Rainbow slowly turned in the air, looking at all the doors on their floor. "Okay," she declared, "We know what's in the Study, and the Lounge is locked."
Pinkie, holding a map in her hooves and a red marker in her mane, waved one hoof in the air. "Why don't we check," she jabbed her hoof randomly on the paper, "That one?" Rainbow looked over her shoulder.
"That's the Library. We literally just came from there," she told Pinkie with a deadpan expression. Her response was only to silently slide her hoof to a different room. Rainbow checked. "That's the Billiard Room." She paused, then shrugged. "Well, it's as good a place to start as any."
She flew away quickly, leaving a rainbow streak behind her. Pinkie crossed the Library off of the map with a red marker and shoved them both back into her mane, cheerfully bouncing after Rainbow.
Fluttershy and Sugar Belle stood at the bottom of a rickety wooden staircase. A dim, flickering lightbulb was the only source of light. Without windows, the wind and rain sounded louder and much more foreboding.
All of this made the two unwilling to venture on. They stood there, their knees shaking and quivering.
"Y-you can go first," said Sugar Belle, "I-I-I'll be right behind you." Fluttershy shook her head.
"N-n-no, I think you should go first." She took small steps back. Sugar Belle matched her movement.
This continued until they were almost at the end of the hallway. Sugar Belle stopped suddenly. "T-this is silly," she said, "If there's two of us, we can't be hurt. L-let's go together." Fluttershy nodded. The two walked back to the stairs.
With a little squeezing, the two were able to walk up the stairs side by side. This new idea of safety in numbers helped them to relax, and by the time they were halfway up to the attic, they had stopped shaking.
A crash of thunder rang through the house.
The two mares screamed and quickly ran back down the stairs, where they huddled together.
Rarity held her hoof an inch above the first step, biting her lip. She would continuously try to place her hoof on the icky wood, only to pull it right back.
Twilight, who was watching from the bottom of the stairs, rolled her eyes. "Come on, Rarity," she groaned, "We have less than half an hour left." Rarity flinched and froze. Twilight lit up her horn, ready to use magic, before Rarity closed her eyes tightly and ran down the stairs.
She ended up crashing into Twilight. The two unicorns tumbled onto the hard, damp concrete floor. Rarity shrieked as she felt her dress absorbing the moisture. Twilight grunted and focused on keeping her horn lit to light the area.
After some struggling, Twilight got up onto her hooves. She often a hoof to Rarity, who quickly accepted it. Rarity lit her own horn. Purple and blue light reflected off of slimy walls and shiny metals, as magic that kept water flowing and lights going thrummed around them.
Twilight pointed into the dark depths of the basement. "Let's finish this quickly," she said before marching on. Rarity followed with a shiver.
Applejack and Key Keeper stopped in front of two doors. "These are the guest and master bedrooms," explained Key Keeper, "though QC really just seemed to use them for storage."
Applejack nodded. "Why don't we separate? Ah'll check this one, and you check the other. It would save time." Key Keeper put a hoof to his chin.
"It is quite sensible," he said. "Very well. Good luck in your search," he called as he entered the master bedroom. Applejack entered the guest bedroom, gulping once she saw the mountains of items piled in, veiled by shadows.
Rainbow and Pinkie trotted out of the Billiard Room. Pinkie had grabbed the billiard balls off the pool table and was juggling them as they walked along.
Rainbow was grumbling. "Nothing at all. And there's not many more rooms we can check." She flew to the nearest door, opening it and turning on the lights.
It was the large, empty Ball Room. Rainbow was about to turn away, since there was nowhere somepony could hide, when she heard a gasp and clatter from behind her. Pinkie was pointing one shaking hoof at the curtains.
"There's somepony hiding there!," she said in a stage whisper. Rainbow looked at the curtains for a second and rolled her eyes. "That's just the wind." Pinkie harshly whispered, "That's just what they want you to think!"
Rainbow took to the air. "Alright, you can check them. I'm going to search the Kitchen." And with that, she flew off, using the room as a shortcut. Pinkie crouched low to the ground and creep towards the shifting cloth.
The window howled, the rain pounded down, thunder rumbled. Pinkie froze as the curtains fluttered rapidly, before resuming her catlike creep.
She rose up onto her hind hooves.
She flung open the curtains with a gasp.
That gasp morphed into a disappointed "Ah!" when she saw that there was just a crack in the window, and that it was, as Rainbow had said, "Just the wind." She closed the curtains and bounced to the door.
"So there's no way somepony behind this could hide up there." "Yes." "So there's no reason why we should go." "I agree."
Fluttershy nodded to her statement. Sugar Belle looked pleased with herself. The two were still clinging onto each other, with shivers and shakes traveling down their spines and hooves.
The two sat like that for a minute. They both let out a sigh, and turned back to the stairs. With a deep breath, they rushed up together. They began to cheer and compliment each other as Sugar Belle began to open the door to the attic.
A crash of thunder rang out again.
With a shriek, Fluttershy fell backward, landing in awkward heap at the foot of the stairs, while Sugar Belle fell forward, sending a cloud of dust up as she landed in the attic. The two lay dazed.
Twilight paused as they walked. Rarity, after noticing the light becoming dimmer, turned around. "Twilight?," she called. Twilight flinched and turned to her.
"I was running a few scans," she explained, "And this part of the wall is somehow different from the rest." Rarity came back quickly to look. Examining the wall closely, she pointed to something- a seam, barely noticeable, that separated that section from the rest of the wall.
Twilight's horn glowed brighter, and Rarity quickly stepped away. "I'm going to see what this is," said Twilight. "Why don't you go on ahead?"
Rarity opened her mouth, about to protest being alone down here- it was damp, and she swore she heard rats- but the sheer heat and light of Twilight's gathering power made her close her mouth and continue.
The sound of magic blasting and stone crumbling echoed behind her.
A hoof pulled out a key, unlocking the wooden cupboard with a soft click. The figure gently lifted up one of the gems- the red lightning bolt. They began to hurry out of the room.
The figure paused at the door, turning back to the desk. With one swift motion, six folders and two tape recordings were in the fireplace. A shower of sparks flew over the carpet as the flames flared and devoured the items.
The figure rushed out of the door without pause or hesitation.
"I'm a bit nervous," said Scootaloo over the phone. She kept glancing around the room. "Can you get me the directions quickly? I really don't want to be here for too long."
A pause in the conversation. Scootaloo soon replied, "Well, it's a really creepy mansion, and I've been locked into the Lounge." She grabbed a pen in her hoof, focusing on writing on the paper in front of her. She stopped glancing around.
The fireplace began to slowly, silently open on its hidden hinges. A figure crept slowly out as Scootaloo kept talking and writing. "Well, there's some ponies here who seem to be having some kind of party. And one of them is-"
She suddenly whirled around as the figure stepped on a creaky floorboard. She inhaled to scream.
A blast of red magic came from the gem, wrapping around her head, quickly consolidating into a thin rope as she lost consciousness.
As Scootaloo crumpled, that rope of light faded. The figure gently placed the gem on her chest, and hung up the phone with a soft click.
The figure zipped back through the closing fireplace, rushing to get back to their half of the pair.