Chapter 4
“Fluttershy, Fluttershy,” a voice whispered in a singsong tune into the sleeping pegasus’ ear. Reluctantly, Fluttershy opened her eyes and looked for whatever woke her from such a good dream. She didn’t need to wait long to find out. Twilight was standing next to her bed, grinning like a little filly that was told they were going to Hearths Land for Hearths Warming Eve.
“Come on, Fluttershy. Get up and let’s go!” she whispered loudly and excitedly. Grumbling, the pegasus looked out the window and noticed the sun was barely starting to rise.
“We have to go now?” Fluttershy asked. She was a little bit annoyed to be awoken at such a time.
“Of course!” Twilight whispered in response. “It’s the best time to go. Everypony is still asleep and going in now would attract less attention.”
Fluttershy was still unconvinced. “Would it be open though? I don’t like standing outside the door waiting for them to open it. It’ll seem rude.”
Twilight nodded so fast Fluttershy was scared her head would fall off. “All right then. Let me clean myself up,” she sighed in defeat. She started getting out of bed but felt magic around her as she was picked up into the air.
“Let me help. We could get going sooner then,” Twilight said. Fluttershy’s protests were ignored as she was flown into the bathroom.
A little later, the sun began to rise as the two friends set off down the long stairway from their room to the library. “Twilight, um… I suppose… I should say thank you… for coming with me… and washing me… and drying me… and putting my bracelet on me,” Fluttershy said, a small blush forming on her cheeks.
“Oh, it was nothing, Fluttershy,” Twilight said cheerfully. “Helping you wash today was easier than when I had to do it when you were asleep.” Fluttershy looked at her wide-eyed, but decided not to ask what she’d meant.
“So… how far to the library?” Fluttershy asked, hoping to get to the matter at hoof.
“Oh, not too far,” Twilight responded. “About twenty minutes or so, I think.”
About fifteen minutes later, after a few shortcuts that Twilight unashamedly knew, they had made it to the front entrance of the royal library. The building was massive. It looked, from a bird’s eye view, rectangular in structure, with stain glass windows across the top half of the building, and grotesques positioned between them so it looked like they were guarding it. The windows themselves told the story of Starswirl the Bearded, the unicorn who founded the library in Canterlot. Twilight opened the front door with her magic.
“After you,” Twilight said to Fluttershy. The pegasus nodded in thanks and trotted in, Twilight close behind her.
Upon entering, they found themselves at the front desk of the library. The old unicorn mare behind it looked up from her scrolls, and gasped when she saw Twilight.
“Twilight Sparkle! My, how lovely it is to see you again,” she smiled warmly at the unicorn. “And haven’t you grown? I still remember you as that little filly that slept outside the library, waiting for me to open it.” She smiled and put down her quill. Fluttershy looked over her shoulder and gave her an odd look, to which Twilight blushed in embarrassment.
“So, ladies, is there anything I can help you with?” she asked, putting her glasses on to see them better.
Fluttershy stepped forward. “Um… we were sent by Princess Celestia to look into the archives for something.” She brought up her leg to show the bracelet she was given. The unicorn closed in to look at it for a moment and when satisfied it was genuine, pulled back.
“Here is the key to the archives. It’s by the Starswirl section in the library. I hope you find what you’re looking for,” she said with a smile.
“Thank you, miss,” Fluttershy said, and then walked off.
“Thank you, Miss Clover,” Twilight thanked her and followed. “I know where it is. The Starswirl the Bearded section is my favourite section in the whole library. Just follow me.”
Fluttershy nodded and walked behind her. Her eyes began darting to the large shelves of books and knowledge of the world. Each one was ten feet tall and ladders were on each side to help ponies and other races to find the books they wanted.
“We’re here,” Twilight brought her out of her sightseeing tour, and looked to see an iron archway with Starwirl’s name on top of it. To the right of it was a small iron gate that looked unimportant, but Twilight and Fluttershy knew this was the door to the archives. Twilight got the key with her magic and put it in the door, unlocking it. The two of them then came through, and then locked it again behind them so that they wouldn’t be followed.
“Oh my, it’s very… dark,” Fluttershy squeaked as they faced the long passageway that lay in front of them. Twilight closed her eyes and created a powerful light from her horn that illuminated the way.
“Stay close behind. We don’t want any accidents,” Twilight said, and broke into a trot.
“Okay,” Fluttershy responded, and walked behind her, peering over Twilight’s shoulder to see where they were going.
The path wasn’t a long one; soon they arrived at a spiralling staircase that went down further than Twilight’s light, even at full capacity.
“Why’d they build something so deep down?” Fluttershy asked, bewildered by the amount of steps they had to climb down.
“It’s so that…” Twilight tried to explain, but stopped to think about it, before saying, “I haven’t got a clue.” Fluttershy was taken aback; she hadn’t expected that at all from the intelligent unicorn. Twilight started walking down the stairs, so Fluttershy broke into a canter to keep up with her.
After going down, Fluttershy thought, about five hundred steps, they made it to a large iron gate. On the front was an artwork of two pegasi guards that were standing on their hind legs and thrashing their hooves out.
“May I have the key, Twilight? she said, and then adding, “Um… please? If you want to give it to me that is.”
Twilight smiled and gave her the key, which Fluttershy took in her mouth. She walked to the door and found the lock with the help of Twilight’s illuminating spell. She twisted the key and, with a crack, the door unlocked and opened inwards.
Inside were a great number of shelves, home to many books, scrolls and other confidential written materials. Fluttershy looked in Twilight’s direction and saw her eyes that her were wide and her pupils were even wider. Concerned, Fluttershy waved a hoof over Twilight’s face, and quickly realised her friend wasn’t breathing.
“Twilight? Equestria to Twilight,” she called in the unicorn’s ear. Twilight instantly shook her head and snapped out of it.
“You should see a doctor about your eyes, Twilight,” Fluttershy said, “Your pupils shouldn’t have gone as big as that.”
“Says the pony who can walk through fire,” remarked Twilight with a smirk.
“Ah touché,” Fluttershy replied with a grin, before setting off through one of the aisles. Twilight took another and began looking for…
‘Wait,’ Twilight thought, ‘What were we looking for again?’ She called out to Fluttershy, “What are we looking for again?!”
Hearing her question, Fluttershy quickly called back. “A bag containing documents from a pegasus named Firewing! He’s the only pony that might know of my… condition, and I have to know where he was heading!”
Twilight nodded and began looking at each row in turn slowly. She noticed that none of them were in alphabetical order, so that made it harder to find what they were looking for.
Fluttershy wasn’t having much luck, either. Holding a lit torch between her teeth, she looked down the first row, then the next, then the next one after that, and the next after that one. She rounded the bend to go to the next one, only to find Twilight waiting for her.
“Any luck?” she asked the purple unicorn through gritted teeth.
“Nothing yet, but it has to be along this row,” Twilight replied with confidence.
“All right, you check that side, I’ll check this side.” Fluttershy walked slowly, but suddenly stopped and gasped, dropping her torch to the ground. ‘Did I just boss Twilight around?’ Frightened at herself, she turned to face the unicorn, who looked back at her in a similar state of shock and surprise upon hearing the unaccustomed command from her usually quite friend.
“Oh my… I’m so sorry… you don’t have to… if you don’t want to that is… I could…”
Twilight chuckled. “Sure, Fluttershy, anything you say.” She started to scan the row next to her.
Fluttershy was still confused. “You’re not mad at me ordering you about?” she asked.
“Of course not,” Twilight replied. “In fact, it’s quite nice to be ordered about from you. It’s… nicer.” She said no more and began scanning the books. Fluttershy just shrugged, picked up her torch and looked at her side of the row.
When she saw the end coming up Fluttershy’s heart began to sink into her stomach. She knew if there wasn’t any diary from Firewing here, then she wouldn’t be able to discover what was wrong with her. She started to fear he might have returned and took it. Suddenly something caught her eye. It was a bag, like Celestia had said, coloured to look like fire.
“Twilight, I think I found it,” she said to Twilight, and beckoned her over with a hoof.
Twilight scanned it for a while, and then turned to Fluttershy. “You sure this is it?” she asked.
“No,” she told her truthfully, “but it’s better than anything else we’ve got.” Fluttershy reared up, dropping the torch, and got hold of the bag with her teeth and trotted to where she could read it. They found an old bench that was cobwebbed and dusty, but a cleanup with their hooves and a few extra torches made it a place where they could read.
Twilight brought out the books and scrolls from the bag with her magic. Fluttershy read the nametag of a red book with a flame on the front; her heart leapt for joy as she saw whose name was written on the front, Firewing.
“This is it, we did it, Twilight!” Fluttershy jumped for joy and hugged the surprised but delighted unicorn, spinning her around several times.
“Okay… Fluttershy… put me down, please,” she said, dizzy from her friend’s continual rotations.
“Oh… sorry, Twilight. I guess I don’t know my own strength,” Fluttershy said sheepishly as she dropped the dazed unicorn.
“That’s all right. Now, we’ve got a lot of reading to do,” she said with a grin that looked quite evil. Fluttershy nodded and started looking through the red book, a diary, while Twilight looked through the other reading materials.
Fifteen minutes later Twilight discovered the first clue. “Fluttershy, come and look at this,” she called over the pegasus.
“You found something?” Fluttershy asked Twilight.
“Maybe.” Twilight opened the scroll with her magic and showed Fluttershy.
It was map, a rather big one for that matter, which showed Equestria, and the bottom half of a country named Horsca. On it were drawn red lines representing the main roads, with red dots indicating the towns that, Fluttershy reckoned, Firewing must have past.
“Strutford and Detrots,” Fluttershy read aloud the names of the towns he might have gone passed, then there was no more; the red lines stopped at Detrots.
“So you think this may have been where he was heading?” Twilight asked.
“Possibly. The diary’s talking about his time here in Canterlot, and that he plans on heading north.”
She walked back over to the diary and read out a passage he’d written. “My time here in Canterlot will hopefully be a long one. It is such a beautiful city with a great history and a great landmark in pony design. I don’t enjoy the adventurous lifestyle like I did before, so hopefully becoming a teacher at the school will help me out a bit, and rest my memories,” she paused, looking at Twilight.
“So he didn’t leave on purpose, nor did it suggest he was pony-napped,” Fluttershy said. “So why change his mind in staying here?”
“Maybe there’s more. What does the last passage say?” Twilight asked. Fluttershy flicked the book until there wasn’t a page of writing; she turned back the pages until she found the last entry.
She started to read it aloud. “It seems I cannot escape from my past. It is now starting to haunt me in my dreams, and I have found something that has further piqued my interest. A map of the northern country of Horsca, which details the hidden places of five lost keys to an ancient tomb somewhere in the country. I fear these dreams and those keys are not a mere coincidence, so I fear I may have to put on ‘Drage Bane’ once again.” She paused. “And that was all he wrote.”
Twilight stood there, waiting for Fluttershy to decide what to do now. Would she set off after him? Or go back to Ponyville? Continuing a normal life, if they could call their lives normal? Twilight was unsure of what to do, but Fluttershy certainly seemed to have a plan. She smiled at Twilight. “Do you want to come with me north?” she asked.
“Are you sure about this, Fluttershy? We only have a hunch that’s where he’s heading; for all we know he might have changed his mind and went south.”
Fluttershy nodded “I know, Twilight. But these… things are changing me, and if he knows what it is then maybe, he can fix it.” She started rubbing her foreleg worriedly. “These changes frighten me, Twilight. I don’t know why I have them, but I don’t like them; what if somepony finds out and sees me as a freak! I have to try at least something to get my old life back.”
Twilight smiled assuredly. “I know these changes, Fluttershy, and I still don’t think you’re a freak. But, if you’re so sure on wanting to get rid of them, then let’s do this.” Fluttershy grinned and they took the diary and headed back upstairs, leaving the archives the way they left it. “So now what do we do?” Twilight asked the pegasus as they walked back up the stairs.
“We’ll tell the Princess what we learned first.” Fluttershy saw Twilight was looking at her and added, “She asked me to let her know so she could help.” They opened the front gate of the archives, closed it behind them, and after scouring the library for a bit, they hurriedly left the library.
“So you see, Princess. Twilight and I believe he headed north. And if he’s the only pony that can help me, I will head north and track him down,” Fluttershy finished. She and Twilight were in Princess Celestia’s private chambers. They had first found her in the throne room, but Celestia had moved them to her chambers so they could talk in private again.
“Well you certainly found some interesting facts, Fluttershy,” the Princess said. “But what I don’t understand is why would a pony pack up and leave if he enjoyed being here so much?”
“The book did say something about his past haunting him in his dreams,” Twilight came in. “But what on earth does that mean?”
Suddenly Celestia’s eyes widened. “I just remembered! There was something you and I were to discuss today, wasn’t there?” Celestia asked the pegasus.
“What was that?”
“Twilight mentioned in her letter that you have been having a nightmare, the same nightmare over and over again.” Fluttershy nodded. “I would like to take a look, if that’s all right,” Celestia said. Fluttershy and Twilight looked at each other warily.
“Um… okay… but how does that work?” Fluttershy asked, slightly nervous.
“It’s rather simple, I place a spell that makes you go to sleep, and another spell that makes me enter your dream,” Celestia explained. Fluttershy was nervous, but if the Princess could help her put a stop to them then maybe it would be for the best.
She dropped onto the pillow and relaxed, while Celestia loomed over her. “Will she be okay, Princess?” Twilight asked Celestia anxiously.
“She’ll be fine, Twilight,” Celestia promised her. She was about to perform the casting when Twilight interrupted her.
“May I have a look, too?” she asked. “I’m just curious about why this dream could be so terrifying.”
Celestia considered this for a second before nodding. “It might be better if you were beside her as well in this.” The Princess gestured for Twilight to lie down beside her friend, which the unicorn duly did so.
“Place your head so it’s touching Fluttershy’s.” Twilight shifted so her head was touching the pegasus’. Celestia loomed over them and placed her head so her horn was touching their heads. She closed her eyes and cast the spell.
Fluttershy instantly woke up, and sat upright to take a glimpse of her surroundings. The nightmare was the same; she could hear the screams of ponies burning, dying, frightened by the flames. And she could see buildings ablaze. But then she noticed something else, something very wrong.
The nightmare wasn’t in Ponyville; it was in Canterlot. She looked around, hoping to find Twilight and Celestia next to her, but to no avail. “Twilight! Princess!” she called out. No answer, so she ran through the burning streets and burning bodies. She called out her friend’s names once again, only to be answered by the sound of flames. Fear began to creep into her heart about what may have happened to them. She feared that every corner she turned she would find their bodies blazing.
She ran into the palace and found nopony on guard; the towers and main entrance started to collapse on top of her and she ran, calling out Twilight and Celestia’s names. She past more bodies, and a bird she recognised, but she didn’t dare stay to look. She eventually found herself in the palace gardens. And her ears picked up the sound of ponies breathing heavily. She raced towards the noise, finding Twilight and Celestia staring over a cliff face. The former was teary eyed while the latter had an expression that Fluttershy couldn’t explain. Was it anger? Or was it sadness?
“I… I don’t understand,” Fluttershy said. “The dream’s meant to be in Ponyville, not here!” Fluttershy and Twilight walked next to Celestia and looked over the kingdom of Equestria. It was a blackened ruin. In the west, they could see Ponyville burning. Thick, black smoke rose from its ruins that went so high it blocked out the sun. To the east, they could see forests and far away towns burning miles away. It sent shivers down the three ponies’ spines.
Suddenly, from below the cliff edge came the sound of great wings cutting through the air. Celestia looked down and her eyes widened.
“Get back, both of you!” Celestia shouted to them, as she got into a defensive position. Twilight and Fluttershy backed away; the latter hid behind Twilight and started shaking and whimpering in fear.
“It’s okay, Fluttershy, it’s just a dream,” Twilight said comfortingly. “Isn’t it, Princess?”
Celestia looked back at Twilight, and the grim look she was giving her said otherwise. “Isn’t it? Twilight said, slightly unnerved by Celestia’s lack of answer. Celestia backed away from the cliff face as the owner of the flapping appeared over the cliff edge. Fluttershy slunk back and whimpered louder when she saw it, her pupils shrinking to mere dots.
It was a dragon. And it was huge; the head alone was the size of a house. It was completely black like a shadow, with horns protruding from its nose to its head, then down across its back like the teeth from a saw. The wings were enormous and the flapping of them caused a gust of wind into their faces that nearly took them off their hooves. Its tail was long and wreathed with spikes and its claws were sharp as swords. Its jaws were covered in bloody, black teeth. But what scared them all the most were its eyes; they seemed to be wreathed in flame. Fluttershy’s eyes widened when she realised where she had seen those eyes before.
“That’s the thing that killed me in my dream!” she shrieked and ducked further behind Twilight, trembling. The dragon let out a great roar, so loud that behind the dragon the mountain, where Fluttershy had scared another dragon into going away, collapsed.
“Du kan ikke gjemme deg for meg, lille pony. Når jeg finner deg, vil du se dine venner og verden brenne til aske! Etter det vil jeg rive beinene fra kroppen din (You can't hide from me little pony, when I catch you, you will watch as your precious world burns! And your friends burn with it! Then I will tear your skin from your bones)!” The dragon bellowed to Fluttershy, who started to tear up.
Twilight had no idea what the dragon said, but realised from Fluttershy’s reaction it wasn’t pleasant. “Don’t you dare touch her!” she snarled at it.
“Enough!” Celestia roared. She reared up and her horn shun as bright as the sun. The world disappeared into a bright light. The last thing Fluttershy saw in this world was the sneer across the monster’s face.
Fluttershy opened her eyes and rose up, her head feeling like a brick had just fell on top of it. Twilight followed suite, groaning with a hoof clutching her head, probably feeling the same way. Celestia had moved away from them and was looking out the window; her face, again, was impossible to tell what she was thinking.
“It wasn’t a dream, was it Princess?” Fluttershy said. Celestia turned to face the pegasus and shook her head.
“No, Fluttershy, it wasn’t,” she said solemnly. “It was a prophetic vision.”
“A what?!” Fluttershy and Twilight exclaimed in unison.
“A prophetic vision is when somepony is shown a glimpse of the future,” she explained.
Fluttershy shuddered. “So… Equestria burning, everypony I know dying,” she sniffed back a tear. “That will happen?” Twilight nuzzled Fluttershy in an attempt to comfort her.
“It may not be that literal, Fluttershy dear. I have had visions myself that were just as bad, but the results were never what I saw them,” Celestia said comfortingly.
“But that dragon,” Twilight said, a leg around the shaking pegasus. “What did it want with Fluttershy? And how can it speak that language?”
Celestia frowned. “I’m not sure, but it may be a part of Fluttershy. Her hate and anger built up in a form of what Fluttershy fears the most.”
Fluttershy shuddered again. “How do I keep those dreams from coming every night, though? I don’t want to keep Twilight awake until I go to sleep; it’ll be wrong, otherwise.”
Celestia, without saying a word, walked up to her and placed the tip of her horn on the pegasus’ head. It lit up and covered the top of Fluttershy’s head with a golden glow, before fading away. When Fluttershy opened her eyes, she felt light-headed – more light-headed than she felt in a while, as if a great burden was lifted from her back.
“A spell I learnt to keep visions away till they came true.” She smiled. “The visions shouldn’t trouble you anymore, but that doesn’t mean to ignore them. Now, go and rest. I shall make arrangements for you, and the others if they want to, to travel north.”
The two ponies bowed. “Thank you, Princess,” they said together and walked out the room, leaving Celestia to make her plans, feeling slightly disturbed about what Fluttershy had seen, and why she hadn’t seen it yet.
“Are you all right, Twilight?” Fluttershy asked as they walked through the palace. Twilight seemed very quiet and it worried her slightly. Twilight raised her head and looked at Fluttershy with a comforting smile.
“I’m fine, Fluttershy. Just thinking that’s all,” she responded. Fluttershy stopped.
“Um… you’re not having second thoughts, are you? About coming with me? I don’t mind if you decide not to in the end,” she said. Twilight looked at her in shock.
“Why would I change my mind about going with you, Fluttershy?” she asked her. Fluttershy looked away bashfully. “Of course I’m still gonna come with you, silly filly. But to be honest I wasn’t expecting it.”
“You weren’t?”
“No, I wasn’t. I was expecting to be dragging you north, not on your own free will. So what happened?”
Fluttershy answered straight away, since she knew the answer in the first place. “I died, Twilight. I died but I lived. It made me think that I shouldn’t be hiding from life anymore but I should be embracing it. And I plan to do that when I’m finished up north, when I find what I’m looking for.” She put a leg on Twilight. “And with good friends next to me, nothing is going to change my mind.”
The two didn’t say much else until they reached the tower. Twilight walked up while Fluttershy flew, having wanted to stretch her wings for a long time. When they arrived, they found the room a mess, and empty. Not a pony was here and that confused them. They had said they would be back by noon, and it had gone past that. “We’ve been talking to the Princess all this time!” said Fluttershy, amazed at how long it has been.
“So now what do we do?” Twilight asked to nopony in particular. Fluttershy put a hoof on her chin in thought, then an idea sprung into her head.
“Why don’t we go out for a bit? It’s only midday and if they’re still in the city we might run into them.” Fluttershy’s belly grumbled and she went red. “And also get some food as well,” she added.
“Why not?” Twilight chuckled. “And I know where to go for a quick snack.” She led the way back down the stairs and into the city.
On the way, Twilight acted as a tour guide, telling Fluttershy all the great sights of the majestic city. They soon came across a café with some outside tables, one of which was free. “This is the place,” Twilight said cheerfully and sat down on one of the chairs. Fluttershy followed suite, sitting opposite of Twilight.
A waiter noticed their arrival and came up to them. “Good afternoon, ladies,” he spoke in a posh Canterlot accent. “May I take your orders?”
“Good afternoon, may I have a daffodil and lettuce sandwich please?” Twilight ordered first.
“Oh, may I have the same, and a hot chocolate, please? If it isn’t a problem,” Fluttershy ordered. The waiter nodded and walked away with his head high. “Did you come here often when you lived here?” Fluttershy asked.
Twilight shook her head. “I really came here about half a dozen times. Most of the time, I brought books here so I could study and get a nice snack. And speaking of snack, that was fast,” she said as the waiter put down their orders.
“Enjoy your meals, ladies,” he smiled and then walked away. Fluttershy and Twilight ate their meals in quiet; it wasn’t awkward, they just didn’t need to say anything. They were just enjoying each other’s company. Fluttershy looked up from her sandwich and noticed a Stetson sticking up from a crowd of ponies in the marketplace. She knew instantly whom it belonged to.
“Applejack!” she called out, though not loud enough. Twilight turned around, saw the hat as well, and called out while waving a hoof. Soon Applejack, Rainbow, Rarity and Pinkie appeared out the crowd.
“Well if it isn’t the early birds themselves,” Applejack greeted the two with a smile. The others said their “hellos,” and joined them around the table.
“What brings you two out here? I thought you would have stayed back at the hotel,” Rainbow asked.
“We were bored so we went out looking for you all,” Twilight explained. “And we were hungry so we came here. You said you’d be back by midday, so what happened?”
At this Rainbow sheepishly grinned. “Heh… My fault. I kinda took them to see The Wonderbolts derby at the racecourse. I was pretty cool about the whole thing, of course.”
Applejack raised an eyebrow. “Rainbow, when ya found out they were racing ya squealed like a little filly then ran off. We were lucky we knew where ya were heading.” The others sniggered at this, making Rainbow go red.
“So, uh… anyway.” Rainbow turned the attention to Fluttershy and Twilight. “What did you two find out about Firawing, or whatever his name is?”
For the next three minutes, Fluttershy proceeded to tell them about what they uncovered, and where he may have gone. The four ponies listened closely as Fluttershy told them on what she and Twilight was planning to do. “And so tomorrow me and Twilight are heading north to find Firewing.” She paused before adding, “Well, I was wondering… would you all like to come as well? I don’t mind if you don’t of course.”
Applejack chuckled. “Of course we’re coming with ya’ll, sugarcube.”
Rainbow nodded in agreement. “Yeah, we’re your friends, and I’m not going to let you two roam alone out there while I sit on my rump doing nothing. Plus I’d hate to miss out on an adventure.”
“Why, darling, of course I’m coming. It’ll be nice to get away from Ponyville for a bit,” Rarity said.
Pinkie was hopping up and down in excitement. “Ooo! We’re going on an adventure, me and my five best friends!” She silently counted them all and herself to be sure. “Yep, me and my five bestest friends in the whole wide world!”
Fluttershy smiled. “Thanks, girls.” She sipped a bit of her hot chocolate.
“So, Fluttershy,” Applejack said. “Who’s this Firewing and what does he look like?”
The question hit Fluttershy like a ton of bricks. She put down her cup and stared wide eyed in horror, and so did Twilight. They didn’t know; they were planning to go after a missing pony and they hadn’t a single idea on what he looked like.
“Ah.”
The six friends raced back to the tower, hoping to find a picture in the book they found in his possessions. Once they arrived, they sprawled out the scrolls and book that Fluttershy looked in across the room.
“Please look inside the scrolls. There’re some that we haven’t looked at yet,” she ordered. Everypony stood stunned in silence for a moment, unable to comprehend the fact that their shy friend just ordered them about.
Fluttershy noticed the silence, and turned around shyly to see what was the problem. “Um… is everything all right, girls?” she asked nervously.
Twilight gave them all a glare that told them to say what she wanted them to hear. “Everything’s fine!” they chimed happily, before beginning to search through everything Twilight and Fluttershy had taken.
After a few minutes of searching, Rainbow whistled, “Whoa, he’s quite a looker.” All the girls raced to where Rainbow was and looked at the photo, scrutinizing it for every detail. Fluttershy thought Rainbow was right.
He was a stock build, although he wasn’t as big as Big Macintosh, but had strong, thick legs. A dark orange coat with a black mane and tail, a long tail for that matter; he had rather menacing dark green eyes that made Fluttershy shiver just looking into them, and they seemed old, very old, like they had seen everything that this world can show. He looked tired as well – tired of adventuring, the writing he put in his diary had said. It was probably right as well, so what changed this pony’s mind? His wings were a mixture of his coat and his hair colour. And finally, his cutie mark – well, it was rather unorthodox; it was two swords behind a shield.
“Maybe his special talent is fighting and adventuring,” Pinkie suggested upon looking at it.
“Maybe, but that’s not the point,” Twilight said. “What matters is now we have a picture on what he looks like, and now we may be able to find him easier.” The others nodded in agreement. “Right, I’m going to head to the library. Just some things I want to look up.” Before anypony could protest, she was gone, disappearing in a flash of light.
“Now what do we do?” Rarity asked.
“I’ll tell ya what to do,” Applejack said. “Let’s get started on packing and writing out letters to our families about where we’re going.”
They spent the rest of the afternoon packing things they might need: bits, blankets, survival guides in case they got lost, and medical packs. Afterwards they began writing letters to those who might worry about them, saying they would be gone for a week or so on a trip and no need to worry.
Twilight, upon returning, wrote a letter to Spike asking to take care of the library, and to look after Fluttershy animal friends. When she told Fluttershy, the pegasus told her not to worry.
“I trained the animals to head to the vets in case I needed to go away. It was a long time but I got the word around, the vet doesn’t seem to mind as well. And Mr Greenhooves said he’ll look after them as well.” So Twilight scratched off the last part and wrote to take care of himself.
“Don’t worry, Twilight. He’s was fine when we’ve took on a dragon, and when we faced Discord,” Fluttershy said comfortingly upon seeing the worry in her friend’s eyes.
Twilight nodded. “But this is a bit different, we’ll be halfway across the country and he’ll be stuck in the library.”
“I’m sure he won’t mind. Besides, he’s got Owliwicious there with him,” Fluttershy said and finished her letter to Angel. “Could you ask Spike to give this to Angel, please?” Twilight agreed and placed the letter with hers. Once the others had finished their letters they placed them with Twilight’s letter. She told them to back away and cast a spell. As one the letters burned up into green flame, they flew out the window and were gone.
“Did it work?” Pinkie asked.
Twilight’s horn finished glowing and she turned her head and nodded. “They made it. I can feel it.”
Afterwards, they went out into the city to buy items for their journey, and put their bits together so they knew how many bits they had between them. “Right,” Twilight calculated on a scroll with some rather complicated math sums written all over. “That’s one thousand and ninety nine bits. That should be enough for an overnight stay in both cities, and enough to get us all home when we’re done.”
They agreed to share the money so they kept it as one pile, and made Applejack responsible for the bits. “I won’t let ya down,” she saluted.
Fluttershy noticed that the sun had gone and the stars were appearing. “Right, everypony,” Fluttershy said in a motherly tone. “I think it’s bedtime. We got a long day tomorrow.” After a few groans, they agreed and all went to bed. Their sleep wasn’t easy as they anticipated what the next few days could bring.
Fluttershy was the second to wake up; she had slept soundlessly throughout the night thanks to Celestia’s vision shield spell, and felt refreshed and relaxed. She looked over to the other pony that was awake. Pinkie Pie was hopping on her bed with a grin that helped to show how excited she was. “Morning, Pinkie,” Fluttershy greeted her, her eyes locked onto the bouncing pony. “How did you sleep?”
“Not… too… well… too… excited… about… this… trip… but… I’m… fit… as… a… fish,” she said, every word spoken when she was in mid-air. “Oh… by… the… way… a… letter… with… your… name… on… it… is… by… the… door.”
Fluttershy got out of bed and walked over. There was a letter wrapped in Princess Celestia’s royal seal, and her name on the front. She opened it and read it.
Dear Fluttershy, Twilight, Pinkie, Applejack, Rainbow and Rarity.
I’m glad to inform you that I have organised a train for you to take to Strutford. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for Detrots, as there isn’t a railway line running between those cities yet. So I’m afraid you are going to have to walk there. I will be waiting on the platform for you. Please be there before midday, or I will have gathered that you will not go at all.
See you soon.
Your loving Princess,
Princess Celestia.
Fluttershy put the letter down and raced to Pinkie. “Pinkie, help me get everyone up, please?” she asked.
Pinkie stopped hopping. “Is it because the Princess wants to meet us before midday?”
Fluttershy nodded. “How did you know that?”
“The paper’s see through. I could see the words midday in reverse, so I knew what it was about,” she grinned.
Pinkie hopped off the bed and calmly walked up to where Rainbow Dash slept. She placed her hooves on the Rainbow’s shoulders, and before Fluttershy could stop her, started to violently shake the pegasus awake. “Come on, Dashie! Up you get! We need to get going by midday!”
She shook Rainbow until the pegasus’ eyes were spinning. Fluttershy screeched and pushed Pinkie away from her, giving the pink pony a scowl. “You know what, I think I should just wake them up. You should just stand in the corner, or get ready,” Fluttershy said.
Pinkie opened her mouth to protest but Fluttershy’s look made her change her mind. Pinkie skulked back to her bed. Fluttershy, after checking if Rainbow was okay, poked Twilight on her side until she got a response, which in this case was a moan. “Sorry, Twilight. But Princess Celestia wants us to be at the train station by midday,” she explained. Twilight instantly jumped out of bed and rushed to the bathroom. Fluttershy prodded Rarity next and explained to her what was going on. She, too, jumped out of bed and rushed to the bathroom, only to find Twilight was in it so was left waiting impatiently outside.
“Applejack,” Fluttershy whispered softly, prodding the earth pony. Applejack opened her eyes and found Fluttershy’s staring into hers.
“What in tarnation!” she screeched, startled by Fluttershy looking at her in the morning.
“I’m sorry, Applejack, but the Princess wants us at Canterlot train station by midday. So we should get ready and stuff. I’m sorry I woke you like that.”
Applejack took a deep breath then smiled. “Don’t worry, sugarcube, there’ll be other times for a good sleep; heck, maybe on the train. I best get to the bathroom to clean myself up.”
Fluttershy put her down with a hoof. “You might want to wait a while,” she said, pointing to the three ponies waiting in line for Rarity to finish her hair. Twilight was busy making decisions on what books she had to take or leave behind. It pained Twilight to leave a book behind but she had no choice.
Fluttershy kept the diary and scrolls of Firewing in her bag and the original photo; Twilight had managed to get copies of five others so they could search around the cities for signs of him.
Soon they were all ready and with their bags on their backs, they set off down the staircase. As they headed down, Fluttershy stopped and looked out towards Ponyville. She regretted it the moment she set eyes on it, for she started having second thoughts. She was going to go further from her home than she had ever gone before. And looking at Ponyville gave her the feeling of flying there as fast as she can, get home and lock the door behind her. “Fluttershy?” Rarity called. Fluttershy looked away from Ponyville and at her friends, who looked at her with concern. “You okay?” Rarity asked.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Fluttershy, responded with an assuring smile. She was telling the truth. The moment she looked away that feeling to run had gone. She trotted down the stairs as fast as she could, so she could get out of sight from her home.
As they walked towards the station, Rainbow brought up conversation. “So what you all going to miss the most in Ponyville?” she asked.
“That’s easy for me,” Twilight answered first. “The library and Spike.”
“I’m goin to miss waking up in the morning and hearing the rooster, and my family.”
“I’m going to miss the spa, my parents and my sister.”
I’m going to miss making humongous parties for everypony, but I’m going to have the biggest party in history when we get back, I Pinkie Promise that right now.”
“I’m going to miss helping the animals, and Angel,” Fluttershy finished. “What about you, Rainbow?”
“That’s easy, nothing. ‘Cause I have you lot with me, so I can’t miss a thing if what I’d miss is with me,” Rainbow replied. Smiles came all around from the others and Applejack noogied Rainbow’s head, messing up her mane.
“Softie,” Applejack muttered and trotted ahead. Rainbow muttered something under her breath, sorted out her hair and walked after them.
When they came to the station, they found no Princess and no train waiting on the platform. They looked around in confusion. Fluttershy’s ears shot right up when she heard a whistle coming from the right towards Ponyville. She looked right, and from the tunnel, a giant behemoth of a steam locomotive appeared.
Fluttershy was not the best at math but she could guess the machine was around seventy feet in length, with a tender connected to the rest of the engine. Its front was curved rather than straight, and its wheels were bigger than her, maybe even bigger than Applejack’s brother.
Behind the machine were seven equally long carriages, the last being an observation carriage. Each was custard and dark brown in colour, and each had names written on the sides, below the central window. The six mares stared in awe at the train. Fluttershy looked at the name of the engine and looked at the golden coloured nameplate on its side. “The Golden Unicorn,” she read aloud.
Their attention was taken from the engine to the observation carriage when the Princess jumped off the train. The six mares bowed low to the monarch, who gestured for them to rise. “There’s no need for that here, my little ponies,” she said with a smile. “Do you like my train?”
Twilight gasped. “Yo… your train?”
Celestia nodded. “Well, mine and Luna’s. This is the royal train, recently built by Hoofington rail works and is used by me to tour the country. I wanted you six to be the first to truly experience it, however, as a gift for what you all have done for this country.”
“Thank you, Princess,” the six mares said.
“You’re very welcome. Now, Fluttershy, could I have a word with you for a moment please?”
“Me?” Fluttershy put a hoof on her chest. “Oh, yes, of course, Princess.” She walked over to where the Princess was standing, while her friends set about getting inside the train.
“I managed to contact the mayor of Strutford yesterday evening, and informed her of your coming. She has offered to help you in the search, so please, when you arrive, head straight to the mayor’s office,” she said.
“Thank you, your majesty, for everything,” Fluttershy said with a bow of the head.
Celestia smiled and brought out the bracelet she had given Fluttershy. “She will know who you are with this. With it, she might be able to help you find some answers,” she said as she strapped it on Fluttershy’s left foreleg.
“Thank you again, your highness.” Fluttershy bowed once more, then turned around and walked towards the train. She stopped when she saw Twilight walking sheepishly towards the Princess.
“Um, Princess?” Twilight poked the leg of Celestia, and looked at her with pleading eyes. “I was wondering if you have a spare one of those bracelets, could I have one please?”
Fluttershy rolled her eyes and giggled. “Come on, Twilight, let’s go. We don’t want to leave the others waiting for long.” She put Twilight’s tail in her mouth and pulled, dragging a miserable looking unicorn to the train.
“I’m sure Fluttershy and the mayor will allow you to borrow some books, Twilight,” the Princess chuckled with rolling eyes.
At this Twilight zoomed into the train and sat on a chair. “Fluttershy,” Celestia called. The pegasus turned her head around to face the winged unicorn. “Good luck,” she said. Fluttershy smiled in response, and hopped on.
“Right away, driver!” the Princess called to the driver, who looked back and waved. He disappeared into the cab and blew the whistle, which echoed across Canterlot. Before the ponies on board could get comfortable, the train started with slow, gentle movements.
Fluttershy, Twilight, Rainbow, Pinkie, Rarity and Applejack waved goodbye to the Princess out the windows, who returned the gesture. They kept waving to each other until the train disappeared around the bend and was out of sight.
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I'm curious to where you will take it from here, if it was me writing then i would get a block just about the ending.. I would have no idea where to take the story.
Still i assume you as the actual writer here probably already knows where to take the story, anyway good luck, so far its been a joy reading
.
151181 thank you, i'm glad you're enjoying the story, the language is in nordish, well done on that,
and thank god for google translate, and yes i know where this will lead and and i hope you will enjoy it as much as i am writing it 
Just to say, I am still picking out a lot of grammatical and spelling errors. It doesn't affect the reading too much, but sometimes I have to rephrase some things to understand it.
Nitpicking aside, this story is developing nicely and I shall continue to read this story.
153478 If you have sent me a mail about all of the sentences, you would have a lot more acurate languages. Norwegian is a hard languages to learn for the uncommon state. I will help you to do this, I'm norwegian. That meens I can help you with the grammar in my languages. Let see what error you had in this sentence of the norwegian language:
Du kan ikke gjemme meg litt ponni, når jeg ser deg, vil du se som din dyrebare verden brenner! Og dine venner brenne med det! da vil jeg rive huden din fra dine bein
Du kan ikke gjemme deg for meg, lille pony. Når jeg finner deg, vil du se dine venner og verden brenne til aske! Etter det vil jeg rive beinene fra kroppen din.
That was funny.
please contact me. And this was the best i could do. If you not already notise, the texture is more acurate to the whole text. But also not the Google translate kind of thing. Or your original text you used. This is called a writher overwrith. That is a comon thing to do if you translate a story to another languages. For the story itself, it will be more floate in it.
This is andmos signing off and hope to get in contact with you.
This word should be "piqued". It means "pricked" or "stimulated".
Their is possessive, means something belongs to them.
There is the word that refers to some place.
I hope these help you. Great story so far, by the way!
It's 3:30 where I am now. I'm tired, my eyes are unfocusing from time to time, I know that I should go to bed and take a good long rest, but I just can't stop reading your story.
Course you!
Nah just kidding.
Love the story. More of it, please.
Bronydragon
Man...I shouldnt have learned to speak swedish... now the mysterious language dosn't seem so mysterious!
Sure its not swedish but its so close I can understand it just fine.
“That’s easy, nothing. ‘Cause I have you lot with me, so I can’t miss a thing if what I’d miss is with me,” Rainbow replied. Smiles came all around from the others and Applejack noogied Rainbow’s head, messing up her mane.
The element of loyalty, people. right there. That's why Rainbow is best pony. (Right after Derpy and Twilight)
What an odd coincidence, here in England a new build steam locomotive was recently completed in 2008 at Darlington, first one built for mainline use in 48 years, L.N.E.R Peppercorn designed A1 No 60163 "Tornado", the only way it would be more of a coincidence was if the locomotive was apple green
and the coaches were dark maroon instead of Pullman Car Co brown and umber
p.s. "Ah sell apples and apple accessories, now including our paint collection 50 shades of apple"
I'm an coalhead and I tell terrible jokes
PS excellent story
2441861 I'm glad I wasn't the only one thinking about the Peppercorn class and Darlington. At first I had the UP Big Boy in mind.
"Um... Pinkie? I can wake them up faster."
...
"Fus... Ro DAH!"
2504375 genius
2504375 I LOVE YOU!
It should either be : He was fine; or: He's been fine. Mixing these doesn't work.
Great story, by the way, even if it's keeping me awake waayyy too long
Coming back to scratch off a few more chapters just reintroduces me to the same frustration all over again, and promises that it will be plaguing the rest of the story. I will probably just end up skipping to the last few chapters and filling in the blanks.
FUCK you, Pinkie.
The sudden realization that they lacked visual identification was a fun moment, but it would have made a better twist. Sometimes people can be so consumed various important details that they overlook one very critical factor, and find themselves up a creek without a paddle. That missing piece of crucial info could have placed them in a more challenging position if they'd failed to realize it until they were already on their way.
2438330
Scoots is not important... lol
Again!
I love the end bit where everyone talks about thier families and what they'll miss. Really adds to the adventure of it all.