//------------------------------// // 07 - When One Door Closes... // Story: The Gloom // by Makitk //------------------------------// There was no other way. She'd shouted her voice raw, she'd slapped them around as much as she'd dared, but she was honestly getting to the last straw. "Oh, I hope ya can forgive me for this," Applejack muttered, pulling her hind legs back and then pushing them out at full force, ramming Rainbow Dash in the side and sending her flying through the room! Rainbow impacted sideways with the wall, then crashed to the floor in front of it with a loud groan. The wall looked completely undamaged, but the same could not be said for the blue Pegasus. Pushing herself up from the ground and wincing from the pain where Applejack had bucked her, Rainbow Dash shook her head in confusion. "Ow, what was that for?!?" Applejack could not have been happier to see her friend respond to the pain, even if Rainbow was looking confused and angry at the same time. She launched herself forward and hugged Rainbow to her, giving her a quick noogie on the head! "I'm so glad y'all are back! Now we need to snap Scootaloo out of it!" the Earthpony pointed, and Rainbow's eyes slowly focused on the filly still sitting in the center of the room. "Scoots!" Rainbow called out, trying to get out of Applejack's grasp, "I had been looking for you! What are you..." and then the Pegasus stopped dead in her tracks, ears flattening as she remembered. "Oh." Applejack looked away, giving Rainbow her time to recall the events, but then she was rudely pushed up against the wall behind her, a furious Rainbow Dash pinning her in place! "YOU BUCKED ME!" Rainbow screamed, standing on her hind legs with her face mere inches from Applejack's Applejack winced, but chuckled helplessly. "You didn't respond none to anythin' I tried before, Rainbow. I'm mighty sorry, but it was all I could think of." Rainbow snorted in Applejack's face, but the look in her friend's eyes told her she was being as honest as only Applejack could be. "Fine, but you owe me a few apples to make up for this bruise," Rainbow muttered, letting Applejack go and both falling to their hooves again. She turned for Scootaloo, then shook her head. "I couldn't.. I couldn't escape, Applejack. This place is like a maze. I saw you enter through an upstairs window, but you couldn't hear me when I called to you." "Say what? I didn't see anythin' in no windows," Applejack blinked. "I saw ya get pulled into the entrance by some huge claw and rushed in after y'all to save ya hide!" "Whomever that was, it wasn't me," Rainbow offered. "I was up in a room on the first floor. I don't even know where we are right now. The rooms keep shifting." Applejack nodded to that last bit. "Yeah, I noticed. But we're on the second floor, Rainbow. I met a ghost who showed me the way in." Rainbow backed away a bit from her friend, raising an eyebrow at her. "A ghost? Really? Are you sure you weren't seeing things?" Applejack rolled her eyes and walked past her Pegasus friend, poking a hoof against the side of Scootaloo's head. The filly didn't even notice. "Ghost or no ghost," Applejack snorted, "we got to get out of here, Rainbow." "I'm with you on that. But you can't leave this room. I tried," Rainbow sighed, walking over to one of the doors and opening it up to show Applejack. Applejack looked through the open door into the room they were both in, and then through the open door in there at the room they were in, through the... it continued for a long while and made her feel dizzy. "That's not even the worst of it," Rainbow offered, pointing behind Applejack at the door opposite the one the Pegasus was holding open. Applejack turned her head to see that door was perfectly closed. "Now what the hay?" Applejack wondered, trotting over to it and attempting to open it. It wouldn't budge. "It won't open." "It won't?" Rainbow wondered, cantering over and trying to help Applejack to open the door. A loud slam was heard from the other end of the room, and then suddenly the door they were at gave way, swinging inward as all doors in this room did. Looking through the open door they saw the same display of the same room leading into the same room through the open door as far as they could see. They both turned their heads to look at the opposite side of the room and then back at each other. "That door was open a moment ago," Rainbow mused. Applejack nodded. "And then this door wouldn't open for nothin'." "But when I came to help you," Rainbow started. "that door slammed shut," Applejack added, "and this one opened." Rainbow nodded at the door closest to them. Applejack nodded to that, "Right." Rainbow looked between the open door near her and the door on the other side of the room, her face pulling in a thoughtful frown. "Let me try something?" she wondered, starting off toward the door on the other side of the room. "You try keeping that door there open, and I'll try opening this one? I'm stronger than you, so I shouldn't have that much of a problem with it?" Applejack snorted, "This ain't no time for a contest, Rainbow. Just do what you have to. I'll keep this door open for ya." Rainbow shrugged and put her teeth around the doorknob of the closed door, starting to pull back. The door wouldn't budge. She used her hooves to push away from the wall beside the door, pulling harder, but still nothing. Her wings opened up and she flapped them with all her strength, but still nothing! Her teeth were actually starting to hurt now, so she gave up and let go of the doorknob, moving her jaw a bit and folding her wings again. "So that didn't work. Anything happen on your end?" Turning to face Applejack, Rainbow gasped as she saw the pony stuck between the door and its frame, her hind legs holding the door open, while her front legs were placed against the wall, beads of sweat showing on her face. "Applejack!" Rainbow cried out, dashing over and helping her friend to open the door enough that Applejack could jump out from her predicament, then let go herself. The door slammed shut immediately as she let go, and the door on the other side of the room made a soft click as it fell open on its own. Both ponies were panting on the floor from the experience, and Applejack shook her head at Rainbow Dash. "Next time, y'all can hold the door open."