Haunted by Deception

"No, no, no! That goes over there!"

Applejack sighs as she pushes the fake gravestone through the tall grass of the front lawn of Reichfield Manor once again. She pauses to catch her breath. These things were a lot heavier than she thought they would be. "This better, Pinkie?"

Pinkie Pie tilts her head, then grins. "Perfect! Now the next one!" She points at the cluster of tombstones lying in the grass, just waiting to be pushed into place.

"Yes, ma'am," Applejack mutters. She turns to get the next one and freezes. "Oh. My. Stars." Her green eyes grow wide and her jaw drops. "What is that?"

Pinkie Pie follows her friend's gaze and her own eyes grow with shock. There, in the huge picture window at the top of the manor, stood a black pony with burning scarlet eyes. It was mouthing some words over and over and over, but neither of the mares could hear a thing.

"Get...out...of...here," Applejack muses. "Get out of here. That's what it's saying!"

"Get out of here?!" Pinkie Pie squeals, “We have to warn them! What if the ghost tries to kill them?!" She forgets all about decorating and starts galloping towards the Manor.

"Sheesh, Pinkie, it's probably just a pony playing tricks," Applejack sighs as she trots after her friend.

Pinkie Pie bursts through the front door. "GUYS!" she shouts, calling all the attention to herself. The ponies freeze in the middle of decorating and stare at her, obviously surprised by the sudden interruption.

"Ignore her, y'all, she's-" Applejack is cut off by Pinkie Pie slapping a hoof over her mouth.

"There's some sort of ghost up in the attic!" the pink pony says frantically. She looks around and sees that no pony said a thing, they simply went back to work. A bit of desperation enters her voice. "I'm serious!" The ponies around her keep working. Most of them were pretty used to hearing Pinkie blab about things, and they figured she was jsut making this up, too.

Applejack pushes the hoof off of her mouth. "Don't you think Accord would have told us if there was a ghost here?"

"Yeah," one of the ponies agrees, “Besides, there's no such thing as ghosts."

"B-but..." Pinkie Pie's face falls and she looks at Applejack, “You saw it too, right?"

"All I saw was somepony playing tricks," Applejack sighs. She looks back at Pinkie Pie and smiles a bit. "Would it make you feel better if we check-"

Before she could finish, Pinkie Pie was halfway to the staircase. "Let's go! We have to catch it!" Applejack smiles tiredly and trots after the pink pony and up the spiral staircase. They pass floors bustling with ponies decorating for the haunted house, but as they keep going, it gets emptier and emptier.

Eventually, the staircase ends and the two ponies are left in the attic. It was dark or shallow, like most attics were. The ceiling was high and one wall was dominated by a massive window. The metal image of an alicorn adorned the center, one piece of scarlet stained glass served as the eye and it seemed to glow as the light passed through it. Sunlight streamed through the glass, highlighting the dust particles floating in the air. The room was mostly empty, save one desk facing the window.

"See, whatever or whoever it was is gone," Applejack says as she watches Pinkie Pie trot around the room, “It was just somepony playing around. There's no ghost."

Pinkie Pie wasn't satisfied. She continues to peer in every nook and cranny that she could find.

"Seriously, Pinkie." Applejack trots after her friend. "We're not even supposed to be up here."

"That's dang right."

The two mares whirl around to see Accord standing at the top of the staircase. He had a disapproving front on his face and was glaring at the two over the rims of his glasses. "What are you two doing up here?"

Applejack looks down. "We were just-"

"Ghost hunting!" Pinkie Pie interjects with a grin.

An unnatural smile spreads across Accord's face. "There's no ghosts up here," he says between gritted teeth. Applejack shivers. There was something wrong with this picture. Something very wrong that she simply couldn't place.

"But we-"

"You were probably just seeing things," Accord says before she can finish. He tosses his head towards the staircase. "You two should probably head downstairs again. There's lots of decorating to be done!" Neither of the mares move, and his voice hardens a bit. "Go downstairs, now."

Pinkie Pie was the first to take the hint. "Alright!" she says hurriedly, trotting towards the stairs. Applejack wasn't as easily shaken. She wanted to know who she had seen in that window. It seemed a bit to convenient that Accord was right there.

"Aren't you coming downstairs?" she asks as she slowly heads towards the stairs.

Accord looks at her and his fake smile widens. "No, I'm going to...clean up this place for a while," she says, “Don’t worry."

Applejack nods and trots after Pinkie Pie. "He's hiding something," she mutters to herself.