Chapter 3
As Vinyl Scratch finished her summery of her trip to South Island, she looked up to noticed that Twilight and Rainbow Dash were sitting there, staring blankly with their mouths wide open. Vinyl offered them a grin.
“... And that’s how Equestria was made!” She added humorously.
“Vinyl, this is serious,” Twilight said. “Monty Ulan?”
“Last we heard? He hopped off the train near Arrernte Springs and hoofed it to Port Beagle,” Vinyl said. “Apparently, it wasn’t until then when the train crew realised that they had no breaks, and the train continued on its way to Warrane.”
“How did they stop in time?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“They didn’t...” Vinyl said with a shrug. “I don’t really know the details.”
The door to the kitchen opened as the three mares were graced by the presence of their guest. Pips Domino smiled brightly at them, still wearing his suit and sunglasses, despite the fact that it was still somewhat dark outside.
“Good Morning Vinyl!” Pips said with a grin, he then glanced at Rainbow Dash and offered her the same. His eyes fell upon Twilight and smiled brightly. “And a big hello to you, beautiful!”
Twilight turned bright red, causing a sly grin to appear on Pips’ face. Rainbow Dash scowled at him, but he ignored her and took a seat at the table.
“Good morning Pips!” Vinyl said. “Hey guess what? You’ve got another fan that’s just dying to meet you!”
“Really?” Pips asked, somewhat surprised by the revelation. “She as crazy as you?”
“Nopony is as crazy as Vinyl Scratch,” Rainbow Dash said.
“It’s true!” Vinyl agreed with a small grin. “Hope you don’t mind, she’s going to be coming by later, I think you’ll like her.”
“You kidding? I have so few fans that to find one in this town was a miracle. Now there are TWO? I’m astounded,” Pips said.
There was a knock at the door, Vinyl turned her head towards the other room and leapt up from her seat. “I got it!” she called. Vinyl Scratch trotted into the main room, and upon noticing a vase filled with flowers, promptly bit on them, picking them up and opening the door.
Derpy Hooves was standing just outside the door, a scarf wrapped around her neck, draping down towards her left, her mailbag to the right, she raised an eyebrow at Vinyl Scratch, who was still holding the flowers in her teeth.
“Hi!” Vinyl said. “Miss you!”
Derpy rolled her eyes. “They’re very nice... now put them back where you got them.”
Vinyl sighed and used her magic to float them back over into the vase while Derpy dug through her mailbag looking for letters for Twilight and Rainbow Dash.
“So... uh, doing anything this afternoon?” Vinyl asked.
“Yes, I’m covering for a long distance route,” Derpy said simply. “I’m carrying a package to the Divide. So that means, you will be watching Dinky for a few days.”
“No problem!” Vinyl said with a grin. “I’m good with kids.”
Derpy couldn’t help but smirk. “Good luck, I told Dinky to come over here after school... you’ll see for yourself,” Derpy gave Vinyl several letters for Twilight, and then waved her goodbye and took flight towards her next stop.
Vinyl returned into the kitchen, where an incredibly bored Rainbow Dash sat as Pips Domino continued to flirt with Twilight, most of it going right over the lavender unicorn’s head. Vinyl placed the post on the table and informed them of the recent development.
A few hours later, another knock on the door came; Vinyl Scratch opened it to find Princess Luna standing outside.
“Good morning princess!” Vinyl said with a grin. “Come in!”
Princess Luna nodded and entered the Library, taking a glance around the room. “Is he here?”
“Yep!” Vinyl said. “Hey Pips!”
Pips stuck his head out of the kitchen and looked over at the newcomer. “Oh you’re kidding!”
Vinyl could only grin at him. “Nope! Pips Domino, meet Princess Luna. Princess Luna, meet Pips Domino.”
Pips trotted up to Princess Luna, grinning widely. “Well, let me say this Vinyl Scratch, you sure do run with quite the crowd. It’s an honour to meet you your highness.”
“L... likewise!” Princess Luna said nervously. Doing her best to conceal her excitement and failing horribly in the process.
Pips could only grin in response. “Jeeze, she’s almost as bad as you Vinyl!”
...
Fluttershy had taken to chopping firewood for most of the morning, scarf around her neck, earmuffs around her ears, and a small hatchet in her teeth, Fluttershy had gotten enough wood ready to last her the entire winter. Now she had little to do, all her animal friends were hibernating; even Angel Bunny had taken to the long winters rest.
Fluttershy disliked winter for this reason; taking care of animals was her job, and her special talent. So what did you do when they were all sleeping? You saved the various dull tasks for the last minute, stretching them out as long as you could. Fluttershy put away the hatchet and began carrying the firewood inside. It was rather cold inside, a day of relaxing beside the warm fire and reading a book sounded wonderful to Fluttershy, and she promptly started one.
Within a few minutes, the warm glow began to radiate out into the room, Fluttershy lied down on her sofa and pulled a book from its place on the shelf. Out of the corner of her eye, Fluttershy saw something, just for a moment out the window. Something odd, something out of place, but she couldn’t tell what it was.
Fluttershy debated about going and taking a look, it was probably nothing, she told herself, but she couldn’t get the nagging feeling out of her mind, finally, she decided to go and take a look, she draped her scarf around her neck and placed the earmuffs back on her head and stepped outside, walking closer to it. She could see it a little better now, whatever it was, it was yellow.
Fluttershy got closer to it, and that was when she began to notice more details of it, it was a mess of thread like fibres, and a lot of them...
Fluttershy was suspicious of it now, and then noticed that there was not only one... but two of them. She got right up on them, and that was when she realised it. These weren’t balls of thread or anything like that.
It was hair. Specifically, a mane and a tail.
Fluttershy felt around in the snow, and bumped up against their owner. The pony of which they belonged to rose its head out of the snow, the coat was a pure white that blended in with the background.
But the creature’s eyes were the most interesting, because they did not match anything else. They were blood red.
Fluttershy let out a gasp as their owner looked upon her.
“Help... me, please!” the pony pleaded hoarsely with her before passing out. Fluttershy leapt into action, and lifted the stranger up and placed her on her back, galloping back to her cottage to get her out of the cold. Fluttershy noticed that the stranger was a Pegasus too, but she was not one that she recognised from town, or even from Cloudsdale.
Fluttershy didn’t know this new Pegasus, but it didn’t matter, she needed her help, and Fluttershy would give it.
...
Fluttershy had wrapped up the Pegasus mare in a blanket and placed her as close to the fire as she safely could have. She was still unconscious, Fluttershy looked her over for any signs of injury, oddly enough, she seemed to be in perfect health apart from the fact that she had nearly frozen to death. That was when Fluttershy noticed that the Pegasus had tucked an item into her mane. It was a glass vial, Fluttershy recognised it. She had seen vials like this before. She knew that Zecora used vials in this shape for storing the potion that she called “Bitter Drink,” this vial was empty, Fluttershy could only guess that the Pegasus mare had downed the entire thing sometime before Fluttershy had found her.
Fluttershy made sure that she was comfortable, and hoped that she would wake up soon.
‘Be careful what you wish for’ was an old adage that Fluttershy had wished she had followed. Because no sooner than had Fluttershy adjusted the blanket on her, did she spring to her hooves, and began glancing around the room in a panic. Causing Fluttershy to squeak in surprise and stumble backwards.
“Where... where am I?!” the mysterious Pegasus called out, she turned and set her eyes on Fluttershy. “Who... who are you?”
“I’m... Fluttershy...” Fluttershy said quietly, squeaking softly and taking another step back. Her visitor’s sudden movements had startled her pretty badly, her heart was racing and she wanted to do nothing short of leap behind the sofa for cover, but then she realised that her visitor was likely just as scared as she, so she mustered up as much courage as she could and approached her.
“What’s your name?” Fluttershy asked.
“I... My name is Surprise,” she said, glancing around the room again. “And I... I...”
Surprise’s eyes grew heavy and she slumped back down onto Fluttershy’s floor, falling fast asleep. Fluttershy could only gasp at what had just happened.
“Oh... my,” she picked the Pegasus back up and carried her upstairs and placed her in her bed. Perhaps all she needed was a little rest.