The room was black and moonless and it reeked of sickly-sweetness, like the innards of an eviscerated gummy-bear.
They were all thinking it, but Rarity was the first to say it.
"Twilight, dear, just where exactly did you teleport us?"
"I... I don't know." Twilight admitted cautiously, eyes darting around the darkness for any clue, hint, sign, landmark, but ultimately finding none. "I must have made a miscalculation."
"Least we ain't bein' chased by that whatchamacallit lion anymore." Applejack sighed in relief. Mostly relief.
"Nemean lion." Fluttershy corrected, "And I'm sure that wherever Twilight took us, it's much safer. That lion looked really hungry."
"I don't 'get' carnivores," Rainbow admitted, "what's so great about meat anyway?"
"Well, I got to try meat with an adequately equipped digestive system in the mirror world, and I have to admit, meat tastes really good. It tastes how spending Sunday in bed with a new Daring Do book feels."
"Woah. Really?"
Twilight nodded, though nopony else saw in the darkness. "I hate to say it, but we're delicious."
"And that lion was so hungry..." Fluttershy whimpered. "I almost feel bad for it."
"If Twilight hadn't teleported us, Fluttershy, you'd be feeling a heck of a lot worse." Rainbow pointed out. "Now how about teleporting us away from here, Twilight?"
"I can't, not until I'm certain as to where we are. Otherwise we might end up someplace a whole lot worse."
"Worse than a dark room that smells like Granny's old perfume?"
"I'm afraid so, Applejack."
"Oh yeah?" This came from Rainbow Dash again, "Like where?"
"Well, the lion might have had a family, for starters."
"O-oh. Right."
"Not to be a bother or anything, but has anypony tried moving yet? Or are all still just huddled around Twilight talking?"
"Nope"
"No."
"I am Twilight."
"M-move? By myself?"
"Right." Rarity mused, "That's what I thought. Perhaps we should all move in synchronicity until we find the source of our dreaded darkness. Perhaps we are underground?"
Applejack grunted. "I don't know, this sure feels like carpet to me."
Twilight snorted, moving her hooves about carefully, listening to them go schlick, schlick, schlick. "You're right, AJ. It feels like... actually, it feels like very sticky carpet."
"Are we sure this isn't Pinkie's bedroom?" Rainbow pointed out.
Twilight sighed loudly. "Pinkie's sick, Rainbow. If anything, she's probably in her room right now, with the lights on, eating soup."
"Oh. Right."
"I sure wish Pinkie Pie was here," Fluttershy stammered, judging by the sound of her voice from somewhere close to the ground and well behind everypony, "maybe her Pinkie sense could tell us where we are."
"But she's not." Rarity declared. "She is at home, in bed, eating hot soup, decidedly not being chased by lions or trapped in dark, mysterious places."
Twilight sighed. "Rarity, don't try to fake being sick next mission, I'd see right through it." Then, louder, to the rest of the group, "Alright, gang, we're going to try moving, then. As a team. Are we ready? One... two..."
The group pressed together and then, on Twilight's count, stepped forward. There was a loud, dull thump.
"Ow!" Rainbow hissed.
"What?! Is it a monster? Did a monster get Rainbow?" Fluttershy hollered back,.
"What? No, I just... bumped my shin against something. It really hurt."
"Okay, let's try to move around whatever Rainbow Dash bumped into. On the count of three... two..."
They took another step. This time Rarity yelped in pain.
Applejack rolled her eyes, again a futile gesture in the inky blackness. "Shin?"
"Gracious, no. I think I stepped on a Snappo brick."
There was a collective intake of sympathetic breath sucked through clenched teeth.
"This isn't getting us anywhere!" Rainbow shouted.
"And I hate to be the bearer of bad news, girls, but whoever heard of a single Snappo brick being left out? There must be a veritable minefield of them ahead of us." Then, Rarity continued in a hushed, dangerous tone, "Any one of us could be next."
There was an angry, desperate murmurring amongst the group. Nopony wanted to step on a Snappo brick. Those things hurt. Particularly if they wheedled into the sensitive frog of the hoof like they somehow, against all odds, always did.
"Forget this!" Rainbow declared, "I'm flying out of here!"
"Rainbow, no!" Twilight whispered (in that way that is actually probably louder than your normal speaking voice, and not really a whisper at all, thus defeating the point of it being a whisper if you really think about it for even a second) back.
But it was too late. There was another dull thud and the sound of a hollow coconut being banged against a rock.
"What was that?" Fluttershy trembled, the others feeling her crouched behind them from the force of the air that was coming off her terror-shivers.
"There's a ceiling here." Rainbow groaned, rubbing her head, "It's pretty low, so I flew right into it."
"That was your head?" Applejack asked incredulously. There was a beat before she started snickering. Twilight and Rarity joined her.
"What? What's so funny?"
"Nuthin'. Tell you later."
"What? Come on, I wanna know!"
"There are more pressing matters, Rainbow! Like finding out where we are."
"Oh. Well, why don't you try to see the floor in front of you with your magic or something. Be an egghead, egghead."
"If I can't see, then I can't... Oh, dear Celestia, I'm an idiot. Rarity, just focus your magic with me for a moment."
"What? Whatever for, Twilight?"
Twilight's horn lit up, illuminating her face and Fluttershy and Rainbow's beside her.
"Oh. Well, now I feel rather silly too."
Rarity and Applejack were illuminated in a matching, dim light from Rarity's horn.
The five ponies glanced ahead and gulped. In front of them, basked in the glow of two horns, was a tremendous pile of spilled Snappo bricks, almost glinting menacingly in the dim light.
"Well, glad you worked it out now, rather than then." Applejack said, slowly, carefully, eyeing up the path ahead of them. "Where do you think we are?"
There was the sound of hoofsteps approaching. Everypony stared at each other desperately, hoping against hope that one of them had a plan.
"Okay, everypony hide!" Twilight whispered in that same whisper-that-isn't-a-whisper. They scattered.
Rarity's and Twilight's horns went out in a blink, making it much harder for the others to work out what was happening, and which sounds were their friend's and which was the mysterious interloper's.
What they knew for certain in the darkness, however, is that no less than three of Rainbow's four shins were banged, quite loudly, against three different pieces of furniture, and Applejack stepped on no less than four very pointy-sounding Snappo bricks.
The door to the room opened, letting in a thin ray of light. The room's own lightbulb flickered on, pinning everypony underneath the gaze of the irritated owner.
Fluttershy hadn't even bothered to hide, instead desperately having tried to melt unseen into the floor. Rainbow sat beside a bedside table, nursing her other three shins with the only uninjured one. Applejack lay on her back, trying desperately not to cry and almost succeeding. Of the two remaining, Rarity would probably have remained hidden the longest...
"Eeeek! Tacky, tacky, tacky, gross, gross, gross, tacky, gross!"
...had she not barreled out of the closet she had secreted herself away in, flailing at the clothes that had tangled in her fur and mane, leaving behind her a strewn trail of garments and coathangers. She collapsed beside Fluttershy on the floor, rocking herself back and forth.
Twilght sighed and crawled out from her hiding spot under the bed.
"Great work, guys. Really, A for effort."
Twist stared at the four inconsolable ponies on her bedroom floor and the fifth trying desperately to console them, to no avail. They were, after all, inconsolable. It's right there in the name.
Twist stared at them from the doorway, hoof still poised over the lightswitch. "Muuum? Daaad?" She called desperately, eyes never leaving the strange ponies acting strangely in her room.
