All wrong.
Fluttershy had the most awful dreams. In the glare of moonlight, she galloped through dungeons as deadly to enter as they were impossible to escape. Bizarre creatures lurked behind every corner, and she fled from their attacks as she rescued foals from the hearts of horrible monsters. At any moment, the roof could collapse on her, or the air around her could turn to poison. She would have succumbed to paralyzing terror if not for her friends with astonishing powers and unshakable courage.
Her friends of her dreams were all wrong. Rainbow Dash was usually there, but there were always others. Sometimes there were hundreds, sometimes only one or two. Many of these friends were hybrids; ponies and other living things stopped in the middle of a transformation, like a white chimera of woodland critters who whispered alluring promises in her ear. Another was a pony with the horn of a unicorn, the wings of a pegasus, and the grim resolve of icy steel.
The dream always ended with one monster, too large to hide in a dungeon, burning all her friends. Before she could react, to mourn or escape, she would wake back in her bed.
When Fluttershy woke from the dream this night, she found herself in a corner of the bed, shivering. She wrapped her sheets back around her, curled around her plush rabbit Angel, and counted the craters in the Twin Sisters on the Moon until she fell asleep again.
“You don’t look so good, Flutters,” Rainbow Dash said. “Wanna skip practice today?”
“I’ll be fine.” Fluttershy silently chided herself for not arriving before the morning rush. She and Rainbow had been in line at Sugarcube Corner for ten minutes, her standing, Rainbow hovering in front of her, and there were still a few ponies in line in front of them. At this rate, they’d barely have time to eat before Air Guard Reserve practice began.
“You don’t look fine.” Rainbow lowered her voice to a whisper. “Did you have that dream again?”
“Yes.”
“You really gotta stop letting the news get to you.”
Fluttershy frowned. Awful dreams had plagued her since she had been a filly. For reasons she had never divined, her parents had blamed her dreams on news stories about foal abductions in Manehattan. To try and stop the dreams, they’d sheltered her from any other upsetting stories at home and recruited Rainbow to do the same at school.
None of it had worked. Even after psychiatric therapy and an abundance of her own research into dream interpretation and psychology, the best answer Fluttershy had been come up with was they were a result of bullying she’d suffered all her life. It hadn’t been a waste though; psychology proved to be fascinating.
“Maybe you’re right,” Fluttershy said to avoid a debate. A wave of abductions had hit Ponyville in the past year, and Rainbow wouldn’t be dissuaded from her belief that the news weighed on Fluttershy.
Rainbow drew closer. “Listen, here’s a trick that’ll make practice a little easier on you,” she said conspiratorially. “There’s a cap in the back of the practice bombs. You can unscrew it and let some of the sand out so it’ll be way easier to carry.”
Fluttershy smiled. “Thanks.”
Rainbow laughed and tousled Fluttershy’s forelock. “No worries! So, whatcha in the mood for? Blueberry danish? It’s my treat.”
“I appreciate the offer, but sugary foods have been linked to depressive episodes.”
Rainbow looked at her with one eyebrow raised.
“I wouldn’t mind a bran muffin, though.”
“Sounds good. A wholesome muffin will take your mind off of those foals, right?”
Fluttershy sighed.
The last pony ahead of them finished his order and walked away from the counter. Cup Cake, the owner of Sugarcube Corner, was at the register today and caught Fluttershy’s eye. She looked weary when, with fragile motions, she gestured for Fluttershy and Rainbow to step up.
“Because it’s not like there’s anything we can do about it,” Rainbow said as she hovered backwards towards the counter. “It sucks, but everyone knows that foals who go missing never get found.”
Behind her, Cup Cake’s expression changed from weary to shocked.
Fluttershy tried to signal Rainbow. “Uhm, Rainbow…”
“Yeah, yeah, bran muffin, got it.” Rainbow turned around in the air. “So I’m getting a blueberry danish, extra glaze, and a…”
She froze mid sentence. For a while, Rainbow and Cup Cake exchanged surprised looks without speaking. Then without warning, Rainbow shot out of the bakery. Cup Cake’s jaw wobbled, and she looked to be on the verge of tears.
“Are you okay?” Fluttershy asked.
Cup Cake didn’t meet her eye. “Excuse me,” Cup Cake said, hurrying into the side kitchen. Before Fluttershy could consider following, the Sugarcube Corner waitress, a pink earth pony with frizzy hair, commandeered the register and took Fluttershy’s order.
A few minutes later, Fluttershy exited with their breakfast packed to go. She found Rainbow perched on a tree branch a few blocks away.
“Would you like to talk about what happened back there?” Fluttershy asked.
“Not really.” Rainbow dropped to the ground and took the danish Fluttershy offered. “I’m not even supposed to know.”
“Know what?”
Rainbow’s mouth twisted. “Carrot and Pumpkin went missing a few weeks ago.”
Fluttershy gasped. Cup and Carrot Cake were one of the most best known couples in Ponyville. When not busy with pastries at Sugarcube Corner, they could often be seen trotting their filly Pumpkin around town. Ponyville gossipers had been abuzz with the possibility that Cup and Carrot were planning to have a second child soon.
“Don’t tell anyone, okay? I overheard some pegasi talking about how they’ve been stuck on patrols for her. Cup reported it to the Ponyville Civil Guard, said they’d been abducted like those foals, but Guard doesn’t think this is like the others. They think Carrot and Cup had a fight about staying in Ponyville with their kid, and Carrot decided to take matters into his own hooves.”
“That’s horrible,” Fluttershy said. She’d heard of other families moving out of Ponyville now that foals were disappearing, but never of a family splitting apart. “What if the Civil Guard is wrong?”
Rainbow shrugged. “That’s why they’ve got patrols flying, to see if Carrot or Pumpkin show up somewhere. They told Cup Cake to act like everything’s normal, like she’ll get a ransom note any day now, but, you know.” She shrugged and shoved the danish into her mouth.
“That sound awful for her.” Fluttershy made a mental note to check in with Cup Cake later and offer her support. “That doesn’t explain why you flew out of bakery so quickly, though.”
Rainbow swallowed, looked around, and pointed to the clock tower. “Oh horse apples, practice starts in ten minutes. We gotta hurry!”
The sunset was Fluttershy’s reward. Through the whole day of practice, as her muscles ached, her mouth grew dry, and the roaring of wind drew tears from eyes, she thought only of the sunset. Fluttershy cherished the sight of the sun turning red while it crossed the horizon, the feel of the baked summer air turning crisp, the sound of Ponyville’s honeybees returning to their hives. To laze at the edge of the field watching the sunset was the only way she could imagine ending a day of air drills.
Fluttershy’s ritual had begun when she first moved to Ponyville to be an au pair for the Apple family. The Apples had been kind to her, and Fluttershy had delighted in helping raise their daughter Apple Bloom, but there had still been hectic days she could end only with the calming sight of the setting sun. When she left their employ and started with the Air Guard Reserve, she’d kept her ritual for after practice relaxation.
Rainbow’s after-practice ritual was a rollicking night at Sweet Apple Acres sharing cider with the Air Guard Reserve’s top flyers. After Rainbow had moved to Ponyville and befriended them, they had invited Fluttershy on their nights out, and once, Fluttershy had accepted. She had hoped to reunite with Apple Bloom, but was disappointed to discover jolly Bright Mac and stoic Big Mac managed the cider bar at night.
What shocked her, though, was seeing Rainbow’s and the other pegasi’s debauchery. As they downed pitcher upon pitcher of cider, dares and challenges escalated from humorous to scandalous to perilous. Even Big Mac’s attempts to cut them off hadn’t helped. After Rainbow passed out later in the evening, the teasing the other pegasi had previously directed at Rainbow swung suddenly and viciously to Fluttershy, like she was surrounded by bullies in Cloudsdale all over again. After that night, Fluttershy had declined their follow-up offers until they stopped inviting her.
Today, though, Rainbow stuck close to Fluttershy as the pegasi dispersed. The top flyers called out to Rainbow as they left, but she shouted back about having a backlog of work at the Weather Service. “Don’t want to disappoint all those cumulus fans!” she said with a laugh. Rainbow’s smile faded once the other pegasi were out of sight.
“Is everything okay?” Fluttershy asked.
“Yep!” Rainbow’s smile snapped back into place.
Fluttershy waited for the remainder.
“I mean, it could be better. I guess I wasn’t doing super, one hundred ten percent awesome up there like I usually do. I probably need to practice more.”
“I thought you were doing great. Maybe you were a little distracted.”
“That was it! Cloudkicker was distracting me with all her attention-hogging.”
“Cloudkicker wasn’t at training today,” Fluttershy said. “You’re still thinking about Cup Cake, aren’t you?”
“I really hurt her, didn’t I?” Rainbow hugged herself. “I should have kept my stupid mouth shut.”
“Would you like to talk about it?”
Rainbow hesitated. “Maybe.”
Fluttershy was equal parts relieved and resigned. It was always good to help her friend, but she’d be sorry to miss the sunset and its majesty of colors to end the day. Unless…
“I know a great place where we can watch the sunset and talk, if you’d like.”
They were quiet on the trot over. They sat in silence and watched the sun ooze into the earth. The sky blushed, then ruddied, then bruised. When twilight came, Rainbow spoke at last.
“Welp, I better head home.”
“But we didn’t talk at all,” Fluttershy said.
Rainbow rose to all fours and stretched. “Hey, thanks a bunch, Flutters. I’m not feeling so worried anymore.”
“Oh, that’s good. Do you think you’d be able to talk to Cup Cake now?”
“Maybe later.” Rainbow Dash stretched again and turned her gaze to the horizon. Fluttershy kept watching Rainbow, trying to guess at what she was thinking. Rainbow was relaxed, as if she had nothing troubling her, or as if she was still ignoring what was really troubling her.
Rainbow’s eyes shot away from the lingering dusk.
“Holy horse apples! Do you see that?” Rainbow pointed to a shed at the opposite edge of the training field. Fluttershy turned to see the very end of a peach-colored tail dart behind it. Something about the color was off, and she looked back to where the sun had set. It was a peculiar sight, almost as if the sky was growing brighter.
“Well? Did you see it?” Rainbow demanded.
“Oh, not much, I’m afraid,” Fluttershy said, her attention returning to Rainbow.
“It was a rabbit, but it had a long, bushy tail.”
“I don’t know of any rabbits like that.”
“And it had these red eyes that burn through you like unicorn beams!”
“Was it white? Many albino animals have red…” Fluttershy stopped. Something about a white animal unsettled her.
“Look, I can’t explain right now, but we have to check it out. I don’t want it to get away from us, so we’ll have to sneak up on it. You go left, I’ll go right, okay?”
“Rainbow, I don’t think…”
“Please, Fluttershy,” Rainbow said. “Please, just…do this with me.”
Fluttershy took a breath and let it out. “Okay, but promise me we’ll be gentle when we get to it.”
“Promise!” Before Fluttershy could say another word, Rainbow was halfway down the field, rocketing towards the shed and leaving Fluttershy in her dust. When they reached the shed, Rainbow snapped to the right corner. Fluttershy trotted to the left corner and rounded it without hesitation.
The rabbit was nowhere to be found.
“Rainbow, it’s gone already.”
Rainbow slid around the corner. “Are you kidding me? Where could it have gone?”
“There’s probably a warren nearby. Poor little guy must have wanted to get home.”
Rainbow stomped forward, her head low to the ground, eyes darting back and forth as she searched for hidden openings.
“We’ve got to find it,” Rainbow said. She knocked away a rock and peered at its former resting place.
“Rainbow Dash, you stop hounding that poor bunny right now.”
Rainbow snapped up from the dirt. “Flutters, it’s important…”
“Why? What could be so important that it’s worth bothering some defenseless animal trying to go to sleep?”
Rainbow’s lips quivered, and she made a sound somewhere between a huff and a whimper. “Never mind. You wouldn’t believe me anyway.” She turned around and stalked off.
Fluttershy paused before catching up. She knew she’d hurt Rainbow’s feelings, but Rainbow had been acting so horribly that she’d had no choice but to be stern. Still, she tried to think of something to say to salve the wound.
Before she could, she noticed a figure moving up the launching pier in front of them. During training, the piers were used for a variety of purposes such as observing flight patterns and practicing landings. They rose to a terrific height and had minimal safety precautions, so earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasi with weak flying skills were prohibited from entering. At night, no one was allowed to climb them without a partner. The figure Fluttershy saw approached the top alone. She couldn’t be completely sure, but it looked to be an earth pony.
“Do you see that?” She nudged Rainbow.
“Is that a pony? Who is that?” Rainbow’s wings were already extended.
The figure reached the top and walked towards the platform edge.
“Something’s wrong,” Rainbow said. “C’mon, we gotta check it out.” She jetted away, with Fluttershy following behind in the air. A few yards short of the platform, Rainbow stopped dead, and Fluttershy soon realized why: the pony at the top of the platform was Cup Cake. Fluttershy glided past Rainbow and landed next to Cup Cake. The baker stared over the edge, motionless.
“Cup Cake, are you okay?”
“I’m ready,” Cup Cake said, her eyes fixed on the distance.
“Ready? Ready for what?”
Cup Cake didn’t respond except to put one forehoof over the edge of the platform. She leaned forward, and her other foreleg collapsed. She began to slide off.
Fluttershy rushed to grab Cup Cake around her barrel, but Cup Cake bucked and broke Fluttershy’s grip. Fluttershy bolted forward to catch her again until a whoosh of wind knocked her mane into her eyes. She brushed away her mane and saw Rainbow had swooped beneath her.
But something had gone awry. Rainbow fell limply, as if she had been knocked out.
Fluttershy dropped, her wing muscles burning with her desperation to reach Rainbow and Cup Cake. Rainbow, even with her wings twisting loosely to her sides, plummeted further and faster than Fluttershy could imagine, let alone catch up to.
Her wings locked in place mid-flap. She did not slow down. The colors of her mane and coat began to flow away like water into the kaleidoscopic whirlwind that surrounded her.
Through it all, she felt complete tranquility.
She felt peaceful.
She felt.
She didn’t.
A floating white dot came to her attention. It pulsed with energy. No, twinkled. No, pulsed. Yes, pulsed. Sparkling strands of power ebbed into and out of it.
Fluttershy waved at the dot. She could not see her waving hoof in front of her. The thought of her invisible hoof made her giggle. She couldn’t hear the giggle.
Violet threads spun out from the dot, which had pulsed itself into an irregular, amoeba-like shape. The threads twisted into curlicues, and as more spun out, they blotted out the rest of the world. An explosive force jarred her, rattling her bones apart and her teeth together. A high-pitched screech broke her calm. She tried to cover her ears, but she felt nothing, and nothing could contain the obnoxious noise. She shut her eyes but still saw purple and white and spirals and whirls. She curled into a ball, to cry into her own soft fur, but it was not there.
The shriek stopped, and there was a gentle pressure on her muzzle. She found herself staring down a lily white hoof and foreleg that led to a unicorn with hair like a bouquet of irises and a matching gown alive with motion.
“I’m afraid you’re in quite a bit of danger,” the unicorn said. “If you are very brave, though, then I have no doubt we will triumph over it. Can you be brave for me?”
Fluttershy shook her head. She was the last pony in the world to ask to be brave. At the mere mention of danger, Fluttershy had broken into a cold sweat.
The unicorn looked undeterred. “Let’s try a slight change of course, then. Darling, what is your name?”
“Fluttershy.” Her heart raced, and she gulped down fragrant air.
“Mrs. Cake I recognized, the poor thing. Do you know the name of the other pegasus?”
“Rainbow Dash. She’s my friend.”
“That’s better.” The unicorn smiled. “Rainbow is the brave one, isn’t she? How courageously she leapt after Mrs. Cake. Her bravery has led her into a trap, I am sad to say, and now her only chance for rescue is at the hooves of other brave ponies. Do you think that together we can be brave and rescue Rainbow Dash and Mrs. Cake?”
Fluttershy could be brave for Rainbow. She steeled herself and nodded at last.
“Splendid!” the unicorn said. The purple veil that had covered Fluttershy’s vision tore away, allowing the intense sun to blind her. She covered her eyes with both front hooves and twisted away from the light, but slipped on the reedy grass beneath her. Unicorn magic surrounded her and helped her back to her hooves.
Fluttershy risked opening her eyes. The unicorn stood directly in front of her so that Fluttershy could see little else.
“Who are you?” Fluttershy asked.
“How thoughtless of me.” The unicorn curtsied. “My name is Rarity, and I am Ponyville’s witch hunter extraordinaire. While we’re making introductions, allow me to present…”
Rarity stepped back and, with an extravagant wave of her foreleg, swept across an antique wooden house surrounded by an unkempt lawn.
“…My prey.”