Tales of Equestria

by Lunerpet

Chapter 5

Fluttershy was looking around the castle of the two sisters from the outside, she really didn't like going inside it, so she was hoping Rarity as outside somewhere.

Applejack wasn't one to give up, but it had been so long since they last heard from Rarity, she didn't have a lot of hope left. “Fluttershy? What are we looking for?”

“Any sign of Rarity of course” Fluttershy said checking the ground for anything, but all she really saw was terrasect made tunnels, it was strange to see so many tunnels in one place. “You know? This could be where those creatures came from”

“Those bugs? Well maybe” Applejack kicked a rock down a tunnel and watched it go waiting for a sound, there wasn't a sound for awhile so she knew it was deep.

“What if those things...took Rarity?” Fluttershy said scared and worried for her missing friend.

“We could go down there and check?” Applejack said, she had a feeling Fluttershy was right but even if they found her...wound they like what they saw? She hoped Rarity was fine, she knew she could take care of herself but it's been awhile since they lost her.

“Well....if it's for Rarity, then let's go” Fluttershy seemed rather brave, she would do anything for a friend in need, even face things she was scared of.

Applejack felt better with Fluttershy keeping up such a brave act. “Let's!”

Applejack then jumped down a nearby tunnel and Fluttershy followed after her, they fell into darkness for what seemed about three minutes, Fluttershy was covering her eyes and Applejack watched as the sunlight disappeared from their view.

With a sudden thud they landed on soft dirt, Applejack stood up and shook herself looking around, it wasn't as dark as she thought it would be, she could see for the most part. “What kind of tunnels are these?”

“Scary ones...” Fluttershy said dusting herself off and shaking a bit. “It's....so dark...”

Applejack could make out a fork in the tunnel, but one tunnel seemed to be used more. “Let's go this way”

Fluttershy felt around and nodded. “Okay...”

Applejack went down the right path and Fluttershy felt around and went to the left not seeing her at all.

“Stay close Fluttershy, we don't know what we'll find down here” Applejack said and waited for Fluttershy to speak. “Fluttershy?”

Fluttershy moved along not sure where she was going. “Applejack?....Rarity? Where are you?”

She wandered for a bit until she came across a larger tunnel, she could see some lights from glowing stone on the ceiling but it wasn't really enough to see still, however she could make out some shapes of mares in what looked like cells.

“Huh?” A mare looked up and saw her. “Oh my goodness...are you real? Oh thank Celestia, I thought we were doomed!”

“What are you doing in here? What happened?” Fluttershy asked.

“Those bug...things, they fillynapped us and some strange voice...it said it's looking for elements of some kind, and mares were the only ones that could have it, they didn't know who to look for so they took all of us” The mare explained.

“That's awful, I'm so sorry, I'll get you all out as soon as I can, but I'm looking for somepony, her name is Rarity, have you seen her?” Fluttershy asked.

The mare shook her head but another mare from a different cell stood up. “Your looking for Rarity?”

Fluttershy went over to the other mare and nodded. “Yes, do you know her?”

“I do, in fact she's here!” The dark blue mare said with a smile, she then turned and pointed over to a figure in the shadows. “Although I don't think you'll like what you find....”

“Rarity!? She's okay!?” Fluttershy was happy at first but then she looked confused at what the mare said. “What do you mean, Ms...?”

“Nightwish, and I mean they took her into a room and she came back...different...” Nightwish said looking back at her. “She's not the same mare I saw get taken away”

“I'm Fluttershy, and could you tell me how to open the cell doors?” Fluttershy asked.

“I don't know myself, but I did see them open the cells doors with ease, maybe they had a key? Or something?” Nightwish questioned herself.

Applejack was wandering around seeing a bunch of terrasects working on tunnels and none of them seemed to have noticed her. “What is all this? A hive?”

Applejack walked right into a large room with a strange glowing yellow wall. “Huh?”

As she looked at the wall a voice entered her head. “We feel it...an element is inside this one, the element we seek!”

“Element? Who said that?” Applejack looked around confused. “Hello?”

“Why are you here of your own free will small creature?” The voice asked.

“I'm looking for my friends, I don't know where they are and I've been looking for awhile now” Applejack responded.

“Friends? Such terms are unknown to us, but you know the other elements...yes?” The voice asked in a raspy tone.

“Well of course, their my friends, well all my friends have them that is, do you know where I can find a white mare that's a little stuck up but is really generous, she has a purple mane and is all fancy like” Applejack explained.

“The generous one we know well, follow us and you shall have your 'friend'” The voice spoke as a large worker drone walked over to Applejack and motioned her to follow.

Applejack smiled and followed the drone, the yellow brain creature brought a tentacle up to the ceiling and hooked itself to what looked like organic wires. “The elements are close 'friends' we can send...Greed to fetch us what we seek!”

Then the purple voice spoke up. “Greed will gain for us what we lack, we no longer have need of those mares”

“We shall release them, and Greed with follow them to the rest of the elements” The yellow voice said with glee.

Fluttershy noticed the cells suddenly open and all the mares looked around as they walked out. “It opened?”

“You did it! You freed us!” The mare ran up to Fluttershy and hugged her. “Thank you so much!”

“Wow! Amazing work” Nightwish said and went over to Rarity. “Rarity? Come on, it's time to leave and go back to your friends”

Rarity nodded and stood up, Applejack then came around the corner, she saw Fluttershy and other mares around there. “Wow, there are a lot more then I thought down here”

Fluttershy turned to see Applejack. “Applejack, I'm so glad you found me, I found Rarity!”

“Rarity's here?! Great!” Applejack looked back and saw her guide leave. “Thanks strange voice!”

“Huh?” Fluttershy looked at her confused and Rarity stepped out into the small amount of light.

Rarity's eyes were glassed over, she had no emotions, just a blank stare, Nightwish sighed at this and turned to them. “They did something to her and now...she's almost like a doll”

“That's horrible!” Fluttershy said in shock.

“We should leave, I don't want the guards to come around here and see all of us” Nightwish said.

“I agree with her” Applejack said. “Let's get out of here and we can help Rarity get back to normal then”

Fluttershy nodded and they lead the mares out where they came from, it was actually rather easy, like the terrasects wanted them to leave.

“How odd, they don't seem aggressive like I thought they were” Applejack said. “But yet they did that to Rarity...what are they after?”

Nightwish looked at Applejack and shook her head. “Their not evil? I don't trust them they want something and it's bad whatever it is”

Fluttershy was checking on Rarity and found a wrapping around her neck. “What's this Nightwish?”

“They did something to her and her neck had a big hole in it so I did what I could to fix her up” Nightwish said. “I'm sorry I couldn't do more”

Rarity looked at Fluttershy not saying a word, looking at her with almost doll like eyes, Fluttershy didn't know what to do, maybe Twilight knew something? “Let's get her back to Canterlot, and fast”

“That could be a problem, we can get Rarity back just fine, but we have over forty gals here” Applejack said pointing to the crowd they saved.

“Oh my...” Fluttershy looked at them now really unsure of what to do.

“Applejack! Fluttershy!” A voice called as a Rainbow came from nowhere and Rainbow Dash landed on the ground. “There you two are, I've been looking everywhere!”

“Rainbow Dash!?” Applejack said surprised to see her. “What are you doing here?!”

“Twilight asked me to come and get you and-” Rainbow Dash stopped after she saw Rarity. “Rarity!!? awesome your okay!”

Rainbow Dash went and hugged her lost friend, when she didn't say anything or really even move she knew something was wrong. “Rarity? You okay? It's me Rainbow Dash”

Rarity looked at her coldly and didn't even smile as if she didn't even have a soul, Rainbow Dash looked more worried then before and shook her a little. “Rarity? Come on snap out of it, this isn't funny!”

Fluttershy pulled Rainbow Dash's arms off of Rarity and looked down. “Rarity isn't feeling herself right now, I'm sure Twilight will be able to fix her...”

Rainbow Dash noticed that Fluttershy was holding back tears, as if she didn't even believe what she was saying, she knew Fluttershy was trying to be strong for her friends so she stopped and looked over at Applejack. “Come on...let's get these girls back to Canterlot”

Applejack nodded and they all started to walk, Rainbow Dash flew up next to her and saw Nightwish and Fluttershy helping Rarity walk. “What happened while you two were gone all this time?”

Applejack sighed at hearing this. “The truth? I gave up looking for Rarity....”

“You did? But you found her” Rainbow Dash said confused.

“I gave up on week three, I felt like I failed her and gave up...I couldn't protect my friends, the only reason I was able to keep going was because of Fluttershy” Applejack explained. “Without her, I wouldn't have come this far, she had to steal her own heart for it, it changed her”

“Man...she's been holding back her tears awhile now huh?” Rainbow Dash said getting worried. “It's not good to hold all that back”

“Normally she's the cry baby of our group, but she worked harder then any of us to save Rarity and found her like...that..” Applejack couldn't even bring herself to look at what had become of Rarity.

“Well things haven't been going well at Canterlot ether” Rainbow Dash said trying to change the subject. “Celestia and Luna both are running around trying to keep the peace and make room for survivors, Ponyville wasn't the only place hit”

“Those bug things...one of them spoke to me, I think it was anyways, it was looking for a missing element, an element of what I'm not sure though” Applejack explained.

“Elements? Like the elements of harmony?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Could be, if that's the case they could dig up all of Equestria looking for us” Applejack said feeling better now that they found two of their friends. “There is no way to tell though”

“Well we should tell Twilight about this” Rainbow Dash said as they walked.

Applejack nodded and they kept walking, it was a long walk to Canterlot after all so they just talked as they walked.

Meanwhile at Canterlot Twilight was sitting there with Melody as they watched Pinkie, Rock Candy and Winter Sugar all over the candy shop bakery like pros, Twilight looked at her and saw her smile brightly. “Sooo, Melody? What are you into?”

“Huh?” Melody looked over at her and thought about it. “Well I'm into a lot of things, I like reading, magic practice, I love music and taking care of plants, also hot colts, it's been a long time since I've been on the dating scene, I don't even know what colts are like nowadays”

“Hahaha, wow, you do have a lot of hobby's” Twilight said and blushed when she mentioned colts. “That last hobby sounds...uh..”

“Well do you have somepony your looking at?”Melody asked, she hadn't about colts to anypony in forever so she was getting excited.

“Well...no, I've been wrapped up in my studies” Twilight blushed hard thinking about it.

“Really? NO colt has interested you...at all?” Melody looked at her confused and kinda disappointed.

“Well...I can't think of any, sorry” Twilight said with a shrug. “I never even thought about colts before”

“Sooo....are you into mares?” Melody asked raising an eyebrow. “I only ask because you have a lot of mare friends around you a lot”

“WHHHAAATTT!!?” Twilight jumped and choked at the same time. “Wh-wh-wh-why would you said that!!!?”

Pinkie, Rock Candy and Winter all laughed when they heard Twilight freak out, and Pinkie spoke first. “Wow Twilight, I never knew you were into mares! But don't worry, I'll support you one hundred percent for your decision!”

Rock Candy looked around the room with just her eyes and blushed hard so Winter spoke up next. “It's okay Miss. Twilight, I know we're new friends and all, but I'll support you as well!”

“Ooooohhhh, you do like the flower fields huh!?” Melody said teasingly.

“No, no, it's like that, I'm not into mares, really!” Twilight said in a panic.

“Well your only friends are all mares, that's called a field of flowers my dear Twilight” Melody nudged her a little. “I bet you have some great flowers to pick from!”

“Oh come on, I'm not, really! Right?” Twilight thought about what she said and started to actually question her sexuality, she really didn't think about colts and her only friends were mares, was she into girls?

“Uh....” Rock Candy spoke up finally. “Actually....I'm a lesbian....”

They all stared at her for what felt like ten full minutes, they didn't really know what to say, Melody had just been joking, she didn't think those type of mares were actually around, Winter didn't know what to say and felt rather awkward about the whole thing, sexual stuff wasn't really something she knew.

Twilight rubbed the back of her head and bit her lip lost in thought about what she was really into and Pinkie just laughed and hugged Rock Candy. “Haha! It's a good thing to talk about how you do things and I'm proud to be friends with you!”

“Thanks Pinkie, I've never told anypony this...it feels good to get it off my chest” Rock Candy admitted.

“So accepting, this world is harder to understand then it was in the past” Melody said looking at Rock Candy and smiled. “I'm glad for the change”

Twilight kept running what they said through her mind over and over again, maybe she was a lesbian and didn't even know it? Then again she didn't know any colts other then her brother and Big Mac, that was just gross thinking about her brother that way, and Big Mac, sure he was good looking, but he was older then her by more then a few years and he didn't show any interest in love or anything like that, she laughed at the idea that she would find a man like Cadance did, in the royal guard, that was just silly.