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Rainbow Game, Room 4
High and Low
The next room Viola entered was surprisingly small. It was round, with four closed doors, a single TV screen on the center wall, and only just enough space to fit all the fluffies.
What was going on? They looked around, the same question unspoken on everyone’s mind, and as the final fluffies entered the door behind them closed.
While she tried to make sense of it, a sense of dread crept into Viola’s heart. Would they have to relinquish their balls already? Right after sacrificing poor Toy Boat to get them back? That wasn’t fair… But there wasn’t any hole to put the balls into either, all the wall space was taken up by the doors and TV screen. So what was this? What were they supposed to do?
“Bunny,” Lolo spoke up, “yu said yu did dis befowe. What shud fwuffies do?”
That was true! Bunny had cleared two challenges before, so surely he knew! But as everyone’s eyes turned to him, the bunnyfluff shrank back with a fearful look. “N-Nu, dis… Dis am the wong woom. Dis nu am what Bunny an’ Puwpwe did.”
Huh?
“B-But Bunny did dis befowe!” Viola couldn’t help but blurt out. Lolo furrowed her brow.
“How can dis be the wong woom …?”
“Bunny nu know! But dis… dis am new tu Bunny, too!”
Before this new reveal could sink in, the screen on the wall lit up. The Rainbow Game logo wasn’t even on it this time, just its colorful mascot lightly swaying from side to side with its closed eyes and wide smile. Had it … always done that? The buzz of Daddy’s speakers crackling to life ensured all attention was on the mascot and then it waved, something Viola was certain it had never done before. It even opened its mouth, speaking in Daddy’s crackly voice. “Since there’s an even number of fluffies left, this room will be a group challenge. The colors will be divided into groups of two and placed into identical rooms.”
Groups of two? Would they have to pick someone to go with? Who would she pick? Just about anyone would be good… Duffle was strong, Lolo and Snaggle were smart, Ghost was a good friend…
“Indigo and white will enter door one,” the mascot spoke again, pointing to one of the doors, which slid into the floor to reveal a passage. Viola felt a pang of both disappointment and relief at the same time, hearing that she wouldn’t need to choose after all. But while Ghost seemed okay with this arrangement, Indigo let out a little gasp of dismay and flipped her ears down.
“Wha? Why Indigo haf tu go wif Ghost?” she complained. “Wan go wif Wowo an’ Snaggwe, nu scawy Ghost!”
Ghost all but recoiled. Viola’s heart ached for him as the white fluffy faltered and looked aside; it couldn’t be easy to be called scary like that, so offset Indigo’s words she gave Ghost a hug. The little filly didn’t seem to realize what she had just done, hurrying to Lolo as she was the closest, then getting wide-eyed as the old mare glared at her.
“Meanie babbeh,” Lolo reprimanded the foal. “Ghost hewped get yu baww back, den yu caww Ghost scawy jus’ fow being diffewent? Yu think dat am faiw?”
“Ww-weww… nu…” Indigo frowned, scraping a hoof at the floor. “But am jus… mmn…”
“Indigo and white, enter door one,” Daddy’s voice reminded them, the mascot gaining an annoyed frown. “Failure to do so will result in removal from the game.”
The threat was obvious and Ghost wasted little time in going through the door, pausing in the doorway as Lolo pushed Indigo to follow. The foal hurried to Ghost’s side and the moment both fluffies were through the door snapped shut, causing a startled yelp from Indigo on the other side. Daddy’s mascot regained its usual wide smile and pointed to another newly opening door. “Green and red will enter door two.”
Snaggle took a moment to bid Blue farewell, whispering something to the unicorn that Viola could not hear, then approached Bunny. The bunfluff was trying his hardest not to sprint through the door the moment it opened, but his unease was palpable.
“The chawwenge dat Bunny an’ Puwpwe did,” Snaggle spoke, despite the short time available. “If it nu was dis, what was it?”
Bunny tapped a hind leg hurriedly at the floor, taking a hop toward the door. For half a moment he seemed about to protest but then decided against it, taking the path of least resistance. “Was fiyah! Big wong woomie dat stawted tu buwn, wike wace twack! Nao come on!”
With that he turned and bounded through the open door before Daddy could get annoyed, Snaggle following suit. Again the path slammed shut behind them, and Daddy opened the third door.
“Black and yellow will enter door three.”
Black and yellow, that was Duffle and Lolo… The old mare didn’t seem too keen on it, looking to Viola with a furrowed brow. “Viowa… Wiww yu be otay?”
Viola nodded, and watched as the two reluctantly left. Toy Boat’s death had left scars in everyone, but it still didn’t feel like it had truly happened. So she was fine, right? It wasn’t until Daddy announced the final duo that she realized; it wasn’t Toy Boat’s death that had worried the old mare so.
“Violet and blue will enter the final door.”
Her body suddenly felt cold. Blue? She turned to the unicorn, and the way the other fluffy looked made her fur crawl. Its expression was normal, but … no, that was the issue. The very fact it was normal. Blue was coated in its dead friend’s fresh blood, eyes near-blank, but with an expression that said nothing had happened. Up close, the fluffy’s denial was terrifying.
Having been commanded to enter, Blue calmly trotted through the door that had opened for them without a second thought, and Viola slumped.
No choice. She had to come along, no matter how she felt about Blue right now. So she quickly double-checked that her wooden ball was safely on her back, cast a final glance around the room -
and stopped.
Was that her ball lying on the floor? But, she was already carrying one… Viola took the ball from her back and double-checked, but it matched her fur as perfectly as before. The other ball was a different shade, something a little bit bluer - and then it hit her.
That was Indigo’s ball. With the shock of Daddy’s threat and the hurried way the others had left, it must have been forgotten! And Snaggle had been so busy, and Lolo so distracted by concern about Viola, and Duffle too big to see it, and Bunny too stressed - everyone had overlooked it.
“Violet.” The Daddy mascot was staring down at her, leaned closer to the screen keeping them separated, and Viola jumped. No, nevermind why nobody had picked up the ball! She had to bring it along!
“W-Wait! Am going!” She sprinted over to Indigo’s ball and hurriedly rolled it along, having to balance her own ball as it threatened to tumble off. For a moment she thought to ask Blue for help, but the dumb unicorn was already out of sight! Her heart was beating in her ears as she finally reached the door, fearful of it closing any second, but it remained open until she had gone through - and then snapped shut, so close behind her that her butt went into the air and she fell on her face.
“Owwie…” she sniffled, holding her snout and trying to calm her racing heart. She was safe, she was through, she had her ball right there on her back… She could feel it weighing against her fluff, righ-?
There was no weight on her back. The thought of it having fallen during her sprint brought her heart back to a panic and Viola could barely breathe as she looked up, finding herself in a short, dark hallway. Close by, lying against a turn in the hall, lay two balls - both purple, illuminated by light from the upcoming room.
It was safe… Both of them had gotten through. Viola allowed herself to tear up, slumping back onto the floor to recuperate for a bit. She’d done it. Indigo’s ball, and her own, were accounted for.
She just hoped that Indigo could clear the challenge without it…
Her rest felt both too long and too short at the same time. While worry and loneliness told Viola to move, a much bigger part of her was saying to stay where she was forever. She couldn’t be hurt that way, couldn’t be part of any horrid games or votes. If she just hid and waited, would that be so bad? Wouldn’t that safety be better than the fears ahead? Though she logically knew the answer, her heart had too big a say.
“Oh! Fwen?”
Viola glanced up to see a blood-stained blank visage, and instinctively shrieked in horror before realizing it was just Blue. Had the unicorn come back for her?! Of all her new friends, Blue was the one fluffy she wouldn’t have expected to return, not after the first challenge and Toy Boat’s death - but now it was there, summarily scooping her into a hug despite her startled reaction.
“Why fwen am hewe?” asked Blue. “Wet’s go!”
All of a sudden, the decision to stay or move was no longer up to Viola. Blue made a move to place her on its back, then thought better of it due to the balls it was carrying and instead took the young fluffy in its mouth, carrying her by the scruff as it walked down the hallway. Viola tried to protest and squirm, not yet ready to face what lay beyond, and had to cry for Blue not to forget the two purple balls - and then, before she could even cover her eyes, they had entered the next room.
It was … familiar. Viola’s distress all but evaporated as she looked around with wide eyes. The room made her think of her owner’s living room back home, but if it didn’t have colors. Everything was white and gray and beige, with shelves and hard couches and boxes standing about the carpeted floor.
As she wiggled free of Blue’s grip, Viola carefully surveyed the strange room. What was this? There was a door on the other side of the room, at the top of a little staircase, but it was shut tight just like the other ones. Would they have to do something to open it? Viola climbed up the stairs with a bit of effort and looked, but there was nothing there. No round holes to put their balls into, no TV screens for Daddy’s mascot to give advice with, just a big door.
There had to be something… Right? Sitting on the stairs, Viola watched the room. There was no real color other than Blue, the balls, and a round green thing on the wall… But then she saw it! A hole!
It wasn’t round, but instead square. Maybe there was a toy blockie to put into it? She hurried down to the hole and went to poke her snout inside, only to be stopped by criss-crossing lines of plastic.
Oh, she realized with a pang of disappointment. It wasn’t a hole at all, just some kind of grate. But with her nose all pressed up to it, she could see through to another room. It looked just as white and colorless as her own, but there were voices inside and furry legs in black and yellow - Viola gasped in delight. “Wowo!”
The two fluffies on the other side stopped talking, and Viola called again. “Down hewe! Widdwe boxie howe!”
A few moments later Lolo leaned down to the hole, equal amounts surprised and relieved. “Viowa, what am yu doing hewe?” she asked. “Am yu doing otay?”
“Yus, Viowa am otay, but nu know what tu do!” Viola indicated the space around her. “Wowo am smawtie fwuffy, su does Wowo know?”
“Nu wisten?” The old mare’s head tilted. “Daddeh said what tu do. Said tu ‘wemove aww cowows’.”
Remove all colors? She hadn’t heard anything like that… But, then again, Viola guessed that she had been lying near the door for a small forever… Embarrassment flushed her violet cheeks. “Oh… Um, Viowa nu heaw dat.”
“Bwue nu heaw eithew?”
“Ah…” As embarrassment twisted to shame in her gut, Viola glanced to Blue but quickly turned away again. Just the brief visage of his blue fur drenched in red was enough to make her tremble. “Viowa… sowt of… nu ask. Bwue am a bit scawy…”
Was she going to be yelled at? Like Indigo had been for calling Ghost scary? Viola knew it was wrong to be scared; it wasn’t Blue’s fault it had been close to Toy Boat and it wasn’t Blue’s fault that Toy Boat went away. It wasn’t, and Viola steeled herself for Lolo to say so. But the chiding never came. “Wowo undewstands,” the old mare instead said, eyes shadowed by sorrow. “And Wowo am sowwy. Bwue am… huwting.”
“Mm,” was all Viola managed to reply. She knew that. Of course she knew that. Beyond the bloody fur and blank eyes and cheerful act, what made her so unable to look at Blue was that very knowledge. An ache deep in her chest that something bad had happened, something too bad for any words or hugs to solve. Something she had no answer to other than trying to forget it happened at all.
She rubbed her eyes as tears tried to fill them, and Lolo’s frown deepened. “Yu shud tawk tu Bwue.”
“Otay… Viowa wiww, wiww twy.” Viola nodded and stabilized her quivering breath, pushing Toy Boat’s tragedy out of her mind. As she glanced to Blue once more she took notice of the colorful balls, and at once remembered; “Wowo? Can yu tawk tu othew woomies tuu?”
“Wiww see.”
“Yus,” came Bunny’s voice, distant and barely audible from somewhere behind Lolo. With those long ears, had he listened in on everything? Even from so far away? “Aww wooms haf widdwe window howes.”
“Dat’s gud…” murmured Viola. Lolo tilted her head.
“Why do yu ask?”
“Viowa haf Indigo’s baww. Was weft behind when othew fwuffies went away,” she explained. Sudden shock marred Lolo’s features, she near recoiling a step at the news.
“Fwuffies… Fowget?” the old mare asked weakly, guiltily. “Wowo nu even notice… Am su sowwy, Viowa. And thank yu.” She gently touched her snout to the criss-crossing plastic. “Wiww make suwe Indigo knows. And wemembew, wemove aww cowows.”
Viola tapped her snout to the grate as well, watching Lolo vanish from sight before turning back to the room. Blue was sitting and looking at her, head tilted curiously at the conversation she’d been having. “What fwen doing?”
“Bwue…” Even though Lolo had asked her to try, Viola didn’t know what to say. It was so hard to focus when Blue looked this way, clueless and bloodied. “Weww… um…” She had to say something, right? So, trying to focus on the parts that weren’t bloody, she ended up blurting: “Am Bwue boy ow giww fwuffy?”
Blue looked blank. “What dat?”
“Um… Um, it…” Viola tried to find a way to explain, but she didn’t know! A boy was a boy and a girl was a girl! “Wike… Wike stawwions an’ mawes!”
“Fwuffy nu know.”
How did it not know?? Viola had to resign herself to the fact that Blue was and remained an ‘it’, though the tangent did help calm her nerves and as her eyes wandered, the green spot on the wall reminded her of their task. It was a little too high up for her to reach herself, but maybe… “Bwue! Can yu weach gweeny spot?”
Blue looked around for a moment before noticing the green thingy and then lit up. “Oh! Wooks wike wong-eaws fwen!” it chimed, shoving a hoof against the green spot, which depressed with a little ‘click’ and then changed color to white.
Oh, Viola realized after a moment, it had been a button! She turned to the door and waited for it to open, but nothing happened. Could it be, there were other colors they had to get rid of too? She looked around, but there weren’t any colors that she could see…
Sitting and leaning back, Viola tried to think of possible color hiding spaces, only to pause. Up on the wall, at the top of a shelf at least three fluffies high, was a red button! “Bwue, wook!”
Blue craned its neck to look at the button, eyes lighting up. “Oh, it am fwen cowow!”
“Bu’ am su high up… How can fwuffies get dat high?”
“Jus’ cwimb,” the stallion noted in a voice that sounded more confused than judgemental, as though the answer was obvious.
“Fwuffies tuu smaww tu cwimb!” Viola gasped. “It tuu high!”
“Nuh uh.” As if to prove her wrong Blue started climbing up the furniture, toy balls clattering to the floor as it went. Wasn’t it scared? Was it this blind to the scariness of a high place? Viola sat frozen, watching her friend climb higher and higher… It seemed like Blue was managing, safely reaching the top of the shelf, but-
A loud crash caused Viola to jump, so alarmed she almost didn’t hear the following yell of pain. That wasn’t from her room! Panic filling the young mare, she hurried to the square window and shoved her nose against the grate to find she couldn’t see through it anymore. Something was blocking the way! “Wowo!? Am yu otay?!”
The few seconds it took Lolo to answer said more than she wanted to admit. “Am… otay,” then came, quiet and labored. “Wowo wiww be otay.”
“Wha happen? Need huggies?” How could she get hurt? Duffle was with her, right?
“Nu wowwy,” Lolo assured. “Jus feww an’ huwt weggie. Nu couwd cwimb tu wed button wif dese owd weggies, so Duffew hewped Wowo weach, but then woody cwimbing thingy feww.”
Woody climbing thingy, was that the shelf …? The shelves could fall?! Viola gasped and looked up to Blue, but the red button was already pressed and the unicorn was climbing down unscathed.
“What was noisie?” it asked. “Fwen huwt? Nu wook huwt?”
“N-Nu, Viowa am otay, but Wowo am huwt!”
“Wowo?” Blue stopped to think about it. Viola gaped; did it really not know their names?!
“Wowo! Owd gwan’ma yewwow fwuffy!”
“Ohh!” Blue looked around. “Gwanny fwen am hewe?”
“Am in othew woom…”
“Focus,” Lolo spoke up from the other room. Having had a few moments to catch her breath, she didn’t sound hurt at all anymore. “Fin’ othew cowows an’ open doow. Pwease.”
“O-Oh… Wight.” Viola hurriedly looked around; the door was still shut, even though they pressed two buttons now! She didn’t want to think about another button so scarily high up, so she instead looked really low and perked as she caught a hint of blue. “Thewe! Am bwue button undew couchie!”
Unlike the other two, there was no way Blue could reach this one, so it was up to Viola to press it. She had to wiggle her way in beneath the couch, her body barely fitting through, but from there it was easy to push the final button!
She crawled out to find the door had finally opened, Blue watching it with a tilted head. “Bwue! Hewp Viowa cawwy bawws, pwease? Then, fwuffies can weave!”
Thankfully the unicorn listened and obliged, piling three balls onto its back before walking out. It did try to put all four balls on, but in placing the fourth ball knocked the third one off, so Viola was left to carry her own ball. Not that she minded too much; it was a hassle to get the ball up the little stair steps, but at least she didn’t have to do it more than once.
Through the door was another short hallway, ending in a room identical to the one where they had been split up. Round walls, four doors, an exit and a TV screen. There was even a hole for them to put their balls into. And there was-
“Viowa!” squealed Indigo, running up and latching onto her leg in a hug. “Indigo - Indigo heawd - Viowa foun’ Indigo baww! Thank yu thank yu thank yu!”
Surprised as she was by the fact Indigo and Ghost had cleared the room before her, Viola couldn’t think of an answer and so just hugged the little filly back. Maybe an answer wasn’t needed? Ghost was sitting back quietly as Blue started slotting balls into the hole, and Viola couldn’t help but notice the white fluffy didn’t look as sad as before. “Indigo an’ Ghost am fwens again now?”
“Uh-huh,” whimpered Indigo, “Indigo fewt weawwy bad… Nevew been cawwed meanie babbeh befowe… an’ Ghost wooked su sad an’ huwt an’ Indigo said sowwy!”
“Ghost thought Indigo was scawed cuz of eyesies and fangies…” Ghost added apologetically, “but Indigo says, it am cuz Ghost am awways hideys an’ quiet. S-So, um, Ghost wiww twy tu be wess scawy.”
So that was it! Viola nodded in understanding – any fluffy that lurked and didn’t talk to people would be seen as weird, no matter its looks. Hopefully, Ghost would be able to make some more friends now that he knew that.
Soon the third door opened as well, the buzzing background noise of Daddy’s microphone turning on, and Snaggle and Bunny came out. Unlike with Ghost and Indigo, something seemed kind of off - Bunny kept stealing strange glances at Snaggle, as though he expected something bad to happen. But before Viola could ask, or even greet the two, the screen on the wall came to life.
“Most doors have now been opened,” Daddy’s mascot called cheerfully. “To conserve time, any contestants that have not exited within the next ten minutes will be removed from the game!”
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