Haunted by Deception

Applejack was still puzzled that evening as she watched the sun set. The mare had promised to check all of the lighting in the Manor to see if it was safe in the darkness. Right now, she was sitting on the front lawn, her green eyes drooping closed as she fought the urge to sleep.

However, her thoughts were still keeping her awake. Accord's actions haunted her. She had met the pony a few times before. He was quiet and mature, and would never yell at anypony. So why was he acting so feral now?

She was sure he was hiding something, or was trying to scare them away by acting like this. All the clues led up to it. He was in the attic when she and Pinkie Pie had seen the 'ghost', and he had tried to scare Rarity away, too.

Applejack knew that she had to confront him before he ruined the haunted house. As the sun finally dips below the horizon and the moon raises high in the sky, the mare gets up and goes back to the house. It was pitch black inside. She walks through the door and immediately, the door slams shut behind her.

"Clever," she mutters, “Good touch to the haunted house." She looks around the living room and jumps slightly as the lights flash and a fake ghost swoops towards her. It didn't scare her too badly; after all, she knew almost everything that had been put in.

The mare walks through the house, making sure that everything worked like it was supposed to. The fog machines worked perfectly, strobe lights went off at just the right times, and spooky sounds added a spine-chilling effect.

"Just one more floor," she whispers as she trots up the stairs. As Applejack reaches the top, she immediately knows something was wrong. There was supposed to be a creepy laugh playing, but there wasn't.

Suddenly, an evil chuckle echoes through the hallway. Applejack relaxes for a moment, and then realizes: this wasn't the creepy laugh they had installed. It was darker and seemed more...real.

She dismisses it as a touch-up and continues down the hallway. The evil laugh dies away and is replaced by a steady thumping noise. It takes her a few seconds to realize what they were: hoofsteps.

"Sure don't remember that," she whispers. She looks over her shoulder and the hoofsteps stop. Nothing was behind her.

Slowly, she starts walking again, and the hoofsteps resume. Again, she glances over her shoulder and they stop. "That's freaky," she whispers, “I’ll have to ask Pinkie how they did that."

The mare continues walking, dismissing the hoofsteps. She looks from right to left, trying to distract herself with the portraits on the walls. Their eyes seemed to move, following her as she walked.

A sudden shiver runs down her spine as the temperature starts to drop. The pony could see her breath in front of her. "That's odd," she whispers, “It was just-"

She's cut off by the door at the end of the hallway slamming open. Her heart skips a beat and she waits for something to leap out, but nothing does. For a few seconds, she stands perfectly still. This wasn't right at all. Pinkie Pie hadn't told her anything about these sorts of effects.

Then, in the doorway, she sees a glimmer of something. Something metallic. "What the?" She narrows her eyes, then screams as a knife comes hurtling her way. It narrowly misses hitting her and embeds itself in the floor.

Applejack doesn't hesitate, she runs. Behind her, she can hear hoofsteps. Something was chasing her. Now she was positive that this wasn't part of the haunted house. This was real.

She skids to a halt by the stairs and looks back. At first, she can't see a thing, then out of the shadows appears a grey pony.

"Accord! What in buck's name are you doing?" Applejack screams as the pony approaches. Accord doesn't show any sign that he had heard her. A knife was tightly clamped between his teeth, but then the mare realizes what was very, very wrong. The pony's eyes weren't cold blue anymore, they were scarlet. Burning scarlet.

Frantic, Applejack takes off up the stairs. She rushes into the attic. Moonlight streamed through the window and the sky was practically cloudless. It was like Equestria was completely oblivious to the terror in Applejack's mind.

The mare darts behind the desk and drops to the floor. She holds her breath and shuts her eyes. Everything was totally silent for a few moments, but then it starts again, the hoofsteps. They were heading up the stairs. She can't help but count the seconds, the precious moments of safety before he found her.

1...2...3...4...

The hoofsteps were getting louder and louder.

5...6...7...8...

She could hear them reach the top of the stairs and starts across the floorboards once more.

9...10...11...12...

The mare could feel the vibrations as the pony got closer and closer to where she was hiding.

13...14...15...

Suddenly, they stop. Applejack takes a long, shaky breath. She hears the knife fall to the ground and sticks itself into the floorboard.

"Come out, come out, dear Applejack," Accord says slowly. His voice echoes through the attic and sticks in the mare's ears. "I know you're in here."

Applejack closes her eyes tightly and tries to block out any sound other than her racing heart. She feels the ground shake as he starts to walk again.

"I'm going to find you. And when I do, it'll all be over."

She bites her tongue and buries her head in her hooves. This was it, she was dead. Accord was going to kill her and it would be over. He would probably go on to kill the others too. They should never have used this place for a haunted house.

"Ha! Found you!"

Applejack opens one eye and sees Accord standing over her. His scarlet eyes were ablaze with some sort of madness, the same madness that was present in his wild grin.

"Accord, what's wrong with you!" she shouts weakly, getting to her hooves. She locks eyes with him, but all she finds in his is an alien nothingness. "Accord!"

The stallion stares at her for a few seconds but doesn't say a thing. A purple aura forms around his horn again and Applejack sees with horror that the knife that he had dropped floats back over, its razor-sharp tip aimed straight at her.

"Accord, please," the mare says, eyeing the knife, “What’s wrong with you!?" She tries to think of something that would get him out of this trance. As the tip of the knife slowly approaches, she goes over everything she knew about this pony. He liked to be alone, his parents were gone, and then she remembers his little sister that he loved so dearly. "What would Dhalias think about this? What about her?"

The knife stops it's approach, and for a second, Accord's eyes flash blue. "Dhalias," he whispers.

"Yeah, Dhalias," Applejack encourages, “Think about her!"

"Dhalias..." The knife clatters to the ground and Accord's eyes return back to their cold blue. He shakes his head and almost falls over, were it not for Applejack who quickly rushes to his side and supports him.

"Accord, you're back!" she whispers with a smile, “What happened?"

Accord looks around and his eyes cloud with confusion. "W-why am I up here? Why is there a knife there? What's going on?!"

"You tell me," Applejack mutters, “Why were you acting so-"

She's cut off by a rustling behind her. Quickly, she turns around and gasps. A shadowy creature was slithering down from the rafters. Silently, it unfolds its feathery wings and lands delicately on its hooves. Slowly, the creature raises its head and lets its mane billow around it.

"An alicorn," Accord whispers as the creature steps out of the shadows. It was, indeed, an alicorn with dirty white fur, a white mane shot through with red, and glowing scarlet eyes. Applejack's breath catches in her throat.

"Applejack," the alicorn speaks. His voice was deep and reverberated through the room, “You have ruined this place."

Applejack narrows her eyes a bit. "How in buck's name have I ruined it?"

"You did not leave," the alicorn replies bitterly. He takes a few steps forward and looks at Accord, “And you ignored my vessel's words."

"Vessel!?" Accord asks, taking a few steps back, “Who are you? Are you-" His eyes grow wide and he glances at the shape of the alicorn on the window behind them. "Falsus?"

"That would be me," the alicorn says, dipping his head slightly.

"Wha-how-Falsus?" Applejack was utterly confused, “I’ve never heard of you. And how'd you control Accord like that?"

Falsus frowns. "Yes, that is because I am old," he says, his voice softening a bit, “I left royalty a long time ago...and that is my branch of magic, mare. I am the keeper of deception. It is what I do."

"Falsus was the original owner of Reichfield Manor," Accord explains, “He was royalty once...long ago. I thought you were a myth."

"Well, royalty or not, he can't mess up our haunted house!" Applejack says, refusing to be distracted by the matter at hand. "We're not harming anything! Why don't you like it?"

"I just...I..." Falsus hangs his head. "I don't know..."

Applejack sighs and trots towards the alicorn. "Well, no need to be sad," she says, poking his leg gently with her hoof, “I’ll make sure no one disturbs you up here, all right?" She looks at Accord. "Right, Accord?"

Accord was still standing there, staring at Falsus with wide eyes. Hearing his name, he snaps out of it. "Huh-wha-yeah. Sure!" He attempts a smile at the alicorn.

A small smile appears on Falsus's face. "Thank you, ponies," he says quietly, “I apologize once again..." With that, he spreads his wings. With one might down stroke, he flies back up to the rafters.

"Well, then," Applejack says slowly. She looks at Accord. "Shall we go? Pinkie probably wants to know how the dry run went."

Accord nods and trots towards the stairs. "How did it go...other than...the things, I mean."

"It went fine," Applejack says as the starts down the spiral staircase, “definitely scary."

"I bet," Accord agrees. He looks at the alicorn on the window, then up at the rafters one more time before trotting after her.