• Published 19th Jan 2012
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Sweetie's Mansion - Moon Shooter



A My Little Pony/Luigi's Mansion Crossover

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Chapter 24: The Faker in the Fabric Factory (Part 2)

"Where is it..." Gilda said weakly as she struggled to move forward. She meant to say it angrily with some degree of intimidation in some desperate attempt to convince her captives she was in control. Instead, it came out as more of a dribble than actual words. To top it all off, the captives she still thought she had a hold of were now 10 feet behind her and out of their bonds. Free to run away from the griffon that would eventually bleed out.

"Where is it..." She patted along the inners of her wings, groaning in agony as she looked desperately for something. The heart she had kept on her in case she ended up in a situation like this. Had it fallen out when she got stabbed? No, no it couldn't. It couldn't have.

Because she knew that if it had, in short she was screwed.

"Where is it..."

Rainbow and Pinkie didn't run, however. Once they were out of their bonds, they found themselves for the moment transfixed on the struggling mass virtually crawling down the hallway.

Rainbow personally didn't know what to think, nor how to react. She didn't know what to say after everything that had happened. It was somewhat surreal to see her friend like this, at the verge of dying. Struggling to hang on by nothing more than a thread, with all of the blood she had lost. After everything that had gone on that night, after as many horrible things she had done, she didn't know whether she should feel good, or feel bad about this sudden change in pace. Less than a half an hour ago, she was facing her own death. And now-

"Where is it..."

"Where's what?" Pinkie giggled.

This is what brought Rainbow back to reality as she looked over at Pinkie, eyes wide at that annoying, out of place smile. It was when Rainbow lost control and pinned Pinkie up against a wall that she was sure of what she thought.

"What the hay, Pinkie?!" Rainbow said, louder than she intended. "Why are you laughing?! She's-"

Pinkie giggled again. This time this sent a wave of anger through her body. She was sure that if it was anyone besides Pinkie, she would have hit her as hard as she knew how. Instead she held her against the wall harder.

"Stop laughing, damn it!" Rainbow said. "S-"

Pinkie leaned forward and kissed Rainbow square on the lips. The move was so surprising (and euphoric as Rainbow would never admit there) that it was enough for Pinkie to push her away with as little force as possible. Once Pinkie was back on her four hooves, she licked her lips and giggled again.

What the hay is wrong with- Rainbow thought before Pinkie took a step forward.

"Nothing~." Pinkie hummed. It sounded so off next to Gilda's groans, enough to quickly drain whatever good feeling she had left.

Rainbow gave her a look, but she didn't think anything. She was quite frankly afraid to.

"You don't have to be scared Rainbow! I just know things that you don't~" She went on.

"Like what?"

"Like how Applebloom broke her neck." She thought for a moment. "Didn't you hear that gross crack?"

Rainbow remembered that crack. She didn't remember what she thought at the time, or if she wanted to think at all, but she definitely heard it.

"And Gilda's looking for her own heart. You think maybe Sweetie got lucky and knocked it out?"

"...so?"

"So, if she's bleeding out right now, that means that whatever candy heart she had must still be in there!" she giggled again. "Probably. And if Applebloom's still alive and can move something, then it's a good thing Gilda's like she is now." Pinkie leaned forward and kissed Rainbow again. She took a step back, though less surprised and a little more relieved.

"That's..." Rainbow wanted to say that it was a bad way to look at it, but it was a trade off. Gilda's current status for Applebloom staying alive. Rainbow didn't like that look in Sweetie's eye. That deranged look that showed that she was sick of messing around and being deterred from her sister. That look in her eyes said it all: If Applebloom couldn't move forward, even if she was only knocked out and refused to wake up, Sweetie would leave her behind.

"So be happy!" Pinkie said, nuzzling at the side of her neck. The affectionate gesture seemed to calm Rainbow just enough. Though it was hard for the stress to completely disappear with Gilda moaning, now completely sprawled on the floor, given up. "Oh, right. We should still probably help Gilda before she... you know. Dies. I think she's learned her lesson!"

Rainbow blinked. She was right, they needed to help her. "What can we do?"

"Well, I'm no nurse, but I don't think her bleeding all over the place is helping." Pinkie analyzed. "We need a bandage."

"Bandage, huh?" Rainbow looked around. This hallway resembled the same one they had been in earlier. Did that mean it shared the same properties? "You think-"

"I do!" Pinkie interrupted. "And that could work! Wrap up her wing with some bed sheets and she'll be right as rain! Well... she won't fly anytime soon, and she's probably still in danger of infection or something, but right as rain!"

Rainbow blinked.

Pinkie went and opened up one of the doors "You go talk to her and make sure she doesn't faint. I'm gonna get some sheets and whatever else that can help. Don't have too much fun while I'm gone~!" And with that, she disappeared into one of the rooms.

Rainbow walked over to the griffon lying on the ground. Weakly she looked up at Rainbow and frowned. "Ah... shit."

"Shut up." Rainbow said, using all of her power to flip her onto her back, before pulling her against one of the walls. "Sit up."

As she did, Rainbow must have bent her stabbed wing a wrong way as she let out the loudest "BUCK!" she had so far.

"You're fine." Rainbow mumbled. "You'll live."

Gilda hissed a laugh as Rainbow raised an eyebrow. "I wasn't supposed to Rainy. I wasn't supposed to."

"What?"

Gilda looked at her, wild eyed as much as hurt emotionally and physically. "I wasn't supposed to be here, Rainy. I was supposed to die with the rest of them. One way, or another, I was supposed to die."

"What do you mean?"

"I lied to you. I lied so bucking hard." Gilda had to have been delirious. Still, Rainbow kept quiet and let her speak, as much as she didn't want to hear. "I was supposed to die. By the law, or by him. And somehow, I got lucky. And I survived. So I get the reward that I never wanted. I'm getting what's been coming to me. I was supposed to-"

"No."

Gilda's smile went away, somewhat puzzled. Rainbow was too, not sure why she said that. She spoke the first thing on her mind.

"No." Rainbow said. "I don't care what you did."

"Why?"

"Because I... only care about what's happening right now." Rainbow said. "And right now, I know that I don't want to see any of my friends die." She forced a grin. "Especially you."

Gilda gritted again. She wanted to say something. She wanted to say that she hated that, that she hated what she said, that she hated her.

All that came out were more sobs. Rainbow wasn't sure what that meant, whether it was from the pain, from what she said, or from guilt for whatever brought her here. Whatever brought them together.

But they were together. Not as enemies, yet not quite as friends. They were just together, and somehow Rainbow was fine with this.

She just wanted Gilda, who was once upon a time a friend, to stay alive.

***

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Scootaloo had been beating herself up over her terrible mistake for following what had clearly been a lie. It was a lie which she had been desperate enough to believe, but at the same time, it was a lie that wouldn't have made sense.

Yes, Rainbow Dash was awesome.

No, it didn't mean she'd gotten away.

She played back the memory in her mind, remembering how she had been so carefully measuring her steps, just as she'd been told. Then suddenly, at the end of the hall, Rainbow had appeared.

"Hey kid, was wondering where you all went."

"Rainbow?"

She'd been so focused on counting that the idea that it had been a trap hadn't crossed her mind. Damn, she wished that Sweetie had made at least a little bit more of an effort to explain how tricky the mansion could be. Had Sweetie been dealing with this same thing all night? If so, it was a wonder why she hadn't gone crazy from being constantly tricked. Or at the very least, she should've been more mildly irritated by them. Either way, she'd fallen victim to the trap.

There was a decent chance that Sweetie had made it through -- simply due to how she had been acting, how mature and focused she'd become by being inside of the mansion in order to survive. The same couldn't be said for Applebloom, so she might have been in the same predicament as her.

As much as she hated herself for acting like such a wimp -- someone she imagined Rainbow would probably shake her head at and give a pat on the back to get her to grow up a little more -- she darkly hoped that Applebloom had fallen victim to the trap. If she did, then maybe they would find each other soon and be able to give each other company. Scootaloo was confident that Sweetie could take care of herself if she'd made it this far, but both her and Applebloom were inexperienced with the whole ordeal. Perhaps they would be able to double their chances of survival if they could've been able to watch each other's backs.

For the time being however, Scootaloo was now in a hallway and absolutely alone. No ghosts, no ponies, no nothing. She couldn't tell if that was a good thing or a bad thing. Would she be forced to wander this place until something happened and either Sweetie or Celestia finally stopped Specter in whatever the hay he was up to?

With that in mind, she considered quitting her wandering and taking a rest. She did so several times during her walk, though she never completely stopped. True, if she were doomed to starvation in that hallway, she might only starve herself faster by using up her energy -- but besides that already taking a long time, the last thing she wanted to do was look at that as a possibility. Honestly scared her that she even considered it for the few moments that she did -- was she starting to panic herself?

Either way, she resolved to keep moving forward no matter what eventually.

After all, if Rainbow Dash were here, that's what she would've done, right?

So Scootaloo kept walking.

And walking.

And walking.

Until she felt a chill move up her spine forcing her to stop. She looked around, perked her ears to see if there was any laughter coming her way, or anything indicating that she was in danger.

There was nothing, thankfully, allowing Scootaloo to sigh in relief. She had been expecting to something to eventually come up from behind her and take her by surprise. So far, that hadn't happened yet.

She then took a moment to examine her surroundings. She wasn't in front of any of the doors that seemed to be littered all along the hall. Though, she knew that they didn't hold anything special. They all had the same design, same windows, same everything as though they were all the same room. Maddeningly enough, every time she'd done something in the room, the mess would remain constant among all of the rooms. She'd even tried skipping arbitrary numbers of doors to try and checking them then with the same result.

She was still doing that. By the time she had gotten that chill, she was skipping twelve doors on either side.

But now, she found herself in front of a painting rather than a door. From what she could tell, it was a painting of the moon shining over a grass maze and a castle in the background. She couldn't help but wonder if the likeness was reminiscent of the Canterlot castle's maze or if it was something entirely different, reflecting something only Specter could know. Either way, she remembered what Celestia had said about paintings -- that they could open up new passage ways that weren't there before. Perhaps that could've been the way out, she figured. Anyone who didn't know that would've likely been stuck like her.

"Thanks, Princess," Scootaloo mumbled beneath her breath. She hopped up as high as she could, pushing the base of the painting off whatever hook it was connected to and causing it to fall to the ground. Once it was there, she did everything she could to break it into pieces. She took the canvas out of the frame and proceeded to rip it into as many pieces as possible. Once that was done, she went and started breaking the glass and the frame that it had previously been inside.

Once it was done, Scootaloo took a few steps back to look at her handiwork. It hadn't been burned, but hopefully that would've been good enough. Worst case scenario, perhaps there was something inside of one of the rooms which she could use to burn the remains.

She looked left and right and found that nothing had really changed. The only thing left that could've changed would have been either inside of the rooms or the rooms themselves.

She checked the closest one and opened it.

At first, nothing seemed to have changed. Scootaloo examined the room more closely and found something interesting. Before, in the corner of the room, there was some sort of closet which was locked. She didn't think much of it at first, but when she checked it this time, somehow, someway, it appeared to have been unlocked.

Perhaps the way out of there was through what she'd only thought was a closet?

Excitedly, she swung the door open without thinking. Thankfully, nothing popped out at her, taking advantage of her lack of forethought, but what she saw left her slightly dejected. Inside of the closet was-

"Nothing," Scootaloo sighed.

Indeed there was nothing inside of the closet, not even clothes.

Or perhaps she couldn't see from where she was.

Perhaps if she gave it a closer look-

The moment that she took a step into the closet, all Scootaloo felt was air. The movement was so quick, so confident, that she couldn't stop herself from tumbling forward. With that, she felt herself hit something hard and metal head first as she fell through what she could've only described as some sort of ghost floor.

After she hit the metal surface, Scootaloo felt herself tumbling down some kind of series of tubes designed probably to hold a pony three times her size.

She fell for a while, eventually pushing herself so that she could gain some sense of control and orientation inside of the darkness she found herself in. By that point, she felt less like she was falling or tumbling, and more like she was going down some kind of super slide in an amusement park.

If her life wasn't in danger, she might have even said "Wooooo."

But she didn't say "Woooooooo." Instead, she just kept tumbling down, staying as focused as possible and trying to anticipate every turn she could so that she wouldn't end up falling like before. All the while trying to figure out where this terrible slide was trying to take her.

Eventually, she felt herself hit dirt, and tumbled out of the slide into an that appeared to have a torch stuck to the wall right where the slide ended. Now stopped, Scootaloo could feel the pain aching in her body.

More importantly though, where had she ended up? She didn't reckognize this part of the mansion and it certainly didn't look like the narrow passage way she'd gotten lost in before.

This place was entirely different.

From where Scootaloo stood, she could see that the dirt area transition to metal right where she was. It was yet another passage to go down.

Scootaloo considered attempting to take the torch with her, but besides the fact that she knew there was no way she could safely carry the thing (perhaps if she had been a unicorn she could levitate the thing) but she also realized that it was a bad idea.

Because from what she could tell, somewhere beyond that passage way, she swore she could make out another light.

And the faint sickly chuckle from somepony that she wanted to knock the teeth out of.

Somewhere, dangerously close to her, Specter Yield was there.

***

"A... factory?" Applebloom couldn't help but give off a wry smile out of sheer disbelief. From her perspective, while the factory had a definite ceiling, there didn't appear to be a bottom as various gears and pistons that seemed to have no real purpose extended to an infinite bottom, past any distance the sun's rays could travel.

When she saw the sun, she briefly wondered if it was a sign that Celestia had somehow managed to defeat Specter -- but that was wishful thinking. This place was just another apparition created by the mansion, she was sure of that. Even though she could feel it, even though she could smell it, even though she could walk through the place, there was no chance it was real. Which meant that Specter was still alive and that Sweetie was still in a lot of trouble.

Applebloom steeled herself. She had to be careful still. There would no doubt be hazards, ghostly or not, wandering this place -- especially if it turned out that sweetie was right.

"What are you both talking about, listen! That's Rarity!"

If she had heard her, if that had been Rarity, then she was close. And if she was anything like how the others, and managed to ruin her so terribly, then this place was the most dangerous place to be -- especially without a GCD.

All it would take was one mistake. Just one. And she wouldn't be coming back. Not alive, anyway.

"Please be okay, Sweetie," Applebloom said as she walked forward into the- "WOAH!"

She hadn't been looking where she was walking, and certainly didn't expect to step on anything. So when she felt something beneath her hoof, she panicked and tripped, nearly falling over the edge of the catwalk before stopping herself at the last minute.

Hah... that was too close. What the heck was that? Applebloom looked over to where she'd been just to see a small rectangular device finish it's own skid to a halt. She looked over at it for a moment, cautious of the thing which had nearly sent her plummeting into oblivion. Had it been a trap specifically for that purpose? She couldn't rule that out -- but at the same time she couldn't rule out the fact that she had been meant to find it. Or perhaps it had been an item of Sweetie's that she hadn't known about prior?

Couldn't hurt to investigate, she supposed.

Applebloom went over to it and picked it up. It was...

A... tape recorder?

Yes, it was in fact a small hoof held tape recorder. Under closer inspection, it had a strap to the back, designed for a pony to be able to strap it to their leg to be able to record on the go. Notably, the record and fast forward buttons had been taken out. The only ones left were play, pause and rewind. Also notably, there wasn't a tape inside.

Still, Applebloom couldn't deny that it was important.

Another puzzle, huh? That possibility also stuck out to her. If she were thinking like Sweetie, or thinking as though this were some kind of game, there was no doubt that this thing was important. It was too out of place -- too strange. She couldn't only imagine that she would come into tapes later on.

Wonder if there's a reason the other button's are gone.

Applebloom strapped the tape recorder to her leg and picked up the flashlight she'd put down to do so. With that, she continued to walk deeper into the foreboding coal factory that her friend had to also be wandering as well.

The fact that she hadn't picked up the tape recorder worried her that much more.

Why?

As Applebloom worked her way through the factory, walking deeper and deeper along what seemed to be an endless set of catwalks, passing by machines that seemed to be stuck in the wall or hanging from the ceiling with no particular purpose aside for simply "being there," she felt uneasy. She swore she was walking in circles despite moving generally in one direction.

Could she have been looping somehow?

Applebloom decided she would try something. She grasped a strand of her own hair handing off to the side by her teeth and separated it from the scalp with her hoof, flinching from the brief moment of pain. She then tied it to a railing and continued on her way. Sure enough, she passed by it again.

"Alright now, so what am I doing wrong?" Even in her state, Sweetie had managed to get past this point as she was nowhere to be seen or heard -- at least not above the monotonous machines around her.

She thought for a while before sighing. What had Sweetie figured out that she wasn't figuring out right-

Wait.

She sighed again. This time, breathing more through her nose. Before she could only smell the smell of burning oils and smoke that seemed to be coming out of a few of the machines. However, when she thought about the smell just a little more thoughtfully, she noticed something else inside of that smell. It smelled like--

"Perfume?"

And then it made complete sense why Sweetie had continued on so easily. Because the puzzle here had nothing to do with the environment -- not necessarily -- but instead had everything to do with Rarity, the ghost who had to have been calling this factory her domain. She would've been looking for that kind of thing, most definitely. And a specific perfume would have been a dead give away.

Did that just mean if she would follow the smell, she could possibly pick up after Sweetie's trail?

On top of that, if Sweetie smelled that immediately, perhaps that would have distracted her from finding the tape recorder.

If that were the case, perhaps that just meant that she was more aware of her environment than she'd previously thought. Perhaps that still meant that she was still safe, albeit at yet another height of her paranoia.

Regardless that didn't mean Applebloom could turn back. There was no doubting that she was still very mentally unstable. Her going after her sister probably wouldn't help. Especially with those awful suggestions that Specter had mentioned before leaving Sweetie and Gilda to fight to the death.

Applebloom put her nose in the air and started to sniff. Once again, burred beneath the other smells of machinery, she could also smell that perfume. She followed it, moving in the direction where she thought it was the strongest. She did this for a few minutes, only focusing on the smell before taking a moment to examine her surroundings. This became a cycle of smelling for a little while, then once again taking a survey of where she was.

Each time, she'd notice that the machines were different. The gears themselves seemed to become less angular and more soft edged as they appeared to be more rounded out. Had they been melting somehow? Also notably, the pistons which seemed to have not purpose began shaping into sharper, thinner pieces of metal going up and down, up and down against the walls. And against many of the walls, covering a progressively more frequent amount of machinery, it appeared that they were being covered by a purple fabric -- something Applebloom couldn't help but compare to the color of Rarity's hair.

Yes, this had to be it-

"WOAH!"

Applebloom jumped back as she felt something graze the side of her ear. Was it an enemy? A ghost? Something else possibly following her?

When she whirled around to see what it was, she was both puzzled and fearful at what she saw. Dangling from what she could only make out to be a thin piece of thread appeared to be a tape which had in big, bold, pink letters, which said:

PLAY ME

Applebloom couldn't help but swallow in nervousness as she snatched down the tape. There was no doubt that she had to play it for some reason -- perhaps pertaining to another puzzle ahead. She put it into the tape recorder and pressed the only button that she could. She pressed the play button and listened for something to happen.

Ssssssssssssssssssssszzsssssssssssssssssssssssss

There appeared to be nothing but a tiny buzz of static coming out of the other end.

There wasn't anything -- not even the sound of someone breathing. Something was wrong -- the tape was definitely important, but how remained a mystery even as she played it. She briefly considered ejecting it before something flashed out of the corner of her eye. Applebloom didn't have time to dodge, but was lucky as she caught it's glint against the sunlight coming out of the ceiling. Something silently grazed the bare fur and hit an unseen part of the catwalk with a metallic CLINK!

Applebloom looked in the direction in a panic and saw something move out of her field of view, behind something way above in the darkness. It didn't glow, but it absolutely looked like a pony. Had that been Specter? If so, what was he doing here? Did that mean she would cross paths with Celestia as well if he happened to be here too?

She wasn't safe. Applebloom needed to keep moving, so she started to walk at a brisker pace, now focusing on her sense of smell for a longer period of time.

Finally, something did happen -- or rather, something happened and Applebloom had either been too focused on the smell or the catwalk so she hadn't noticed it. The smell suddenly became incredibly vivid, no longer burred underneath the dirty smell of coal and soot. In fact, the whole factory smelled purely of that intoxicating, calming perfume.

But more importantly, the color of the sun through the cracks of the roof had changed from their normal rays of yellow and orange to a cooler blue and purple.

Applebloom looked around and realized she was at neither end of the factory, but towards the center. It looked entirely different now. The catwalk had changed, asside from where she stood, to some kind of pincushion surface, crackling benieth her feet with every gesture she made. In the distance, she could make out the factory much more clearly as she could see various platforms all around the factory. Not only that, but there were conveyer belts in nonsensical places that seemed to go absolutely nowhere. Along them the sillouettes of ponies worked tirelessly hamering them, sewing them, threading needles, and various other things that seemed to remind Applebloom of one thing.

Rarity.

Needless to say, this was where she was, there was no doubt about it. If she had to have a world of her own -- like most of the others had supposedly had -- it would be all about dress mak-

"BOOOO!!!"

Out of nowhere, Applebloom heard the sound of something below her. It made her jump and she felt herself fall over the end of the catwalk which had somehow turned into some sort of pincushion surface.

Author's Note:

Just a note: not worrying about editing at the moment. Just worried about getting it done.

Also, both for my sake and any other readers, I'm going to at the very least go back to previous chapters sometime, and break them up into more manageable parts, similarly to what I'm doing here.

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