Chapter 10
Haunted Developments

If a dark spooky mansion on the outskirts of town don't scream haunted house, I don't know what does. Apparently, neither does Rarity. It was a dark, stormy, and cold afternoon. Rarity was walking with her friends down a beaten path to a mansion called Diamond Manor, which is located about 40 minutes away from Ponyville. Not long before, Rarity received a letter saying that her grandmother passed away. It her will it said that Rarity was given full ownership of Diamond Manor. Immediately, Rarity decided to check and see if she wanted to keep the mansion or sell it. Rarity then decided to take her friends along with her to stay a night at Diamond Manor. Eventually, they made it to the mansion to find out that it wasn't as warm and welcoming at they had hoped. Flareon quickly felt a chill run down his spine as Diamond Manor seem to be giving off this ominous aura. However, you wouldn't know that by seeing the eager and excited look on Rarity's face as she didn't hesitate a bit to enter her new house. After Rarity rang the doorbell, which sounded like death itself, the door suddenly opened and they went inside. After Applejack closed the door behind them, they began to admire the majestic décor.

"Welcome to Diamond Manor," a voice from out of nowhere said. In response, Fluttershy screamed, Spike grabbed on to Rarity, Flareon tripped over the umbrella holder, and Rainbow Dash jumped so high that she was now hanging tightly onto the chandelier above. After everyone regained their composure, they saw that the voice was actually owned by an elder unicorn. He soon introduced himself as Jeeves, the caretaker of Diamond Manor. The only pony who wasn't surprised to see him was Rarity.

"Ms. Rarity...it's good to see you have finally arrived with your friends," Jeeves said in a dull voice, "As you requested beforehand, I've already prepared dinner." He then signaled for everyone to follow him. "Please come with me to the dining room." Before they could go with Jeeves, Flareon noticed they were missing someone.

"Twilight? Where are you? Twilight?" Flareon asked when suddenly, she walked out from another room.

"Sorry about that," Twilight replied as she joined with them, "I was checking out the library. This place sure has some interesting books." Soon after, they followed Jeeves into the dining room. A few seconds later, they arrived in the dining room, which was as elegant as the rest of the mansion was. Another great big chandelier was hanging above the table as a delicious banquet of food was laid out for them. As everyone took their seats around the table, they quickly began to eat the food while Jeeves served as a waiter. After their bellies were full, Rarity picked up her glass.

"Here's a toast to my new beautiful house!" Rarity exclaimed as everyone held up their glasses together, but then the lights went out and everything went pitch black. Just as everyone was trying to figure out what happened, the lights came back on. However, Rarity was nowhere to be seen as her glass was laying on the table while the contents had spilled out onto the table cloth.

"Wait...what happened to Rarity?" Applejack asked.

"You don't think a ghost got her...do you?" Rainbow Dash muttered.

"We need to find her!" Spike yelled as he jumped on top of the table and picked up a wooden spoon, "Hold on Rarity! I'm coming to save you!" Just as they were about to get out of their chairs to search for Rarity with Spike, Twilight waved her right hoof nonchalantly.

"Oh please...everyone just calm down," Twilight said, "I sure Rarity just went to the bathroom or something. She'll be back soon or whatever." After they decided that Twilight was probably right, Jeeves lead them to the movie theater to watch a movie called 'Revenge of the Dark Riders'. Nearly 30 minutes later, the movie was refusing to let up on its suspenseful action. For some reason, Rarity still hadn't returned yet. Flareon then turned to Spike who was eating some popcorn.

"Hey Spike," Flareon whispered not taking his eyes away from the screen, "Can I have some?" Spike nodded his head yes and attempted to give Flareon the bucket, when suddenly, the movie screen went black, sending the movie theater into darkness. A couple of seconds later, the movie came back on, but Spike had vanished. The bucket of popcorn had fallen on the ground while popcorn was scattered everywhere.

"First Rarity and now Spike? Are you kidding me?" Applejack exclaimed, "What's going on? Where did they go?"

"Isn't it strange they keep disappearing when the lights go off?" Flareon asked, "I think Rainbow Dash may be right, we might be dealing with some friend stealing ghost or something." Just as they were about to leave the theater to look for Rarity and Spike, Twilight signaled for them to sit back down.

"Their fine," Twilight said, "Spike probably went to the bathroom or whatever. As for Rarity, maybe she took a nap somewhere and is still sleeping. Now come on...let's finish this movie. It's finally getting to the good part!" Even though they desperately wanted to search for their missing friends, Flareon and the others decided they were over thinking the situation and sat back down to watch the rest of the movie. Later on, Jeeves brought them to the animal room where Rarity's grandmother had kept all her favorites animals and reptiles such as snakes, alligators, squirrels, cast, toucans, dogs, and bats. This was easily Fluttershy's favorite room in the mansion as she eagerly petted every animal and reptile she could get her hooves on. She then went over to the bat cage and opened the cage door, but in doing so, the bats began to fly around everywhere causing instant chaos.

"Fluttershy!" Rainbow Dash yelled as she tried to keep the bats from coming anywhere her, "I'm not getting bit by those things and turning into a vampire!"

"Vampires? You can't be serious," Flareon replied as he was helping Fluttershy return the bats into their cage, "You don't turn into a vampire after getting bit by a vampire bat. How superstitious can you be?" Just as they were almost, Fluttershy flew over to the last bat that was flying near a corner.

"Come here little guy...I won't hurt you," Fluttershy said softly as she moved her hooves towards the bat, but once again the lights went off, and just like before, they eventually came back on, but what they saw before them was beyond belief. Right where Fluttershy used to be, a bat was flying in her spot. Immediately, Rainbow Dash began to scream.

"Oh my god! Fluttershy turned into a vampire!" Rainbow Dash yelled, "That's it! Every pony for themselves!" Through a state of confusion, everyone accidentally became separated as Diamond Manor had now become more like Haunted Manor. Rainbow Dash was flying through a corridor with Pinkie Pie close behind her when a dark figure suddenly appeared before them.

"Oh...it's you," Rainbow Dash said as she was trying to catch her breath, "Come on...let's find the others and get the heck out of this madhouse!" However, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie started to panic when they saw what was happening before them. Again the lights went off and when they came back on, the dark figure along with Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie had somehow disappeared. Meanwhile, Flareon happened to met up with Applejack and Jeeves inside a hallway.

"Have you guys seen Twilight, Rainbow Dash, or Pinkie Pie?" Flareon asked.

"No...I haven't seen Rarity, Spike, or Fluttershy either," Applejack replied, "This doesn't make any sense. How does everyone keep disappearing when the lights suddenly go off without warning?" Soon after, Twilight came out from another room. Just as they were discussing on what to do next, for the hundredth time already, the lights turned off. When they came back on, Applejack was gone. Flareon had completely lost his patience with all this crazy nonsense and tackled Jeeves to the ground.

"Spill it Jeeves!" Flareon yelled, "Where happened to Applejack and the others? You must know something! Tell me!" Unfortunately, Flareon was never able to get an answer from Jeeves as the lights went off again. When they came back on, Flareon was shocked to discover that Jeeves had disappeared even though he was holding him to the floor. How could Jeeves vanish into thin air when Flareon had been directly on top of him the entire time? Whatever the case, he and Twilight were now the only ones left.

"That's it! I give up!" Flareon exclaimed as he punched the wall in frustration, "No matter how hard I try, I can't figure this out. What about you Twilight? What do you think?" Just then, a malicious sounding voice came from behind him that didn't sound anything like Twilight.

"You're such an ignorant fool!" the voice shouted out. Before Flareon was able react, his vision became cloudy and he soon lost consciousness. When he awoke, Flareon found himself bound together with metal chains and locked inside a cage that was hanging above a pool full of this weird glowing liquid. When Flareon looked down, he saw Twilight standing near the edge of the pool. She had this evil smirk spread across her face. Something was definitely off.

"Twilight?" Flareon asked. He was still trying to figure out what was going on when Twilight started to laugh.

"Wrong!" Twilight chuckled mischievously as she emitted yellow flames which quickly engulfed her entire body. After the flames dispersed, a winged demon with a set of horns and pointed tail was floating before him. "The name's Ryu and your friends are over there." Ryu then pointed to his right. When Flareon turned his head, he saw the real Twilight, along with the others, including Rarity, Spike, and Jeeves, bound together with chains and locked inside a cage too. They were all unconscious. "I have to thank your dear friend Twilight," Ryu said, "If she hadn't opened my book and the read the incantation spell, I would have never been freed from my prison." It turns out when Flareon and the others first arrived at Diamond Manor, Twilight went inside the library and found a book lying on the ground. After she opened it,, Twilight obviously read an incantation spell which summoned Ryu. After he used a spell to knock Twilight out Ryu, thanks to his ability to travel through surfaces, brought Twilight to the basement where he tied her together in metal chains and locked her inside the cage. Once he captured Twilight, Ryu returned to the library and transformed into Twilight and then joined back with them shortly afterwards. One by one, Ryu captured everyone after using his power to mess with the electricity and turn off the lights. After he knocked them out with a spell, Ryu tied them up with chains and tossed them inside the cage with Twilight.
"Do you see that green liquid below? Once I dip you and your friends into it, you will be transformed into demons and become my personal demon army which will take over Ponyville and destroy anyone who dare attempts to stop us!" As Ryu began to laugh manically, he spotted the smirk on Flareon's face and immediately stopped. "What's so funny?"

"Oh nothing," Flareon replied, "It's just that you really have no idea who your messing with." Flareon then went into Flame God Mode and easily destroyed the chains that had previously bounded him along with the cage. Right away, Ryu knew he was in deep trouble.

"Um...how about we sit down and talk about this ok?" Ryu asked in a trembled voice. Unfortunately for him, Flareon wasn't in a talking mood as he quickly charged up his fire magic and shot a huge fireball directly at the scared-stiff demon. Ryu screamed in pain as he slowly disappeared inside the blazing heat of the fire and soon after, Ryu was gone. Just as Flareon was about to celebrate his victory, the chain holding Twilight and his friends cage up suddenly broke. As the cage began to plummet into the dangerous green liquid, Flareon was able to catch it just in time. As he set the cage down on the floor, Flareon immediately tore the cage apart to check on the condition of everyone. Eventually, they began to wake up and after Flareon explained to them about what had happened, they left the basement and went back upstairs to the main floor. A couple of hours later, much to everyone's relief, they finally left the mansion. In the end, Rarity decided not to keep Diamond Manor and handed it over to Jeeves instead. It wasn't because of the whole Ryu fiasco, it was actually because Rarity didn't care much for the décor. She said it was too old-fashioned for her tastes. As they began to walk back to Ponyville after saying goodbye to Jeeves, Flareon looked back at Diamond Manor and saw Jeeves looking at him through window when suddenly, he disappeared. Flareon had to do a double-take to make sure his eyes weren't playing tricks on him.

"What's the matter Flareon? Are you ok?" Twilight asked as she stopped.

"I thought I just saw...never mind," he replied. Flareon then hurried back to her side trying to forget about what he had witnessed a second ago. Even though their time at Diamond Manor was one that they would have loved to erase from their minds, at least they now had a good ghost story to tell around campfires.