//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 // Story: Treasure Trove // by HeatWave //------------------------------// With a series of soft 'clops' the end of a white hoof knocked repeatedly against the wooden doorway. When no answer was immediately forthcoming, the motion was repeated, this time with a little more force. Rarity stood in front of the small cottage at the edge of the Everfree Forest that her friend called home, hoping desperately for an answer from within. "Fluttershy!" the unicorn called, rapping on the door a third time. "Fluttershy, please come out!" From inside she heard something shift and emit a soft squeak, but no one came to answer the door. "Fluttershy!" she called again, banging on the door even more forcefully. "Fluttershy, I know you're in there! Answer this door right away!" Her efforts were rewarded with another scuffling sound and a brief bout of movement visible in the small window to her right. She moved in closer, hoping to get a look at what was transpiring within, but was instead met by a small white visage which suddenly appeared behind the glass. Rarity recognized the face of Fluttershy's constant companion, which was a good sign at least. If he was home, the chances were good that Fluttershy was home as well. "Ah, Angel," she said, throwing on the charm as much as she could for the often temperamental bunny, "Would you kindly be a dear and go tell Fluttershy that Rarity is here to see her?" Angel appeared less than happy, and he indicated as much by vigorously shaking his head. Not expecting the proffered reaction, Rarity was momentarily taken aback. "She is home, is she not?" she asked. The bunny cast a quick glance over his shoulder before offering a single curt nod. The unicorn was now a bit miffed. She had never been refused entry into Fluttershy's home before. "Angel, I am not here to play games," she explained to the small rabbit, her tone taking on a bit of an edge. "I want to speak to Fluttershy immediately. Don't force me to go collect Opal and bring her back here." Angel began to gesture wildly, making it clear in no uncertain terms that the unicorn's presence was, for the moment, less than welcome. At this point Rarity began to lose her composure. "Now listen here you long-eared mouse, I will not tolerate being treated like this!" She turned away from the window and stamped her hooves on the mat in front of the door. "You tell Fluttershy that I am not moving from this spot—until she comes out to speak with me! And furthermore—" Her tirade was interrupted as a bright orange carrot stub sailed through the air to lightly impact into the back of her head. She turned angrily on the perpetrator, but as she approached the window a second time it was promptly slammed shut, and Angel made a point to celebrate his endeavor from the safety of the cottage interior. Rarity was approaching her limit. "Why you little rodent!" she exclaimed, glaring daggers at the miniscule critter. "How dare you treat a lady this way! I will not stand for this! You bring Fluttershy here right this very instant!" For a moment it appeared that Angel was going to persist in his attempts to dissuade the stubborn unicorn, but a soft voice from within caught his attention. "That's enough, Angel." At this the minuscule bunny turned from where he sat on the windowsill, and began to gesture again, apparently attempting to prevent the occupant inside from following through with her predetermined course of action. The voice within was stern, yet kind in tone, "Now Angel, you know we don't treat our friends that way. Won't you let Rarity in?" The rabbit seemed to pout and took a moment to look back through the window, shooting a surprisingly potent glare at the unicorn outside before disappearing from the windowsill. A moment later the latch clicked and the door opened an inch or two. Rarity wasted no time, but promptly entered the establishment, only to fire a glare of her own as she passed by the very angry looking bunny that stood off to the side. Breaking the brief eye contact with her momentary antagonist, Rarity spared a glance for the cottage interior. It was, as usual, very well organized, and everything was in its proper place. Yet there was something strangely odd about the home that Rarity could not put her hoof on. Deciding to worry about that later, she glanced about for her friend. It didn't take long to find her. Fluttershy sat on the couch in the center of the main room, the yellow pegasus curled up in as comfortable position as was possible on the small piece of furniture. Much unlike the house itself, however, Rarity could instantly tell something was wrong. The unicorn was well aware of the fact that of all her friends (apart from herself, of course) Fluttershy was the one who spent the most time on physical appearance; yet the pony before her was in a state that Rarity would never have imagined possible. Her coat was ragged and dirty, and spotted in several places, and her mane and tail were an absolute mess: Matted, disheveled, and snarled. Several painful looking welts covered her forelegs, and she had some nasty scratch marks on her back. She was almost unrecognizable. "Good heavens, dear!" Rarity exclaimed in utter horror. "What happened to you!" *** Back at the Ponyville library, Pinkie Pie was convinced that she had made the biggest discovery of the decade. "Your treasure chest!" she asked excitedly. "Ooooh, I wonder what's inside?" Spike looked up from where he sat on the ground, "I didn't know you kept treasure, Twilight. Have you been holding out on me this whole time?" Twilight giggled at the idea. "Oh Spike," she said, shifting the box comfortably back in position on the shelf, "it's not that kind of treasure." Confident that her handiwork was stable, she turned away from the wall, only to have her personal space disappear as the color pink filled her view. "Well, what's inside? What's inside!" Pinkie asked with an eager bounce. Twilight took a surprised step backwards. "R—really Pinkie," she stammered, "it's nothing that special." "I wanna see! I wanna see!" For a moment, Twilight didn't quite know how to react, though she was more uncomfortable with the other pony's demanding presence than any real reluctance to show the contents of the box. "Come to think of it," Spike added, moving to stand beside Pinkie, "I don't think I've ever seen what's in that box either. Whaddya say, Twilight? Show us?" "Pleeeeeeeeeeeeease!" Pinkie added, her eyes suddenly becoming very moist and dilating spontaneously. Faced with the combined pleas of her two friends, Twilight caved in with a small smile. "Oh, alright," she said, turning back towards the shelf and once again grabbing the box with her magic, "but I promise it's not nearly as special as you two are making it out to be." Slowly Twilight lowered the crate until it was sitting comfortably on the floor. Spike eagerly moved to flip it open, but stopped short when he realized that he would need a numeric combination to do so. "Ah, ah, aah," Twilight said in chastisement. "Not so fast." "Not important, huh?" the dragon said with a huff. "Why keep it all locked up then?" "Just because it's not worth much doesn't mean that it isn't important to me," the unicorn explained before spinning the keypad away from the observant group and inputting the proper combination. The box sprung open and she turned it to face her friends once again, eliciting an excited 'oooh' from the pink earth pony. Spike rushed forward, eager to see the interior contents. It was obvious that his imagination was on overdrive, as he immediately looked disappointed. "What's with all the papers and trinkets?" he moaned. "I thought you said it was treasure." "I said it was my treasure, Spike," the unicorn clarified, "and these 'papers and trinkets' are very important to me. For example," with a nod of her head a single sheet of paper with a very elegant seal stamped on the bottom lifted from the chest, "this is my acceptance letter into Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns as Princess Celestia's personal student, and this," with another gesture a ribbon with a shiny medal attached to the end floated out as well, "is the fifth place medal I won at the Running of the Leaves last year." "Ah, big deal," Spike said dismissively. "That's all ancient history." "Ancient history or not, these are my memoirs," she said defensively. As she spoke, a sudden thought crossed her mind and she looked at the dragon with a sly expression, "Besides, it's not like you don't have a few keepsakes... like a certain photograph and a bow-tie you keep in a box under your bed? Or how about that jewel that remains mysteriously uneaten?" Spike sputtered, having been caught off guard. "Th—that's different!" he insisted. "Those were gifts!" The unicorn nodded, "And I keep those too, like this party blower from the second party anypony has ever thrown for me." She pulled out a small pink party blower that was fastened to a wooden base. Pinkie stood transfixed at the sight of the party blower. "Wow, Twilight! I didn't know it meant that much to you!" The unicorn gave her pony friend a hangdog look, "Well, I wasn't very appreciative of the first one..." she admitted sheepishly. Pinkie seemed too occupied to care, lost in her own thoughts. She stared at the party blower for a moment until something seemed to click behind her bright pink visage. "That's. So. Cool! I think I'll keep something from every party I throw! As a reminder! I never want to forget another party again!" Twilight's expression became uncertain, "Yes... well..." She silently prayed that Mr. and Mrs. Cake would forgive her. "Bah!" Spike interrupted, sticking his tongue out as he stepped away from the box. "I was looking for something interesting, not a bunch of mushy reminders and knickknacks." "Oh, is that all this is?" Twilight responded, grinning down at her assistant. "Then you certainly wouldn't be interested in this." Another item floated out of the chest, a crystal ball about the size of an orange. Spike was interested despite himself; after all, it was very shiny. He looked at it with curiosity, not noticing anything out of the ordinary at first. Upon closer inspection he realized that there was something encased inside the crystal— something that was a light shade of purple. He squinted at the ball, trying to determine its contents. "What is that?" he asked. "This." Twilight said proudly, "Is a reminder of my first true test in magic." Though her initial expression was one of haughtiness and pride, it slowly softened into a much warmer expression as she continued." It reminds me of the day that I got my cutie mark, and is also a reminder of my first real friend." At that Spike perked up, "The day you got your cutie mark? But that... that's..." Twilight guided the ball over to him for a better look. "This is a fragment of your egg-shell, Spike," she explained. Spike was transfixed as he grasped the crystal ball out of the air for a closer look. "Wow..." he said distractedly, but then something came to his attention. "Wait... but this fragment is purple with dark purple spots. I thought my egg was purple and green." Twilight shook her head, "Nope. It was two shades of purple." "It was?" "Yup." "Oh..." Spike seemed confused, "and all this time I thought..." he turned his gaze back towards the crystal, "but still... wow! I didn't know you had this, Twilight." "I have two, actually," the unicorn said with a broad smile, hoisting another, similar object from the chest. "I was going to give you one when you were old enough. I guess now's as good a time as any. Just don't eat it accidentally, ok?" "Of course not!" Spike said indignantly, but he was unable to keep his attention from the bauble for long. "Thanks Twilight! You're the best!" "Anything for my number one assistant," she told him, giving him a friendly nuzzle. Throughout the exchange, Pinkie Pie sat strangely quiet, and if either of the other two occupants of the room were to pay attention, they would have been able to see the gears working from within her head, and as she watched the exchange between Twilight and Spike those gears seemed to finally settle into place with a noticeable click. The suddenly very loud and audible gasp startled both Twilight and Spike out of their musings, and they looked over at Pinkie only to see a cloud of dust where the pony had just been standing not a second before. They heard the door to the library slam shut immediately afterwards and sat together for a long moment, neither quite knowing what to make of the sudden departure. "What do you think that was all about?" Twilight finally asked. "I have absolutely no idea," Spike answered, "but the last time I saw her do that..." "Yup, somepony's probably due for a party soon." They stared a bit longer, watching as the trail of dust left behind in the speedy pony's wake dissipated into the air. Finally Twilight broke the silence again. "So, you hungry?" "Starving," "Me too. How about we head on over to the Sugarcube Corner? At least we know we won't run into Pinkie Pie there today." "Right behind you, sister." Spike said with gusto. *** "Hello, Rarity," Fluttershy said, seemingly ignoring the unicorn's initial outburst, "I'm so sorry about that… I must have fallen asleep." As she spoke, Rarity noticed that she did not raise her head—or even open her eyes—but remained at rest on the small sofa. Her voice seemed to match her appearance, worn and strained, but mostly tired—she sounded extremely tired. "Fallen asleep?" Rarity repeated, "Goodness, darling, are you alright? You look positively dreadful." At this Fluttershy finally perked up a bit, lifting her eyelids and raising her head slightly. "Do I?" she asked, giving herself a brief once over. "I'm sorry, I've just been…" she yawned, weakly trying to cover it with a hoof, "…I've been so busy." Busy? Rarity thought, but this house looks like it has not been used in days! In fact— that was it! Everything inside the home was coated in a thin layer of dust! That's what she had noticed earlier! If the unicorn was worried before, she was absolutely paranoid now. Fluttershy would never allow her home to fall into disrepair. "Fluttershy, look at me," Rarity commanded her friend. Sensing the tone, the pegasus managed to give her unicorn friend a lethargic gaze. Rarity took in the details of her face, noting that her eyes were slightly bloodshot and saggy. She looked like she hadn't slept in a long while—much longer than was healthy, apparently. Rarity moved to kneel beside the pegasus. "Fluttershy," she started, her voice going soft, almost pleading, "please tell me you are not still angry with yourself over what happened at the Gala." Fluttershy gave a slight start at the question, her ears twitching a bit in response. "Uh… th—the Gala?" she repeated, "N—no, of course not." Rarity stood up again, far from convinced. "Now Fluttershy, we promised each other there would be no more secrets between us." Fluttershy's head dropped back to the sofa cushion. "Well…" she said with a hint of hesitation, "…maybe... just a little. I… I wasn't really myself that night." "Darling, please," Rarity pleaded, "none of us were quite ourselves that night. We were all desperate ponies, but you cannot let that change who you are." "I know that," Fluttershy admitted quietly, "but still…" Rarity took a few steps back to look over the house again. "There will be no buts about it," she said matter-of-factly. "You need to get out of this house." The pegasus' eyes closed wistfully, "Oh please, Rarity…" she whispered, "not—not right now, I can't." "You can't afford not to, darling." "But I'm just… so tired…" "Goodness, dear, when was the last time you had a full night's rest?" she asked, hoping to get to the bottom of it all, but she did not receive an answer. "Fluttershy?" She returned her gaze to her friend. Fluttershy sat silently on the sofa, breathing steadily; she had fallen asleep again. "Oh, Fluttershy." With a sigh the unicorn moved to rouse the pegasus from her slumber, but before she could do so she was intercepted by an irritated rabbit, who quickly moved to stand between them defensively. Rarity glowered at the critter, still angry over their earlier quarrel. "Oh, what is it now?" Angel placed his forepaws together, then tilted them horizontal and set his head atop them. He then began to shoo at Rarity, obviously indicating that she should let her sleeping friend lie. "Angel, look at her!" Rarity demanded. "She is a mess, and I'm almost certain nothing in this cottage has been touched for over a week! I'm not going to let her sit here and waste herself away like this!" The bunny remained stalwart, crossing his arms in finality. They stood there in stalemate, one doing his utmost despite his diminutive physique, the other not truly wanting to initiate a physical altercation. Finally, as a desperate measure, Angel softened his expression from an angry glare to that of gentle pleading. It caught the unicorn completely off guard, but it was enough. Feeling her will beginning to falter, Rarity cast another glimpse at her friend on the couch. She once again took note of Fluttershy's physical state, which was absolutely dreadful; and yet, the expression on her face was one of perfect peace—almost… happy. Rarity looked askance from the bunny with a grimace and grumbled in resignation. "Oh, very well. I'll let her be for now. But don't think this is the end of it!" She cast a final glance around the cottage, now able to see what she couldn't before. There were distinct signs of under-use, and it begged all manner of questions. At the same time, however, it offered her an excuse. "I suppose at the very least I can clean up a bit," she mused to herself. With a second thought, she turned again to the bunny on the ground, and roughly hoisted him up with her magic, "…and I don't suppose you would mind helping me… would you dear?" Angel struggled viciously, but soon realized there was no other way out. With a heavy sigh he nodded assent, and was promptly dropped. "Good, now would you kindly show me where Fluttershy keeps her cleaning supplies?" With a glower that could kill a lesser being, Angel slowly led the way. Rarity followed, unperturbed. They spent the next two hours in silence, dusting, wiping, and just straightening up whatever needed it. There wasn't much out of place, to be sure, but everywhere she went Rarity found signs of general disuse. Even the bedroom looked like it hadn't been used in a few days, and that only caused her to worry more. Perhaps the most alarming was the distinct lack of critters that usually filled the small cottage. It cast an eerie atmosphere over the hovel that was usually brimming with life, and put Rarity even more on edge—but at least it had made the cleaning easier. Finally she cleaned out the last corner behind the last piece of furniture and shifted it back into place. "Well, I suppose that about does it," she said, more to herself than to anypony else. She spared another glance at her friend. Fluttershy still hadn't woken, and though Rarity did not want to leave her, she had other responsibilities to take care of. The Carousel Boutique hadn't been open all morning, and she still had that hefty order to complete by next week. It was best to work on such things before Sweetie Belle returned from school in the afternoon. Still, she didn't want to leave without some form of closure. Finding a quill and a blank piece of paper, she wrote a note for her slumbering friend, indicating a desire that Fluttershy come see her the moment she woke up. Replacing the quill in its holder, she carefully set the note down next to the pegasus on the couch. She noticed Angel looking at her from the sidelines, an annoyed expression on his face. She turned once more to the rabbit. "I want this to be the first thing that she sees when she wakes up," Rarity explained, her tone leaving no room for argument as she fixed the critter with a stern look. "And so help me, Angel, if I discover that Fluttershy never sees this note, I will fabricate an excuse to ensure that Opalescence will be here twice a week for the next three months!" She received a gesture of reluctant assent, and satisfied with that, moved towards the door. Rarity paused only once, glancing back at her friend just before leaving the home. She took a final note of comfort in seeing the expression of complete contentment painted onto the pegasus' face, and silently prayed that her worst nightmares were not true. She then stepped outside and gently closed the door behind her.