Rainbow and Pinkie met in front of the Conservatory. "Anything?," asked Rainbow. Pinkie shook her head. Grumbling, Rainbow opened the door. Pinkie bounced in, with Rainbow following, a sullen look on her face.
She ranted as Pinkie sniffed at a cocoa bean pod. "This is ridiculous! How could somepony hide on this floor anyway? It's a wide open area with nine rooms! We would have seen them by now!" She curled up on the floor with a pout. "What was I even thinking?"
She suddenly stood and began to pace as Pinkie spat out several of the beans. Rainbow's hoof came in contact with a small pebble. Out of reflex, she gave it a kick. It sailed through the air in a large, graceful arc, while both ponies' eyes followed.
It came in contact with the glass.
Both ponies were shocked when a green beam of magic shot out, charring a hole where Rainbow's hoof had been a second ago. She leapt back with a yelp, her back pressed against the brick wall.
A second surprise came when that wall opened inwards, causing Rainbow to fall onto the floor with another yell.
She stood up briskly as Pinkie cautiously approached, keeping an eye on the glass. "A secret passage!," she said in a hushed whisper. "Where do you think it leads?"
Rainbow rolled her eyes. "We don't have to whisper, Pinkie. There's nopony here."
"They could be lying in wait in there!," she pointed with a shaky hoof.
"With what kind of weapon? We have more things to use in a fight, if we need to retreat back here," Rainbow pointed to the wall of sharp gardening tools. She started to fly in, but Pinkie grabbed her tail.
"Don't go! It could be a unicorn with freaky magic waiting!"
Rainbow turned to her, annoyed. "Look, there's no danger!," she exclaimed as her hoof swung out, knocking over a burlap sack. It fell onto the ground, a large cloud of dirt and dust floating up from it.
Their eyes widened slowly as the cloud began to drift towards the window. Rainbow grabbed Pinkie under her forehooves and flew down the dark passage, leaving a rainbow streak. Sounds of magic and flashes of green light came from behind them.
Rainbow flew so quickly, she smashed her nose against the brick wall at the end of the corridor. She flew to the ground and dropped Pinkie, rubbing at her sore muzzle. Pinkie stood up to inspect the door. "Interesting…this is too 'bricky' to be a disguised pony…" she mumbled to herself.
Before Rainbow could groan, Pinkie screamed, making her jump into the air. She stood on her back hooves, forehooves in a fighting position, only to find that the wall had opened in front of them like a door.
She sent a small glare to Pinkie, who sheepishly grinned back. Playfully rolling her eyes, Rainbow stepped forward, Pinkie following her.
"This looks like a new room," Pinkie commented as she gazed at the soft couches and pale carpet. When she got no reply, she looked at Rainbow, who was staring forward with a blank look on her face. "What's- OH MY CELESTIA!," shrieked Pinkie as she followed her gaze.
Laying on the carpet was Scootaloo, her eyes wide open and grey. Rainbows knees buckled, and she partially collapsed, before she gained a burst of energy and ran towards the young pegasus. She frantically checked for a breath and a pulse.
They both sighed in relief when she found that while her breath was shallow and pulse slow, she was still alive.
The two heard a click behind them. They whirled around to find that their entrance, the fireplace, had closed itself.
Pinkie let out the loudest scream of the night. Upstairs, Fluttershy and Sugar Belle leapt up onto their hooves. Sugar Belle half-ran, half-tripped down the stairs, and the two ran through the hall side by side.
They fell into a heap as Applejack and Key Keeper burst out of the bedrooms and ran into them.
The pile of ponies got back up onto their hooves quickly, incited by the continued shrieks. "What's happening?," wailed Fluttershy as the four ran down the stairs. They slid across the tile floor from their momentum, only stopped from crashing into the wall by magenta magic.
An exhausted Twilight leaned against Rarity for support as the two came from the cellar. She quickly dropped her magic when they were safe, giving her smoking horn some rest.
"Where are they at?," Applejack pressed. Pinkie's screaming grew louder, and banging came from the other side of the Lounge door.
"The Lounge!," exclaimed Key Keeper, pulling his ring of keys out of his pocket. The ponies gathered around him as he inserted the key into the lock.
The handle began to violently shake, Rainbow calling out, "Get us out of here!" The jostling causing the key ring to fall onto the fall. Key Keeper gasped, "My organized key ring! No!"
Fluttershy picked it up quickly, handing it to the butler, who cradled it like a wounded bird. "My organization…" he sobbed. "Now I don't now which key is which! They all look the same!" The ponies gasped. Pinkies screams shifted to wails.
"It's okay, we'll find something, darling!," shouted Rarity. She turned to Twilight. "Any ideas?" Twilight brought a hoof up to her chin, making a small hum. Her horn smoked and sparked.
"I could try…" she trailed off as she grunted and activated her horn. For a second, magic surrounded the lock, wrapping itself around the tumblers and mechanisms. But just like with QC's escape attempt, her magic slid off. "It's no good," she bemoaned. "I could blast it, bypassing the anti-magic effect with a greater magic quantity than it can handle, but I don't have enough energy. It'll take hours to recover the needed power."
Rarity turned to Key Keeper. "Oh, haven't you found the key yet?" He whirled to her. "My system is violated," he moaned. "It'll take days for me to recover." Rarity let out a low growl of annoyance.
From the other side of the door, Rainbow yelled, "That's IT! Time to bust our way out!" A second later, there was a loud thud, and the door shook, but remained locked. A pained and irritated groan came from Rainbow.
Fluttershy, Rarity, and Applejack discussed what to do. Key Keeper mourned, Twilight massaged her horn, and Pinkie kept shrieking and banging on the door. Suddenly, Sugar Belle gasped suddenly. "Twilight, could you use a power source to recharge your magic?" Twilight thought for a second before nodding slowly.
Sugar Belle grinned and galloped into the study. When she came back, levitating an object with her, everypony quickly backed away once they saw it- the magenta star gem. Fluttershy whimpered and huddled on the ground.
"What are you doing with that?!," yelled Twilight. Sugar Belle levitated it over to her, replying, "You said it was powerful. Can't you use it to power up for one blast?" Twilight stayed silent, her mouth twisting, before she finally took the artifact into her own aura.
She backed away from the door. The crowd quickly stepped a good distance away themselves, Applejack pulling back the huddling Fluttershy by her tail. Twilight drew energy from the gem, magenta magic flowing into her horn. Sparking and sputtering, it shone with a bright light, one that made everypony who glanced at it shiver and tremble.
Pinkie suddenly stopped screaming, leaning down to look through the keyhole. "Ooh, bright!," she said, before having the breath knocked out of her lungs as Rainbow tackled her to the side.
A bolt of blinding magenta light blew the handle and lock across the room, leaving a smoking hole in the doors. They slowly creaked open. Applejack rushed to catch Twilight as she crumpled from exhaustion, dropping the gem onto the floor.
Rainbow and Pinkie stepped out of the Lounge. "You guys," wailed Pinkie, grabbing Rarity and Sugar Belle, "Just look!" And she dragged them into the room, showing them the unconscious Scootaloo. Everypony gathered around the pegasus and began to murmur.
"Did you-" Rarity started as she tied the lightning gem to Scootaloo's forehoof with a handkerchief. Pinkie's eyes widened, and she answered, "No! We just searched the Conservatory and made a mess and flew down the secret passage and found her…together!," she finished. Rainbow nodded.
Key Keeper, who had been shifting the keys along the key ring, suddenly looked up. "Sugar Belle," he stated blankly, "how did you get that gem from the cupboard?" Sugar Belle said, "It…it was unlocked. And open." Everypony's eyes became wife with horror, and they ran to the Study.
The cupboard was open. Only the apple and butterfly shaped gems were left. "How did you know it was open?," Rarity questioned nervously. Sugar Belle gasped, "I didn't! I was going to unlock it with magic! I just remembered how Twilight said they could have other properties, and thought it could be a power source!"
Applejack stepped up. "Everypony, calm down. We have three cases to figure out now, and less time than we did before." She looked around the room. "Now, which pair can say they were with their partner the entire time?"
Nopony raised their hooves. Applejack facepalmed. "Seriously? We split into pairs, and y'all split your groups?" Fluttershy mumbled under her breath, "I didn't do it…intentionally."
They all froze as the doorbell rang. Pinkie whispered, "Maybe they'll just go away." Rainbow nodded, raising a hoof to hos lips in a "shushing" gesture. The entire group held their breath. The doorbell rang again, and then again.
Fluttershy trembled before quietly stating, "I'm going to open it." Pinkie gasped, and Rainbow clamped her mouth shut before she could scream. "Are you crazy?!," Rainbow hissed between her teeth. Fluttershy stood tall and approached Key Keeper, taking the key ring delicately from his hoof.
The crowd stood back and watched as Fluttershy tried all the keys on the door. As one of them finally clicked, letting the door open, they held their breath.
I'm back!
Sorry it's been so long. I kind of lost interest in the fandom for a little bit... But the new upcoming season is something I'm excited for!
I'm going to (try to) update this story every weekend until it's finished. I hope I don't lose interest again...
Nothing much to say about this chapter, except for a fun fact: cocoa powder, the main ingredient of chocolate, is actually bitter. Not sweet.