor.
So hurry back, we would like your company!

Before long, Twilight could see light coming from the end of the corridor. Running as fast as she could, Twilight finally exited the crypt outside the front of the mansion in broad daylight. She didn't care about the odd passage of time that just occurred, the only thing she cared about was getting on the next train to Ponyville.

Because she had some books to rearrange.