The Gloom

by Makitk


11 - Pandora's Box

The sound of her sonic rainboom exploding through the room behind her sounded like music to her ears as Rainbow shot down the corridor ahead, Scootaloo clinging to her back and Applejack clutched tightly to her chest.

Getting out of the room was easy enough. She just had Applejack hold open one door while she flung herself and Scootaloo through a closed one, reappearing in the room to grab Applejack, and then reversing her flight to break through the shattered window of reality around it.

That had been the easy part. But then the room started to chase them down the hall... That had been unexpected.

"How close is it?" she bit to Applejack, who looked over Rainbow's shoulder.

"About two pony lengths, Rainbow, it's gaining on us!"

"No. It. Won't," Rainbow groaned through gritted teeth, moving her wings faster before blowing through yet another door in her way.

The room beyond was the kitchen on the ground floor, even if Rainbow had been sure they'd been flying through the second floor hallway before.

Didn't matter, the room was already starting to warp around them as if the whole building was deforming.

She launched herself through the next door and shot like an arrow through the lobby, spotting an odd light beam flashing upward from a lower position under the large staircase as she did.

"Take Pinkie and let's go! The way is clear!" Twilight's voice called out, and Rainbow quickly skidded to a stop in mid-air.

"Twilight?" She called out and, when her Alicorn friend appeared from what looked like the entrance to the cellar, immediately dropped Applejack to the floor.

"Rainbow, Applejack! I'm so glad to see you both. Quick, take these glasses and put them on. And I have your elements of harmony in my saddlebags!" Twilight told them, while wearing some funny glasses on her face.

"Really, Twi?" Applejack wondered, looking at the glasses, but Twilight quickly fired a beam of energy into a seemingly random corner of the room.

"No time to explain!"

Rainbow shrugged and put on the glasses... and immediately pulled them off again.

"What... the... hay?" Applejack muttered to her side, but Rainbow quickly moved forward to pluck her element from Twilight's saddlebag, tossing Applejack hers and her hat in about the same movement.

"I hope you know what you're doing, Twilight," Rainbow muttered, putting her element around her neck and the glasses on her face again.

All around her the room was warping around with long black tendrils reaching out for her and her friends. There were few spots that didn't have these weird fingers and where they were standing was one of them.

Rainbow shook her head at it. First a room that started chasing her through the mansion, now this? "What is going on, Twilight?"

"I don't know, Rainbow. Pinkie seems to know more about it but she fell unconscious. Fluttershy has been trying to wake her ever..." she fired off another few blasts into the tendrils, and Rainbow saw them get ripped apart and pull back as if whatever they were connected to felt the pain of them getting hit, "..since." Twilight finished her sentence.

Rarity was also blasting energy up into the air, hitting the tendrils where they least converged. Her magic wasn't designed to harm and it was weaker than that of an Alicorn, but she did what she could.

"What can we do?" Rainbow wondered, and felt Scootaloo slip off of her back.

"I don't know. Right now I'm just trying to keep these things at bay until Pinkie wakes up," Twilight shrugged, barely noticing Scootaloo passing by underneath her and running away from the group up to the upper landing.

"Where's that filly going?" Rainbow wondered, but had to jump up in the air as a tendril reached for one of her back legs. "Behind you, Twi!"

Twilight quickly turned and hit a particularly nasty spot with all the force she could muster, and for a second it sounded like the house was crying out in pain.

It was an unholy sound that Rainbow couldn't describe no matter how much she tried.

"Scoots, what are you doing?" she called out instead, watching Scootaloo talk to something she couldn't see.

Wait. If the glasses made her see some things, maybe they would hide other things?

Rainbow took the glasses off and saw a small Unicorn filly ghost standing in front of Scootaloo, the ghost still suckling on what remained of the popsicle she showed them earlier on.

Glasses on, evil tendrils everywhere but ghost gone. Glasses off, evil tendrils gone, but ghost there.

Rainbow shook her head and flew down beside Scootaloo, sticking the glasses up in her hair for the moment.

"Scoots, you should stick with the group," Rainbow muttered, looking around herself as if she could still see the tendrils. "It's dangerous out here."

"Pandora doesn't think so, Rainbow Dash," Scootaloo offered, smiling at the ghost.

"I will protect Scootaloo, miss Rainbow Dash," the ghost filly returned. "You need to wake up the pink lady. She's the only one who can banish the gloom and wake up my parents again."

Rainbow looked back at Fluttershy still battling her panic to try and wake Pinkie up, while Rarity and Twilight were doing their best to keep the tendrils at bay.

"How?" Rainbow wondered, looking back at the fillies.

"By playing with it," the little ghost offered in all earnest.

Rainbow sighed and turned for Pinkie. "Whatever, kid. Let's see what I can do."

She put her goggles back on to be able to avoid the tendrils, then made her way back to the group and poked Pinkie in the side.

"Hey Pinkie Pie, Pandora says we need you to play with this place. Where's your party spirit when we need you? I thought I was the lazy one here."

Pinkie opened an eye and grinned up. "Party?"

Rainbow sighed and nodded down, pointing around her. "With that there."

Pinkie quickly hopped up and took a long look around. "I need more confetti for this kind of a party."

"Right," Rainbow sighed, pulling Fluttershy away from a rogue tendril and shouting its location to the magic users of the group for them to deal with.

Where did Applejack go, anyway? Rainbow had lost sight of her. Oh, there she was. Fighting side-by-side with Twilight.

"Ok, girls! A-one. A-two. A-one, two, three, four!" Pinkie suddenly shouted through a megaphone, and for a moment everything stopped dead.

The tendrils stopped moving and everypony stopped what they were doing to look in the direction of Pinkie, who had somehow built an entire stage complete with about sixty confetti cannons lined up in three rows of twenty along it.

And then the thunder started.

One after another, each of the confetti cannons bellowed out multicolored pieces of paper into every nook and cranny of the building, while Pinkie sang something unintelligibly which got drowned out by the sound of the explosions happening right in front of her.

Rainbow didn't know what was going on, but the pain in her ears was enough for her to dive down to the ground, as did most of the others.

Only Twilight remained standing upright, and Rainbow noticed a familiar glow starting in her eyes.

Time to shine.

With Pinkie working as a major distraction, Twilight had more than enough time to call upon the Elements of Harmony, and each of the Element Bearers' necklaces started to shine as they linked up to the Element of Magic.

A huge flash burst out from the six of them, spreading bright white light throughout the entire mansion.

Past closed doors.

Past solid walls.

Out through windows, chimneys, and waterways.

Out in the town, the blast of light erupted from the well in the plaza and spread from pony to pony, from house to house, from shop to stall.

When it was all over, Twilight collapsed on the ground and Rainbow finally felt the fatigue from having flown faster than her wings should have been able to go.

"Are we done?" she wondered, looking around her with the glasses still on her face but seeing no more tendrils around her. "Good. I think I'll take a nap."

And with that she fell over sideways, passing out on the spot.