“Hmm…where do you suggest we start looking, Pinkie?”
The small town of Savannah bustled with minimal amount of life. There were barely 1,000 people living there, if even that much – but, almost every one of them who walked by the entrance to town stopped and stared at the curious sight. A white unicorn with a purple mane, and an all-around pink earth pony, each donned in Confederate garb, stood close to the post office. The pink one lifted her hoof to her chin.
“Well,” she began, “If I were a Fluttershy, I think…hmm, I think I might be a tree. But, Rarity, there are so many trees here! How will we know which one is – “
“Relax, Pinkie,” Rarity cooed, “I highly doubt Fluttershy is actually a tree right now. One doesn’t desert an entire army only to become a tree.”
After a slight pause, “I think, anyway.”
Ever since Fluttershy had shot Applejack, she hadn’t been the same. She’d been shy – not terribly out of the ordinary, but to the point where she wouldn’t say a word to either Rarity or Pinkie Pie. She had fitful nights, her frail mind often plagued with terrible nightmares that Rarity could guess the content of. Every now and then, Rarity would even wake up in their tent to see Pinkie Pie dragging Fluttershy in from outside, who’d be asleep. Wasn’t like the pegasus to be a sleepwalker.
Amazing what can occur in just five days.
And then, she was gone. The two Confederate ponies woke up this morning, their friend nowhere in sight. After searching the camp for a bit, a terrible truth dawned on them – she was missing.
“Well, I mean, you never know,” Pinkie was saying, “She always wanted to be a tree! If I was a Fluttershy, and I didn’t wanna fight anymore, I’d be a tree.”
“But…how can she do that…” Rarity tried to piece together, “If she doesn’t even have magic?”
“Beats me,” Pinkie said, shrugging (to most passing people’s amazement – since when do ponies shrug?), “But, Mr. General Lee told us to search everywhere. He doesn’t want any of us separated, remember?”
Rarity nodded. Lee had sent the two of them into the nearest town, Savannah, to go look for her. He put a lot of strain on this search, and promised to come in himself a bit later. Rarity felt odd that so much time and effort was being put towards the search for Fluttershy, and couldn’t tell what was making him this way. I mean, his heart was in the right place…still, it seemed kind of awry.
“Alright…” Rarity began, pulling herself out of her own reverie, “Let’s split up. We have a lot of ground to cover, so we better get – “
“We do?” Pinkie’s bouncy, cheery voice interrupted.
The white unicorn cocked her head to the side, opening her mouth to say something. But as she looked around the town, she found words didn’t come quite as easily. All in all, there was a post office, which doubled as a gunsmith; a tavern/hotel – type place; and a general store.
Yes – lots of ground to cover. Thank Celestia (and, whatever the human deity was known as) for small towns.
“I guess not,” Rarity sighed, “Might as well split up, though, shorten the time. I’ll take the post office, you take the general store?”
“Okie dokie loki!”
“Then, let’s trot to it.”
The door to the post office gunsmith swung open, and remained that way until the jubilant pink pony had bounced completely through the door, donning a Confederate military cap and canteen with the Navy Jack on it. The man behind the counter was busy polishing the surface.
“Welcome to Savannah Post, how may I…” he looked up from his cleaning, into the shimmering blue eyes of Ponyville’s Premier Party Pony. “…help you?” The man’s eye brows soared higher than an artillery strike. “Um…uh…”
“Hi,” Pinkie said cheerfully, “My name’s Pinkie Pie! I’m a soldier for the Confederacy!”
“Uh…huh…” The man nodded his head slowly, eyes unmoving from Pinkie’s. “And, you’re…you’re, um…here….because….?”
“Why does everybody give me that look?” Pinkie questioned, cocking her head to the side. Then, shaking wildly, “Oh, never mind that. I’m looking for a fellow soldier, Fluttershy – seen her anywhere? She’s a pastel yellow pegasus with a sniper rifle on her back.”
The man continued to say nothing. Instead, after his eyes bored into Pinkie’s for another five minutes, he reached under the counter to produce a large bottle of whiskey. He rotated the bottle in his hands, talking to himself. “Did Bill put something in this? What the hell is this strong?”
“Um, excuse me, mister?”
“Oh…right,” the man said, taking a rather large swig of the whiskey bottle before returning it. “Your, um, friend…you do realize that the lodging is at the tavern, right? Not at the post office?”
“Well, duh! I may be a silly pony, but I’m not a dumb one!”
The man blinked. “Then, why – why are you here looking for her?”
“Well…” Pinkie began, “Did she come in here at all? Maybe she sent a letter to us that we didn’t receive yet. Or, she may have bought some ammo-untions for her snipy rifle.”
“Uh-huh. I think I’d be pretty sure if a yellow pegasus came in here and I haven’t seen her…” The gunsmith/post-office owner trailed off as the pony’s blue eyes grew to the size of lakes. The pleading pools of blue put the man in a sort of trance.
“But…’pretty sure’ isn’t one-hundred percent,” the baker begged, “Do you have any records of people or ponies that came in to buy something?”
The man, somehow, through his strange hypnosis, held up two hands. “I…I’m sorry, there, little filly, but…I haven’t seen any pegasus walk through these doors. Trust me, I would know.”
Her eyes seemed to only get more depressed. The energy in the room seemed to disappear. The man panicked. “Look, don’t cry, please. I’m sure that – “
“Oh! I’m not crying!” she exclaimed, suddenly perking up and perking up the entire shop. The gunsmith/postman was taken aback but the sudden shift in mood. “I was thinking! I saw some trees in the back of your shop.”
The man looked from side-to-side, expecting the odd creature to continue. When she didn’t, he motioned his hand to signify continuation. “Well? What about them?”
“Do you mind if I take a look at them?”
Rarity tapped a nervous hoof on the counter, as the general store owner flipped through his logbook. He muttered incomprehensible things frequently, enough to the point where the dressmaker had stopped glancing up every time she heard a noise.
The white-haired storekeeper squinted at the record book. “Now, er – whadid ya say yer friend’s name was?”
Rarity ho-hummed to the ambience of the store, her eyes focused on an odd-looking speck of dirt on the wooden floor, oblivious to the actually comprehensible statement.
“Uh…miss?”
She began to tap her hoof along to the rhythm of the song she was humming. The storekeeper touched a tentative hand to her foreleg, startling her a bit.
“Oh! Huh? What?” Rarity stammered, out of her daze, “I’m sorry, did you find something?”
“Maybe. I wanna know what yer friend’s name was. I ferget.”
“Oh, pardon me, sir. It was Fluttershy.”
“Uh – huh. I thinks I actually has its here.”
Rarity placed both hooves on the wooden counter and leaned forward. “Yes? Yes?”
The eagerness didn’t affect the elderly storekeepers patience. “Actually, I think so. Was it spelled F-L-U-T-R-S-H-I?”
Rarity leaned back. “Well, no, it was spelled – “
“An’ was she a tough-lookin’ charac’er? Kinda pinkish, rifle on ‘er back?”
Rarity nodded. “Sounds like her.”
The storekeeper looked to Rarity, trembling as his usual manner was. “She have wings?”
Rarity’s eyes shimmered like waterfalls. “Oh, yes, yes, yes! That’s her!”
The old man smiled. “Well, sure I know ‘er! She was here jus’ this mornin’! In fact, I think she’s at the tavern, right now, if she ain’t left yet. She walked in there not too long ago.”
“Oh, yes, can you – “ Rarity, who began to jump up and down in her military barding, stopped moving. “Wait, did you say ‘tavern’? You mean the hotel part, right?”
“Aw, shoot, t’ain’t none o’ my business what she does in there! But, we can sure as hell look fer her! Come on, I’ll walk ya over there! I ‘members what she looks like.”
Rarity’s happiness was now replaced with a hint of apprehension as the storekeeper yelled out, “Charlie! Yer takin’ over while I take little miss Extremity to see her friend!”
“Rarity,” the dressmaker corrected.
“Right, right,” the elderly, and as Rarity began to believe, somewhat-senile storekeeper said as he opened the door to the general store and walked out into Savannah.
A trembling hand gestured to her. “Well, there’un she is.”
Rarity’s jaw dropped.
Sitting at the counter, downing a shot of bourbon, a large blunderbuss on her back, a brawny, muscular woman laughed loudly, and obnoxiously. Rarity could see the tattered, and full-of-holes clothing she was wearing, along with the massive set of wings on her back, which was actually an imprint. Self-branded, it seemed.
The burly woman gave another laugh as she slammed the glass on the counter, shattering it.
Rarity’s eye twitched involuntarily. The old man’s, however, did not.
“Well, there she is!” The man exclaimed, “That right there is your Flutrshi. She’s a regular ‘round these parts. Tough ol’ gal, from what I hear. Wonder why you’re lookin’ fer her.”
The pony gulped down pure fear. “Uh-um-wuh-he-well-she-that-Flutter-not- “
“I oughta get back t’ the store, now. Have a wonderful day, little filly!” And with that, the storekeeper strided out of the room.
Which left Rarity, in her military outfit. Standing like an idiot in the front of the tavern.
Looking at Flutrshi.
“Dear Celestia,” she marveled, “That is not Fluttershy.”
“What are you talking about, Rarity? That’s definitely Fluttershy!”
Rarity almost choked on oxygen, hearing her friend’s voice, for two reasons: one.) What in the Princess’s name was she talking about? And two.) When did she get here?
Pinkie smiling face greeted Rarity’s one of shock. Words were produced from the latter. “Pinkie, what are you talking about? Fluttershy isn’t even here!”
“Yes, she is!” Pinkie insisted, pointing a hoof at the end of the counter, “She’s right there, with the smoky-stick in her mouth! And there’s Mr. General Lee right next to her!”
Rarity shook her head, rolling her eyes and mindlessly searching the room. Was Pinkie looking in a bad tree or something? Fluttershy isn’t –
And then, Fluttershy was.
There she was, bandana, rifle and all, leaning on the wooden counter of the tavern. And, right next to her was none other than the General Lee himself, albeit dressed differently so that he blended in. Both deep in heartfelt conversation.
And nicotine. Rarity saw a glow on the end of the cigar protruding from Fluttershy’s mouth.
“Son of a mare…” Rarity mumbled as Pinkie happily bounced over to her pegasus friend. The unicorn trotted slowly behind.
The pegasus noticed their arrival. “Oh, Pinkie Pie! Rarity! I’m so – “
“FLUTTERSHY!” Pinkie said, squeezing Fluttershy tight, “We thought you’d left forever!”
“Well, Mr. Lee, um, convinced me otherwise,” she said sheepishly, “Oh, Rarity. Can you ever forgive me for my actions?”
“Oh, of course darling,” Rarity replied, being pulled into Fluttershy’s warm embrace, “As long as you can forgive my reaction to your reaction.”
“Absolutely!”
“Hey, Fluttershy,” Pinkie asked, causing Fluttershy to open an eye during her embrace with the dressmaker, “What’s that thing you had in your mouth?”
The hug ended. “Oh, that was just a cigar,” Fluttershy coolly stated, “It’s helping me to relax after the…’trauma’ I’ve been through, as Mr. Lee put it.”
“That’s right,” Lee said, speaking up for the first time, “War is nothing to be applauded. It tears people apart, and has them kill their best friend. I hate to be fighting my American brothers up in the North – I can only fathom what it must be like to shoot your lifelong friend.”
Discomfort swarmed Fluttershy. “Well…yes, it wasn’t exactly…”
“Let’s change the subject, shall we?” Lee laughed off nervously, sensing his mistake. “Actually, I’m glad I found Fluttershy alone – it gave us a chance to discuss the proposition I plan to give to you two.”
The pegasus nodded, taking a long drag from the cigar gripped in her wing before putting it out on the ashtray. “Oh, yes. It’s a wondrous plan. No doubt it should help us end this terrible war.”
“Ooh! I love plans!” Pinkie yelled loudly, beginning to attract attention in the tavern, “Tell us!”
“Sh!” Rarity hissed, “Pinkie, you’re so loud!”
“Yes,” Lee began to say hurriedly, “Why don’t we head on back to the encampment? This is a rather big thing, and should be discussed in private. Shall we?”
Lee and the three ponies got up to leave, and began walking to the door. All the way there, Fluttershy began looking back and forth from the barkeep to the overcoat Lee was wearing.
Rarity, the pegasus’s close friend, nudged her shoulder. “Something more troubling you dear? About the plan, maybe?”
“Yes,” Fluttershy said instantly, “I mean, no. I mean – well, it’s something serious. Something I’d rather not be so tense about.”
“So...why are you looking back towards the barkeep and the overcoat? Is someone watching us?”
Fluttershy bit her lip. “No…” She looked from side-to-side before whispering into Rarity’s ear, leaning in close. “But, I wouldn’t mind being not-so-stressed when he tells the plan again. I was pretty anxious the first time.”
With soft eyes and a rather mischievous, yet gentle smile, she faced Rarity and muttered, “Those cigars really help.”