Rainbow Dash was going insane! Every door she opened led to locations in the mansion that shouldn't be possible! A downstairs door leading to an upstairs room which gave way to the same room she had just come out of, only to then have her emerge in the lobby again?
What was going on with this place!?
Another door opened, another hallway. Rainbow grumbled at it and spread her wings out, dashing through it as fast as she could - leaving a trail of rainbow in the otherwise dark and dust-filled hall.
The door at the far end shattered as she impacted with it, and she - blinked as she hit her own trail at an angle, coming from a side-room and tumbling into the room on the opposite side of the hall.
"I don't have time for this!" she screamed, launching herself at a window but bouncing back from the broken glass as if she'd hit a brick wall.
"What the..."
Rainbow shook her head in confusion, walking over to the window and poking at it with a hoof. A shard of glass splintered from the already broken window and she watched it tumbling out of the building, but her hoof was held back by an invisible something.
Wait, was that? Yes! Applejack!
"Applejack!" Rainbow screamed! "Don't come in here, this place is a madhouse! Go get Twilight!"
Her friend didn't hear her. She skidded to a stop while looking at something in horror, but then her face hardened and she rushed toward the building, disappearing from Rainbow's sight.
Rainbow stared at the spot where Applejack had been only moments before and felt a pain in her heart she couldn't quite place. It was like somepony near to her had just...
No.
No!
Not Applejack! If she ran into the building, she would be here somewhere! If Rainbow could find her, they could both find Scootaloo and then get the hay out of here!
Rainbow dashed into the hallway again, making a sharp turn for the door she had come from before and trying to retrace her steps.
Kitchen. Why did that door open into the kitchen? That made no... Never mind, next door!
Hallway. Her trail disappearing off in the distance near the other door. Rainbow sped up and rammed through it again.
"Should be the kitchen? No? Library?" Rainbow told herself, then rubbed a hoof at the back of her neck in confusion at watching row after row of old leather bound books lining the outer walls of the room.
A familiar blonde tail with a red hair band tied near the end of it disappeared through a door off to the side, and Rainbow rushed to follow!
"Applejack, you shouldn't have..." Rainbow started, but the room beyond was empty.
Rainbow rammed her hoof into a wall from frustration, then turned back for the door she just passed through.
As the door did not return her to the library, she just sighed and gave up, slowly trotting over to a door opposite her.
"What's the use? It's not like I can ever find Scootaloo or Applejack in this weird place," she told herself, pushing the door open and finding the next room strangely occupied.
Strangely, since every other room she had seen so far had been empty and dust-covered as if it had not seen a pony in years before.
A Unicorn mare sat on a chair near a fireplace that had burnt out centuries ago, her coat faded to the point where it was impossible to tell if it ever had a color to it to begin with. Her mane, tail, and even her eyes were faded in a similar fashion, giving her a ghostly appearance. She was reading a book which contained no text in it and was generally looking like the most listless soul in all of creation.
A Unicorn stallion sat opposite her, smoking a pipe. Or at least, he would be smoking a pipe if he had any tobacco in it. All Rainbow saw him do was take hopeless draws from the bone item and sigh in defeat as there was no satisfaction to be had from it. He looked as pale as the mare near him and Rainbow felt herself shiver as she saw the dead eyes with which the stallion looked out into the world. Unseeing, barely moving, dead eyes.
Rainbow quickly turned away from them and spotted "Scootaloo! There you are!"
Scootaloo just sat on her haunches on the ground in the middle of the room, and Rainbow silently wondered how she could have missed her coming in.
"What are you doing, Scoots? We got to get out of here. This place is a madhouse," Rainbow offered, walking over but slowing down as she noticed a pale sheen to the filly's coat. "Scoots?"
Scootaloo didn't look up, instead just pushed a broken scooter around the floor. It was a futile act as the thing had no wheels and was slowly grinding out a gash in the wood board she kept moving it back and forth over.
Rainbow put a hoof under Scootaloo's chin and lifted it up, but immediately backed away as she saw the listless dead eyes with which the filly looked back.
"No," Rainbow gasped out, backing into a wall. "Please no."
Scootaloo didn't even seem to register her mentor's presence, her head just slowly turning back to face what she was doing.
Rainbow felt her heart thump in her throat. She was always the cool one, but there was no denying the fear she was feeling now. Sweat pearled on her forehead as she watched the scene before her, her eyes spread wide open while her pupils were but small circles in them.
She had to do something. She had to get out of here. She had to get Scootaloo out of here before it was too late!
With a sudden flash of determination shown on her face, she launched forward, scooped Scootaloo up in her forelegs, and burst through the door on the other side of the room!
Right into the same room with the extinguished fireplace and the mare and stallion seated in front of it, Scootaloo's broken scooter toy lying unattended in the center.
Rainbow looked around quickly in her rush to get out, spotting another door in a dark corner and quickly setting in motion toward it, bursting right through it with splinters flying in all directions... and disappearing only inches away from Rainbow's body as she skidded to a stop in the same room again.
She looked back at the door she came through to see it closed and in one piece. As every door she had burst through since entering the mansion.
Rainbow shook her head at it, shook her head at Scootaloo resting in her hold without responding to anything that happened, and dashed to another door. And another. And another.
But every door she passed through just returned her to the same room. And every door she broke was repaired instantly.
Every attempt to escape was blocked.
She fell to the ground, holding Scootaloo to her, and felt the tears break from her eyes. She'd never been more scared than right here and now, in this doomed mansion.