Chapters Visit 1: Housewarming Gift
The light of the moon illuminated the dark, gloomy night. A faint breeze rustled the branches of the trees that made up the woods of Canterlot.
For Sunset Shimmer, it was the perfect night to be in her bed, huddled under a blanket, and asleep.
“So, is this the place?”
Life wasn’t that kind to her though.
Rainbow Dash yawned and rubbed her eyes. “Oh, we’re here already?” she asked groggily. She sat up and looked out. “Turn the high beams on.”
Sunset flicked a switch. “That better?”
Rainbow nodded. “Yep, this is the place,” she said. “Let’s go. I’m tired and don’t wanna be up for any longer than I have to be.”
“You know that we were told we have to be up all night for this, right?”
“Oh…” Rainbow let out a groan and sunk in her seat. “Crap.”
Sunset chuckled. “C’mon, you big baby. We can explore the place while we wait for daybreak. And looking at it, there’s a lot to explore.”
Indeed, the house that stood before them was a full blown mansion and, from what Sunset could see, it was at least three stories.
Rainbow grumbled to herself and grabbed her backpack from the back seat. “You think this place is actually haunted?” she asked as she got out of the car.
Sunset shrugged and retrieved her backpack from the back seat. “I’d never even heard of this place until Pinkie dared us to stay here,” she replied. “Looks… really run down though.”
“Some rich family used to own this place until, like, twenty or so years ago,” Rainbow said as she and Sunset walked up to the front door. “Then the owners got killed.”
“Lovely.”
“Eh, I mean, it’s what I heard. I don’t know if it’s true or not. Nobody really does. The owners were always shut-ins.” Rainbow opened the front door and stepped inside. A few paintings hung from the wall, some of which had been defaced. A chandelier hung from the ceiling, the lightbulbs having been blown. The floor was covered in a torn up velvet carpet. To the left was a living room—and opposite that; a large door labelled kitchen .
“Well, it looks better on the inside than the outside.” Sunset stepped in and shut the door behind her. She placed her backpack on the floor and unzipped it. Inside was a bottled water, some snacks, a flashlight, and batteries. A lot of batteries. “So, where do you wanna go first?” she asked as she took out the flashlight.
“Bed.”
Sunset rolled her eyes. “Now, would you really break a Pinkie Promise like that?”
“Yeah.”
Sunset flicked the side of Rainbow’s head. She zipped her backpack up and walked over to a nearby couch, placing it on the torn-up piece of furniture.
“You sure this is the best place to keep our stuff?” Rainbow asked.
“Nope, but it’s better than carrying these around everywhere.” Sunset and looked back at Rainbow and smiled. “Now, how about we go look in… that room!” She pointed to a door that rested not too far from the staircase. Carved into it was the number one.
Rainbow let out a sigh of defeat. She grabbed the flashlight from her own backpack and flicked it on. “Fine, let’s go.”
The two girls walked up to the door, with Rainbow showing significantly less enthusiasm than her friend, who ran up to the door. She turned on her flashlight on and opened it.
“Hello. Are you here to see Mommy?”
Sunset and Rainbow both screamed and staggered backwards until they hit the side of the staircase. “W-Who are you?” Sunset asked, shining the light on the child. She was dressed in old timey garb, and was pale.
“I’m Mommy’s first and only child. She’s ill right now. She’s at the end of the hallway if you want to talk to her.”
Sunset and Rainbow looked at each other. “Who’s… ‘Mommy’?” Sunset asked, hesitantly.
“My mom…”
“Oh.” Sunset let out a sheepish chuckle. “I knew that.”
“Sure you did,” Rainbow muttered. “Anyways, what are you doing here, kid? I thought this place abandoned.”
“Mommy doesn’t like visitors.” The child walked up to the two girls. “Mommy says you two should leave.” With that, she walked away before vanishing into thin air.
Likewise, the color from Sunset’s face vanished.
Less so for Rainbow, whose uninterested tone was replaced with unadulterated glee.
“Oh my gosh!” She jumped up and down, squealing like a schoolgirl. “This place is haunted!” She grabbed Sunset by the shoulders and shook her. “We have to explore more!”
So much for sleep.
Sunset stared blankly for a bit, trying her best to figure out what had just happened. Once she managed to piece together the events of the past minute, she spoke up.
“What the heck just happened?”
Silence.
“Rainbow?” Sunset looked around, only to find that she was all alone. “Rainbow!?”
“What?” Rainbow poked her head out from the room the child had been in. “Did you find Mommy?”
Sunset let out a sigh of relief. “Oh, thank goodness.” She walked over to Rainbow. “I thought I’d lost you.”
“Nah.” Rainbow wrapped an arm around Sunset. “But hey, we have a whole night to ourselves in a haunted house! It’s gonna be awesome!”
“You’re… not at all concerned with whoever Mommy is?”
“Psh. Nah!” Rainbow waved a hand dismissively. “If things get too rough, we can always run and tell Pinkie that there really is something terrible in here. Now come on! We got a lot to look at!”
Sunset nodded and took her flashlight back out. She turned it on and looked around the room. For the most part, it was empty; a mattress resided in the middle of the room, with a bookshelf set up behind it.
“Wow, whoever lived here sure loved the simple life.” Sunset stepped in and walked up to the bookshelf. “They sure loved… guides on cooking, too.” She turned to Rainbow. “Do you think this was the kid’s bedroom?”
“C’mon, Sunset, there’s no way a family that could afford this kinda house would leave a kid in a room like this.” Rainbow turned around and ran over to her friend’s side. “This was probably a storage room. Now c’mon, let’s go someplace cooler!” As she ran towards the doorway, she was blocked by the child.
“Do you like my bedroom?”
Rainbow tilted her head. Behind her, she could hear Sunset snicker. “’scuse me?”
“Mommy bought me what she could afford. Daddy took the rest of the money for himself.” The child looked down at the floor. “Daddy always took the money…”
Sunset walked over to Rainbow’s side. “What’d he take the money for?”
The air around the child grew significantly warmer. “Other Mommy,” she said in a deep voice.
“I… take it she’s a touchy subject?” Rainbow asked.
The child vanished.
“I’ll take that as a yes.” Rainbow turned to Sunset. “So… I’m gonna go somewhere that doesn’t have an evil sounding ghost kid. You in?”
Sunset nodded. “Yeah,” she replied with the enthusiasm of a child who was chewing on vegetables. With that, she walked into the living room. A torn up couch rested against the wall, right beside a large, broken window. Ahead of it was a fireplace that had nothing adorning it but dust, which rested atop older dust. It was difficult to look any deeper than that, but there was probably more dust. And bricks, eventually.
“Well, good to know that Daddy used his money to really make this place feel like home,” Rainbow remarked. She hopped onto the couch, causing a spring to narrowly miss her and fly up into the air.
“Man, this thing is really uncom-”
Whack!
Rainbow rubbed her head and threw the spring across the room. “Suddenly, this is a really nice couch.”
“I guess Daddy doesn’t like it when you judge his way of spending money.” Sunset walked over to a bookshelf that was hidden in the shadows.
Rainbow rolled her eyes and looked around the room. “What’s over there? More cooking guides?” she asked, staring at the fireplace.
“Close.” Sunset grabbed a few books and brought them over. “Dictionaries.” She dropped them on the floor, causing the floor beneath the carpet to break. She looked at Rainbow gave a sheepish smile. “Oopsy daisy…”
“Smooth.” Rainbow shone her flashlight around, hoping to find something—anything —that might be interesting. “Man, this room is…”
“Boring?” Sunset asked.
“Yeah, that’s one way to put it.” Rainbow flicked the tool off and sighed. “I’m a little shocked. This place has never been exactly high profile, so I doubt some burglar would’ve come here and picked it clean.”
“Well, you did say that it’s been abandoned for twenty years,” Sunset replied. “That’s a pretty good amount of time for someone to find out about it and come take whatever they wanted.”
“Twenty years is what I’ve heard most often,” Rainbow said. “I’ve also heard five years. Some say two.” She stood up and stretched out. “So, any other bedrooms down here that we can poke around in?”
“I think there was a room next to the child’s room,” Sunset said. “Wanna go poke around there?”
Rainbow furrowed her brow. “You wanna go back to the area where that kid was?” She asked. “The one who sounded like she could grow ten feet tall and eat us like we were kebabs?”
“Aww, what’s wrong?” Sunset asked in a mocking tone. “Is wittle Rainbow Dash afraid of a wittle ghost kid?”
Rainbow’s eye involuntarily twitched; she stood up and ran back the way they’d come. “Yeah, there’s one here with a number two on it.”
Never fails to work. Sunset chuckled to herself, walking over to Rainbow’s side. “Think it’s Mommy’s room?”
Rainbow shrugged and opened the door. Inside of it was a queen-sized bed with a large painting above it. A red velvet couch, several dressers, a table with a large mirror on it adorned with rows and rows of perfume.
“I guess we found a portal to Rarity’s room,” Rainbow said as she stepped inside. The odor of numerous perfumes filled the air. “Certainly smells like it…”
“That’s way too kind, Rainbow. Even her room doesn’t smell like a place that you’d need a gas mask to breathe in.” Sunset stepped inside and looked around. Try as she may, she couldn’t help but wish her own room was as nice as this. It reminded her a lot of what she had when she was Celestia’s student. Perhaps even nicer (once she got past the unbearable smell of fifteen different kinds of perfume).
Rainbow, for her part, walked over to the bed and stared up at the painting of a woman. She looked like royalty, having regal brown hair that went over her shoulder and a diamond necklace. A tiara rested atop her head, fitted with several gems.
“Hey, Sunset, who ya think this is?” Rainbow asked. “Think she’s that ‘Mommy’ that kid mentioned?”
Sunset walked over and looked at the painting.“Didn’t that kid say that Daddy took all of the money from Mommy?” she asked. “How on Earth would she be able to look like a princess?”
“Maybe Mommy was clever and pocketed some of it without Daddy knowing,” Rainbow said with a chuckle.
Sunset didn’t respond. Instead, she continued to stare at the painting. The longer she did, the more something felt… off. After a bit, she finally found out what it was. “Rainbow… she looks like she’s staring at you.”
Rainbow rubbed her eyes and narrowed them. “Huh, she does.” She folded her arms. “Bet she couldn’t beat me at a staring contest though.”
The painting raised a hand and flipped Rainbow off.
“...Sunset.”
“I see it.”
“This Mommy’s a real bitch...”
“While Mommy is unhappy with your opinion of her, she would like for you to know that that is not her. She is, however, happy that you share a similar opinion as she does for the person in the painting.”
Both girls turned around to see the child standing in the doorway, her normally blank expression having been replaced with one of displeasure.
“So, who is it?” Rainbow asked after a few seconds of awkward silence.
“Come outside and I will show you.”
Rainbow and Sunset exchanged looks of confusion before walking out of the room. Once they had, the looked down at the child, who slammed the door shut and vanished.
“I guess she didn’t want us in there,” Sunset remarked.
“She could’ve just told us...” Rainbow turned to the large staircase that was next to them and looked up. “Well, I guess that’s the only way to go.”
Sunset nodded and the two ascended upstairs, which lead to a hallway. A very, very long hallway. “Well...” She took out her flashlight and flicked it on. Shining it down both sides, she found she wasn’t capable of seeing where they inevitably ended. “Alright, which way do you wanna go first?”
“Uhh... right,” Rainbow replied. “First room we see, let’s barge in like lunatics.”
Sunset rolled her eyes. “And why do you want to do that?”
Rainbow shrugged. “Just feel like it.”
“We’re not doing that,” Sunset said as she walked down the right portion of the hallway.
“Aww.” Rainbow followed until they reached the first door they saw, which ended up being roughly ten steps from where they started. Without hesitation, Rainbow ran over to the door and ran into it.
And broke the entire thing off of its rusted hinges.
“Whoa!” Rainbow couldn’t keep her balance as she flew into the middle of the room, which was devoid of everything, save for a single book that rested in the center of the room.
Sunset looked into the room and then down at Rainbow. “I thought I told you not to-”
“It was worth it.” Rainbow stood up and brushed herself off. “So, what would you rate that?”
“A four,” Sunset deadpanned.
“Out of five?”
“Ten.”
“Screw you.”
Sunset giggled and then set her sights on the book. “What’s that?”
“A book.”
Sunset shot Rainbow a stare that would make even a basilisk turn to stone. “I know that much, genius.” she said. “I mean, what’s in it?”
Rainbow shrugged. “I didn’t check it on my way down to the floor.”
“I was kinda thinking that child would appear and exposit on what it is.” Sunset walked over to the book and picked it up. It was surprisingly heavy, and covered in a ridiculously thick layer of dust. She brushed it off, revealing a blank, brown cover. “Alright, let’s see what lies within your pages.”
“You sound like Twilight.”
“Quiet, Rainbow.” Sunset opened the book, only to blush like she’d just received her first kiss. She shut the book and dropped it to the floor. “Oh...”
Rainbow ran over and picked the book up herself, opening it the second she had it in her hands.
Then she too dropped it.
“Oh... okay.” She let out an awkward cough and shifted uncomfortably. “Looks like we found Daddy’s... um, private collection.”
“Actually, you found Uncle Bob’s collection.” The child held a laugh back as she saw both girls’ faces. “And I see you decided to look at it. I’m sure that he’ll be glad to know that you both enjoyed it.”
Sunset’s eyes widened. “W-We didn’t-”
“Sure you didn’t.” The child disappeared into thin air as a giggle filled the air.
Sunset covered her face and let out a groan. She felt Rainbow place a hand on her back and gently rub it. “Thanks, Rainbow.”
“Uhh...” Rainbow cleared her throat.
Sunset slowly took her hands off of her face and turned her head to the side.
A man dressed in casual, early twentieth century attire stood at her side. He had a slim build, and looked as though he came from a moderately wealthy family.
“Hello.” he said in a calm voice. “Did you like my collection?”
Sunset’s eyes nearly burst out of her head. Without a second thought, she ran out of the room, Rainbow following closely behind.
“Hm. I guess they didn’t go past page one.” Uncle Bob picked up the book and flipped to page two. “Ahh, Muffins. I miss you and your precious meowing.”
“Meow.”
Uncle Bob looked down to his left. “Muffins!” He picked the ghostly cat up. “You need to stop wandering off.”
In the hallway, Sunset and Rainbow ran. Exactly where was anyone’s guess, as neither of them had the slightest clue. Any place where Uncle Bob wasn’t seemed appealing. Eventually though, they stopped running.
Thud.
Mainly because both of them ran face-first into the door that lay at the end of the hallway.
“Ow...” Sunset stood up, rubbing her face. “Any idea if Bob’s following us?”
Rainbow stood up, also rubbing her face. She took her flashlight out and flicked it on before standing up and behind them. “Uhh... I don’t see anyone.” She squinted her eyes. “Looks like we ran pretty far though. I can’t even see the stairway.”
“Well, at least we’re away from him.”
“And here I thought you were the empathetic one.” Rainbow chuckled and turned her flashlight off before looking at the door they’d run into. She sighed as she read the word that was engraved into it.
Library
“Great...”
“Oh, come on now Rainbow,” Sunset said. “Maybe there’s some Daring Do books that you’ve never read.” She opened the door, revealing a room with shelves that stretched up several feet. Every one of them was lined with books of all sizes, some small enough that they could be mistaken for simple fliers and others large enough that they looked like an encyclopedia and an atlas had a baby.
Rainbow stared wide-eyed at the room. Her mouth hung open for several seconds as she took in the sight. “I... guess this is what a wet dream would look like to Twilight.”
“You really think this is what she dreams of?” Sunset stepped into the room and looked around. She could barely comprehend the collection that this family had amassed. There must have been thousands of books in this room alone. The mere thought of what may lie in a storage room made her stomach sink. “Okay, maybe you’re right...”
Rainbow stepped into the room and gawked at the shelves of literature. “Yeesh, how old are some of these books?” She walked over to one of the shelves and picked out a random book. “I think this thing was written back when we still lived in caves!”
“C’mon, Rainbow. They’re not that old.” Sunset walked over to Rainbow’s side and grabbed a book. She opened it, only to have several pages fall out. The ones that stayed surprised her. The print was faded to the point that it looked as though it would take a microscope to make out what the letters had been. The color of the pages, meanwhile, had been defiled by time, and most were severely damaged. “Oh... okay.” She shut the book and blew the dust off. “Shakespeare?” She raised an eyebrow. “Is this... the original copy of his work?”
“Wouldn’t surprise me,” Rainbow said. “If they could afford this many books and had been this rich for this long, they could probably find the original copies of Wankspeare’s works.”
Sunset turned to Rainbow and narrowed her eyes to the point that Rainbow had evolved from Rainbow Dash to Rainbow Blur. “Now was that comment really necessary?” she asked in a voice that Rainbow knew only came when one of two things had been done. The first being that she said something that Sunset deemed stupid.
The other being that someone had eaten her yogurt.
Still, Rainbow responded as she deemed fit. “It absolutely was.”
“It absolutely was not .” Sunset bonked Rainbow on the head and walked away.
Nobody insulted her favorite author.
Nobody.
Rainbow shook her head and pinched the bridge of her nose. Man, I do not understand her love for Hamlet. She turned around and followed Sunset to the other side of the room, where they both stopped in front of another foreboding shelf of books. However, before either of them could go and inspect the contents of it, one of the books flew off the shelf.
Then another.
And another.
Before either girl knew it, books were flying off the shelves left and right, each of them stacking into crude human-like figures. Once every book had flown off the shelf, the room fell eerily silent. Both girls stood motionless, letting out slow, steady breaths. Hesitantly, Rainbow turned her head to Sunset and stared her dead in the eyes. “What do we do?” she whispered to her.
Sunset put a hand up to her chin and thought for a moment. After a bit, she cautiously moved her head as close as she could to Rainbow’s ear and whispered, “At the count of-”
Before Sunset could finish her sentence, one of the nearby figures snapped its head towards her and stumbled towards her, its every movement resulting in a surprisingly loud thud , and stopped in front of both of them. It held an arm out and opened the book that both girls imagined would be its hand, and clamped it down on Sunset’s hand.
“Ow!” Sunset attempted to yank her hand free. “L-Let me g-”
The figure clamped its other hand down onto her shoulder, albeit significantly gentler, and began to do something that neither girl could’ve ever imagined it’d do.
It danced with her.
Rainbow watched in awe and confusion as the figure spun Sunset around, happily bouncing around while Sunset’s facial expression jumped between one of absolute terror and one of unsure joy. “Don’t, uh, worry, Sunset! I’ll get you!” She waited until the figure spun Sunset once more, at which point she ran and grabbed her friends arm. “Come on! Let’s go!”
Sunset gave a compliant nod and ran alongside Rainbow towards the door. As they approached it though, a large shadow was cast over them, and a barricade of the figures formed in front of them. “Oh… okay.” Sunset backed up. Each beat of her heart caused her head to head to throb slightly. Eventually, she backed up into something; tilting her head upwards, she saw one of the figures look down at her. It raised an arm and waved. “Uh… hello.”
“Sunset, I don’t think they can hear-”
Rainbow’s sentence was cut off as another of the figures formed beside her and spun her around—catching her mid-spin, only to send her off in another direction.
“Please, just let us—ah!” Sunset struggled to free herself as two books clamped down on her hands, but to no avail. Before she knew it, she found herself an unwilling dance partner to quite possibly the most absurd thing she’d ever laid her eyes on. The movement of the figures was mind boggling: in spite of an appearance that she thought would render this things to little more than a zombie straight out of a classic horror movie, it was capable of maneuvering like a professional dancer. It swayed with the grace of a lifelong theater performer, moved with the grace of an olympic skater, and was stronger than she originally thought, as it lifted her over its head and twirled her around with a single appendage; thinking about exactly how this apparition was able to do all this caused Sunset’s head to hurt even more than it already did.
Her brain settled on a thought that it could have something to do with its arms, which were comprised of encyclopedias.
Rainbow was spun around by a figure, which grabbed firmly on her hand and dipped her down, placing the pages of the book that she could only guess made up its lips directly on hers. “Gross!” she snarled, wiping her lips.
The book tilted its head and spun her to the edge of the room where she was lifted up and thrown to the other side like a football, then spun back out to the figure.
“Was that necessary?”
The book opened up it’s hand and flipped to a page, stopping at one and holding it out. It aimed its other hand to a certain word.
Rainbow squinted.
Yes.
Rainbow shook her head, at which point she was spun back around.
And so, for the next several minutes, both girls found themselves spun around, twirled, and swayed all across the room. The outer edges of the room were comprised entirely of similar figures who clapped along—an action that was done by repeatedly opening and slamming their book-hands shut—to what the two could only imagine was a piece of music that they were incapable of hearing.
Then, as suddenly as it had all began, the books ceased all movement. One-by-one, each book floated up and placed itself on a shelf. Within a minute, the library looked exactly like it did when they arrived—save for a piece of paper that floated down and landed in front of them. Sunset picked it up and gestured for Rainbow, who walked over to her side.
Thank you.
Both girls looked at each other. “A family member maybe?” Sunset asked, perplexed.
Rainbow shrugged. Once all of the books had returned to the shelves, shook her head and looked at Sunset with deathly serious look on her face. “Can I ask you a little favor?”
“Yes, Rainbow?” Sunset asked, somewhat unnerved by the look on her friends face.
Rainbow rested a hand on Sunset’s shoulder and took a deep breath. “Never mention this to anyone ,” she said. “Nor are you to ever bring this up again.”
Sunset nodded in response.
“Great.” Rainbow looked back out at the room. “Now, I gotta ask: what the hell was that?! ”
“I don’t know.” The child was wide-eyed. She rubbed her ghostly eyes and looked over at the two girls, who both had lost any and all color in their faces. “Though I must say, you dance remarkably well, especially considering your partners were stacks of books. Perhaps you should consider joining a dance troupe.”
Rainbow stared in disbelief, shaking her head after a few moments once she realized a bit of drool had begun to drip out of her mouth. “You don’t know!?” she asked. “I-I guess I should’ve asked this first, but where the heck were you while all of this was going on?”
“Behind the wall,” the child said. “I watched the entire thing from there. It was actually quite entertaining.”
Rainbow blushed. She rubbed the back of her head and let out a nervous chuckle. “Well... I think I might know who caused all of this.”
“Do you, now?” The child stepped forward and looked up at Rainbow. “Pray tell: who was the cause of this chaos?”
“Mommy.”
The child shook her head. “It couldn’t have been. Mommy lives in the shadows. Mommy doesn’t like it when you enter her house uninvited. Mommy will defend what is hers,” she said. “Mommy, if she could, would have thrown you out the front door—not have danced with you.”
“Oh yeah?” Rainbow asked, her voice filled with snark. “Well, I wanna know how she plans on defending it!”
Suddenly, a book flew off the shelf and struck Rainbow in the head.
“Mommy’s willing to give another demonstration if you’d like.”
Rainbow furrowed her brow and turned around to walk out of the library.
“Uh, Rainbow?” Sunset asked, which caused her friend to stop mid-stride. “Where are you going?”
Rainbow rolled her eyes and walked back over to Sunset. “I don’t want to tempt her and have her throw something heavier,” she whispered. “So let’s just go before one of us gets a concussion because Mommy felt the need to educate us in the ways of her early twentieth century English and throw a dictionary at our heads.”
“I can still hear you two, and so can Mommy,” the child said. “She says if you leave the room now, she won’t throw anything else for the rest of the time you’re here.”
Rainbow wasted no time and ran out of the room, Sunset trailing behind her. Both girls stopped in the middle of the hallway, out of breath, but thankfully not out of time.
“Think Mommy will keep her promise?” Rainbow asked.
“If she doesn’t, you can always call her out on it,” Sunset answered.
Rainbow chuckled and rested a hand on her friends shoulder. “Sunset, I’m gonna be totally honest with you.” She cleared her throat and took a deep breath. “Ain’t no damn way I’m calling Mommy out on anything. Period.”
“Fair enough,” Sunset said. “So, where to next?”
Rainbow pointed one hand at a nearby door and another at one that was a few doors down. “Eenie, meenie, mi-” She walked towards the nearest one. “This one.” She opened it and poked her head inside. “Wow, uh, Sunset? C’mere.”
Sunset walked up to Rainbow’s side. From it, she could see that her friend was visibly surprised by something. Whether or not that was a good thing or a horrible thing, she couldn’t tell. Though, knowing Rainbow, it could potentially be both. “What is it?”
Rainbow stepped aside. “See for yourself.”
Sunset poked her head into the room. Within it were an assortment of horse toys, horse models, horse posters, horse books, horse movies, and other horse things; which caused her to blush.
A lot.
A whole damn lot.
“This is my Cousin Bucephalus’ room,” the child said, poking her head out from the ceiling. “He was a big fan of horses, as you can see. Ironically, his favorite horse trampled him to death.”
“Yeah...” Rainbow slowly backed out of the room and looked at Sunset. She snickered and kneeled down, tilting her head up so she was looking up at her friend. “I take it that you-”
Sunset put a hand over Rainbow’s mouth and glared daggers at her. “Never speak of this again.”
Rainbow nodded.
“Pinkie promise?”
Rainbow rolled her eyes and nodded, making the motions for the promise.
“Great.” Sunset removed her hand from over Rainbow’s mouth. “Now, to that other room?”
Rainbow nodded once more and stood back up. “So, uh, having fun so far?”
“I’m not talking about the memories of-”
“No, Sunset, I’m being serious,” Rainbow deadpanned. “Are you having fun? I mean, we’re in a house full of ghosts! That’s awesome!”
“Oh.” Sunset rubbed the back of her head and let out a sheepish chuckle. “I, uh, guess I am.” She walked up to the door and rested up beside it. “I mean, it’s not something that I thought I’d ever do in my life. Then again, I never thought I’d go through a mirror and into another dimension.”
“At least you didn’t bring Twilight,” Rainbow said. “She’d probably be trying to figure out a way to capture one like in that movie. The one with that ghost that looks like a big booger.” Rainbow silently cursed herself for forgetting such an important detail, especially when in an actual haunted house. With a sigh, she took out her flashlight and flicked it on before opening the door. The bedroom was decrepit, smelled horrible, and the sound of scuttling cockroaches filled the air. At the center of it all was a small bed that was supported by poles that looked no stronger than toothpicks. “Bet you won’t jump onto the bed.”
Sunset looked inside. “Of course I won’t!” she said, absolutely baffled at that the bed was still standing after all these years. “That thing looks like it’s barely capable of holding a child’s weight.”
“That was Mommy’s bed.” The child walked into the bedroom and turned to face the girls.
“Your mom slept on that?” Rainbow asked, surprised.
“It was what Daddy gave Mommy to sleep on.”
Sunset’s eyes were glued to the bed. She was both saddened and in shock that there was nothing that surrounded it. Somehow, Mommy was given less than what the child had within her room. “So, I take it that the room downstairs wasn’t Mommy’s room?”
The child clenched her fist and remained silent for nearly a minute until she finally said, “No… it wasn’t.”
“Well, if I may ask: where’s Daddy now?” Rainbow asked.
“Behind you.”
Before either girl could react, they were lifted up by their collars and turned around before being thrown out of the room and into the wall on the other side of the hall.
“Oh... okay.” Rainbow groaned and rolled over. “I see Daddy’s as big of a bitch as Mommy.”
The mattress flew out of the room and landed atop of Rainbow, after which the door slammed shut.
“Correction: a bigger bitch.”
“Do you want Daddy to throw something else out?” Sunset asked.
Rainbow groaned. “No...” She pushed the mattress off of herself and stood up, her bones popping satisfyingly back into place. “Still, what’s his deal?”
“Daddy feels guilty.” The child walked through the door and stood before the two girls. “Daddy wishes he had never fallen for Other Mommy. He hates her, and she basks in it. His sorrow is her delight.”
“What does Daddy feel sorrow for?” Sunset asked. “Is it for what he did to Mommy?”
“Yes.” The child turned her back to the two girls and stared at the door. “Daddy is guilty of many things, but he never deserved what he got here. He never meant for any of this to happen. He just... fell under her spell. She was a succubus. But he refuses to listen to me. He believes this is what he deserves.”
“Well, what’s he guilty of?” Rainbow asked. “Did he kill someone?”
The child’s head spun around, her body staying unturned and her eyes ablaze with fury. “Never speak of Daddy like that again!” she growled. “Daddy is not a killer! Daddy was a good man before she came along!”
The color from Rainbow’s face drained in an instant. “Y-Yes, sport...”
“Good.” The child’s head spun back around. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go... make sure that Mommy is okay.” With that, she walked down the hallway and vanished.
“Leeet’s go somewhere else,” Rainbow suggested.
“Agreed.” Sunset stood up and brushed herself off. She followed Rainbow closely, admiring a few paintings that adorned the walls. Each painting was of what she assumed had been an owner of the mansion in the past; the figures described in the portraits looked like they were royalty, all having some sort of jeweled crown and jewelry that would make even Rarity complain that it was too much.
“All this money and they couldn’t afford a carpet,” Rainbow remarked. “Wonder what Daddy spent the money on.”
“Well, if that room downstairs is anything to go by, he must’ve spent it on Other Mommy’s perfume stockpile.” Sunset shuddered. “I can still smell it...”
“No kidding,” Rainbow replied. “I think Other Mommy wanted to make some sort of chemical weapons factory here.” Rainbow stopped and tapped her chin. “Maybe that’s what killed them all.”
The child poked her head out from the floorboard, causing Rainbow to jump back in surprise. “No, it wasn’t.”
“Are you following us?” Sunset asked, slightly unnerved at the child’s potential antics.
“Maybe.” The child ducked down and popped back up behind them. “Hm. I see London, I see France, I see someone’s underpants.”
Sunset and Rainbow’s faces lit up like fireworks made of tomatoes on the Fourth of July. They spun around in time to see the child duck back down into the floorboard, giggling all the while.
“My... my underpants aren’t showing, right?” Sunset asked. She pulled her pants up before covering her face with her hands. “I-I made sure to wear a belt and everything!”
Rainbow mimicked her friends actions. “I... I don’t think so. I didn’t check!” She rubbed her temples and walked over to a nearby door, opening it and walking in.
Sunset walked over to a nearby wall and slid down it. Ugh. I know I shouldn’t be embarrassed, but... geez.
“Hey, Sunset!”
Sunset looked over to the open door to her left and stood up. “What is it Rain-”
Sunset stopped at the doorway, her mouth agape. “Rainbow... why are you wearing a sweater?” she asked. Although she wasn’t quite the prude that Rarity could be, she had to be honest with herself.
Rainbow couldn’t quite pull off the look in a knitted sweater.
“I found it in the drawer!” Rainbow turned around. The sweater had snowflakes on the front of its blue fabric. “Whatcha think? Pretty neat, huh?”
“I think that you look silly,” Sunset deadpanned. “Kinda like when Rarity decided to have you wear a ballerina outfit.”
Woosh.
Rainbow found herself with only a bra on her torso. The sweater, meanwhile, vanished into the corner of the room.
“Glad Mommy agrees.”
Rainbow’s face lit up a bright red. “Not funny!”
A faint giggle filled the air.
“Seriously, not funny!”
Woosh!
And thus, Rainbow’s pants vanished.
“I guess Mommy doesn’t like criticism,” Sunset said with a smirk.
“Shut it, Sunset...”
“I will once you answer a simple question for me.” Sunset gestured to Rainbow’s panties. “Daring Do, huh? Figured someone like you would be too cool for underwear with a print on it.”
Rainbow’s face bordered on becoming a tomato. “I-It… it was a gift…” She shuffled back towards the shadows and leaned into them. “Can I have my clothes back now?!”
Rainbow’s shirt was thrown onto her face.
“And my pants?”
The sweater was thrown out.
“My. Pants.”
Sunset broke down and fell to the floor in a fit of laughter. “Rainbow, I don’t think Mommy is going to give you back your pants after you mocked her sweater.”
“Gimme my pants before I burn your sweater!”
Rainbow’s pants were thrown onto the floor.
Then caught fire.
“Those were one-of-a-kind…”
Then, another pair of her pants were thrown on top of the sweater.
“Oh. Uh, thanks.” Rainbow grabbed her pants and got dressed. Once she was done, she put the sweater away and walked up to Sunset. “You owe me a new pair of pants.” With that, she walked past her and out into the hallway. “Okay, now, where were we?”
“I think we were going to that room at the end of the hallway,” Sunset said as she exited the bedroom. “Because you thought Mommy was down there.”
“Right.” Rainbow followed Sunset closely behind and continued on down the hall. “So, is it me, or does this place really feel like it repeats itself?”
“What do you mean?” Sunset looked at Rainbow quizzically.
“It just feels like every floor is the same narrow, boring hallway.” Rainbow walked over to a nearby door and turned to Sunset. “Here, watch. I guarantee you this will be another decrepit, bland bedroom with a mattress for a bed and enough cobwebs to make abstract art out of.” She placed a hand on the doorknob and slammed her body into the door, breaking it down. Looking around, she saw exactly as she’d described. Well, save for the rotting raccoon corpse on the mattress. “See?! How many bedrooms does this place have!?” Rainbow grabbed her hair. “I thought this was a mansion, not a hotel!”
“Mommy built the extra rooms because she wanted to open up a bed and breakfast,” the child said. “Then she died.”
The two girls stopped and turned to face the child, who rested against the wall. “Do you appear every time we have a question?” Rainbow asked.
“I appear whenever I damn well please, you prismatic weirdo.”
“Hey, don’t call me that!” Rainbow snapped. “I’ll have you know that my name is Rainbow Dash! I’m the best sports player in all of Canterlot High!”
“That’s nice.” The child walked through the wall.
Rainbow stared, dumbfounded. “She just… but I…”
“Aw, don’t worry Rainbow.” Sunset put her hand on her friends back and patted her gently. “I’m sure she cares deep down.”
The child poked her head out of the wall. “No, I don’t.”
Rainbow let out a sigh of disappointment, only to raise her head and ask Sunset, “What’s ‘prismatic’ mean?”
“A variety of colors, Rainbow.”
“Oh.” Rainbow stared at the wall. “Well, Rainbow’s a cooler name, sport.”
The child poked her head back out of the wall. “No, it isn’t.”
Rainbow facepalmed and walked out of the room. “Ugh... that kid...” She looked around and saw two doors opposite each other not too far up the hallway.
Sunset stepped outside and looked where her friend was looking. “You check the bedroom, I’ll check what I’m gonna guess is a closet,” she said to which Rainbow nodded and walked away. “Alright, let’s see what’s waiting for me in here.” Sunset opened the door and stepped inside. To her surprise, the closet was much bigger than any previous one she’d seen. She took her flashlight out and flicked it on.
Immediately, her pupils shrunk to the size of pinpricks.
A sea of cockroaches scuttled in every direction, giving the appearance of the very floor itself shifting. Beneath her, she could feel dozens of little legs move over her shoes, and some up her leg. A sizable portion of the sea of insects that had been ahead of her mere seconds ago had now surrounded her.
“Ahh!”
Sunset dropped her flashlight, which landed atop several of the insects and resulted in a sickening, stomach churning crunch . She swiped at her legs, throwing a few of the insects off and resulting in more than one unwanted feeling of a cockroach crawling on her hand.
“Get off of me you ugly things!”
From within the bedroom, Sunset could hear Rainbow burst out laughing.
“Not funny, Rainbow!”
“Says the one who laughed at me getting my clothes taken by a ghost?”
Sunset grit her teeth. Fine, I’ll get rid of you freaks the hard way… She took a deep breath and ran over the hundreds of little roaches that littered the floor. An endless series of crunching sounds came from beneath her until she stopped and grabbed her flashlight. “Ah-hah!” she exclaimed.
Rainbow poked her head out from the doorway. “Umm, Sunset.”
Sunset turned her head to Rainbow. “What?”
“You, uh, realize that they’re now all over your arm, right?”
Sunset slowly turned her head towards her arm. Sure enough, her arm had now become the home of at least seven little roaches, each of which seemed rather content with the warmth of her clothes. That, or they were lost. Regardless, Sunset did as she only could.
She screamed.
Loudly.
Then ran.
A lot.
Sunset ran around in circles, swatting at her arms, legs, chest, and just about every place that wasn’t her face. The endless series of crunching sounds that came from beneath her was rivaled only by the absurdly high octave of her voice had somehow managed to reach.
Despite all of that, Rainbow felt not a single iota of pity. Rather, she found herself watching in glee. “Not so fun when you’re on the receiving end, is it, Sunset?”
“Get them off of me!”
“No.” Rainbow stifled a laugh as she watched a few of the roaches crawl through the opening of Sunset’s shirt and down her into her bra. “I’ll leave you be for now,” Rainbow said as she walked back into the bedroom, having given in to her laughter. Outside, she could hear Sunset scream about a roach on her tit.
For Sunset, it took her several more minutes to get the last of the roaches off of her, and out of… certain areas. Once she had, she stormed inside. Her eye twitched as she stared at Rainbow, who was on the floor, still doubled over in laughter.
“Hello, Sunshine,” Rainbow remarked.
Sunset raised a hand and flipped Rainbow off.
“I’d feel hurt if it wasn’t for the fact that you have a friend in your hair. Whatcha name him?”
Sunset wildly swiped at her hair until the one, lonesome roach fell down to the ground. She raised a foot and slammed it down onto the poor insect, crushing it.
“Now was that very-”
“Quiet, Rainbow!” Sunset’s eyes darted around the room until they landed on a few boxes that lay in the corner. She ran over to them and then ran over to a nearby closet, resting them against it.
“Uh... Sunset?” Rainbow asked, baffled by her friends sudden goal to barricade a closet that neither of them had so much as gone near. “What in the world are you doing?”
“Making sure-” Sunset grabbed a box and put it near the closet- “that no cockroaches get near me!”
“Don’t you think you’re overreacting?”
“NO!” Sunset went to place a box atop another, only to have the door blow open.
“Mommy says that you aren’t allowed to touch her holiday decorations,” the child said. “Now she wants you to pick them up.”
Sunset looked over at the child, dazed. “Tell Mommy to go suck an egg!”
A dark mass appeared around Sunset. Before she could scream, she was pulled out of the room, and the door slammed shut behind them.
“Oh, that’s not good, is it?” Rainbow asked.
“Depends on who you ask,” the child replied.
Then screams filled the air.
Rainbow cringed. “Yeah, that’s not good.”
“That it is not.” The child turned to Rainbow and looked up at her. “Knowing Mommy, this might take a bit.”
“Can I help her? At all?”
“No. You can’t even get in.”
Rainbow let out a sigh and walked over to the bed. She flopped onto it and said, “Wake me up when she’s done.” With that, she shut her eyes.
“Ugh...”
“What’s wrong?” the child asked with a smug grin. “Can’t get to sleep?”
“No, I just... I hate hearing my friends in pain.” Rainbow sat up and rubbed her head. “It makes me... emotional.”
“You mean sad?”
Rainbow’s eyes shot open. “No! No... it does not.”
“Sure it doesn’t,” the child replied. With that, the screams from outside ceased, and a deafening silence filled the air. “Well, I guess that’s your cue. Don’t worry though, she wasn’t actually hurt.”
“Then what was with all the screaming?” Rainbow asked in confusion.
“Mommy likes to make people scream a lot when they annoy her. So she likes to jump out at them like a jack-in-the-box.” The child look over at the door and frowned. “Though… Now that I think about it, she’s never gone on for this long.”
“Is it Other Mommy?”
“I saw her. It was Mommy. Although… she’d never go on for this long. And she never screams this much.” The child looked back at Rainbow. “I think you should go comfort your friend. She’ll need it. Whatever Mommy’s done, it isn’t right. She… oh no.” With that, the child ducked down into the floorboards.
Rainbow got off the bed and ran over to the door, which she opened. Opposite her was Sunset. Her hair was a disaster, and her eyes were red, although one thing in particular stuck out to her, and it was something that she found... difficult to miss. “Sunset? Why... why are you sucking your thumb?”
Sunset shakily removed her thumb from her mouth and pulled Rainbow down beside her, wrapping her arms around her and holding on as if her life depended on it. “S-She... she... she turned into things that I didn’t think c-could even exist in... Equestria.” Her breathing was inconsistent, short, and as shaky as the rest of her body. She turned her head to Rainbow; her eyes filled to the brim with tears. “Please... hold me...”
Rainbow wrapped her arms around Sunset. “Shh... calm down,” she said in a soft voice. Whatever ‘Mommy’ had done, she had seriously traumatized Sunset. She shook like she’d been out in the cold without any layers to keep her warm. She kept mumbling incoherently, and try as she may, Rainbow couldn’t make heads or tails of a single word she said. “Look, how about we go...” Rainbow scanned the hallway for something, anything , that may prove to be a decent enough diversion to take her friends mind off of what had just happened.
Sunset stopped moving and let out a shaky sigh. “I...” She gulped and wiped her eyes. “I saw her. She was a... a banshee. Her eyes were... they weren’t eyes. Her hair was on fire.”
Rainbow turned her head and tilted it. “’scuse me?”
“She… she...” Sunset burst into tears. She buried her face into Rainbow’s shoulder. She felt her friend’s embrace become tighter. The warmth of her breath struck her neck. A gentle “shh,” filled the air.
“Don’t worry, Sunset,” Rainbow said as the child’s words echoed within her head. “Nothing is going to hurt you. Not if I have anything to say about it.”
Sunset looked up at Rainbow and gave a faint smile. “Thank you, Rainbow.” She tightened her hold on Rainbow and let out a peaceful sigh. “You’re the best...”
“I know.” Rainbow agreed playfully, getting a small laugh out of Sunset.
Silence filled the air for a while as Sunset hugged Rainbow, seemingly content with where she was. Not that Rainbow had any problem with it. She ran a hand through her friends hair and smiled warmly.
“Um, I apologize for interrupting,” a voice said from beside Rainbow. “But... I, uh, wish to speak with you two.”
Rainbow turned her head, while Sunset raised hers from her friend’s shoulder. “What is it, sport?” Rainbow asked.
“It’s about Mommy,” the child answered. “She, uh, wants to apologize to Sunset. She... she said that Other Mommy did something to her that made her... lose control of her body.” She sat down beside Rainbow and let out a sigh. “Mommy’s been at Other Mommy’s mercy ever since she died. She’s not been the same. She isn’t the Mommy that I knew when I was alive. She’s... so cruel to those who enter. I understand she’s protective of her home, but... what she did to Sunset wasn’t her. She was under the control of the bitch that I had to call my mother for so many years.”
“How did your step mom possess your birth mother?” Sunset asked in confusion.
The child turned her head to Sunset. “Other Mommy is evil. Other Mommy returned from a place of raging fire. Other Mommy says that we will end up there too if she is sent back.” She let out a shaky sigh and looked to the doorway. “Other Mommy says you’ll join us soon enough…”
Rainbow felt her heart rate increase dramatically. The air around her became significantly warmer, causing her to break out in a sweat—as if she’d just run an Olympic marathon in the middle of a desert that was on fire.
“Uhh... Rainbow?” Sunset asked. “I don’t think you should have taunted the demon.”
“Yeah...” Rainbow stood up and wiped away the sweat from her forehead, which was quickly replaced by more sweat. “Well I’m, uh, not sorry ‘Other Mommy’.”
Rainbow was thrown down the hallway.
“Okay, I see that you mean business,” Rainbow groaned as she stood up.
Sunset could hear the clacking of heels pass by her, along with the strong, putrid odor of sulfur. She looked down the hallway just in time to see Rainbow get flung back to her side. “Regret taunting the-”
“Not now, Sunseeeee-”
Rainbow was thrown back down the hallway.
“Stop-”
And again.
“Fucking-”
And again.
“Throwing-”
And again.
“Me!”
It wasn’t until five minutes had past that Rainbow finally found peace when the vile odor suddenly vanished and she wasn’t hurled back to Sunset’s side. She stood up and tried to stumble back over to Sunset with enough bruises on her body to play connect-the-bruise, and create a fair number of constellations on each of her limbs.
Sunset ran over and held out a hand to Rainbow. “You want some help?”
“Yeah, thanks.” Rainbow grabbed firmly onto Sunset’s hand and stood up. “Oh, man, she’s strong...”
“She’s worse when she’s actually manifested,” the child said from the doorway. “The things she has done to us is horrible to even think about.”
“Even you?” Sunset asked, simultaneously surprised and saddened.
“I did say ‘all of us’, Sunshine.”
“Well, uh... I’m sorry,” Sunset replied. “We’ll do whatever we can to help you.”
The child was now staring blankly at Sunset, before erupting in a fit of laughing after several seconds. “You? Help me?”
“What’s so funny?” Sunset asked.
“Yeah! We’ve taken on demons before!” Rainbow added.
“You two have no idea what you’re upset against here,” the child said. “Whatever demons you’ve gone up against are no match from someone who’s very essence was created with the fires of the domain where they now reside.”
“Your step mother was crafted in Hell?” Sunset asked.
“Well, I’ve come to believe it, considering she has a thing for throwing me against her bedroom walls.”
“You’re a ghost,” Rainbow deadpanned. “How can you-”
The child shushed Rainbow and raised a finger to her mouth. “Don’t let her hear you and she won’t realize it doesn’t hurt me as much as she thinks it does!”
“How would she hear you?” Rainbow asked.
“Other Mommy has really good hearing,” the child said. “Other Mommy can even hear when Cousin Larry uses the ghostly bathroom after he eats his spicy burrito.” The child paused. “Actually, bad example; everyone in the house can hear that.”
“Okay, too much information!” Sunset said, waving her hands around. “Can you, uh, just tell us why we’re incapable of helping you?”
The child looked at the two girls before letting out a long sigh. “I can feel the power that resonates from both of you. You have a better chance than anyone who’s ever stepped foot in here to purge her from this world,” she said. “But that doesn’t mean you can. Even in the short amount of time you’ve been here, you two are the closest to older siblings I’ve ever had. You made me laugh when I watched you bicker. I don’t want to lose you like I lost my mommy and daddy.” The child walked up to both girls and looked up at them pleadingly. “Please, just leave before she finds out the sort of power that you two hold. If she does, she will stop at nothing to make you hers.”
“Sorry, sport, but we’re not leaving until we help you. It’s what we do best.” Rainbow turned her head to Sunset. “Isn’t that right?”
Sunset turned her head and nodded. “Exactly.” She looked down at the girl. “We’ll do whatever it takes to help your family out.”
The child looked down at the floor and went dead silent for several seconds. Eventually, she looked back up at the girls. “You have no idea what you’re getting yourselves into...”
Sunset and Rainbow walked down the hallway. It had taken them some time to recuperate from the ominous warning the child had given them, but they eventually managed.
Primarily through Rainbow's ingenious idea of dragging Sunset by her arm down the hallway.
"Rainbow, where are we going?" Sunset asked as she dragged herself. The words of the child echoed in her head. Try as she may, try as she might, she couldn't purge them from her mind. It was beginning to annoy her to no end to say the least.
"Riiight-" Rainbow pointed to a random room. "There!" She ran over to the door and opened it, revealing a room filled with an array of toys.
"Oh, you found my personal storage room." The child walked by Rainbow and slammed the door shut. "Nobody is allowed in there without my permission!"
"Well, can I get permission?" Rainbow asked.
"Nope." The child ran into the room. A loud, screeching noise filled the air, only stopping once she came outside. "There! Now the door’s blocked!"
"And you did that why?"
The child narrowed her eyes. "You've gone from room to room without a care in the world and yet you ask that?"
"She has a point, Rainbow." Sunset said as she poked around another room. "Oooh, a Superman comic!"
"Hey!" The child over to Sunset. "Don't touch Uncle Ricky's comic collection!" She grabbed the comic and rested it neatly atop a large stack of comics. "Lest he set fire to some other poor bastard!"
"He did what now!?" Rainbow asked.
"Uncle Ricky is..." The child tapped her chin. "He's Uncle Ricky."
"A pyromaniac?" Sunset asked.
"Yeah, that's a nice way to put it."
"Sooo... how'd he die and where's the guy he set fire to?" Rainbow asked.
"I'm pretty sure their ashes are around here somewhere." the child said. "Though I think Ricky's probably drinking flaming shots somewhere in the bar. I'm just glad he hasn't set fire to anyone else. It's not very fun being stuck in the walls while the firemen struggle to put out a fire because it's spread to the rest of the woods."
Sunset raised an eyebrow. "Too shy to show that you're real?"
"No, it hurts like hell to pass through fire as it burns the remnants of our soul." the child said. "It's how Other Mommy will punish us if we attempt to leave. She'll place us in a flaming cage and hold us there until our screams cease to please her."
"And why don't you just flee outside?" Rainbow asked.
"Because we've got a ghostly staircase that Cousin Brent made that leads to the underground bar the others always hang out in!" The child said. "At least, most of them hang out there. Still, the walls are wicked cool if you're dead. Maybe one day you'll get to see it..." The child's face glowed a faint red. "Um, sorry. I... that was really mean..."
"Ah, don't worry, sport." Rainbow said. "We all make silly mistakes."
Sunset smirked. "You admitting to-"
Rainbow put a hand over Sunset's mouth. "I'm not admitting to anything!"
The child laughed. "You two are so silly."
Sunset removed Rainbow's hand from her over mouth. "If you like us, you'd love Pinkie Pie."
"Who's that?"
"A friend." Rainbow walked to the doorway, anticipating a possible jumpscare of the pink kind.
Thankfully, it didn't come.
"Well, if either of you care, our attic is on this floor." the child said. "We had it built here before Daddy decided to build the third floor."
Rainbow raised an eyebrow. "Where's the attic?"
"Somewhere down the hall. I don't know, I don't go up there because it's... creepy." The child shuffled around awkwardly. "Still, I bet you'd enjoy it."
"Enjoy it!?" Rainbow squealed, much to her embarrassment. "The attic is, like, like, the best part in any haunted house!"
"Yes, well, you two have fun." Without another word, at a pace rivaled only by a snail, the child walked through the wall.
"Oh man, the attic!" Rainbow jumped up and down like a child experiencing a sugar rush. "This is gonna be so awesome!"
"I don't know." Sunset walked over to her friend. "She seemed really... uncomfortable talking about the attic. Something feels really wrong."
"Look, whatever happens, happens." Rainbow said. "For now, let's go find it! I wanna see what we can find!"
Sunset rolled her eyes, an action that went completely unnoticed by Rainbow as she was already halfway down the hallway.
"You coming!?"
Sunset rolled her eyes once more and ran down to catch up to her friend, who kept her eyes glued to the ceiling.
"Tell me if you see anything!" Rainbow called to her.
"Mhm." Sunset looked up at the ceiling, though a nagging feeling wouldn't leave her be. She couldn't help but wonder why the child felt a lot more... hesitant to speak of the attic.
"Why?" Sunset asked, tilting her head back down.
Rainbow shrugged. "I'm bored."
Sunset laughed. "Alright."
Rainbow zipped over to the closet and opened it. "Aw sweet! More comics!"
"Rainbow..."
Rainbow poked her head out of the closet. "Wha- oh, right." She placed the comics back neatly where she found them. "Sorry, Uncle Ricky. Please don't burn me."
"Alright, but I won't be so kind next time." A deep, gruff voice answered.
The color from Rainbow's face vanished as the sound of heavy footsteps exiting the closet filled the air. Slowly, she backed out of the closet and closed the door.
"Did you hear that?"
"Yeah, I did." Sunset said. Looking up, she saw something. “Well, there’s the attic.”
Rainbow jumped up and down, yet again replicating the action of a child. "Oh my gosh!" she squealed once more. “This is gonna be awesome!”
“Well, open that and we can go up there.”
Rainbow leapt up and grabbed the string, pulling it down and with it, the stairs. Without hesitation, she ran up, leaving her friend behind in the dust.
Sunset sighed and followed Rainbow up into the attic, which was surprisingly cramped. A few old antiques and chests lay around. One, however, had an addition that caught both girls off guard.
“Is that… a skeleton?” Sunset asked fearfully.
Rainbow grabbed her flashlight and flicked it on. Sure enough, and to her shock, there was a skeleton atop a wooden chest. “Gimme a sec.” She made her way over and took it off before opening the chest itself. “Oh…”
Sunset ran over to her now wide-eyed friend. Inside the chest were three more skeletons—one of which was significantly smaller than the others.
“Welp.” Rainbow took a few steps back. “I'm outta here.” Before she could so much as move another muscle, an invisible force yanked her towards the wall and cornered her against it, and slowly manifested itself in front of her. It was shadowy in appearance, though it was clearly no older than Principal Celestia. Its eyes glowed a calm, baby blue, and its hair was shoulder-length.
“Leaving so soon?” the being asked in a motherly tone. “But you just got here. What’s the matter? Don’t like Mommy’s surprises?”
“Let her go!” Sunset yelled.
Mommy turned her head and stared at Sunset. Her eyes were filled with a mixture of unfathomable wrath and genuine softness. It was unlike anything Sunset had ever seen, or felt, before. She nodded and walked away from Rainbow, and over to Sunset. “Tell me, what’s wrong? Did the skeletons scare you?”
Sunset nodded, unsure as to what she should expect this… thing to do—especially after last time. “We’re, um, we're going to… l-leave.” she whispered.
“Well… that’s such a shame.” the being replied. “Because if you try to, then I’m going to have to teach you a lesson about going out past your curfew.”
“Excuse me?” Rainbow asked, finally finding it within herself to speak up once more.
Mommy turned her head. “Did I stutter, Rainbow?”
Rainbow opened her mouth to speak, only to shut it a second later. The gaze of Mommy bored it’s way into her soul.
“Good. You seem to understand me.” Mommy turned her attention back to Sunset. “I do apologize for my behavior earlier. It's been a very distressing time, what with the torment that I've suffered. I haven't been myself. But if you so much as try to leave before eight o’clock tomorrow morning, you two are grounded for the next two weeks.”
Sunset raised an eyebrow. “We don’t live here though.” she said, perplexed.
Mommy chuckled. “Dearest, Sunset...” she said, “everyone here is my child, even those who are but guests.” She walked over and rested a hand on Sunset’s shoulder. “Now, be sure to enjoy your stay here. There are plenty of spare rooms and I take it you’ve seen where the kitchen is?”
Sunset slowly nodded her head in response, hoping that Mommy would leave sooner than later.
“Excellent.” Mommy clapped her hands together and smiled a shadowy-toothed smile. “Well, if either of you need anything at all, I shall be in the room at the end of the hallway.” She turned to Rainbow and looked down at her. “And don’t try any of that funny business, Speedy.” With that, Mommy vanished.
Both girls stood there, motionless. It took a minute until either of them mustered the courage to speak back up.
“Sunset?” Rainbow asked, still motionless.
“Yes, Rainbow?” Sunset replied, also motionless.
“What the heck was that?”
“I don’t know.” Sunset replied, “but I’d rather not tempt her to keep us here for two weeks.”
“How’d she know that I had super speed?” Rainbow slide to the ground and stared blankly out into space. “I... I’ve never felt so scared and confused in my life.”
Sunset put a hand up to her chin and thought for a bit. “Well...” After a couple of seconds of thinking, she looked around the room until her eyes landed on the chest. “Um… who do you think the fourth skeleton is?”
Rainbow shrugged and stood up. “Maybe that ‘Other Mommy’ that kid mentioned?”
“How do you think she died?”
Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Do I look like a detective to you?” Her voice had drastically changed in tone, having gone from frightened to peeved.
Sunset smirked. “Yes.”
Rainbow groaned and walked over to the chest, slamming it shut. “Fine. I think Mommy and Daddy sent her to the attic without dinner and forgot she was up here.” she responded, now audibly angry.
“Wait, if they sent her up here, then who's-”
“Stop asking me questions, Sunset!”
Sunset flinched and backed away from Rainbow. "O-Okay." she said fearfully. "I'm sorry."
It took Rainbow little time to realize what she'd done. Her expression softened tenfold as she saw the scared look on Sunset's face. "I'm sorry." She let out a sigh and walked over to the stairs. "Let's just go somewhere else."
Sunset followed without a word, not wanting to risk making an already catastrophic situation even worse. However, it didn't take long for someone else to do that for her.
"You two!"
Both girls stopped dead in their tracks as the child ran up to them, stopping directly in front of them. "I told-"
“Why did your ‘Mommy’ tell us she'd ground us for two weeks!? What did she mean?!” Rainbow interrupted, her voice filled to the brim with anger.
The child took a step back, visibly offended at Rainbow's accusation. “I was with Mommy this entire time." she said. “I came here to say that I told you so. Other Mommy knows of your plan. Now she's going to stop at nothing to make you suffer just as she's made us suffer. I hope you know what you've gotten yourselves into, because there’s no leaving now. Either you stop her or you die—and I can sense the fear you both have for the latter. You mask it beneath the thin layer of confidence you have that your magic can stop her.” The child turned her back to the girls. “You have one shot at defeating her. Fail and I’ll never forgive you two for dooming yourselves to the same fate as me.”
"We get it." Sunset said. "We got it the first time. You don't need to remind us."
"I'll remind you as many times as I need to!" the child snapped. "You're both playing with fire and I don't think you fully realize that. Now, if you'll excuse me, I must go cool off before I do something I'll regret." With that, the child vanished.
"Peachy." Sunset walked ahead of Rainbow, who caught up once she realized her friend had moved in without her.
"Hey, don't just leave me behind like that!" she said. "I don't wanna be alone. Not after all of that crap a minute ago."
"Sorry, Rainbow." Sunset replied solemnly. "I know you're rattled. I just want to find something that won't scar me for life."
"Right." Rainbow looked around, eventually spotting two large doors and pointed to them. "What about that room?"
Sunset looked over at where Rainbow was pointing. She ran over to the doors and opened them, revealing a massive ballroom. A hardwood floor stretched out like a vast sea, freshly polished to both girls’ surprise. They stepped inside, closing the doors behind them. Above loomed a large chandelier of diamonds. All together, it looked like it had been pulled straight out of a movie or castle.
"Wow..." Sunset's eyes lit up with wonder until an idea popped into her head. She turned to Rainbow and smiled. “Wanna dance?”
Rainbow let out a nervous chuckle. “You’re kidding, right?” she asked. Memories of the last time she danced flooded her mind, sending a slight shiver down her spine.
Sunset shook her head. "I know you aren't one for dancing, but you yourself said you wanted to get your mind off of what happened in the attic." Sunset walked out into the middle of the room and spun around. "And this is the perfect place to do just that!" Sunset looked over at Rainbow with glee. "C'mon, Rainbow." She motioned for Rainbow to come to her, which she did, albeit reluctantly, and placed a hand on her shoulder. Sunset slowly moved back, Rainbow copying her movements. "This'll be a nice way for us to take our minds off of earlier."
Rainbow followed her friends every movement, hoping that she wouldn't accidentally mis-step and cause both of them more grief than they'd already been through. "Yeah..." Her mind drifted around. Although nobody was around, she still couldn't help but feel as though she was being watched from all sides. Though, granted, the house haunted. "So... you dance often to calm down when stressed?"
Sunset raised her arm and spun around. "I’ve never had a dance partner, so no," she replied. A smile formed on her face as she swayed ever so slowly to the harmonious tune that came from her music player. "Though it's always fun to have someone to dance with. It's so relaxing..."
Rainbow gave a soft smile. She didn't want to admit it, but she'd already begun to feel a lot calmer. "Soo... are you having fun here?"
"You mean dancing or exploring the mansion with you?" Sunset asked. “Because, in spite of getting scared, the answer's yes. You being here has made it all worth it."
Rainbow blushed, a fact that she was less-than-pleased about. "Heh... I'm glad." She mimicked Sunset's movement before, raising her arm and spinning around. "I'm sorry if I'm less, uh, 'graceful'. I don't dance much..."
Sunset swayed slightly to the left and brought Rainbow with her. "Don't worry so much." she said quietly. "I'm only doing this for the fun of it. You don't have to treat everything like a competition."
Rainbow gave a sheepish smile and took a slight step backwards, catching Sunset off guard. She let out a short cry of surprise, which quickly turned into laughter as she regained control of the dance. "So, what do you think of that kid?"
“She’s nice.” Sunset said. “Though I wish she’d have more faith in us. I mean, I know she’s afraid of ‘Other Mommy’, but it’d be nice if she could at least… you know, be supportive.”
"Yeah..." Rainbow's mind drifted off as she thought back to the events of the past few hours. In spite of that, she still felt herself follow Sunset's lead. Each step, twist, turn, and sway. She managed to follow it perfectly, without so much as faltering. A large smile formed on her face as she spun Sunset around, catching her a moment later.
"Rainbow!" Sunset said with a laugh. "I… wasn't expecting that."
"And I wasn't expecting to like this as much as I am."
Sunset giggled. "Well, I'm glad you are." A brief moment of silence filled the air until a thought sprang into her mind. "Well, if you asked a question, I might as well ask one." she said. "How's it feel to be in a haunted mansion?"
"Hmm..." Rainbow raised an eyebrow and thought for a moment. "It's... kinda cool actually." she said. "I remember watching lots of scary movies and always wondering what it'd be like to be in one of those places... without the murderous ghosts of course."
Sunset chuckled. "And if Mommy is anything to go by?"
"Well, I mean, the murderous ghosts who won't let you leave." Rainbow looked down at the ground. "At least, I hope..."
Sunset took her hand off of Rainbow's shoulder and lifted her head up. "Don't worry, Rainbow." she said. "I promise that, no matter what happens, we'll get out of here in one piece, just as you promised me." She rested her hand back on Rainbow's shoulder and gave a warm, almost motherly smile. "I'll make sure of it."
"Thanks, Sunset." Rainbow replied. She once more drifted off into a blissful state of mind. For a short time, everything felt carefree; the fears she had of Mommy vanished. Then all at once, she was thrusted back into reality as Sunset spun her around, grabbing her in the same fashion that she had grabbed her friend mere moments ago. "I take it that's for doing it to you?"
Sunset giggled. "You could say that." she replied. "So... any other questions?"
Rainbow thought for a moment. "Well… I mean, it isn’t a question, but I've been wondering who that 'Other Mommy' person was. She sounds… unpleasant to say the least."
"Tell me about it." Sunset said. "I can imagine that life wasn't easy for her, especially if her father was abusive to her birth mother."
"Yeah... makes me feel bad for the kid." Rainbow spun herself around. "I can't imagine how hard she had it... especially if she died as a child."
Sunset's smile faded, and a sense of sadness filled her. A small part of her mind went back to that skeleton in the attic; the one that was smaller than the others. Before it could grow though, she shook her head and let out a slight chuckle. "Let's, um, change the topic."
Rainbow nodded and quickly thought of something. "So, where do you think we should go next?" She swayed to the side and spun both herself and Sunset around, stopping to grab her friend and resume their slow movement. "I think we should go up that stairway we saw on our way here."
Sunset remained silent for a bit as she regained her composure. "Yeeeah..." She felt herself still spin. She didn't want to admit it, but Rainbow had spun her around fast enough that she nearly had to stop dancing and retreat behind a pillar.
Rainbow took immediate notice to the look on Sunset's face and laughed. "Sorry." she said. "Didn't mean to make you sick."
"It's fine." Sunset replied. "Though I think we should get back to our exploring. "
Rainbow nodded and spun Sunset around one last time before ceasing all movement. As the two stood there, the sound of clapping filled the air, and a rose was thrown at them.
Both girls turned their heads to see a man applauding. He was dressed in formal attire and, from where both girls stood, looked as though he’d be one to host a party in the room. Though, there was something missing. Something… important.
“Sunset?”
“Yes, Rainbow?”
“Is it me or does he not have a head?”
“No, he definitely doesn’t have a head.” Sunset and Rainbow slowly let go of each others hands and shuffled away from each other.
Rainbow coughed. "Sooo… how long has he been watching us?"
"I don't know, Rainbow."
"The entire time." a voice said from behind them.
The two girls turned around to see the child, who was also holding a rose. She threw it at them. "I snatched it off of my grandpa. He never saw me coming."
“The… the entire time?” Rainbow capitulated and feel to the ground.. “He may not have a head, but I can feel him judging my dancing skills.”
“Oh, c’mon now, Rainbow.” Sunset walked over and helped her friend back up. “I doubt he’d do that.”
“Oh, no, he definitely is.” the child said. "Grandpa Dan lost his head when the chandelier fell on it. It was traumatic for Grandma Wilma. Mostly because she forgot to take out a life insurance policy on him. Before that, he was a world renowned dancer and won several competitions. He’s
“Okay, you keep mentioning all these family members.” Rainbow said. "Where exactly are all of them?"
"Probably the basement pub." the child said. "Smoking, drinking, partying." She turned to the two girls. "You... don't want to go there."
"Why not?" Rainbow asked. "Seeing a bunch of partying ghosts sounds awesome!"
"The last person to go there while they were all in there left with two dozen shards of glass in him." The child sighed. "And Grandpa Terry broke a pool cue hitting him. That didn't go over too well with the others."
"Exactly how have you remained a secret all this time?" Sunset asked, surprised.
"You go tell someone you saw a family of thirty-plus ghosts partying." the child replied. "Most of the people who come here look like they drank half a brewery. Those who don't probably have a rap sheet as long as the medical records belonging to my Aunt Lacy."
"Exactly how many people have lived here?" Sunset asked.
"Fifty." the child said. "Not all of them are still here, but a good portion are. Those who aren't either found actual peace in death or were forced into the burning depths of Hell."
"So, what's the deal with those of you who are still living here?" Rainbow asked. "Seems kinda odd that you'd all stay here for..." Rainbow did the math inside of her head. After a few seconds, she spoke up again. "A really long time."
"Well, we were always a close family." the child said. "So, those of us who weren't bad people decided to hang out here."
Rainbow thought for a second. “You’re saying Uncle Ricky isn’t a bad person?”
“Oh, he’s not evil; just crazy. Very crazy.”
“Uh huh… And those who were bad people?” Rainbow asked.
“Like I said before, they're in Hell. If you'd like, I'll ask them to send you a postcard for Christmas.”
"Uh, I'll pass." Rainbow said as she slowly backed away to the doors, slipping out once she reached them.
The child looked up at Sunset. "You want one?"
"I'll pass too." Sunset ran out of the ballroom.
"Hm." The child tapped her chin. "Maybe they'd rather get a birthday card from them."
Sunset and Rainbow lounged around outside the ballroom—apparently having decided that the child's offer for a postcard from beyond the grave wasn't worth fleeing to some other part of the house.
"So, where to next?" Rainbow asked. "I was thinking that room over there-" she pointed to the room next door. "It seemed kinda cool."
"The door looks no different from any of the others." Sunset deadpanned.
"True."
"Are you sure you want to go into that room?" the child asked as she walked through the ballroom doors. "Even I don't go in there. Cousin Thaddeus was... weird."
Rainbow waved a hand dismissively. "C'mon, sport. I've seen an alternate dimension and my friend over here turn into a crazy she-demon. How weird could your cousin have
"Cousin Thaddeus tried to enlist his dolls into the army because he thought they'd make for a solid ground regiment." the child deadpanned. "When they turned him down, he went out back and made love to our apple tree. Naked. He did it all night. In fifteen-degree weather. He died of hypothermia."
"O-kay..." Rainbow pursed her lips. Clearly, she wasn't prepared for weirdness of this level. "Well, at least he... I'm just gonna go inside." WIthout another word, she walked over to the door and slipped in. "Oh what the absolute true blue fuck with a side of why so many clowns ?"
Sunset looked at the doorway, then at the child. "Sooo... did he name have a name for his lover tree?"
"He called it ‘Bloomburg’." the child answered. "I personally called it Treeko."
"Alright..." Sunset followed Rainbow. Sure enough, there were clowns everywhere. Shelves upon shelves of clowns of every imaginable size. A few inches tall, a foot, even some that were clearly six-plus feet tall. "Uhh...."
"You see what I meant?" Rainbow asked from beside a clown doll that had to have been as muscular as Bulk Biceps. "By the way, I think that Cousin Thaddeus stuffed this thing with cinder blocks."
"How do you-"
"I accidentally kicked it while trying to find my way around the sea of stuffed clown dolls on the floor."
Sunset looked down to see that there was, indeed, no actual floor, but instead more dolls.
"Okay, I think that Cousin Thaddeus had a problem."
"Look on the bright side." Rainbow said. "At least you know you'll float if you fall down."
"Yeah, sure I will." Sunset replied. She walked through the sea of clown doll, a great sense of unease filling her as hundreds upon hundreds of eyes stared at her; never blinking. "Geez, why in the world did he had to own so many?"
"Hey, some people just like to collect things." Rainbow responded. "You know how I am with Daring Do collectables, and how Fluttershy is with her stuffed animal collection."
"Yeah, but those are... less disturbing." Sunset said. She reached down and picked up a random doll. It was in surprisingly pristine condition, despite the thin layer of dust that covered it. "I guess that Cousin Thaddeus still cleans his precious collection."
"I mean, I would too if I was this obsessed with something." Rainbow grabbed a clown that caught her attention. "Aw, sweet! A limited edition Daring Do clown!" She turned to the doorway, only to hear the response to the question she had wanted to ask.
"Put that back, you can't take it!" the child said. "Not unless you want Cousin Thaddeus to tie you to Bloomburg and sing about how he loves clowns for seventy hours in that screechy voice of his."
"Eh, doesn't-"
"Put the doll back or I'm giving you a wedgie, you Daring Do pantie-wearing nerd!"
Rainbow placed the clown back onto the shelf and shuffled away, grumbling to herself about how she'd never own a clown doll as cool as that one.
Sunset, meanwhile, stared at a row of clown dolls that, for some inexplicable reason, lacked eyes. She shuddered in fear, still feeling their unblinking gaze inside of her. As she stood there though, she felt a hand on her shoulder and sighed. "Thanks, Rainbo-" she stopped mid-sentence when she saw Rainbow a few yards away, checking out a model of Ronald McDonald.
"Hi, Sunset." a bone-chilling voice from behind her whispered. "Do you want a balloon?"
Sunset screamed and ran, grabbing Rainbow Dash before bolting out of the room and slamming the door shut.
"I told you Cousin Thaddeus was weird!”
Then they ran into something.
"Oh, good heavens, are you two alright?" a man with a pompous voice asked.
The two girls looked up to a see a man in a t-shirt that had a horse on it standing over them. He wore a hat with a horse stitched on it, and had a coffee mug with a horse on it. In front of him was a large wooden toy horse, which they'd run in to.
"Oh, goodness, where are my manners?" The man cleared his throat. "My name is Bucephalus. I used to take care of the mansion's prized horses. Then I was trampled to death by the one I owned. Evidently, life had plans for me to become caretaker for the dead horses. A truly prestigious job if you're into that sort of thing. For me, it's a drag. Not enough sunlight for my tastes." Bucephalus chuckled. "Oh, but enough about me. Who may you two young ladies be?"
“She's Sunset Shimmer!” The child poked her head out from a nearby wall and pointed to Sunset. “And she's… I forget.”
“Rainbow Dash…” Rainbow frowned and folded her arms.
“Yeah, Dainbow Rash!” The child hopped out of the wall. “I see you two have met the coolest of my cousins!”
“Oh, please, don't flatter me so much.” Bucephalus said. “I am but a humble caretaker who is on his way to deliver a gift to someone whose birthday is tomorrow.” He looked down at the child and smiled. “You would be… a hundred and ten or so?”
“I lost count after what would have been my fifteenth birthday.” the child replied. “But don't say you're just a ‘humble caretaker’! You once chased down a robber on a horse and caught him with a lasso!”
“Yes, but then the horse crushed his head and I was almost arrested…” Bucephalus mumbled something under his breath. “Alas, that was over a century ago.” He looked at the girls and tipped his hat. “I must be going though. T’was a great honor to meet two beings who are still of flesh who aren't looting the house for valuables. You haven't the slightest idea how frustrating it is to listen to the self-proclaimed, holier-than-thou matriarch broad about that sort of stuff. She never shuts up...” With a sigh, Bucephalus walked by the two girls, grumbling under his breath.
“Bucephalus is a good man.” the child said. “Though Other Mommy hates that he loves the horses more than her.”
Sunset shifted over to the wall and rested her head against it. “Peachy.”
Rainbow purses her lips and shrugged. “Well, Happy Early Birthday, sport.”
“Thanks.”
With that, Rainbow sat alongside her friend. Silence filled the air for a bit until she spoke up. “I want a cookie.”
"Yeah, well, I didn't pack any cookies." Sunset said, standing up.
"Lame." Rainbow stood up and spun around.
"Wow, I see someone really enjoyed dancing." Sunset remarked.
"Be quiet." Rainbow said, visibly flustered. “You don’t know that.”
“I don’t?” Sunset laughed. “That’s a lie and you know it.”
Rainbow’s face turned into a hypothetical sunburned tomato. She raised her shirt up in a laughably bad attempt at hiding her cheeks, before running down the hallway.
“You can’t hide from me, RD!” Sunset raced after her friend.
“Yes I can!” Rainbow ducked into a nearby room, only for her to receive a greeting worthy of a king or queen.
"Git outta my room!" A bag of peanuts flew towards her, which struck the wall next to her.
Rainbow complied, shutting the door and turning to Sunset, terrified.
“What was that about?" Sunset wondered aloud.
"I 'unno." the child said from behind her.
Sunset turned around. "You don't know?"
"Nope."
"How on Earth do you not know?" Rainbow approached the child. "I thought you knew everyone who lived here!"
"Yeah, but... that guy comes and goes."
"Do you know anything about him?" Sunset asked.
"Well, I know one thing." the child said. "He likes peanuts..."
"Yer damn right I love peanuts!" the man yelled from the other side. "I gotta go to the store later and get me some more! Y’all ruined the bag I was eatin’!”
“Never woulda guessed.” Rainbow deadpanned. “Let’s just go before he mistakes one of us for a peanut.”
“Did y’all say one of yous was a peanut!?”
Rainbow and Sunset’s eyes both shot open. With expressions that screamed fifty-eight flavors of oh crap , they ran off down the hallway, much to the child’s amusement. It took them some time, but they eventually stopped thanks to the all power entity that was the end of the hallway.
The wall.
“That’s… that’s the third time we’ve done that.” Rainbow said between her gasps for air. “How many rooms did we pass on our way down here?”
“I think six.” Sunset replied. “One was definitely a bathroom.”
“How do you-”
“Just trust me.”
Rainbow nodded. She glanced around the hallway, eventually setting her sights on a closet door. “Hey, whatcha think’s in the clos-”
Before Rainbow could finish her sentence, a painfully loud screech filled the air. The mansion shook, causing both girls to lose their balance and fall. Then, as quickly as it began, it ceased, and a deafening silence replaced it.
Rainbow stood back up, her legs shaky. "Hey... Sunset? I, uh, gotta use the bathroom."
Sunset held back a laugh and stood back up. "Be quick."
Rainbow ran off down the hall to the bathroom. Sunset took her phone out and turned it on. “Figures, there’s no reception out here.” She let out a sigh and tapped her foot as she waited on her friend.
Sunset jumped as something broke the silence. “Rainbow?” she yelled. “You okay in there?”
Silence once again filled the air until she heard the sound of the toilet flush. A few moments later, Rainbow walked out, an annoyed look on her face.
"Kid was in there?" Sunset asked.
"Kid was in there..."
Sunset resumed walking down the hallway. “How’d ya get rid of her?”
“It’s best not to ask about that part…”
As Rainbow finished her sentence, the child ascended from the floor and threw a bar of soap at Rainbow.
"You forgot to do something back there, genius." With that, she walked through a wall.
Sunset turned to Rainbow. "What have I told you about-"
"There was no soap in there!"
The child walked back out from the wall. "Did you check beneath the sink?"
"Uhh..."
"I thought so."
Rainbow waved her hand dismissively and walked back down the hall. She returned a short time later with hands as clean as…
Well, however clean Rainbow’s hands could feasibly be.
“You used soap, right?” Sunset asked.
“She did.” the child said, poking her head out from the wall. “I watched. She used it twice, grumbling something about proving a point to bacon head.”
“Oh, sure, go ahead and call me names behind my back.” Sunset said with a smirk.
“Hey, I… I didn’t know.” Rainbow replied, doing her best to not appear flustered. Try as she may though, she failed. Miserably. She shuffled around, eventually opting to slowly move backwards to a random door. When she opened it, however, she got was more than she bargained for.
“Uhh… Sunset? I think you may wanna see this.”
Sunset walked up beside her friend and poked her head into the bedroom. It didn’t take long, however, for her to poke it out and run to the corner and release the snack she had before arriving at the house.
“Oh, I see that you've found the skeleton of Old Richie.” the child said from behind Rainbow. “He died after seeing Uncle Jim. Do mind the blood though. We couldn't get it cleaned up; there was way too much.”
Sunset coughed once and turned around. “And where's Uncle Jim now? Some arbitrary part of the house?”
“Uncle Jim’s in prison for second degree murder. He's eligible for parole in twenty-three years.” the child said. “He killed Richie after he saw him give money to some guy in a really nice suit. At least, that's what Daddy told me. He seemed really shaken by it—and Daddy's a ghost!”
“I see.” Rainbow looked back into the bedroom. She cringed as she laid eyes on the dead body. However, beneath the mattress, she saw something glisten. She opened the door and took her watch off, placing it on the nightstand.
“Uh, Rainbow?” Sunset asked. “What are you-”
“Hey, a key!” Rainbow exclaimed.
The child ran over to Rainbow's side. "So, this is where Other Mommy hid that..."
"What's the key for?" Sunset asked curiously. "A secret room?"
"The box for her diary." The child turned around and pursed her ghostly lips. "She couldn't care less if you read it. If anything, I think she'd be flattered. She loved it when people paid attention to literally anything that was hers. I'm surprised that her ego didn't have a gravitational pull of its own."
"Have you ever-"
"Yes, and I stopped after about ten pages." The child cringed. "If you can beat my record, I'll be amazed."
Rainbow's eyes lit up. "You're on!" She bolted out of the room, spinning Sunset around as she did so.
"I take it she likes challenges?" The child held a hand out, causing a magical aura to surround Sunset and slow her down.
It took a bit, but Sunset regained her balance. "Yeah..." She felt nauseous to say the absolute least, and attempted to make her way out of the room.
"Hey, Sunny, you comin'?" Rainbow asked from down the hall.
The child ran over to the doorway. "I think you've given her a very high desire to release the contents of her stomach once more!" She looked behind her to see Sunset in the corner of the room. "Nevermind, you succeeded in doing just that!"
"Tell her I said I'm sorry!" Rainbow ran down the stairs, leaving the child alone with Sunset. She let out a sigh and turned around to see Sunset standing there.
"I'm better!" Sunset ran past the child, leaving the child alone.
"Man, these two would've been great friends with Thaddeus..." She out a hand up to her chin. "Or maybe that other guy who always stayed in his room and played with frogs... what was his name again?" She shrugged. "Ah well, he got lost in the woods. Bet he's a frogman by now." The child shrugged and walked through the wall.
Meanwhile, Sunset eventually caught up to her friend, who was hard at working looking for Other Mommy's diary.
"Rainbow?" Sunset stepped into the catastrophe that was Other Mommy's room. It looked like a tornado had tore through. "Are you sure you won't invoke the wrath of-"
"Found the box!"
Sunset ran over to Rainbow, disregarding her concerns for Other Mommy. Rainbow opened the box and took out a book. On it, written in glamorous cursive, was Valery .
"No last name, huh?" Rainbow asked.
"That or she doesn't wanna be associated with her family anymore."
"Or, they don't wanna to be associated with her." Rainbow deadpanned. She walked over to the bed and hopped on it; Sunset hopping on next to her. "Ready?"
"Not really." Sunset answered. Something inside of her was telling her to grab the diary and find something flammable, though another part of her was telling her not to simply because it'd probably set of Valery off like a volcano. "Though I guess there's no telling you to not read it?"
"Nope." With that, Rainbow opened the diary.
Dear Diary,
Oh, how easy it is to manipulate these single digit IQ cock toys. They fall for me every time. Bless my, admittedly less, good-looking mother. A shame that she never approved of me treating men like they were merely objects. What does she know anyway? I have it all with Aaron; money, a mansion, and servants. He treats me as I was meant to be treated: a queen. Or perhaps a princess. It's not important. I deserve this. I am royalty. They should know better than to request things from me. I am meant to be the one who's supposed to ask for materialistic things. Not these good-for-nothing peasants. They should bow to me. Even Aaron. He refuses to divorce that poor, useless bitch, Aurora. She's a leech. That's all she's ever been. Her child too. Both of them, leeches. They believe me to be "too harsh". Hah.
Ah, but they will learn in time. At least, they'd better. It'd be a shame if I had to... make Aaron get rid of them. Heh. It'd definitely be fun though. The many ways to get him to kick them out would really get me back into the creativity field. It'd be fun to have someone write out my greatest fantasies. Oh, the things I can dream up of Aaron and I doing. Granted, I'd be the one to save the world from these lower class fools in the end. Mmm... really puts me in the mood for things when I think about that…
Rainbow turned the page and then turned her head to Sunset, who had a faint tint of green on her face, which caused Rainbow to say but one thing.
"Same."
Dear Diary,
So, Laney doesn't like me. Figures that she can't respect royalty when she sees it. That little twerp would rather hang out with that pompous fool who tends to the horses. Filthy animals. I guess it's fitting that a child would want to hang out with one of those, though. No matter. I'll get her to love me just as Aaron loves me. I don't care if I have to beat her until she's subordinate. She'll love me, and that will make Aurora and the others love me. Once they all love me, I will truly rule over this place. They will all bow before me. I will be the queen that I was born to be. And then...
Then I will kill them all. And their money will be mine…
Rainbow shivered. Before she could turn the page, Sunset did it. "Thanks, Sunset..."
Sunset remained silent, instead opting to shift closer until she was touching her.
Dear Diary,
Aurora had the audacity to say that I was a whore. Hah. She's one to speak! She didn't marry Aaron because she loved him. Someone who practically wears rags day in and day out couldn't possibly have any sort of emotional feelings for a man such as Aaron. I bet he only married her because he felt pity for her. Such useless emotions for such a wonderfully rich man. I'll take great pleasure in making him lose them.
As for Aurora... well, I put her in her place. I’ve always loved my nails. It was always fun to etch messages into daddy's skin whenever he slapped me around for being insubordinate in his eyes. He did eventually stop when I started to make those messages a bit... too painful for his tastes. Oh well. At least his blood didn't stain my clothes. Otherwise, daddy may have lost more than he desired…
"What the fuck?" Rainbow flipped the page. She skimmed it and slowly handed the diary to Sunset.
"What is-"
"Just read it."
Dear Diary,
Aaron told me to stop yelling at Laney. Well, isn't he just a gutsy one. A shame that I had to teach him a lesson just as I had to teach Laney. I almost felt bad...
Hah. That was hard to actually write. Sometimes, I crack myself up.
Aaron couldn't even finish his first sentence before he felt the edge of my nails slice across his right cheek. That shut him up real fast. He ran off crying to the bathroom. He tasted really nice...
As for Laney... that little rat sure can run fast. Especially when I throw Aurora's precious family vases.
Nobody dared to challenge me though. I'm beginning to assert my rightful place as the dominant one. A good thing they're beginning to see their rightful place as lesser beings. Otherwise, I may have to advance to the final stage of my plan to inherit their collective fortune.
And where's the fun in doing that when I can toy with them? I'm a master puppeteer after all…
Sunset grit her teeth and seethed with anger. She didn't even notice Rainbow take the diary out of her hands until she spoke up.
"Let's just... skip to the end."
"Good idea." Sunset said through her teeth.
Rainbow flipped through page after page of hate-filled ramblings from a clearly... unwell individual. Eventually though, she reached the end.
"Geez, almost two hundred pages of this crap."
"Yeah." Sunset flopped backwards. "Just get on with it..."
Dear Diary,
Hmm. I can't believe he did it. I was beginning to think that he was too stupid to not do it. But here I am. In my bedroom while they slowly die outside. I wish they'd hurry up. I need to get them into the attic before someone notices that I did it.
I had planned to wait until Thanksgiving, but apparently, they can't see me for who I am: a queen. No, instead, they wish to kick me out! Hah. Oh well. If Aaron cannot assist me in getting them to worship me, I'll just take his money and run while they all grieve for the loss of those three worthless bottom feeders. I shall go find myself a man who will treat me as I deserve to be treated.
A Goddess.
Rainbow took a deep breath and slammed the diary shut. "Okay."
"Okay?" Sunset sat up. "What do you mean 'okay'?"
"Okay." Rainbow stood up and walked out of the room.
"Rainbow?"
"Okay."
Sunset hopped of the bed and ran after her friend. "Rainbow, are you feeling alright?"
"Okay."
Sunset stopped walking and tilted her head. "You don't seem okay..."
"Okay." Rainbow walked over to the fireplace and kneeled down. She took out a lighter from her back pocket and turned it on before throwing it onto the age old wood that was still in there.
"Rainbow, why are you- no, don't do that!"
Rainbow ignored Sunset's warning and threw the diary into the fire. "Okay, fan-fucking-tastic!" She stood up and clapped her hands. "That felt really good. Wouldn't you agree?"
Sunset stared at Rainbow; slack jawed. "Rainbow! Do you realize what you've done!?"
"Yeah, I burned some crazy bitch’s diary." Rainbow's eyes widened as her own words echoed in her head. "Nothing she can do to bring it back!"
"Yeah, but she can no doubt cause you a world of hurt."
"Psh, all that matters is I got rid of that piece of crap."
Just then, Rainbow was lifted up by the collar of her shirt and brought halfway up the stairway, screaming and flailing her arms like a child who didn't get the toy they wanted from a toy store.
"Hey! I asked about forty times now: what are- ah!” Before she could finish her sentence, Rainbow was rolled down the stairway. "Joke’s on you." she said from the bottom of the stairs. "That ain't bringing your diary back!"
And then, a random book was thrown at her.
"I think that's your cue to shut up, Rainbow." Sunset said from beside her.
"I got that." Rainbow stood up with Sunset’s help. They then walked over to a nearby couch and sat down. "I'm surprised that kid hasn't come to lecture me again."
"Eh, I figured you should learn this one on your own." The child manifested herself on one of the arms of the couch. "Gotta say though: you roll pretty well. Even better than that one fat guy she used as a soccer ball."
"Good to know." Rainbow rolled her shoulders. "Ugh, I'm gonna hurt like hell when I get home..."
"Eh, you'll get over it." the child said. "Good thing you didn't burn the other copy she kept in her secret compartment. Then she mighta thrown you down one of the longer staircases."
"Yeah, whatever." Rainbow folded her arms. “By the way, how many pages did you read again?”
“Ten.”
Rainbow's arms fell to her sides. “Ah crap.” She let out a sigh and looked at Sunset. "Well, how about we go back upstairs?"
Sunset shrugged. "Alright." They got off the couch and walked up the stairs, Sunset keeping a hand on Rainbow’s back.
"When we get out of here, I wanna see a scary movie with you, Sunset." Rainbow said.
"Why?" Sunset asked.
"Because I wanna see just how inaccurate the movie is compared to what's happened to us here." Rainbow replied. "That and I just wanna see a scary movie."
"Because this isn't scary enough?" Sunset asked with a chuckle.
"No, I just wanna be entertained." Rainbow said. "My ideal haunting is not being thrown around like I'm a rubber ball."
"Fair enough." Sunset said. "So, where do you wanna go now?"
"Uh... how about a room we haven't been in?" Rainbow said with a smirk. "That sounds like it'd be fun."
Sunset playfully bopped Rainbow on the head. "Smartass."
Rainbow responded in kind. "So, I was wondering..." She walked in front of Sunset. "How much longer we gotta be here?"
Sunset blinked and scratched her head on confusion. "Rainbow, you have a watch, don't you?"
"Yeah…” Rainbow rubbed the back of her head and let out a laugh. “But the kid stole it."
Sunset pursed her lips. Enough doubt to fill everyone in a major metropolitan city filled her. "The kid stole your watch?"
"Yeah." Rainbow nodded.
“Mhm…” Sunset also nodded. "And how did the ghost kid steal your watch?"
Rainbow stared blankly.
"You left it in the bedroom."
"I left it in the bedroom..."
Sunset shook her head. “And why did you take your watch off?”
“Hey, that was a seven hundred dollar watch and a gift from Rarity!” Rainbow protested. “I wasn't getting it dirty!”
Sunset rolled her eyes. “Whatever. I thought we were gonna help the kid with Other Mommy.” she said. “Why don't we formulate a plan for that?”
“We blast Other Mommy with magic and then celebrate with cake.” The two stopped at a random door. “Bam, done.”
“Yeah, but how-”
Rainbow waved a hand in front of Sunset’s face. “We have time.”
“Yeah, but-”
“We.” Rainbow pressed her nose up against Sunset’s. “Have.” She pressed it harder. “Time.”
Sunset’s eyes darted around. “Okay…” She slowly backed away. “I gotcha.”
“Terrific.” Rainbow walked over to a nearby door and leaned up against it. “So, how about we go in here?”
“Alright.” Sunset walked over and opened the door. Inside was a surprisingly neat and tidy room, filled with a few trophies and autographed sports merchandise.
“Oh, looks like my room!” Rainbow said. “Only a little less cool.”
“I doubt that you were as cool as Uncle Jack.” the child said from atop the canopy of the bed that rested at the far north end of the room. “He was pretty cool.”
“Well, he has almost as many trophies as me.” Rainbow said as she counted them, deliberately skipping the vast majority of them as to not acknowledge that Uncle Jack had at least eight times as many as her. Once she was done, she spoke up, suppressing the jealousy she felt. “So, how’d someone so cool die?”
"He fell off his bike and hit the road."
"...That's it?" Rainbow asked.
"Not all of us died in ridiculous ways, you know!" the child said indignantly. "I'll have you know that my Aunt Kathy died of old age."
"How old was she?" Sunset asked.
"Fifty-four."
“That’s not very old.” Rainbow said. “I figured she woulda been, I dunno, a hundred.”
“Aunt Kathy died here in the nineteenth century.” The child thought for a second. “Though I guess most of my family have died in stupid ways. I think she was actually last one to die of natural causes.”
“Your family’s weird.” Rainbow deadpanned. With that, her stomach growled.
“Guess all this talk of my dead family members is making you hungry.” the child remarked. “Hope you guys aren’t zombies; I like Sunset.”
“What about me?” Rainbow asked.
“You’re kinda cool too.”
Rainbow folded her arms and sulked. “Whatever. Let’s go eat, Sunset.”
“But we just got up here.” Sunset's stomach growled as an addition to her sentence.“On second thought… that sounds like a good idea.” She turned around and walked out of the room and back the way they'd come. “Think our backpacks have been invaded by ghosts?”
“Nah.” Rainbow waved a hand dismissively. “Unless they're that raccoon. Then yeah, definitely. I remember Fluttershy once telling me that she was certain there were two animals who'd steal food from beyond the grave.”
“What was the second?”
“Pigeons.”
Sunset stopped and folded her arms. "You made that up, didn't you?"
"I totally did."
"Thought so." Sunset said. "Fluttershy would never say something like that about an animal.*
"Think there’s any animal she doesn't like?"
Sunset arrived at the stairway and placed a hand on the railing. "Nope."
"How does she do it?" Rainbow ran down the stairs and turned to Sunset. "I've known her all my life and I can't figure it out!"
"Hm... I have an idea." Sunset ran down and went up to Rainbow, waving her hands around. "Magic!"
"Right..." Rainbow turned around and jumped back in surprise. "Oh my gosh!" She ran over to something she was certain hadn't been there when they went upstairs.
A piano.
Rainbow zipped over to it and sat on the chair that was in front of it. “What do you want me to play?”
Sunset rolled her eyes. “Rainbow, you can't play the piano.”
“Psh, says who?”
“Says me.” the child said from beside Rainbow. “Get off my chair, I have practice in ten minutes.”
Rainbow cocked an eyebrow. “Oh, this is yours?” she asked. “How did it get up here?”
“Uncle Joe helped move it up here.” the child answered. “Now seriously, get up. I have to practice, and I don’t want Other Mommy getting antsy with me over failing to start my piano practice late because some random home invader decided to sit in my dang seat. Again!”
“Yeesh, okay.” Rainbow sat up and walked back to Sunset’s side. “Why does she want you to play the piano though? You guys are dead.”
The child turned her head around, once again not moving the rest of her body—much to the horror of the two girls. “Other Mommy likes the music. It soothes her soul—or what little she has left of it if I’m to be an optimist about it.” she said. “She likes to claim that she deserves it after a long day of work. I personally think she likes to stroke her ego because her step-child is more talented at anything meaningful in the afterlife because she’s a worthless whore and a leech.”
Sunset flinched. Although she was used to swearing at this point, what with Rainbow having quite the mouth on her, hearing it come from a child who looked to be no older than ten was... something else entirely. She brushed off the feeling, repeatedly telling herself that at this point, she must have been somewhere around a hundred and ten. While Rainbow and the child talked about things that entered one of her ears and quickly departed out the other, she walked over to the bookshelf and skimmed it. One caught her attention, mainly because it was the only one that wasn't as thick as an atlas. Rather, it was no thicker than her pinky finger. She grabbed it and blew the dust off of it. “Oh, a journal.”
"Oh, that one's mine." the child said. "Though I think two pages have actual entries in them. The rest I used to draw things. I wasn't very good at it. My dragons looked like oversized scorpions with wings."
Rainbow turned her head. "Another one!?" She rolled her eyes. "C'mon, Sunset, don't turn into Twilight on me!"
"Gimme a bit, Rainbow. I wanna read a bit of this." Sunset opened the journal and read the first entry. It detailed about the time she spent with Bucephalus, tending to the horses and riding on one, only to fall off and scrape her leg. "Well, it's nice to read something heartwarmi-"
"Sunset, let's go eat!" Rainbow ran over and slammed the book shut, resulting in a faint squeak from Sunset. She narrowed her eyes. "I'm hungry and you were complaining before that you were too!"
"That was my hand..."
"Oh." Rainbow opened the journal and slowly removed Sunset's hand, patting it as she did so. "Sorry."
"Yeah..." Sunset rubbed her hand. "Well, if you want to eat so badly, let's go."
"Woo-hoo!" Rainbow pumped a fist into the air and ran over to her backpack before zipping over to the kitchen door. "C'mon, slowpoke. We ain't got all night!"
Sunset rolled her eyes, but smiled nonetheless. She put the journal away and walked over to her own backpack, then to Rainbow. "Alright, I'm here." She flicked Rainbow's nose. "Was that fast enough for you?"
“I guess so.” Rainbow smirked and flicked Sunset back.
Sunset chuckled and opened the door to the kitchen. Immediately, her nose was assaulted by a... questionable smell. "Ugh, what smells like piss?"
"It wasn't me, I swear." Rainbow replied. "I hope." She added under her breath.
Sunset turned her head to Rainbow. "Like you'd ever admit to doing that."
"Well, I mean..." Rainbow thought for a moment. "Nah, you're right." With a sense of unbreakable pride inside of her, as was normal for her, Rainbow walked into the kitchen and placed a little bag on the counter. She took her sandwich out and turned back to Sunset. “Think this place would be good for a romantic date?” she asked as she took a bite out of a sandwich. “Feels really… cozy if you get past the fact that it’s a shithole full of ghosts.”
Sunset chuckled. “I didn’t think you of all people would be an expert on what’s a good place for a date and what isn’t.”
“Eh, comes with having hung out with Rarity for so long.” Rainbow went to take another bite of her sandwich, only to feel it get snatched out of her hands. “Not funny, Sunset.”
“That wasn’t me.” Sunset replied.
“Then what was it?”
“It was the raccoon.”
Rainbow spun around and locked eyes with the raccoon. "You!"
The raccoon tilted its head and waved a little paw at Rainbow before scarfing down her sandwich.
"My sandwich!"
The raccoon made its way over to Rainbow's bag and took out her water. Without hesitation, it sunk its teeth into the bottle and sucked out some of the water.
"My water!"
The raccoon looked over at Rainbow and stuck its tongue out.
"Ooh. Your pride." Sunset snickered.
Rainbow ignored her friends remark and instead took the totally sensible, logical, pragmatic, and normal route.
She grabbed a nearby frying pan and slammed it down. The raccoon, however, was craftier, and used its years of evolution, training, and tutelage from older, wiser raccoons to dodge the flying frying pan.
And thus, Rainbow created a nice dent on the aging counter.
"Nice one, Rainbow."
"Can it, bacon-head." Rainbow raised the frying pan back up and brought it down where the raccoon was.
And missed. Again.
Rainbow looked at the frying pan and threw it behind her. "No! Screw this!" She grabbed her bag and walked over to the stove.
"Rainbow..."
"Sunset, just trust me on this!" Rainbow turned the stove on.
Sunset groaned. "Rainbow, just ignore it!"
"No, Sunset! It stole my food!" Rainbow placed the bag over the stove, at which point the bottom of it caught fire.
Sunset's eyes shot open. "Rainbow, it’s a raccoon and it’s already eaten your sandwich!" She grabbed the hose and sprayed the bag with water, extinguishing the fire.
Rainbow fell to the ground and sobbed. "That sandwich..." She looked up at Sunset, teary eyed. "My mom made it..."
Sunset stared at Rainbow. She wasn't sure if she'd heard what Rainbow said correctly or if, perhaps, Valery had killed her and she wasn't aware of it. So, she pinched herself.
It hurt.
"Well, I'm definitely alive." she said to herself. She placed the hose down and walked over to Rainbow. "I'm... sorry about your sandwich." She kneeled down next to her friend and put a hand on her head. "I'm sure your mom will make you another sandwich tomorrow."
"Yeah, but... what if we die!?"
Sunset was more than a little surprised at Rainbow's sudden emotional outburst. In fact, she was beginning to believe she was dead and the pain she felt was all a trick by Valery. Regardless, she knew that believing that would mean not believing Rainbow.
And that was too big of a risk to take.
"But we will get out of here." Sunset hugged Rainbow. "You know we will."
Rainbow wiped away tears from her eyes. "Y-You promise, right?"
Sunset placed a hand under Rainbow's chin and turned her head so she was looking at her. "I Pinkie Promise." she said. "We will get out of here alive, and nothing will stop us from doing so."
Rainbow shuddered. Her brave facade crumbled piece by piece. All she could think of was keeping her hold on Sunset.
"Please, don't leave me..."
"I won't, Rainbow." Sunset said softly. "I'm right here. I'll be here as long as you need me."
And stay she did. Sunset wasn't sure how long it was, but she held onto Rainbow, who never stopped holding onto her like her life depended on it. Perhaps it did. Sunset wasn't used to her normally prideful friend showing so much of an emotion that clashed with the person she usually was.
But eventually, Rainbow's grasp loosened. "I... I think I feel better."
"You sure?" Sunset wiped a tear away from under Rainbow's eye. "We can wait a bit longer if you feel you need it."
Rainbow shook her head. "No... but can I, maybe, have some of your snack?" She gave a hesitant smile. "Please?"
Sunset nodded. "Sure." She grabbed her sandwich from her bag and split it in half. "Here ya go."
Rainbow's eyes lit up with joy. She quickly devoured the sandwich and hugged Sunset. "Thank you!"
"You're welcome." Sunset hugged Rainbow back. Although she knew she'd been hungry, it still surprised her to see her friend devour the sandwich that quickly. She broke the hug and quickly ate her own half. Once she'd finished, she stood up and stretched. "Alright, where are we headed next?"
"Well, there's a door over there." Rainbow said. She stood up and stretched before walking over to it.
Creeeak...
"Hey, Sunset! I found the basement."
Sunset walked over. "You... you really wanna go down there?"
"Heck yeah!" Rainbow pointed her flashlight down. It was dark.
"Rainbow, I can't see anything."
Really dark.
"Oh… I forgot to turn the flashlight on." Rainbow flicked it on and shined it down. "Hmmm... oh, there's a TV down there!" She took a step forward.
Sunset grabbed Rainbow's collar, yanking her back. "Notice anything else?"
Rainbow shone her flashlight around until they landed on the part right after the doorway. "Oh... there’s no steps."
Sunset nodded. "Now, can I get a ‘thank you’?"
Rainbow walked away and grabbed a rope. "Nope." She tied it to a pipe and threw it down into the basement. "You gonna join me, Sunny?"
Sunset looked at the pipe and then back at Rainbow. "I... think I'll stay up here."
"Aww. What's wrong?" Rainbow asked in a childish voice. "Someone scared?"
"That pipe looks like it'll break." Sunset deadpanned.
"Psh. You worry too much." Rainbow got in place and climbed down the rope.
Clang! Thud!
Sunset winced and looked down. "You okay?"
"Shut up..." Rainbow sat up and brushed herself off. "You coming down or what?"
"Mind getting some boxes for me?" Sunset asked. "I'm not in the mood to jump down. Looks like a long way to go."
Rainbow rolled her eyes. "Yeah, sure." She walked off and grabbed a few spare boxes she saw lying around, stacking them up one-by-one. "Here ya go. One makeshift staircase, my fair bacon head."
"Why thank you." Sunset replied sarcastically. She walked down and flicked on her flashlight. "So, this is the basement?" She looked around. The echo of water dripping was the only sound, save for Rainbow's heavy breathing. "I guess there's a fat person who lives down here or something..."
"Ha. Ha." Rainbow flicked Sunset's head. "Not my fault that I get exhausted after falling down."
Sunset flicked Rainbow back. “Well, you should work on that, or you may cost us a soccer game.” she said before walking ahead.
Rainbow pondered that for a brief moment before rolling her eyes and looking around a bit. “Geez, this place looks crappier than any of the rooms upstairs." she said to herself. She turned to catch up to Sunset, only to come face-to-face with a large spider. It hung from its web, its many eyes set solely on Rainbow, who jumped back in surprise. “Well, hello-” Rainbow stopped speaking when she noticed the build of the arachnid. Its legs were slender, like most of its body. It was also dark brown in color, which set off a warning siren in Rainbow’s head. She thought back to something that Fluttershy had once told her when she had seen a spider like this while she was staying overnight at her house.
Then it hit hit her. Hard .
“Oh… oh shitI ” Rainbow mounvered around the spider and hightailed it over to Sunset, who jumped in surprise at her friends sudden panic.
“Is everything okay, Rainbow?” Sunset asked, more than a little concerned at her friends sudden change in behavior.
“There… there was a spider.” Rainbow said, her breathing heavy.
Sunset stifled a laugh. "Aw, is wittle Wainbow afraid of a common house spider?” she asked in a mocking tone.
Rainbow looked over at Sunset, who stood in front of a large spider web. “It wasn’t a common house spider.” she said. “It was a brown recluse!”
Sunset cocked an eyebrow. “You sure it was? Those things are always misidentified by people. Remember when Rarity thought she saw one in her house, but it turned out to be a regular old spider?”
“No, Sunset, I’m sure of it!” Rainbow protested. She went to speak again, only for something to catch her eye. She narrowed her eyes slightly and saw a spider descend down from its web land on top of Sunset’s shoulder. On it was a large egg sac, which made Rainbow cringe for a second before she realized the type of spider it was. “Well, I guess if you don’t believe me, you can ask the mommy what kind of spider she is.”
"W-What!?" Sunset looked around until her eyes landed on her new-found guest, which had happily made itself at home on her shoulder. She let out a shrill scream, took her jacket off and threw it to the floor. "Rainbow! K-Kill it! Please!"
Rainbow burst out laughing. She walked over to her friends jacket, only to see the spider skitter off into the darkness. "Oh..." She turned around to her friend, who was paler than the child that had made herself their tour guide for the mansion. "Um... well, it's at least gone?"
"Can you..." Sunset rubbed the back of her head and let out a nervous giggle. "Can you please make sure that it didn't leave any babies in—or on—my jacket? Pretty please?"
Rainbow rolled her eyes and picked up the jacket, shaking it, brushing it, and even blowing on it.
"How'd you do that?" Sunset asked as she put the jacket back on.
"I 'unno, I just wanted to sound extra nice there."
Sunset smiled. "Well, thanks, Rainbow." She hugged her friend, who hugged her back. After a brief embrace, the two continued onward, eventually ending up in a makeshift den that had a surprisingly intact bed, a television, and a small kitchen.
"Wow, this place actually looks... habitable." Sunset said. She examined the room, eventually settling on a stack of letters that rested on a wooden table that sat between the television and a beige-colored couch. She walked over to them and picked them up. "Oh..."
"What is it?" Rainbow asked from the kitchen. More specifically, from within the refrigerator.
"Come look at this." Sunset replied.
Rainbow groaned and walked over, grabbing the letters from Sunset. Her eyes widened as she read through the top one. “Hmm… so, Daddy poisoned Mommy with… Rat Poison.” She put the letters down. “Well, Daddy was a nice-sounding fellow.”
“Not gonna read the rest?” Sunset asked.
“No thanks, I've had my fair share of this fucked up family for one night.”
Sunset shrugged and sat down on the couch. The letters were exchanges between a man named Aaron, who she quickly deduced was the father of the child they'd seen. The letters started out innocent enough and spoke of a what seemed like an ideal life between him and his wife, Aurora. However, after less than a dozen letters, the tone changed. Aaron spoke of a woman named Valery, who he met at a bar. He mentioned how she promised him a better life than the one he had. A life where all of his wildest dreams and desires could come true.
Sunset felt a sense of unease grow inside of her. The letters devolved into mad ramblings; about how Valery was unfathomably sadistic to his family members and Aurora's. She verbally abused anyone and everyone, yet Aaron seemed content with it all. He repeatedly said that Valery only acted in their best interests and that she could help make everyone's dreams a reality if they simply did as she asked.
By the time Sunset had reached the final few letters, they'd devolved into incoherent ramblings about dreams, love, money, and sex. The handwriting on the final one was barely legible, leaving Sunset with a headache as she attempted to make heads or tails of what each word (let alone each letter) was. What she could make out was that Aaron had purchased a large amount of rat poison, just as Rainbow had mentioned. By the end of the letter, Aaron had strung together a random series of words that, put together, made no sense, which caused Sunset to place the letters back on the table and fall sideways onto the couch.
"What's wrong, Sunset?" Rainbow asked from the kitchen. "Family too screwed up for your liking?"
"No, it's just..." Sunset sat up and rubbed her head. A wave of emotions filled her, not the least of which was sadness. She tried to wrap her head around how one person could create so much strife in an entire family. She pursed her lips and took a deep, albeit shaky, breath. "Reading this was painful. That's all."
"Right." Rainbow walked around the counter and hopped beside Sunset. She grabbed the letters and flipped through them, her face changing from chipper to shock to anger. Before long, Rainbow threw the letters into the kitchen and stood up. "How could... how could someone do that!? "
Sunset grabbed her friends arm. "Calm down." she said in a soft voice, worried her friend may end up breaking something and invoking the wrath of a spirit they'd yet to meet.
Rainbow seethed with anger. The things she'd read made her blood boil. A woman who sewed an entire farmsteads worth of discord throughout a family of almost fifty people, all the while basking in it... it made her head spin. All the while, the patriarch and matriarch of the house were at each other's throats, day in and day out, neither of them willing to back down from who was in the right.
"That 'Daddy' is a real piece of work!"
As if on cue, a second hand grabbed a hold of Rainbow. This one was much smaller, and much paler, than Sunset's. It attempted to push her backwards, though it failed to do so. Despite that, the rest of the child manifested, a look of anger on her face.
"Daddy is not a piece of work!" She growled. "Daddy is a good man and you should know that! Daddy's problems were from that... that daughter of a horse!"
Sunset bit her lip at the unintentional insult to her race.
"Oh, Daddy was a good man, huh?" Rainbow asked sardonically. "If Daddy was such a good man, why'd he let Valery get to his head? Why'd he let her manipulate him so much that you and your mother had to live on just barely enough food from day to day?"
"W-Well, that wasn't-"
"Yeah, okay, sure, whatever." Rainbow interrupted. "If your dad was such a good man, why'd he slap your mother around like she was trash? Why did he talk trash to his own siblings and parents like they weren’t even people? Tell me and maybe I'll be consider that your dad was something more than a piece of human trash!"
The child looked up Rainbow. "My Daddy was a good man! He... he just... went through a very hard time and wasn't in control of his actions. It's the truth!"
Rainbow felt something inside her snap. She grit her teeth and clenched a fist. "Okay, kid, I'm sick of you defending this dude!" She flipped over the table and glared down at the child, a look of unbridled fury in her eyes. "How can you be so stupid that you cannot see that your father was a freaking monster!? I don't care if your dad wasn't 'in control'! He killed you and your mother! Are you telling that me that you can defend him for that?! That you can love him after that?!" Rainbow covered her face with her hands and let out an uneasy sigh. "None of this would have happened if it hadn't been for him. Had he just remained loyal to your mother and ignored this wretched bitch that you call 'Other Mommy'! Yet here I am, having to explain to you that the man you seem to be so hellbent on defending is the reason your family has spent over a century tortured at the hands of the woman that he brought into your life! Still feel like defending him?!"
"B-But-"
"Ah, okay, you-!" Rainbow threw her hands up into the air and slammed them onto the sides of her pants. "Come on kid, your dad never even mentioned you in those letters. Not once did he even acknowledge his own child's existence. When he said he had purchased that rat poison, he simply said that he'd put it in the food of his family. Are you still going to believe that your dad was a good man after that?!"
The child looked up at Rainbow. Her lower lip quivered slightly. "D-Daddy..." She fell silent and turned around. A whimper escaped her lips, which quickly grew into sobbing. Before either girl could say anything, she faded away as crying filled the air.
"Rainbow..."
Rainbow turned around, her face still red with anger. Her expression quickly softened as she saw Sunset, who looked less angry and more concerned.
Sunset stood up and walked over to her friend, resting a hand on her shoulder. "I understand that what you read upset you, but... you didn't have to go so far with what you said."
"Y-Yeah, but-"
"Rainbow." Sunset said in a much colder tone, which caught Rainbow off guard. "We agreed to help her and her family. Right now, we don't need to anger the spirits who don't want to turn us into their playthings." She brought her hand back down to her side. "Now, will you go apologize to her?"
"Yeah… Yeah, you’re right." Rainbow walked back the way they'd come, Sunset at her side. "What do we do about Aaron after all of this is done, though?"
"I'd rather let them decide. As far as we know, he's done nothing since they've become spirits." Sunset replied. She climbed back up the box staircase that Rainbow had made for her. "We have enough on our plate with Valery."
Rainbow remained silent for the rest of the walk. A short while later, they arrived outside the child's bedroom. From behind the door, they could hear faint sobbing.
Sunset knocked on the door, which made the sobbing cease. In its place was the sound of light footsteps, which grew (slightly) louder until the door opened.
"Oh..." The door slammed shut.
"We just want to talk!" Sunset said. "And... Rainbow wants to apologize."
Silence filled the air for several seconds until the door creaked open. "Does she?"
Sunset nodded. “So, may we come in?”
The child nodded slightly and opened the door. “Make yourselves at home.”
Both girls walked over to the mattress and sat on it, at which point Rainbow spoke up. “Look, sport, I… I lost my temper. I’m sorry. I… I can’t say that I understand what you’ve gone through.” She rubbed the back of her neck and took a deep breath. “But I never wanted to upset you. I’d never want to do that to anyone. You’re a great kid, and you’ve been the highlight of this entire night.”
The child shut the door and walked over and sat in front of the girls. “Daddy always wanted me to be proud of him. This mansion has been handed down from generation to generation. My great-great-great grandfather owned a brewery that became a monopoly. He’d always tell me, even on his worst nights, that I’d be the owner of the house one day. He’d always say ‘Laney, when you grow up to be big like daddy, you’ll call the shots around here, and everyone will listen to you’.” She buried her face into her hands and let out a sob. “You were right, Rainbow. It’s Daddy’s fault that this all happened. But I can’t be mad at him. Daddy was always the one who protected me from her. Any time that Other Mommy got mad at me, Daddy would always tell her to stop. Daddy never let anyone hurt me! It's why he didn't mention me in those letters. He didn’t do anything bad to me.”
Rainbow felt a pinch of guilt fill her. “I’m… sorry, Laney.” she said. “Why did Vale- I mean Other Mommy do what she did?”
“Other Mommy wanted the money that Daddy had. She’s a sanctimonious bitch. She saw Daddy for his wealth and became a leech. Even now, she feeds off of the remorse he exudes on a daily basis. She’ll always enter his room and bask in it. I’ve heard him cry entire nights while she dances around outside like she’s performing some sort of ritual.”
“So… if Daddy’s so remorseful, why did he do it?” Sunset asked.
“Other Mommy said that either he’d kill us or she’d kill us, along with him and the rest of the family.” Laney said. “But when Daddy poisoned us, Other Mommy poisoned his food too. When she hid our bodies in the attic, the family members who already lived here as spirits ripped her apart.”
Sunset and Rainbow cringed. “So... I take it they hid her body upstairs?”
“No.” Laney replied. “Nobody wanted to touch her body, so they let her rot in the attic.”
“Well, I can’t blame them.” Sunset remarked. “Was there any other reason that Daddy didn’t break up with Other Mommy? Or was she just that manipulative?”
“There was one thing that Daddy left out in those letters.” Laney said. “She always said that if he ever broke up with her, she would gut his sunshine like a pig and paint his room with her.”
“And why would he leave something like that out of the letters?” Rainbow asked. “Was he afraid nobody would believe him?”
“She said if he told anyone, she would do it.” Laney said. “He was too afraid to test her, which was probably for the best since she liked to remind him every other day about it. Honestly, I’m surprised he didn’t snap and kill her. I guess he was too afraid of what her family may have been like.”
Sunset rubbed the back of her neck. “Well, if they were anything like she was, I can’t blame him.”
"Well, don't worry, Laney!" Rainbow said. "Valery ain't gonna do a thing to you so long as we're here. What do you say? How about you show us around the basement a bit more before we go kick your stepmother’s butt back to whatever part of Hell she crawled out of?"
Laney giggled. "Sure, that sounds like fun... but first." She stretched her arms out. "Can... can I have a hug?"
Sunset and Rainbow both smiled and stretched their arms out.
"Yay!" Lane stood up. "No, wait. Group hug!"
Sunset giggled and pull Rainbow close to her. "You aren't getting out of this one." she said.
"For once." Rainbow said, "I don't want to." She wrapped an arm around Sunset and gestured for Laney to come over, which she did.
"You two are the best sisters I never got to have." Laney said as she wrapped her arms around the girls. Despite the fact she patched through them slightly, the love and affection filled Sunset and Rainbow all the same.
"I can say the same to you." Sunset said, a smile on her face.
"Yeah, sport. You're alright." Rainbow added.
Laney broke away from the hug, her arms patching through both girls. "Well, want to go see the rest of the basement? I think Uncle Philip had some really awesome stuff down there!"
Both girls nodded. With that, the three of them made their way back to the kitchen where Laney remarked on something.
"You used Other Mommy's Halloween decorations as steps?"
"Uhh... she won't be mad, right?" Rainbow asked.
"Oh, if she finds out, she's going to probably rip your hands off." Laney said. "Oh well, it wouldn’t be the worst thing she's done to someone who's touched her stuff."
Rainbow let out a nervous laugh, which caught the attention of Sunset, who then elbowed her friend.
"Don't worry, Dash. We've got this." she said as confidently as possible. In the back of her mind, she prayed that Rainbow couldn't see through her facade.
Luckily, she didn't, as Rainbow nodded and walked alongside her down her makeshift staircase. Once they'd gone down it, Rainbow turned to Sunset and asked, "So, what would you rate this mansion in terms of appearance?"
"I'm not Rarity." Sunset replied.
"Well, think like her!"
Sunset thought for a second before she cleared her throat. "Well, darling, I must say that the floor is far too dirty, the decor is several decades out of style, the paintings simply aren't pristine enough, the beds lack any sort of cushioning, the lack of carpeting is an absolute travesty, and the raccoons are just awful! "
Rainbow burst out laughing, getting the attention of Laney. "What's her deal?"
"Let's just say we have a friend who would definitely upset Mommy. Big time." Sunset said with a giggle.
Rainbow stopped laughing and stood up. “Oh, that was really good.” she said. She walked over to Sunset’s side. "Bet you wouldn't have sex here." she whispered, causing Sunset blush with the intensity of a thousand stars.
"O-Of course I wouldn't!" Sunset said. "Why do you ask?"
"Eh, I bet Flash would love it here."
"Screw you, Rainbow..."
"I'm unsure as to who this 'Flash' person is that you two speak of, but I can assure you that he would not enjoy it here, lest Other Mommy opt to make him her new husband." Laney said. "Or... she might just kill him. I think it really depends on what side of the spectral bed she wakes up on."
Rainbow ignored Laney and opted to further tease Sunset. "Aw, does-"
"Say one more word, Rainbow, and I'm flicking your nose very hard."
Rainbow cocked an eyebrow. "How do you flick har-"
"Shut up, please."
Rainbow let out a huff. "Well, excuse me for trying to keep the mood as joyful as possible. It isn't easy trying to be Pinkie Pie you know." She followed Laney back to the little room, Sunset trailing behind. Whether that was due to the thought about Flash Sentry becoming Valery's victim or the fact she remembered that two brown recluses were around, Rainbow wasn't sure. She leaned towards the latter, though.
"Well, this is Uncle Philip's room, as you two may or may not have already guessed." Laney turned around and held out her arms. "It's not much, but he was never exactly picky about where he lived. In fact, he'd once told Other Mommy that he'd sleep on the floor without a blanket."
"Do... do I dare ask why he offered to do that?" Sunset asked, an immense amount of hesitation in her voice.
"Oh, don't worry, it's nothing bad." Laney said reassuringly. "He just wanted Other Mommy to stop yelling about Daddy having to hire someone to make him a room. Uncle Philip was always Daddy's favorite brother. They did everything together. He was even his Best Man at his wedding!"
"Is that why he wrote the letters to Philip then?"
Laney nodded. "Mhm. Uncle Philip read them all the time. I think it drove him mad to see his closest friend and brother go crazy like that. He became a recluse and only went upstairs on holidays. He'd shower after everyone had gone to sleep. I don't know why. He never had that big of a beef with Other Mommy. He hated her, yes, but nothing she ever did to him bothered him as much as it bothered others. I think Daddy's change in personality killed him inside." She looked over to a large bookcase that rested on the far end of the room. "Come here. I can show you what we found after he died."
The two girls looked at one another before following Laney. Once they reached the bookcase, Laney moved it aside, revealing an enormous hole in the wall. "From time to time, we heard the sounds of hammering come from down here." Laney said. "Uncle Philip worked as a carpenter, so we always figured he was putting down a carpet." she said. "In hindsight, it was stupid we thought that, but in our defense: we lived with Other Mommy."
"So... what was Philip doing?" Rainbow asked curiously.
"After he died, which wasn't too long before I died, we found some notes that said that he thought there was gold down here."
Rainbow's eyes lit up. "Was there?"
"No, but he found a fossil of a Velociraptor according to one of the notes." Laney said. "He threw it out."
"Did he find anything else?" Sunset asked.
"Oil." the child deadpanned. "He drowned in it. He also almost burned the house down because he was smoking while he dug." The child let out a sigh. "Uncle Philip was an idiot... he's why Uncle Boris took up drinking."
"How'd Uncle Boris die?" Sunset asked.
"He died in the fire Uncle Philip started." Laney shook her head. "Uncle Boris' wife, Aunt Janet, didn't take it well. She took up the mantle of drinking heavily after he died."
Sunset cringed. "And I take it she-"
"She died drinking and driving a week later because she forgot you should drive sober."
"Well, I'm very sorry that you had to go through so much loss in such a short span of time." Sunset said. "It must have been very hard on your family."
"I appreciate your sympathy, but it hurt no more than what Other Mommy did on a daily basis." Laney replied. "Let alone an hourly basis."
"Yeesh." Rainbow looked over at the hole once more. It was tall; taller than her, which made her wonder how tall Uncle Philip himself was. It went on for quite some time. Exactly how long it must have taken Uncle Philip to make this, and where he got the resources to do this, baffled Rainbow. Coupled with the thought that someone was capable of driving someone else to the point they'd dig based on what she could only guess was the lurid thought of endless riches and all Rainbow could do was feel a deep sense of sadness.
"Um, Rainbow?" Sunset asked. "Are you okay?"
Rainbow shook her head. "Huh?" She looked around before fully snapping back into reality. "Oh, yeah. Sorry, I was just thinking."
"About what?" Laney asked. "You looked like you were going to cry."
"I did?" Rainbow rubbed her eyes. "Oh. Guess I had something in my eye."
"Sure you did." Sunset said, grinning. "Anyways, while you were thinking, I came up with a plan!"
"Great!" Rainbow cheered. "What is it?"
"Well, I was thinking; our geodes may be able to purge Other Mommy out of this world and banish her back to her hunky dory flat in Hell.”
"Sounds good to me!" Rainbow said. "Just one question: how exactly do we do that?"
"We... use our geodes," Sunset replied.
"No, like, how do we get her in place?"
"I'll explain when we get there." Sunset replied. "For now, let's get going before day breaks."
"The sun doesn't rise for another-"
"Listen, let's just get this over with. The longer we stall, the more time she has to prepare for us!" Sunset interrupted. "Now, where's Other Mommy?"
“Third floor.” the child replied, which resulted in an audible groan from both girls. “Quit being a bunch of babies. It’s that or death, and I doubt either of you will die from walking.”
“Has anyone ever told you that you have quite the smart mouth?” Rainbow asked. “Because you have one that’s bigger than mine…”
“Years of endless torment does that to you.” the child said. “Now come on. Let me bring you two to where Queen Bitch is.”
Sunset and Rainbow both sighed, both knowing full well that when all was said and done, their feet were going to hurt like hell.
And then some.
“Don’t worry, Rainbow.” Sunset said. “When all of this is over, we can take a nice trip to the spa.”
Rainbow’s eye twitched involuntarily, only to stop a moment later. For the first time in her life, a trip to the spa sounded… great. “Alright, cool.” With that, the two—and the ghostly child—began their journey to the room at the end of the hallway.
Visit 1: They're Just a Little Weird
It had been an arduous journey back from the basement to the third floor of the mansion, full of more complaining and whining about sore legs than both Sunset Shimmer and Rainbow Dash would ever care to admit. Especially the latter, who dragged her weight from each and every floor with as much enthusiasm as one could expect from her.
"We're here." Laney, who accompanied them the entire way, looked at both girls with a blank look on her face. "Mommy's at the end of the hallway. I can hear her screams. Other Mommy is not pleased that we're here. I believe that she will try to kill both of you the moment that you step foot into the room." The child let out a heavy sigh. “If you two can actually stop her, then you’ll be free to go. Otherwise…”
“We’re stuck here forever?” Sunset asked with a shiver.
“Technically speaking.” The child looked up at Sunset. “In reality, you’ll be tortured until the end of time and it will hurt a lot. Like, Mommy’s screams can be heard throughout the house, no matter what. I bet it’ll suck.”
“Glad you have faith in us, kiddo!” Rainbow exclaimed sarcastically.
“I’ve been stuck here with that bitch for the last century.” Laney deadpanned. “Don’t tell me to be hopeful that you can stop her from hurting Mommy any more.”
“Don’t worry.” Sunset puffed her chest out and gave a proud pose. “I have a totally pragmatic and logical plan that in no way will backfire against us in a remarkably splendid fashion and send us all running for the hills.”
Rainbow facepalmed. “You have no plan, do you?”
“Actually, I do. While you were busy whining about your feet hurting, I formulated a plan.” Sunset replied proudly. “You see, if we can blast her with our geodes aimed at her chest, we should be able to deliver a devastating blow to the place that matters the most: the heart!”
"Make sense.” Rainbow said as reality set in. She pinched the bridge of her nose and let out a sigh of dismay. "I'm probably going to die because of a homicidal ghost." A sense of sadness and fear filled her as the words echoed in her head and sunk in alongside reality. "I'm not scared though..."
"You lie just as poorly as Other Mommy." Laney said. "Perhaps worse. It's difficult to say. Both of you are as transparent as I am on a bad day.”
"Gee, thanks ." Rainbow grumbled. She took a deep breath and looked at Sunset, who shivered in her boots. "Let's just get this over with." she said. Sunset nodded in agreement and both of them walked down the hallway, the child in tow and looking no more ecstatic than either girl.
“Well, there’s no turning back. If you can defeat her, you’ll have our eternal gratitude.” Laney said. “That is, if you're able to avoid dying while you try and banish her. I’m also certain she’ll do whatever she can to drag both of you down with her."
"Like I said earlier, kid: I'm so glad you have faith in us." Rainbow deadpanned.
"I'm just warning you, you prismatic weirdo."
Rainbow rolled her eyes at Laney’s remark. “Say, any reason that you feel the need to constantly remind us that we only have one shot at this?”
“I feel it’s necessary to remind you just how insane both of you are for saying that you will help us.” Laney said.
Rainbow opted to not respond, having had enough of being reminded that she was almost certainly going to die. A few moments later, the trio arrived at the door.
"Please, allow me." Laney walked up to the door and went to open it, only to have the door fly open for her, revealing the same shadowy figure Sunset and Rainbow had seen in the attic a few hours prior. In front of her was another ghost who looked exactly like her, on her knees and clutching her head. "Mommy!" The child ran over to the spirit who was on her knees and wrapped her arms around her.
Sunset and Rainbow looked at each other and ran inside, stopping at the doorway as the spirit who stood turn her head, glaring angrily at them.
"Why, hello my dears." Valery said. Her voice sounded significantly deeper than the last time they heard it. "What brings you to my room? Has something gone wrong?"
"Cut the act!" Sunset snapped. "We know who you are and we know the crimes that you have committed against this family!"
Valery gasped. "I haven't the slightest idea as to what you're talking about!" She placed her hands on her chest and frowned. "How could you say such a thing after I've shown you such hospitality? The weather outside is so terribly cold that I don't believe either of you would have been able to make it home had I kicked you out! I've done nothing but be a wonderful host, and this is how you repay me?"
"You've shown hospitality to everyone who's stumbled in here!" Laney stood up and glared daggers at Valery. "And you repaid them all the same: you turned them into your play things. The poor father who came in asking if he'd seen his daughters puppy is still tormented every night by your wretched ass! You'd treat these two no differently!"
Valery let out a calm sigh and turned her head to the child. "Laney..." she said softly. "What have I told you-" one-by-one, her fingers grew, growing claws half a foot in length and turning a sickly yellow in color- "about spreading such fallacies?"
Laney gulped and stood in front of Aurora, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry, Mommy... I won't let her hurt you like she did last time because your sunshine... didn't know when to stay quiet..."
"Oh, my dear, Laney." Valery’s hair burst into flames. Her previously shadowy appearance morphed into a blistering, decomposed woman with a ragged dress that, at another time, would have caught the attention of anyone with an eye for beauty. "Do not worry about Mommy. She's not the one who doesn't know." She grabbed Laney by the throat and brought her up to her face. "It's the little girl who doesn't know to do what mommy tells her to do! "
Both girls stood motionless in the doorway, staring in awe and absolute horror at the sight before them. It was Rainbow, however, who managed to find it within herself to speak up. "Hey! Let her go!"
Valery turned her head and tilted it sideways. "I don't think so, little one." She cast Laney aside, throwing her against the wall, and walked over to Rainbow. She placed a finger under her chin and lifted her head up. "Though I would watch that tongue if I was you. It's not nice to talk back to adults."
Rainbow felt her heart race. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Sunset standing as still as a statue. "Well... um... I gotta ask: what did Daddy see in you again?"
Valery eyes erupted into flames. She grit her teeth, which were as sharp as razors. "I'm beautiful, you insolent bitch!" She grabbed Rainbow by her collar, her claws tearing through the fabric and scratching her skin. "Now watch your tongue, or I will rip it out and force it up your-"
"No thanks!"
"That's what I thought." Valery smirked and dropped Rainbow to the floor. She turned her head and bored into Sunset's soul. "My... such a pure heart you have." She caressed Sunset's hair and ran a claw down her cheek, drawing a little bit of blood in the process. "You remind me so much of me... it's quite surprising."
"We... we are nothing alike." Sunset said. "You're... evil.”
Valery smiled. "Oh, dear, you don't know evil." She turned to Laney, who had since run over to Mommy and was hugging her, crying into her shoulder. "Those two are evil. They spread lies, fallacies, and untruths left and right." She turned her head back to Sunset. "They did this to me. They turned me into a monster, all because they were jealous that I had stolen her man’s heart. She was useless. She leeched off of him! I, on the other hand, actually did something with my life. I helped him around the house. I showed affection! And what do I get for it? I'm killed by her hand!"
Laney stared at Valery and stomped her foot. "That's a-"
"Quiet!" Valery thrusted her hand out, throwing Laney back against the wall. "You will not speak, you wretched bitch!"
Sunset turned her head to Laney. She ran past Valery and over to Laney, embracing her in a loving hug. She looked back at the ghost and glared angrily.
Rainbow stood up and followed suit, running over to Sunset and embracing both of them in a hug. "You have nothing to worry about Laney." she said softly. "Nothing is going to happen to you. I promise."
"Is that so?" Valery flew over and picked Rainbow up by the hair. "You're quite the terrible parent. Why not take some advice from me? Learn how to at least lie to a child convincingly!" She threw Rainbow across the room and into the wall.
"And the award for biggest bitch goes to..."
A candle stick was thrown at Rainbow, striking her leg.
"Fuck you."
Valery chuckled at Rainbow's remark. "Same to you, Speedy." She looked down at Sunset and pushed her aside before turning her attention to Laney. "Laney..." she said. "Why do you dislike your mommy so much?"
"You're not my mom, you bitch," Laney snarled. "No mom of mine would be so heartless."
"And you do not see that is a heartless thing to say?"
Laney shook her head. "I don't believe the truth to be heartless."
"I see that that spineless fool has raised you as well as her own parents raised her." Valery turned her attention to Aurora and walked over to her. "Oh, Aurora..." She grabbed a hold of Mommy's collar and looked at the three girls. "Aurora and I have some adult things to talk about. I'm leaving you three alone for now. Please, play nice."
Rainbow found it within herself to stand up and brush herself off. "And if we don't?" she asked as she walked back over to her two friends.
"Then I will get very upset." Valery replied. "Now, please, be darlings, and don't make me upset."
"Geez, she's like Rarity if her dad was the devil and her mom was that skank who hangs out at the end of the street Fluttershy lives on." Rainbow whispered to Sunset.
"Excuse me!?" Valery let go of Aurora and flew over to Rainbow, grabbing her by the collar when she landed. "I'll have your petulant ass know that my heart is as pure as they come!"
"Is that so?" Rainbow asked. "Because from up here, it looks like it's decaying faster than my grades."
"You're insufferable." Valery threw Rainbow against the wall and flew back over to Aurora. "Now, unless one of you has-"
"Why did you kill them?" Sunset asked.
Valery cast a glare at Sunset and scoffed. "You still don't believe me!?" she asked. "I said it before and I will say it again: I didn't kill anyone! " She hurled a vase at Sunset, who narrowly dodged it.
Sunset stared at Valery for a few seconds with a blank look on her face. "O-Okay" she said once the will to speak again had formed inside of her.
"Good." Valery look at Sunset and smiled. "By the way, your hair is wonderful! It reminds me of mine, only nowhere near as good."
"Ow..." Rainbow stood up and brushed the shards of glass off of her clothes. "Damn, Sunset, you cracked faster than that vase did. Couldn't press her harder?"
"And you'll crack faster than any insect that I ever stepped one when I was alive when your head is beneath my foot!"
Sunset chuckled. "Good luck getting through her skull."
"I'm pretty sure you'll be much harder to get through." Valery remarked. "Though twice as fun. It's always more fun when they scream."
"Wait, I thought you said you didn’t do anything?" Rainbow asked.
"I said no such thing." Valery retorted. "You're twisting my words against me!"
"No she's not!" Sunset snapped. "You're just-"
"Quiet!" Laney set out a shockwave of magic, sending everyone flying back several feet.
And in Rainbow's case, into the wall.
"Geez, you just love throwing people against walls, don’t you?” Rainbow stood up and brushed herself off yet again. “Got a fetish for it or somethin'?"
Valery threw Rainbow against the wall once more. "It's how my daddy used to punish me."
Rainbow and Sunset exchanged confused looks. "Well... that certainly explains a lot." Rainbow said after a moment.
"Does it?" Sunset asked.
"No."
"Quiet!" Laney stomped her foot. "If you're all going to argue, I don't want to be a part of it!" In a huff, she ran out of the room, ducking beneath Valery's legs and sprinting down the hallway before vanishing into a wall
Valery clenched a fist. "That little brat..." She ran out into the hall, slamming the door shut behind her.
"Well, great!" Rainbow threw her hands into the air and spun around before falling onto the bed.
"Yes, well, you two seem to forget that I'm here and that I'm a ghost." Aurora placed a hand through the door and unlocked it. "Though if you'd like, we're free to stay here until Valery comes back with Laney and kills you two with her bare hands."
"Hmm. To get thrown into a wall again or to die by someone who sounds like a Victoria's Secret model." Rainbow tapped her chin. "Tough choice."
"Sure it is, Rainbow." Sunset walked over to the doorway. "Thank you, Aurora."
Rainbow let out a sigh and sat up, hopped off the bed, and walked over to the doorway. "Hey, wait, aren't you the one that threw that book at me?" she growled to Aurora. "What gives with that?"
“You're the one who challenged me after you broke into what was once my home!" Aurora replied. "Who's the one at fault here again?”
Rainbow grimaced. She didn't want to admit it, but she knew Aurora was right. It was a fact that annoyed her to no end. "Yeah, yeah..." Rainbow walked into the hallway and turned to Sunset.
“So, what happened to not calling-”
“Quiet, Sunset.” Rainbow grumbled. "So, which way did they go?"
Crash!
The sound of dishes crashing to the ground filled the air, which was followed by a lot of screaming, and caused those who weren't dead to cover their ears. Once silence filled the air again, Rainbow opted to break it.
“Well, I’m glad that they were willing to offer us a hint.” With that, Rainbow walked down the hallway.
“I… don’t think we should go down there.” Aurora said.
Rainbow stopped and turned around. “Why n-”
A large, flaming banshee flew out from beneath the floor and over Rainbow, spinning her around like a rainbow-colored tornado, spun as she was out of the room, and continuing down the hallway.
“Oh.” Rainbow said once she stopped spinning. “I guess Valery is a fan of dancing like everyone else in this house.”
Aurora walked down the hallway and patted Rainbow on the shoulder. "At least she didn't make your head spin like she makes mine."
"Metaphorically or literally?" Sunset asked.
"Both."
Rainbow shuddered and stood up. "And you can... feel that?" she asked as she ran up to Aurora's side.
"Oh, yes." Aurora replied. "Every bit of it. Valery's got all the power of a demon, but she uses it in ways that I didn't think even the longest residents of Hell could possibly think to use it." She cringed as memories of her quality spent with Valery flooded her ghostly mind. "I sometimes think that Valery is an avatar of the devil himself."
Sunset cringed. "I'm... so sorry for you." she said as a tear ran down her cheek.
"There is nothing you can do to fix that." Aurora replied. "But do not dwell on such things. You have no reason to. For-"
"Don't say that." Rainbow interjected. "Her empathy might reach critical mass."
Sunset shot Rainbow a glare that could cut a diamond in twine.
"What?" Rainbow asked as she and the other two descended down a staircase. "I'm just trying to lighten the mood a little."
"Although you say that with a look of fearlessness..." Aurora said in monotone, "I can see it within you. You're afraid. Very afraid. You wish to do nothing more than laugh in the fact of your fear and hide your true emotions so you will not be looked upon as a coward." Aurora stopped and faced Rainbow. "You seem to have picked up this tactic from a friend of yours. Tell me: has it worked for you here?"
Rainbow stared, slack jawed. "Y-Yes." she replied after a bit. "But... how in the world did you know that?"
"I was a mother. I knew when Laney was lying." Aurora replied "I'm also a ghost. I... have magic of my own." She winked.
Rainbow held back the urge to make some sort of comment, and somehow managed to successfully do so. A short time later, the trio arrived at their destination: the kitchen, which sounded like it had an insane asylums’ version of a circus going on behind the door. Endless screams, crashing of dishes, and an assortment of hellish sounds came from within.
Rainbow looked at Sunset, up at Aurora, the door, then down at her shoes, where she felt safest. "We’re going in there, aren’t we?"
"Yep." Sunset answered.
"Sadly." Aurora replied.
"Help me!" Laney screamed.
"Enter here and you die! " Valery shrieked.
“Fuck me.” Rainbow muttered.
"Hush, Rainbow." Sunset walked over to the door. She looked at Aurora, who nodded in approval. Cautiously, she opened the door. First, just a crack.
Woosh!
Then the entire thing blew open. Laney ran out, visibly surprised to see Rainbow and her mother. "Where's-"
"Oh, sweet Celestia, that hurt." Sunset groaned from atop the piano. She sat up and rubbed her head. “Why the hell was this here?”
“Uncle Joe wanted to move it back downstairs.” Laney said.
“Oh… well, did we win?"
"No, you did not!" Valery flew out and landed at the doorway. The flames that made up her questionable hairdo roared with an intensity that made both girls fear that the mansion may catch fire. "So, all of you wish to challenge me?"
"I mean, it's not like we have a choice considering you're holding us captive." Rainbow responded. "Can you give us a handicap though?"
Valery furrowed her brow, which was made up of blistered skin. "Absolutely not." A dark energy surrounded her arms. She raised them and spun around, hurling it at the four, and knocking them around like rag dolls.
"Hey!" A voice from the floor above yelled. "Keep it down! I'm tryna eat mah peanuts!"
"Sorry!" Rainbow yelled up.
"Stop lying." Aurora added.
"No." Rainbow stood up, her legs shaky. Before she knew it, Valery had torn up several floorboards, and motioned to hurl them at her. As skillfully as she could, she dodged each of them. "Hah, that the best you cam-"
An assortment of other objects flew in Rainbow's direction. Candlesticks, floorboards, vases, the remnants of dishes from the kitchen, and nails.
A lot of nails.
"I will crucify your prismatic ass above my bed and feed you the rats that die beneath my heels every day! "
"You have anger issues, woman!" Rainbow remarked. She ducked out of the way of Valery's makeshift missiles and looked over to see Sunset rocking back and forth behind the piano. She stood up and ran over as the endless crashes of Valery's questionable weaponry missed her.
"You okay, Sunset?" Rainbow asked as she ducked behind the piano.
"Y-Yeah." Sunset sniffled and clutched her arm. "Though I think I dislocated my arm.."
Rainbow pursed her lips. She knew what she was about to say was monumentally stupid, but she also knew the alternative was far worse. "Sunset, just trust me on this."
"W-Wha- oh sweet merciful Celestia!" Sunset felt a stomach churning snap come from her arm as Rainbow applied an immense amount of pressure to it, and snapped her shoulder bone back into place. "W-Was that-"
"Yes, it was, now be quiet and run! "
"Ah, that's my cue." Valery held an arm out and threw her next generation of missiles at the two girls.
"Screw you, Valery!"
Aurora.
Neither Sunset nor Rainbow knew exactly what to do. Rub their eyes? Stare in awe? Scream? It was difficult to choose, but in the end, they opted to duck back behind the piano as Aurora fell through the floor and into the basement.
"Welp..." Rainbow looked at Sunset. “At the count of- screw waiting: run! Again!"
Both girls ran out from behind the piano, only to be stopped by Valery, who ignited the floor in front of them. “Tisk, tisk.” She landed beside Laney and put a hand on her shoulder. “You two stay there like good girls, and maybe I'll let you two say goodbye your mommies and daddies one last time.” Valery looked down at Laney. “Now, as for you…”
A circle of flames surrounded Laney, slowly increasing in intensity. She let out a scream of agony as they encroached on her. After several agonizing seconds, the flames vanished—along with Laney.
“Perhaps one day, you two can join the choir she's a part of.” Valery said. “For now, I have to find her good-for-nothing birth mother. Just remember to stay here, and maybe you can kiss your parents goodbye.”
"But my parents are in another dimension." Sunset remarked.
"Then tough shit, kid." With that, Valery took to the air and dove beneath the floor.
"Well..." Sunset fell to her knees. "This is it." She looked up at Rainbow with a look of defeat on her face. "This is how we die."
Rainbow scoffed. "You're giving up just like that?" she asked in surprised. "After what you told me in the kitchen? After all that talk about not dying here?" She kneeled down in front of Sunset. "You can't just give up now. The Sunset I know would never give up like that! Especially when a whole family is counting on her to help them."
Sunset wiped away her tears and looked at Rainbow with a half smile. "Y-Yeah. You're right!" She looked over to her side and frowned. "But how do we get past that fire?"
"Hmm... I have an idea, but it's gonna sting."
Before Sunset could respond, Rainbow rubbed her geode and scooped Sunset up before running straight through the fire. While she was fast enough for them to not get burned, not crashing into the wall was another story.
"Ow..." Rainbow rubbed her head and looked over at Sunset. "Sorry."
"I can't exactly be mad." Sunset said. "I mean, we did get past the fire without much injury."
"Now you're thinking!" Rainbow slapped Sunset on the back, causing her to squeak. "Though you also sound like Fluttershy..."
"Sorry." Sunset said, continuing to unintentionally become more akin to someone who'd probably have outright died of fright at this point in their adventure to slay another raging she-demon. "So, where do you think Laney is?"
"I'm not sure." Rainbow said. “Let's look upstairs. You check the left half, I'll check the right half."
Sunset nodded and, with that, the two of them ran upstairs, Sunset barreling down to the end of the left half of the hallway without much regard for what may be in front of her.
Rainbow, meanwhile, opted to take an approach that fit Rainbow's idea of 'taking her time to check each room'.
"Laney!" she asked as she poked her head into a nearby room. After two seconds of waiting, she shot over to door across from her. "Laney! You in here?" Another two seconds passed and she ran over to another door, repeating this until she reached one that she recognized. Within it was a skeleton. "Oh, hey, Old Richie."
"He can't hear you, brainiac." a voice said from behind Rainbow.
Before Rainbow could respond, or turn around, she was flung into the room, landing a few inches short of the wall. "Well... at least I didn't hit it." she said as she stood up. She cringed as her eyes landed on the nearby dead body, though her disgust was replaced with happiness when she saw something on the nearby nightstand. "Oh hey! My watch!" She ran over and picked it up, putting it on after she did so. "Now... what was I doing?"
"I think it had something to do with me." Valery said from the doorway.
Rainbow turned around and frowned. "Oh yeah, you ."
Valery waved and gave as charming of a smile as someone of her questionable appearance could give. “Ah, Old Richie. Such a shame that you died. You were one of the few that I actually liked. Mostly because you kept your trap shut and did as I told you to do.” She flew over to Rainbow and grabbed her by her hair. “Unlike you.” She threw her out the doorway and into the wall. “You never know when to shut your damn mouth! ”
Rainbow stood up, only to feel a hand grab her arm. Looking back, she saw Sunset.
“I couldn’t find Laney.” she said, her every word filled to the brim with sorrow. “I checked almost every dang door here-” Sunset was cut off by Rainbow being thrown into her.
As soon as the two made it to their feet, a blast of horrifyingly powerful force blew them back several feet. The world around them become blurry. Then, it suddenly looked to be moving on its own. They could see the doors to rooms that remained open from Sunset going from one to another pass by.
“Rain… Rainbow?” Sunset asked quietly. Her head ached more than it ever had in her life. “What’s… what’s going on?”
Rainbow looked around. The world continued to move at a strangely tranquil pace. No faster than if either of them was taking a brisk walk. “I don’t… I don’t know.”
“Ugh.” Sunset lowered her head and remained silent until the movement ceased. She watched as she was brought into a room and placed gently on a nearby bed with Rainbow at her side.
“I think… I think we’re safe in here.” Aurora said. “By the way, you’re welcome.”
Rainbow shook her head. “Weren’t you thrown into the basement though?”
Aurora laughed. “Not the first time she’s done that.” she said. “She’s apparently too arrogant to realized that I can just go through the walls and take our little wall stairway back up.” She poked her head out the door for a second before walking over to the girls. “Well, she may take a bit of time to get here. Rest up, because I’m certain she’s going to be pissed that I used some of my own ‘goody goody toe shoes’ magic on her.”
“What did you do?” Sunset asked curiously.
“I turned her into a toad.”
Sunset raised an eyebrow. “You can do that?”
Aurora giggled. “I’m a ghost. I learned quite a bit of trickery this way. It comes with…” She tapped her chin. “It comes with being a ghost. I’ll put it that way.”
“Alright.” Sunset said. She made a mental note to press the question further at another point when she wasn’t in danger of being turned into something worse than an amphibian. “So, where’s Laney? And how the hell can we get her into a position where we can send her back?”
“Simple.” Aurora said. “We take her back to where you first met us.” Aurora said. “Aaron’s room. It’ll all make sense when we get there.”
Rainbow fell backwards, her head still throbbing. “What do you mean?”
“You’re not alone in your fight against her.” Aurora said. “There are-”
Suddenly, the door was blown off its hinges and flew towards both girls, who successfully ducked out of the way. Behind them, they could hear the door fly out the window.
“Now, where oh where did I leave off?” Valery asked as she stepped into the room. “I do believe it was somewhere along the lines of me playing a nice, long, complex game of ‘how loud can I make someone scream for mercy’.” She bounced a finger between Sunset and Rainbow for a few seconds before ultimately landing on Sunset. “And I think I will resume with you, dearest Sunset.” Valery held a hand out and pulled Sunset over, causing her to land on her stomach with a thud . "What's wrong, Sunshine? Have a boo-boo that mommy has to make all better?" She kneeled down and gave a cheerful smile; ruffling Sunset's hair as she did so. "Don't worry, mommy will make you feel all better."
Sunset gulped. “Wh-what are you-”
“Shh.” Valery stood up and walked behind Sunset, grabbing a form grip on one of her ankles, turning her around, and dragging her out into the hall. "Just remain calm and mommy will make it all better." she said over Sunset's screams for help. "I promise..."
Rainbow shook the lingering dizziness she had and leaped off the bed and ran over to the doorway in time to see Valery drag Sunset into a room down the hallway.
"She's going to possess her." Aurora walked up to Rainbow's side. "She will use her magic to kill you as a way of mocking the power you both hold."
"How in the world did she ever get out of Hell?" Rainbow asked.
"Either her lust for vengeance on us was that great or Hell didn't want her and kicked her out." Aurora said, stepping out into the hallway. "Let's not waste any time. I know your friend can hold her off for a bit, but the longer we-"
Rainbow darted past Aurora and arrived at the door Valery had entered. "You were saying!?"
Aurora floated down to Rainbow. "Nothing important." She opened the door, revealing Sunset clutching her head. She turned her head and gave a confused smile. Once she realized who was there however, she stood up and rushed over to them.
"Get her out of me!" she screamed. "Now!"
Before Rainbow could ask exactly how she was to perform an exorcism, Aurora threw a swift punch to Sunset's stomach, and punched Valery out of her body.
Literally.
"Where did you learn to be an exorcist?!" Valery asked from on the floor.
Aurora smiled. "Not telling." She held a hand out, turning Valery into a skunk. “I will say though: you always did stink, Valery."
Valery raced over to the group, but was outrun.
"Haha!" Rainbow yelled from the hallway, only to be slapped upside the head by Aurora and Sunset. Without another word, she, along with the other two, raced back to Aaron's room. Upon their arrival, they saw Laney in the back of the room.
"Mommy!"
And in a fiery cage.
Aurora gestured to the girls’ geodes. "Those should be able grab her without causing her too much pain."
Rainbow raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean 'too much'?" she asked. "I don't want to hurt a kid!"
"She's already in enough pain." Aurora said. "That thing is burning her soul at a temperature that Valery would consider a cold snap."
Rainbow audibly hissed at the thought. "Alright." She grabbed her geode in held it out; Sunset did the same, with a similar facial expression. Two beams of magic shot out, wrapping around Laney and, in the blink of an eye, she was pulled out of her prison.
Laney looked around in surprise and then up at Aurora. "Mommy!" She ran over to her and wrapped her arms around her.
"I'd hate to interrupt such a precious moment..." a voice said from behind them, "But I must correct you. I'm your mommy!"
Laney poked her head through Aurora and scowled. "Shut up, bitch! My friends are going to send you back to where you came from and we'll all laugh at your pain, just as you've laughed at ours!"
Valery's eye twitched. "Nobody, not even the bastard daughter that my husband had with some peasant fuck, calls me a bitch!" She stretched out a hand and slammed Laney against the wall. "Nobody! "
Rainbow clenched one of her hands into a fist. Laney's screams of pain and fear echoed in her head. Her geode lit up and with it, so too did her eyes. "No one..." She levitated off the ground slightly- "Calls my friends names like that!" She held a hand out, eveloping Valery in a blue aura. She swung her hand to the right, causing Valery to fly across the room and into the wall. "Who's your daddy now, Valery? Who's your fucking daddy!?" She swung her hand around wildly, slamming Valery into the wall for a solid minute until she cast her off into a dresser
Valery staggered out of the dresser and glared daggers at Rainbow, who, without any hesitation, fired off a beam of magic at her, striking her chest. "Where did you obtain such magic!?"
"From places that you don’t know exist." Sunset asked. She placed a hand on her geode, causing her eyes to glow blindingly bright. "Like the heart!" Just then, another beam of magic shot out, blasting Valery right where it hurt the most for someone like her.
The face.
"You insolent... little... gah!" She rushed at Sunset, who dodged her and fired another beam alongside Rainbow, both striking the back of her head. Valery fell forward and looked back in time to see two more beams strike her. "How in the world have you both grown so strong?!"
"We share bonds with the people we love." Rainbow said. "Unlike you ."
"Oh, can it you loud-mouthed bag of candy." Valery stood up. "Your power must come from something that actually holds power!"
"Nope." Rainbow held her geode out and casually fired off a beam, striking Valery in the chest; causing her to stagger back and clutch her chest.
"No... I will not be defeated!" she screamed. "Not... like… this!" Valery held out a hand, causing a dark aura to appear around Sunset. However, to her anger, nothing happened. "What is the meaning of this!?"
"The purity of our hearts is no match for the wickedness of yours." Rainbow replied.
"You’ve got it backwards..." Sunset deadpanned.
"Oh... uh, right, sorry." Rainbow cleared her throat. "The wickedness of your heart is no match for the purity of ours!"
Valery grit her teeth. An aura as red as the flames of Hell formed around her. "Fine, if I cannot take one of you..." She held a hand out to her left. "I shall take one that those two still hold dear to them!"
Suddenly, a bloodcurdling scream filled the air. Both girls let go of their geodes and listened intently until a the dark, flaming body of a man seeped out of the walls.
Laney fell to her knees. "No... Daddy..."
Aaron turned his head to Laney, a pleading and remorseful look in his eyes. His screams pierced the souls of those who watched as he was dragged towards Valery. Once he reached her, she picked him up and held him by the neck.
"Go ahead." Valery snarked. "Send me to where you claim I belong. I'll be sure to take extra good care of him."
"We will not allow you to do such a thing!" Sunset held her geode out, firing off a laser at Valery, who grabbed Aaron and used him a ghostly shield. He let out a scream of agony as the beam tore through his body.
Aurora covered her mouth as Valery dropped Aaron to the ground, who groaned.
"He'll be fine." Valery said nonchalantly. She waved a hand over his body and healed the gaping wound. "See? I'm not the bad person that you think I am." She smiled a... less-than-friendly-looking smile to Sunset and Rainbow. "I'm an angel if you'd ever seen one. Would Aurora over there have ever done something like that to the person she claims is her husband? Her eternal love? Of course not. She would have sooner let him die!"
"I would never do that!" Aurora held a hand out, causing a heavenly white aura to appear around Aaron.
Valery stared blankly as Aaron was dragged towards Aurora. Slowly, she turned her head to her side, at which point it ran through the wall. “You insufferable…” Her hair erupted, sending a blast of sweltering heat outwards. “He is mine! ”
“I never legally divorced him, dipshit.” Aurora snarked, a half-hearted grin on her face. She wasn’t exactly happy that she never divorced Aaron, but knowing that it pissed off Valery, and knowing that she had the protection of Sunset and Rainbow, filled her with a justified sense of twisted glee.
Valery’s eye twitched. “Fine.” She landed and took a deep, calm breath before walking over to the hellish circle that she’d made earlier. She stretched her arms out and looked to the ceiling, at which point the flames flew upwards, engulfing her.
“Huh, I guess she gave up,” Rainbow said. “Cool, less work for-”
A large blade flew by Rainbow, nearly skewering her. It embedded itself in the wall, much to the frustration of the now…
Odd-looking Valery.
Rainbow cringed. "And I thought Rarity looked bad when she got angry..."
Valery now looked less like a demon and more like an… abomination. Two extra limbs protruded from her stomach like fangs. That or she wanted to dress up like a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Her face lacked any eyes. Literally; they’d been stitched shut. Her flaming hair had been shaved off; that, or it had finally burned off. On the bright side, her legs now had some extra friends, as she was now an arachnid in spirit, now having a grand total of eight legs for maximum…
Leggage.
“Gaze upon the ultimate beauty that is Valery!”
Rainbow looked at Sunset, who looked at Aurora, who looked at Laney, who looked at Cousin Bucephalus, who looked at his horse, who looked at Sunset Shimmer and winked.
“What are you doing here?” Sunset asked Bucephalus.
“Oh, I just wanted to see what all the commotion was about.” Bucephalus hopped onto his horse. “Seems that Valery is finally getting what she deserves. About time! I've yearned for the day that I could hear her screams of pain!” He looked down at his horse and smiled. “Let us go, Winter! We must go prepare a wonderful party for the others! We shall sing songs of praise to the two who sent her back to the depths of Hell!” He put a hand up to his chin. "How does that song go? Dong-dong the witch is now deceased? Ah, whatever, I'll remember it at some point." With that, he rode off through the wall.
Rainbow nodded, not wishing to question what had just happened. She focused her gaze back on the hideous being that opted to call itself ‘Valery’. “Whatever you say, woman.”
"I am not just a 'woman'!" The two arm-fangs contorted into a V-formation, and a large ball of energy formed between them. "I am Valery the Beautiful, and you will all kneel before me!"
"Oh, piss." Rainbow ducked out of the way, Sunset at her side, as the ball crashed into the wall; exploding with the fury of of a scorned lover. Before either of them could stand up, a large leg stomped down mere inches from their faces.
"The beating of your hearts is so... salacious." Valery let out a seductive purr and extended one of her arms, which snapped into place before it grabbed Sunset by her hair. "Oh, that outfit is so scandalous. Are you trying to upset your parents with that?"
“They’re... jeans.” Sunset noted in a confused tone.
Rainbow facepalmed. "Don't quit your day job, lady." She stood up and threw a punch, striking one of Valery's leg spikes, which caused the... thing to react in a way that Rainbow definitely wasn't expecting.
"Ooooh, yeees."
A shudder of fear and disgust fled Rainbow's mouth. She backed away and wiped her hand on her shirt while she watched as Valery tossed Sunset aside like a discarded toy. "Who was the kind gentleman who decided to give me the time of my life?"
Rainbow wasn't sure what the feeling that filled her was. She wasn't sure she wanted to know. All she knew is that the abomination before her must have a secret stash of fanart (amongst other... more questionable things) of that really warped book that Rarity read and wouldn't shut up about for months about.
As the chaos unfolded in front of her, Aurora stayed huddled in the corner of the room, Laney hiding behind a pillow fort she'd made.
"T-This will keep us safe from her, right mommy?"
Aurora looked at Laney and nodded, which brought a smile to her daughters face. "And so will our friends." Deep down, Aurora felt an ever-growing sense of doubt leech away at the hope that had grown to the point that she had contemplated getting the rest of the family from the bar. She wasn't sure if Laney could see through her lie, but even if she did, there was still a glimmer of hope inside of her. Somewhere.
Laney looked out to see Rainbow help Sunset to her feet. "Should we help them?"
"I... I don't know what we can do." Aurora said, uncertainty filling her every word. "She is far stronger than you and I. She always has been."
Laney whimpered. "Then... what makes you think that they can take her down?"
Aurora rested a hand on Laney's shoulder. "They have something special," she said. "Something very special. Something that even she does not have."
"What's that?" Laney asked in awe.
"A brain."
Meanwhile, Rainbow and Sunset stood en garde.
"Good thinking snapping two of those spiky things off of her legs when she wasn't looking!" Rainbow said. "Then again, I guess she is blind..."
"For the fifth time, I am not blind!" Valery slammed a leg down, once again missing Rainbow by at least fifteen feet. "I am perfectly capable of sight!"
Sunset held a hand up to her mouth and stifled a guttural laugh. She took the spike that she'd snapped off from Valery and ran over to one of her legs, slamming it deep into it and receiving two rewards. The first being a hellish cry of agony from Valery, that was sick, twisted music to Sunset and Rainbow's ears. The second, however, was a slightly less-than desired award.
Wham!
A close encounter of the wall kind, courtesy of a knee-jerk reaction from Valery.
"Ow..." Sunset quickly stood back up and shook off the pain. She darted back over to Valery's leg and snapped off another spike and quickly slammed it into the same one, resulting in yet another cry of pain from the freaky deaky demon that towered over her by at least seven feet.
"Cease this incessant use of my beautiful jewelry for your frivolous games!" Valery wildly flailed her arm-fangs, striking anything and everything except for the two girls.
Rainbow, for her part, had decided against getting back up from where she'd been kicked to. At least, not until Sunset ran over and grabbed her arm.
"You coming or you gonna be lazy?"
"But I was comfy..."
"Get up!" Sunset grabbed Rainbow by the arm and dragged her up. "I'm not gonna fight and potentially die to someone who looks like the result of Frankenstein's Monster having sex with that pregnant brown recluse in the basement!"
"Oh, nice one." Rainbow stood up and clenched her fists. "Alright, Valery! Fight me!"
Valery threw a candlestick at Rainbow, who leaped out of the way.
“Gotta aim better than that!” Rainbow said in a mocking tone. “Then again, you're as blind as-”
Valery threw Rainbow against the wall.
“Cunt…”
Sunset facepalmed. “Rainbow, stop screwing around.” Once again, she helped her friend to her feet. “Focus!”
"I'm trying, but looking at her makes my stomach do more summersaults than Pinkie when she’s had an energy drink!" Rainbow bolted towards Valery before Sunset could so much as take a breath to respond. She ripped a spike clean off of one of her legs and slammed it deep into the same leg, at which point she ran to another leg and repeated the same action.
"W-What are you doing!?" Valery asked. "Cease this insanity at once!"
"You're not my mom!" Rainbow took one of the spikes and thrusted it upwards. She wasn't sure what she'd hit, but she was pretty sure it was important in some way, shape, or form.
"You inconsiderate swine!"
Yeah, it was definitely important.
Rainbow snickered and grabbed her geode. “Yap, yap, shaddap." She aimed it at the last leg and blasted it. "Oh, cool. So it wasn't dampened by your magical gibberish doohickey powers." She aimed it up and blasted the spike up farther.
Valery let put a hellish scream of agony as the spike tore through her, ultimately exiting in a display that, while disgusting, was ultimately satisfying to everyone who wasn't Valery.
"Hm. I dunno about you, but I'm not cleaning this up," Rainbow said as she walked away from the groaning abomination that still insisted it was the abominable individual who called itself ‘Valery’. "So, now what?"
"You sure she's incapacitated?" Aurora asked, a look of hesitation on her face.
Rainbow glanced over at Valery and cringed. "Oh, yeah, she ain't doing anything else." She walked over to Aurora's side, Sunset arriving a few seconds later after she'd stopped retching.
"Ready, Rainbow." Sunset asked weakly.
Rainbow nodded and opened her mouth to speak, only to hear Aurora yell, "It is time to end this!"
Sunset and Rainbow watched as each of the family members returned through the wall, a look of unbridled glee on their face. Well, with the exception of the horse that Bucephalus rode upon.
"Don’t mind him." he said. "He's upset that I woke him up."
"So..." Rainbow eyeballed everyone and tapped her foot. "What are we waiting for?"
Everyone looked at, well, everyone. Except for Valery for obvious reasons. Eventually they all shrugged.
"Well, in that case." Laney said. "Everyone! Attack!"
"Wait!" A young male voice yelled. Suddenly, the sound of metal screeching against hardwood filled the air, which nearly drowned out the voice. "Don't start without me!"
Crash!
The door—along with a sizable portion of the wall—was obliterated as one thousand pounds of metal, steel, string, and musical genius was thrown in Valery's direction. The blind, arachnid-demon-woman-abomination had no time to react as the instrument crashed into her, tearing up parts of the floor and flattening more than a little bit of her body.
"Alright!" A man in a flannel shirt and khakis ran into the room, breathless. "I'm here!"
"W-What did..." Sunset rubbed her eyes. "What in the world did you do!?"
The man turned to Sunset and smiled proudly. "That, little lady, is how Uncle Joe says hello to people he doesn't like!"
Rainbow rubbed her eyes. "How did you move that on your own?"
"Well, the power of the love of my family fuels me with the desire to do good, so it grants me immense strength!" Joe beamed. "But mostly ghostly protein shakes. Lots and lots of protein shakes." He looked over at the piano and then over at Laney. "Don't worry, sport. I'm sure that Larry can fix it again."
"No, I can't!" a gruff voice said from the crowd of ghosts.
"Yes, you can."
"I've fixed it at least fifty times in the past five months," Larry said. "I ain't fixing that again."
Joe calmly walked over. "Don't fix it and you’re bunking with Thaddeus."
Larry sighed. "Fine..."
Before anyone else could speak up, the sound of metal screeching tore through the air, followed by the snapping of bone. From beneath the mangled mess of twisted metal and string, Valery stood up; her body twitching violently. "I... will not be defeated by a bunch of peasants like you!"
The crowd of spirits, along with Sunset and Rainbow, all looked at each other.
"Really?" Joe said after a period of silence that felt like it lasted for far longer than it needed to. "Because you look like you've already lost—and quite badly at that!"
"That is a lie! ” Valery shouted angrily. "You will all bow before me as the greatest queen the world has ever known!"
The spirits collectively shook their heads and each fired out a beam of magic at Valery, forcing her back several feet.
Rainbow looked over at Sunset, who nodded. She aimed her geode at Valery and sent out a beam of (friendly) magic, being followed closely by a beam from Sunset’s geode. The two wove together to create a remarkably beautiful (and dangerous—but still friendly at heart) sight before piercing Valery’s chest; creating a gaping hole in her repulsive—and heavily mangled—body.
Valery felt around where the magic had struck her. “What… what have you done!? ” Suddenly, the ground beneath her collapsed, causing one of her legs to fall down before it was torn off by several charred hands. “You reprehensible monsters! I will have your heads for this!”
To the horror of everyone in the room, the area around, and beneath, Valery erupted into fire, which lashed out at them like it was sapient in nature. A portal opened beneath her, and hundreds of hands grabbed a hold of her before dragging her down.
Valery screamed as her fingernails scraped against the flaming floor. "No! Noooo!"
Just then, demonic laughter came from the hellish portal, followed by a legion of voices. "Valery… we've waited so long for you."
A disheveled Rainbow, Sunset, and Laney stared in horror as Valery was dragged under, screaming in agony and horror as the laughter and screams of the eternally damned echoed throughout the room. Finally, after several agonizingly long seconds, the portal closed with a thunderous roar, and the fire vanished.
Then, everything went deafeningly silent.
"Is... is it over?" Laney asked softly.
Sunset nodded after a few moments. "It's over." She turned to Laney, teary eyed. "She's not going to hurt you or your family any longer."
Laney looked up at Sunset. "F-For real?"
"Yep." Rainbow rested a hand on Laney's shoulder. "She'll never come back!"
Laney craned her head up to Rainbow. A smile slowly formed on both their faces before her attention turned to Aurora, who had been watching from the side of the room the entire time. "M-Mommy! You hear that?" Laney ran over to her mom, her arms outstretched. "She's gone! She's gone for good!"
Rainbow and Sunset stood side-by-side, smiling at the sight. "You know what the best part of helping others is?" Sunset asked.
"Moments like this?" Rainbow asked, her arms crossed.
Sunset nodded and turned to her friend, a smile on her face. "Exactly." She turned her attention back to Laney and Aurora, who were still embraced in a hug. The faint sound of sobbing filled the air. Both girls walked over to the spirits and gave them equally warm smiles.
Aurora looked up and smiled. "Thank you both so much."
"Don't mention it." Rainbow replied. "It's kinda what we do."
Laney broke the hug and looked over at the two girls. “Oh, allow me to introduce you to the other family members!” She zipped over to the crowd of spirits. “There’s Uncle Bob, Uncle Ricky, Uncle Boris, Uncle Philip, Uncle Joe, Aunt Kathy, Aunt Lacy, Aunt Janet, Aunt Betty, Aunt Camille, Cousin Bucephalus, Cousin Thaddeus-” Laney quickly stepped away from him before hurrying over to another ghost- “Cousin Larry, Cousin Steve, Cousin Dave, Grandpa Dan, Grandpa Terry, Grandpa George, Grandpa Greg, Grandpa Alan, Grandma Wilma, Grandma Tracy, Grandma Helen, Grandma Beth, and Grandma Anne.” Laney ran over to the girls and smiled widely at them.
“Right…” Rainbow looked at each of the ghosts and let out a nervous chuckle. “Um… can you repeat who’s who again?”
“Don’t worry.” Bucephalus said. “We must get back to preparing for our celebration of that wicked witch’s defeat. I’m sure that you will get to know all of us in due to time, especially if you are to return like I suspect.” With that, each of the spirits departed from the room, each speaking to one another.
Laney’s smile only widened as Bucephalus’ words echoed in her head. Without warning, she rushed over to Rainbow, giving her a hug; surprising her in the process.
"Oh." Rainbow looked at Sunset and then down at Laney. Awkwardly, she gave the little girl a hug. "Don't mention it, sport."
Laney giggled and ran over to Sunset, giving her a hug too. "You're both the best friends I never had." she said. "But it was worth the wait! This is the best birthday present ever!" She looked up at Sunset, wide-eyed and with a smile that neither girl ever imagined she'd be capable of making. "I love you both."
Rainbow and Sunset both smiled. "I love you too." Sunset replied warmly. She kneeled down and wrapped her arms around Laney, embracing her in a hug.
"I, um... uh, I love you too." Rainbow said, forcing herself to say something that, deep down, made her feel an array of emotions that she was anything but used to. She let out a nervous chuckle and looked at Sunset, who flashed a grin at her, causing Rainbow to roll her eyes.
"I cannot thank you all enough." Aurora walked to the girls and placed a hand on Laney's shoulder. "All of us thank you... and I must apologize for my actions towards both of you throughout the night. They were... inexcusable, but I hope you realize that I haven't been myself in well over a century."
"I understand what it's like to not be in control." Sunset said. "I was once a raging she-demon who had the same fashion sense as Valery."
"Ehh..." Rainbow shook her hand. "I'd say you at had a better fashion sense. You at least looked like you took care of your skin... and clothes." She tapped her chin. "And... yourself." She looked over at Aurora. "Oh, and I forgive you for throwing that book at me… and for taking my clothes."
Aurora laughed. "I'm still willing to give another demonstration as to what I can do."
"Please don't."
"You sure?" Aurora asked. "You look beaten up. I can fix that."
"You can?" Rainbow asked, surprised. "Y-Yeah, please."
Aurora smiled and held a hand out. Her eyes turned a luminous white, and a heavenly light floated out; surrounding both girls. Within a few seconds, their wounds healed. The bones that had been fractured fixed. The cuts mended. The bruises faded away. It was as if the night hadn’t happened. "There."
"Um, excuse me." Laney waved a hand in the air. "But I want to ask: you two said you had to leave in the morning."
Sunset nodded. "That's right."
"Well, I was wondering." Laney looked at the ground and then back up at the two girls. "Will... will I ever see you again?"
Sunset and Rainbow both nodded, after which the former spoke up. “Of course! Though for now, can we go hang out some place that smells less… vile.”
Aurora and Laney both nodded. Without another word, the four of them left Aaron’s room, leaving behind the lingering smell of sulfur and memories now best forgotten by all involved.
Day broke a few hours later. The smell of sulfur still lingered in the air within Aaron’s room, not that anyone knew. Sunset and Rainbow, however, ended up spending the rest of the night listening to Aurora and Laney tell the history of the mansion from what was once Valery's room.
Primarily because it was the only room that had an actual bed. Though there was the added bonus of finally ‘Sticking it to the bitch’ as Rainbow had said.
Once the girls had noticed the sun rising, they stood up. "Well, looks like that's our cue to get going." Sunset said. She looked down at Laney, who had a look of sorrow on her face. She kneeled down and gave her a smile. "Don't worry, we'll be back for Christmas."
"You promise?"
Sunset nodded. "I'll be sure to drag Rainbow too."
"Hey!"
Sunset giggled and looked back at her flustered friend. "Hey, odds are, you'd sleep in."
Rainbow scoffed. "Well, no, I'd..." She frowned. "Yeah, I'd probably sleep in."
Knock knock
Aurora glanced over to the doorway. Her facial expression changed several times, ranging from anger to joy to disdain to perplexion. "Aaron..." She shook her head. "What in the world are you doing here?"
Aaron looked down at Laney, who stared at him blankly. He glanced at Rainbow and Sunset. The former of the two folded her arms and glared claymores at him, while the latter of the two did as he did, and examined everyone else's reactions. Once he'd looked at everyone, he looked back at over at Aurora and shook his head. A look of sadness spread across his face.
He raised a hand, darkening the room. In one swift motion, he brought his arm down, which caused a small ball of light fall down from the ceiling. A second one fell not too long after, which was followed by a third. Soon, the entire room was illuminated by a series of balls of light, none of them larger than a dime.
"What's going on?" Sunset asked.
Aurora remained speechless. Her eyes were fixated on the sight that her former husband had created. A few of the balls floated in front of her, created a small heart, which danced around her.
Sunset and Rainbow watched as a few of the balls mimicked the action around Laney before doing the same around them. They looked up at the doorway in time to see Aaron nod in their direction and walk away.
"So... what's this all about?" Rainbow asked.
Aurora fell to her knees and sobbed. "He... remembered."
“Remembered what?” Sunset asked, her eyes fixated on the heart-shaped light that continued to orbit her.
“Their anniversary.” Laney replied. “Daddy… never remembered it. Daddy was always too fixated on Valery. He was infatuated by her and never let her out of his sight.” A sigh escaped Laney’s ghostly mouth. She walked over to Aurora’s side and rested a hand on her back before turning her attention back to the two girls. “I’m honestly surprised that Mommy’s as emotional as she is. I didn’t think she felt any goodwill towards Daddy anymore.”
“I… I don’t.” Aurora let out a few shaky breaths before standing up. “I can never forgive him for what he’s done to me and Laney… but to see him do such a thing after all of this time…”
“It must mean a lot to you.” Sunset said.
Aurora gave a slight nod and raised a hand to the ceiling, at which point the balls of light ascended and vanished into it. “You two said you were going to be headed off, correct?”
“Yup.” Rainbow glanced over to Sunset. “Ready to go?”
“Don’t you think we should stay a bit longer to help-”
“Don’t worry about us.” Aurora replied. “I’ll handle Aaron on my own. It’s something I’ve been meaning to do for a very long time now.” She looked down at Laney. “And I believe that you’d also like to try to mend old wounds, too?”
“Yeah…” Laney looked down at the floor and then over to the two girls. “Just make sure that you come back! You two are like family now… only alive.”
Sunset giggled. “We will, don’t worry.” She stood up and walked to the doorway, Rainbow in tow. “So long, and take care!”
“Bye!” Laney said, a hint of sadness in her voice.
“Take care!” Aurora added. She let out a sigh and walked out of the room and then up the stairs before vanishing.
The two girls grabbed their backpacks from the couch and left the house, a sense of sadness filling them as they did so. Although the night had been eventful, to say the absolute least, they couldn't help but wish the night had lasted just a little longer. If only so they could see the gleeful look in Laney's ghostly eyes.
"Man, I just realized something." Rainbow entered Sunset's car and placed her backpack in the back seat. "I didn't take any pictures for my mom."
"Ah, don't worry." Sunset said as she did the same. "I'm sure she'll understand if you tell them that you were too caught up exploring the place." She fastened her seat belt and ruffled Rainbow's hair. "Besides, not like she'll ground you or something."
"Yeah, but I still feel bad when I see her disappointed." Rainbow fastened her own seat belt and slouched in her seat slightly. "I... actually feel a little sad." She cringed as the words exited her mouth. "Just a little though! Just a little! "
"Seriously?" Sunset asked in surprise, more so than at any point throughout the night.
"Yes." Rainbow reluctantly said.
"Well, good to know that you care so much for your mommy." Sunset said with a chuckle. She turned her car on and looked over at Rainbow. "Anyways, let me ask you a weird question..." she said. "Did Valery really remind you of Rarity?"
Rainbow Dash nodded. "A shame she was trying to kill us. I would've taken a selfie with her before we left." she said. "Woulda sent it to Rarity and asked if it was her grandmother."
Sunset made a u-turn and drove out of the woods and back out onto the road. "What if she really was related to Valery?"
Rainbow thought for a moment as the warmth of the morning sun entered the car; a welcome gift after an entire night of being in a drafty mansion. "Well, then at least it'd explain that why that crazy bitch was so vain."
Sunset giggled. "Valery or Rarity?" she asked with a silly face.
Rainbow facepalmed. "Don't quit your day job, Sunny."
"Oh, c'mon." Sunset replied. "It wasn't that bad... was it?"
"It was pretty bad." Rainbow slouched further down into her seat as the sun shone over the horizon. Although she'd only been gone from the house for a little over a minute, she already missed them. Well, most of them. The mere thought of saying that she missed Valery made her physically ill. After a bit, she glanced over at Sunset, who herself looked a little sad. The light from outside glistened in her eyes, which at least made Rainbow feel a little less silly for feeling so emotional. "So... we are gonna go back, right?"
"Of course." Sunset replied. She slowed down at a stop sign and looked down at Rainbow, who unknowingly had a tear roll down her cheek. "I take it you miss ‘em already?"
Rainbow let out a shaky sigh and nodded. She rubbed her eyes and shook her head. "Yeah… but that's not why I'm crying."
"Oh?" Sunset turned her head back and pressed down on the accelerator. "Then why are you?"
"It's... just having seen Laney be so happy." Rainbow turned her head to Sunset. "I've never seen someone so happy. So relieved. After all that doubt and despair she showed whenever we said we were going to help her... to see her like that makes me feel..." Another tear ran down Rainbow's face. "I never thought something could melt my heart so quickly..."
Sunset herself felt a tear run down her face. "Yeah... I know what you mean." she said. "But don't worry. We'll be back there in about a month to see her again. And this time, we won't have to worry about a maniacal ghost."
"Yeah. It'll be awesome," Rainbow said. "Think we can get her a Christmas present?"
"Sure." Sunset once more slowed down and looked at Rainbow. "Though... what exactly are we going to get a ghost?"
Rainbow thought for a moment. "I'm sure we'll think of something," she said Sunset pressed down on the gas pedal. "What do you think the others will say when we tell them about this?"
“I'm sure they’ll probably wanna see it for themselves.” Sunset replied. “Maybe we can drag them there at some point before Christmas.”
“Ya think Fluttershy will wanna go?” Rainbow asked.
“She’d probably get along with Bucephalus.” Sunset giggled. “Maybe even Rarity will, what with his gentlemanly ways.”
“Heh, yeah, good point.” Rainbow said with a chuckle. “Just promise me one thing.”
“What's that?” Sunset asked.
“Next time we go, if we dance again, I get to lead this time.”
Sunset giggled. “Deal.”
Rainbow let out a small cheer before resting her head against the window. "So, where are we headed?"
"Well, I was thinking we could go by Sugarcube Corner and tell everyone how our night there was. Then, maybe go to the spa." Sunset replied. "Why don't you rest until we get there? You looked beat."
"That's an understatement." Rainbow said. She let out a yawn and shut her eyes. "Sounds like a plan though..." Before either girl knew it, Rainbow had fallen asleep, letting out a few light snores as she did so.
A smile crept onto Sunset's face. "You've earned it, Rainbow."
Sunset and Rainbow casually finished their milkshakes, pretending to not notice that their friends were staring at them with faces that matched the one Princess Twilight sported after Pinkie flawlessly guessed her situation. Needless to say, they had just finished recounting their time in the mansion.
"We'll explain more later," Sunset said as she and Rainbow got up. "Right now, we're gonna head to the spa."
"See ya, guys." Rainbow waved bye as she and Sunset left.
The five others just sat and stared at the place the two had just been.
...
"I knew it!" Pinkie yelled with a fist pump.
Author's Note
This ends Visit 1 of this fic. The next part will be written in a few months (at once like this was), and will be then be published over the course of a few days like this part was. Hope you all enjoyed this though!
