The Everfree Forest was creepy and eerie and generally unsettling. But, even with nopony around, Rainbow tried to act normal.
"Where was that trail...?" Rainbow asked aloud.
She looked on the ground, and saw hoofprints. Six sets. Two of them belonged to her. Rainbow had gone to see Zecora earlier.
"I never noticed that trail off the path to your house..." Twilight had said to Zecora.
"You should never go down that road," Rainbow remembered Zecora's face turning grim. "Disaster's there, I must forebode."
The entire visit was uneventful, but that part stuck with Rainbow Dash. As soon as she got home, she could only wonder: What was there? Why had nopony ever noticed the path? And what disaster?
The curiosity would have kept Rainbow Dash up all night, if the sounds of Nightmare Night in Ponyville didn't.
"There it is!" Rainbow said, spotting a small trail. There were certainly hoofmarks in the dirt. "Does somepony live down here?"
The hooves were directed down the trail. Two sets, both going where Rainbow was, with no indication of anypony leaving.
While curiosity could distract Rainbow from the Everfree's creepiness, this made her shiver.
Rainbow Dash began to nervously gaze around the trail as she stepped onto it. Only a few steps in, a loud 'crack' made her jump into the air, hovering in the leaves. It took only a moment for her to realize that she had merely stepped on a twig.
Embarrassed in her solitude, Rainbow floated back down to the ground, and continued walking.
The short minutes of walking seemed to stretch into eternity. An unnatural silence consumed her. But life stopped moving in slow motion when Rainbow could barely make out a light, flickering like a candle. She approached cautiously.
Coming to a corner where a candle was clearly visible, Rainbow jerked herself back. She stuck her head into a bush, barely able to see the light. Two ponies were visible, and they were speaking to each other.
"You're SURE she'll come?" a familiar voice asked.
"Don't worry, Pinkie, if I know Rainbow, she won't take much longer..." the other pony answered.
"Twilight?" Rainbow Dash came out from behind her cover. "Pinkie? What are you two doing here?"
Both ponies jumped in surprise. When Twilight realized it was Rainbow Dash, she said, "Same reason you're here, I guess. Just couldn't help ourselves."
Rainbow entered the clearing, and noticed a large house a short distance away, "What's that?"
Pinkie, shivering in either fright or excitement, "A... a... HAUNTED HOUSE!"
No, not excitement. Fright. Definitely fright.
"It's not haunted, Pinkie," Twilight tried to reassure her friend. "There's no such thing as ghost."
"Have you ever SEEN a ghost?!" Pinkie asked.
"No... I obviously haven't..." Twilight answered.
Pinkie smirked, Twilight having proven her point, "Then how do you know they're not real?"
"Well, I-" for a moment, Twilight took Pinkie's response seriously. But when she realized what Pinkie had actually SAID, she dropped the subject, and turned to Rainbow Dash, "So, what do you think? Should we check it out?"
"I don't know..." Rainbow Dash said, shaking slightly. "It's the middle of the night, and Zecora warned us-"
"Isn't your middle name 'Danger', Rainbow Dash?" Pinkie interrupted.
"No, Pinkie," Rainbow Dash said. "My middle name is Cirrus."
"Well, that's boring..." Pinkie said as she started trotting towards the house.
"Pinkie, where are you going?" Twilight asked.
"To the house, silly!" Pinkie responded. "Are ya coming?"
"Is Pinkie..." Rainbow Dash was lost for words. "Is Pinkie being passive-aggressive..."
"Something along those lines..." Twilight said.
"Wait up!" Rainbow galloped to catch up with Pinkie Pie, and Twilight followed after her.
Up close, the building was obviously in disuse, slowly collapsing on itself. How the rotting, wooden pillars supported the large overhang.
Almost as soon as the trio were in front of the door, it started to rain. This worried Rainbow Dash, "There's no rain scheduled for another week..."
This, subsequently, frightened Pinkie Pie, "Maybe it's GHOST RAIN!"
"Uhm, girls..." Twilight said calmly. "Weather runs itself in the Everfree Forest, remember?"
"Oh, right!" Rainbow tried to laugh it off. "I was just kidding!"
"Sure..." Twilight said. Using magic, she lifted the metal knocker and let it fall back onto the door.
"Do you really think somepony lives here?" Rainbow Dash asked rhetorically. "If we're going in, we may as well just go-"
The large doors suddenly opened, interrupting Rainbow Dash.
"Spooooooooooky," Pinkie Pie said.
The trio entered the home, each step making the floorboards creak. They stepped closely in time with each other, making the 'creak-creak-creak, creak-creak-creak' drown out the sounds of wind and rain from the outside.
Directly in front of them was a large stairway, leading to a second floor. On either side on the ground floor were closed doors.
"So, where should we start?" Twilight asked.
"Start what?" Rainbow Dash retorted. "I don't think we should even be here..."
"I thought you were the brave one!" Twilight said.
"I'm brave, but not stupid!" Rainbow responded bluntly. "And what about you? Aren't you the smart one?"
When Twilight gave no response, Rainbow continued, "What is wrong with us? We shouldn't be fighting..."
Twilight let out a sigh, "I just feel like this is... something I have to do. And what about you Pinkie? What do you think?"
When silence followed, the 'creak-creak, creak-creak' stopped as Rainbow Dash stopped at the foot of the stairs, and Twilight followed suit.
"I should go..." Rainbow said, turning around to leave, only to notice that Pinkie was missing.
"Pinkie?" Rainbow called out, softly at first, then with a shout, "PINKIE?!"
Twilight turned around, and her mouth was wide-open in shock, her eyes just as wide.
"Oh, for the love of-!" Rainbow Dash looked around foyer, but there was no sign of the pink pony. "PINKIE PIE?!?"
Twilight shook her head, erasing her look of mortification and replacing it with a more inquisitive, but still scared, expression, "There must be a reasonable explanation of this..."
"Don't worry, Twilight, Pinkie Pie's probably just being a jerk," Rainbow Dash said as she began to trot towards one of the closed doors on the ground floor.
Twilight, on the other hand, couldn't understand why Pinkie Pie would leave them so abruptly like that, and began to panic. Instead of turning her head to get a good look at the whole foyer, she chased her tail until she saw Rainbow Dash trotting away. Seeing her friend leaving her in the dark, Twilight galloped after Rainbow.
"I think we should get out of here now..." Twilight said. "If Pinkie wants to scare us, that's her problem."
"Well, I'm certainly not leaving Pinkie here," Rainbow Dash said. "We need to find her before anything else."
Rainbow opened the door that was closest to the building's entrance.
Inside the room was a mess. It was either a dining room or a room to store china and silverware in, as these things were scattered across the room. A tablecloth covered the room's only window.
"Hey, Twilight, do you-?" Rainbow Dash turned around to face her friend, but say that nopony was there. "Twilight? Oh, sweet Celestia, not you too!"
"I'm right here," Twilight's muffled voice came through the thin wall. "Rainbow... you have to see this..."
Rainbow Dash opted to use her wings to more quickly get into the next room over. Inside, she saw Twilight staring at the back wall, where a window should have been.
Messily painted onto the wall with some sort of red pigment was the word, 'LEAVE'. The pigment was written on the wall many years ago, the dry substance slowly pealing off the wall.
Rainbow Dash swallowed. The single word, which almost looked to be written in blood, utterly terrified her.
"We... we don't have time for this..." Rainbow tried her best to feign bravery. "We have to find Pinkie Pie as quickly as possible."
But that was easier said than done. Before long, they had exhausted all of the rooms on the ground level. Positive that they had left no stone unturned, they marched up the stairs without a word.
The walk up the stars took an eternity for Rainbow Dash. She couldn't help but think that Pinkie Pie was in danger. And that word, written crudely in red paint, 'LEAVE'. Why was it there? Was it a warning? An order? Or was there something else to it?
Doubtless, it was meant for someone years ago, not for Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle. But that didn't keep it from troubling her.
The very moment the two reached the top of the stairs, Rainbow could hear a 'thud' to her left, so she opened her wings and dashed after it. Though the hallway was long, the noise came from the fourth room from the stairs. She flew into the door, breaking it apart with a loud crash. Inside was a completely empty room. While she had found nothing important in the downstairs rooms, they all served purposes. This room merely existed to take up space.
Rainbow Dash left the room, and looked up and down the hallway. Twilight wasn't in sight.
"Twilight?" Rainbow called out. "Where are you?"
"I thought I heard something from back here," Twilight said, barely audible to Rainbow Dash from all the way down the hall.
Rainbow had responded to Twilight's short absence without panicing. Being so on-edge, she thought this was a miracle. She had had her scares, from seeing Twilight's candle from a distance, to Pinkie's sudden disappearance, to the red letters in that one downstairs room. So long as they kept their cool, things could only get better.
But the next few moments denied this.
Rainbow could clearly see Twilight become visible as she moved from the cover of the corner. Quite some distance away, Rainbow Dash could make our her features clearly.
Then, time seemed to stop. Rainbow saw Twilight's tail become taut, as if being pulled.
The look of horror on Twilight's face. Her not having time to scream.
No time to struggle.
No time to run.
She could do nothing about being pulled away, down another hallway.
Rainbow Dash, though on-edge, was not ready for this. It took her a whole second to react. She dashed off down the hall. She reached the end in no time at all. Twilight was completely out-of-sight from where she had been, so Rainbow dashed down this next hall. But it was a dead-end.
With the haste of a hunted prey animal, Rainbow Dash used all of her strength to break down each door as quickly as possible.
The wooden thresholds shattered before her. Door after door...
Rainbow couldn't find Twilight. She did, however, find Pinkie. And certainly not how she would like to have.
When she reached the room containing Rainbow's former friend, she stopped. She could do nothing. Only stare in horror.
Pinkie's legs were all chained to a wall. All of the room's walls were crudely painted red. A fresh coat this time.
Rainbow Dash could feel herself growing weak. She began to dash away. But, all at once, she lost the power she needed to. Rolling down the hallway, Rainbow could hear one of her wings break with a distinctive 'snap' that she had heard many times before.
Behind her, she heard scuttling. Rainbow had to act fast. She got up, feeling the pain of her crash all over her body. Limping was her only method of escape now.
Only now did Rainbow think to cry. She had seen what had happened to Pinkie, and could only assume the worst for Twilight.
And now, whatever had gotten both of her friends, was right behind her. Gaining on her. A mere limp was no method of escape, but it was her only one.
Through all of the pain, Rainbow thought of those she might leave behind. Rarity and Fluttershy and Applejack would be the last Elements... And they would be alone, just the three of them... Celestia had lost her faithful student, and the Cakes - arguably - would never see their favorite pony again...
And then their families came to mind. Their parents would never know what happened, and Pinkie's sisters...
In Rainbow's last moments, she couldn't help but think of Scootaloo. She could have done more... She could have spent more time with the filly...
Rainbow Dash knew she could never get away, but she kept on limping. The scuttling was no more than a meter behind her, slowly advancing.
But the pain was overtaking her. She felt herself slipping away. The agony of a broken wing, and possibly several ribs, made staying conscious impossible.
The darkness consumed her, and she was no more.
Rainbow couldn't quite open her eyes. The lights were too bright. But she could hear the voices around her. Familiar voices. They stopped for a moment as Rainbow opened her eyes.
"Is she..." a southern drawl cutting through the silence.
"I think she's finally awake!" a Canterlot accent announced.
"Oh, dear," said a soft voice that was barely audible to Rainbow. "For a while there, I was rather worried..."
Opening her eyes, Rainbow could see her friends gathered at the foot of her hospital bed.
"AJ... Rarity... Fluttershy?" Rainbow let out a cough. "What happened?"
"You had some terrible accident on yer way back from Zecora's," Applejack explained.
"Accident?" Rainbow could only recall that horrible dream of hers. Everything before that kept escaping her mind's grasp. "Where's Pinkie? And Twilight?"
"In Canterlot, darling," Rarity said. "Zecora said something about the Princess wanting them..."
"But they're okay?" Rainbow got goosebumps at the thought of what she had dreamed up.
"A'course they are, sugarcube," Applejack reassured. "Why wouldn't they be?"
"Oh, it's just..." she almost half-considered telling them about the dream, but stopped herself. "Nothing..."
Just then, a door opened, letting Zecora into the room.
"Hello, my friends. How do you do?" Zecora said. "I hope good news will come of you."
"Rainbow just woke up, Zecora," Fluttershy said.
"Now, if I am not a bother," Zecora smiled. "Alone, I'd like to speak with her."
The three ponies smiled, and nodded their heads, and slowly left the room.
"You know what, Zecora?" Rainbow looked at the Zebra. "I had the weirdest dream-"
"My message of danger you scorned," Zecora interrupted Rainbow, and held a very solemn expression. "Do not forget, I tried to warn..."
With that, Zecora left the room. AJ, Rarity, and Fluttershy walked back into the room, and started to talk amongst each other, trying to include Rainbow Dash in their conversation. But Rainbow sat still, staring through the window across from her.
"Are you alright, Rainbow?" Applejack asked after a few minutes of quiet from her hospitalized friend.
"Yes," Rainbow Dash answered. "But it's not me that you should be asking."
