"You're not going to buck Scoots, and that's final," Rainbow grumbled, and Applejack sighed out.
"Look, she's been losin' her color while we've been sittin' here talking 'bout it."
Applejack poked the little filly's head again, and shook her head as there still was no response besides the filly's head tilting the other way.
Rainbow Dash, seated to Scootaloo's left side, frowned at the poke given to her number one fan.
She poked Scootaloo's head from her side to tilt it back again and looked past her at Applejack.
"Look, AJ, I don't know how to snap her out of this any more than you do, but my side feels like it's on fire right now thanks to your bucking earlier," Rainbow commented. "I don't want to put Scoots through that. There has to be another way."
A ghostly hoof pushed its way up through the floor the moment Rainbow finished her sentence, and the Pegasus flew up in surprise! "What?!?"
Applejack tilted her head a moment, but then chuckled and pointed at it. "Oh, hi there sugar. What are y'all doin' under the floor?"
Rainbow raised an eyebrow, still half up against the ceiling.
"This here must be that filly I found in the lobby earlier, Rainbow," Applejack explained. "She's a nice lil' ghost."
As if to prove Applejack right, the ghostly hoof pushed a similarly ghostly popsicle up through the floor, and straight into Scootaloo's muzzle.
Scootaloo blinked.
Applejack gasped! "Did ya see that!?"
Scootaloo blinked again, then shook her head, the ghost popsicle dropping out of her mouth and through the floor, the ghostly hooves disappearing quickly after it!
"Er.. what?" Scootaloo blinked, looking around her as she blinked further awake.
"Scoots!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed, diving down to grab hold of Scootaloo and pull her into a tight hug!
"Told ya she was nice," Applejack grinned, walking over to join Rainbow in hugging Scootaloo, who looked completely distraught by suddenly being stuck in a hug sandwich.
"H...hey, still need to breathe here..." she whimpered, and immediately was let go by both mares.
Stumbling on her own hooves, Scootaloo quickly shook off the feeling of having been hugged and looked around herself. "Where am I?"
Applejack, having seen Rainbow's reaction before, simply waited for the inevitable. Rainbow on the other hoof, felt the need to explain.
"You're in some weird mansion, Scoots. But don't worry. We'll find a way out of here."
Scootaloo was still looking around, but then suddenly backed away from nothing in particular, ending up hiding under Rainbow Dash.
"It was... so cold," Scoots offered in a voice that was fraught with fear and barely recognizable as the Cutiemark Crusader's normal voice. "So dark... so alone."
Tears started to form on Scootaloo's face and Rainbow dipped her head down to look upside-down at the younger Pegasus. "We're here now, Scoots. Don't let it grip you again or I will let Applejack buck you."
Applejack chuckled uncomfortably at that. "Hey now, I only did that since ya didn't want to wake up none."
Scootaloo trembled underneath her, so Rainbow Dash gently lowered her wings by her side and offered an odd smile at the filly.
"Hey, remember what I told you back in the forest? The thing you weren't supposed to tell anyone? Remember that?"
Scootaloo nodded slowly, trying to get herself under control.
"Same thing here, kid. Come on, pull yourself together. I'm right here with you."
Applejack raised a confused eyebrow as Scootaloo nodded and slowly moved out from under the other Pegasus. "Now what the hay was that all about?"
Rainbow shrugged and stuck out her tongue. "Sister stuff, you wouldn't understand."
Scootaloo blushed deeply at her idol's words, leaning into her side a bit and happily accepting the wing folding around her.
Applejack started to protest, but then snorted and walked over to a different corner in the room. "Fine. Just wait until I get back home. Me an' Applebloom'll talk about sum things y'all don't know about."
Rainbow chuckled at that. "Fine with me."
Applejack poked the floor with a hoof. "Where'd you disappear off to?"
A ghostly hoof poked up through the floor from below and a minute voice could be heard. "I can't enter that room, miss. My parents won't allow me. This is as far as I can go."
Applejack looked up at the mare and stallion still seated in their chairs near the fireplace. "Those two are your parents?"
The little spectral hoof waved about and a short answer followed. "Yes, miss."
Scootaloo carefully approached the hoof sticking up through the floor and poked at it with her own. She immediately pulled back and shivered strongly. "C...c...cold."
"You forgot damp and dark," the soft voice muttered from below. "I remember everything now, miss."
The three living ponies shared some glances, Rainbow Dash the first to speak up.
"What do you mean you remember everything?"
"I'm dead, miss."
"No kidding," Rainbow replied, shaking her head at how obvious -that- fact was.
Applejack sighed and sat down on the floor, nodding at the hoof. "I did ask her before. She said she didn't know what she was."
"That's correct, miss."
Rainbow raised an eyebrow. "What made her remember?"
The hoof disappeared and then reappeared with a popsicle held by it. "The pink lady gave me this."
Applejack and Rainbow both looked at one another. "Pinkie Pie!" they exclaimed.
"Yes, miss."
Scootaloo pointed at the popsicle. "It called me back."
The hoof disappeared and then reappeared without the popsicle. "I just wanted to play before, but I couldn't let The Gloom take you, Scootaloo."
Scootaloo shivered strongly and buried herself in against Rainbow Dash.
"There is a way out of this room, miss. But it's not going to be easy."
Applejack looked around her at the doors and caught Rainbow doing the same thing.
"You have to open two doors at the same time, miss," the spectre revealed.
"We tried that. One of them nearly crushed Applejack," Rainbow sighed.
"But you shattered doors before, miss," the ghost filly offered, and Rainbow's face went blank.
"I couldn't.. It couldn't be that simple."
"Yes Miss."
"Now what are you two talking 'bout?" Applejack interjected, not getting it at all.
Rainbow Dash however, grinned widely. "AJ, I have a plan to get us all out of here."