The Gloom

by Makitk

05 - Advice from Beyond the Grave

Applejack sat down on the lobby's staircase and wiped the sweat off of her brow. She'd been in this place for Celestia knows how long and had seen just about every conceivable room in the place, except for one which contained Scootaloo, Rainbow Dash, or whatever the claw had been that had pulled her best friend into the place.

"I don't get it one bit," she sighed to herself. "How can the rooms keep changin' around? It's like some weird magic at work. I shoulda waited for Twilight."

Applejack looked up ahead at the mansion's double doors and at the pattern of dust around it. She'd been bucking those doors for what seemed like an hour now, but had finally just decided to sit down to get some rest.

There still wasn't a single scratch on the wood. She couldn't even get a hoof out through the holes that had already been in them. It was like an invisible wall prevented her from doing so.

"It just don't make sense," Applejack repeated her thoughts out loud.

"What doesn't, miss?" a filly's voice asked, and Applejack looked up to see a pale white Earthpony filly standing before her, a pale blue glow hanging around her. Applejack squinted her eyes and realized she could look right through the other pony!

She backed away a bit, but her need to find her friend outweighed her fear and she tilted her head at the apparition before her. "Yer not real, are ya?"

The filly looked down and scraped a forehoof over the ground. "I'm not sure, miss."

Applejack sighed and took a few steps around the little one, both to give herself a chance to flee as getting a better look at the filly. Nope, definitely see-through.

"Are you responsible for this here place?" Applejack wondered, taking another few steps around the filly and trying to discern whether she proved a threat or not.

The filly turned her head to look up at Applejack as she was being scrutinized, but then shook her head. "No, miss."

"Then what the hay is causin' these changin' rooms and unbreakable doors?" Applejack snapped, caught herself and put a hoof over her mouth. "Sorry, I didn't mean ta shout."

The filly smirked and looked down. "It's ok. You'll soon forget how to. They all do."

"Forget?" Applejack repeated, shivering strongly. "Now look here, I'm lookin' for two of mah friends. One a blue Pegasus with rainbow hair, 'nother an orange Pegasus. Have ya seen them around?"

The filly took a step back without taking a step, just looking to be drifting back instead. "Yes, miss. I have. They're with my parents."

Applejack smiled up brightly. "Great! Can you lead me to them? I need ta grab them and get out of here as quick as possible!"

"Oh, there's no way out, miss," the filly remarked, looking up with cold glowy eyes at Applejack.

Applejack shivered again, looking at the pale blue eyes staring at her, but shook her head. "There has ta be. We got to get out of here."

"The Gloom won't let you, miss," the filly stated, shaking her head. "But I could lead you to your friends. Maybe you'll all join me and we can play together?" the apparition offered in a lighter tone, but then quickly lost her spirit and sighed out, "As long as The Gloom won't find us, that is."

"Ya keep talking 'bout this gloom thing," Applejack muttered, wondering what the deal was with the "joining" thing, "But if ya take me to my friends, I'd be much obliged."

"This way," the ghost offered, heading up the stairs. Applejack followed a little behind, still unsure about the spirit's intentions.

"Do y'all have a name?" she wondered, watching the ghostly tail before her swish this way and that and leaving a layer of glowing dust behind where it went. Applejack carefully looked at the bottom of her hooves to see if they were glowy, but they were just dusty. Regular dust.

The filly stopped on the landing and looked puzzled at the question, and Applejack had to swerve sideways not to walk right through her.

"I don't know," the filly finally decided, her ears slowly flattening. "I don't think I have."

"I'm sorry I asked."

The filly shrugged and turned to the left wing, her hooves still not moving as she continued ahead. She just slid over the floor, leaving the glowy dust behind which didn't stick to Applejack's hooves.

Applejack continued to follow her, trying to remember where they were going, in so far as that was possible in this ever-changing place. They didn't pass through any doors yet, so the trip back should be the same.

The hallway continued on past several side-doors, then made a 90-degree turn to the right, straight onto another staircase. They followed it up to the 2nd floor landing, and then into another hallway leading back toward the center of the building.

Applejack looked back behind her, but the darkness had already swallowed the stairway and if it wasn't for the faint glow surrounding the ghost before her she would have been immersed in it. She dared walking a little closer to the filly and smiled weakly at her looking up.

"You're nice," the filly remarked, and Applejack's smile widened a little.

"So I've been told."

They stopped in front of a door near the center of the hallway and the filly nodded toward it. "My parents are in there, miss."

Applejack grinned and walked toward the door. "Much obliged, now if ya can tell us how to get the hay out of here once I got my... what's wrong?"

The filly ghost was looking around in sudden fear and Applejack felt a rush of cold air blow past her.

"Once you're in there, you can't get out again, miss. I'm sorry. The Gloom has found me. I got to run!"

This time the filly's legs did move as she set herself in a gallop right through a wall, moving in the opposite direction of where the icy wind came from and leaving Applejack in surprise and complete darkness.

Applejack turned slowly to face the dark passage, but the smell coming from it was like rotting apples on a hot summer's day and she felt her stomach turn. Not wanting to run blindly back the way she'd come from, she instead nudged the door open and pushed through into the room, quickly closing the door behind her again.

Two ponies were seated near the fireplace across the room, one reading while the other was smoking a pipe. They looked as pale as the little ghost filly had been.

Rainbow Dash was seated on her haunches in the middle of the room, clutching a pillow to her with her forelegs, her face pale from fear and tears streaming from her unseeing dead eyes.

Beside her, Scootaloo was trying to push a broken scooter along the floor, back and forth in a useless motion as it just didn't want to go more than an inch either way, her eyes looking just as dead as the filly's ghost had been.

"Now what the hay happened here?" Applejack breathed out, half wondering if it had not been a better idea to stay in the hallway to await whatever this gloom thing was so she wouldn't have had to see her friends like this...