The sun rose over the horizon, leaving behind a beautiful rainbow thanks to the rain that occurred yesterday. It was a beautiful rainbow that could not be seen, for the Everfree Forest was a cruel place, blocking out everything the skies would show.
The sun couldn’t even wake Fluttershy up. She had to wake up herself. A sad moan escaped her, wondering why that beautiful rainbow wasn’t there to greet her morning. It was all sad. Maybe it was because she just managed to wake from an illness, an illness that felt so awful that she was afraid she wouldn’t make it.
Fluttershy managed to open her eyes, being greeted with a lot of green in her face. Picking her head up, she felt some soaked leaves passing through her head. The air felt quite damp. It must’ve rained last night. But she was more focused on the lack of a certain rainbow greeting her morning.
“Rainbow?” Fluttershy called, looking around. “Rainbow Dash?” She looked left, right, up on the tree branches, and down in the bushes. There was no Rainbow in sight.
Fluttershy moaned and braced her head with a hoof. It seemed she was still recovering from the illnesses last night. When she tried to move, her other hoof made contact with something. Looking down, she recognized it as the journal she was reading earlier. Rainbow must’ve brought it with her when she was escaping those ponies that were chasing them.
“Maybe she went to look for more-” Before she was able to finish her thought, she saw something sticking out of the journal. Opening it made her cringe. “Rainbow’s feather? W-Why would she…” She was afraid to ask. This wasn’t a feather that fell off naturally. Rainbow plucked it out herself. Fluttershy proceeded to read through the page the feather marked.
Fluttershy felt a painful blow to her heart upon reading the chapter. It seemed to discuss about a tatzlpony constantly chasing down the writer of this journal. Not only did it support the thought that tatzlponies could be bad, but it also proved that they were dangerous. There was a mention of a toxin that it had that was making this pony sick. And that toxin was apparently coming from the tatzlpony.
“N-No…” Fluttershy denied as she flipped the page and hastily searched with her eyes. “That can’t be right, can it?!” Not wanting to believe tatzlponies were dangerous, or rather that Rainbow Dash was a danger to her, she kept reading for answers.
_
”It’s all over now. That creature is gone. I should be relieved, right? But I’m not. Oh, why did it have to turn out this way?
When that creature found me one last time, I thought I was done for. My strength was at its last limits, and I had nowhere to go. All I could do, was close my eyes, and wait for it to be all over. Even if this creature didn’t finish me, its toxins would.
But by some cursed miracle, neither happened. And it didn't make me happy. Why must these things happen because of me? Never give up, he said. Stay calm, he said. Always hang on to hope. Does hanging on to hope always have these types of consequences?
I had been saved once again. And by once again, for the final time. It was him. He saved me again. Now... as I see his body laying on the ground, I realize, he’s gone for good this time. Gone… just like my mother. The only thing he had left for me, was that flower. I really am... all alone now.”
Fluttershy felt tears drop from her eyes, both in sadness and defeat. “It i-i-is… T-This is why she…” Her eyes shut tightly, and she cried openly as her face fell into the book. Nopony could hear her sobs this deep in the forest. All she could think about was Rainbow’s thought process to why she would leave.
“I-If she di-idn’t leave… I co-ould’ve been… t-tatzlponies are…” More crying ensued from her. She only thought of that flower on a whim because she felt it was her only chance. But she didn’t realize what sort of implications on tatzlponies that would have if it worked. It did work. Which means, what Clang said to them about the flower…
Something caught Fluttershy’s eyes. After she was able to calm down enough to open them, she noticed something odd in the book. There wasn’t much writing left in it, but that’s not what made her curious. She decided to continue reading.
_
”I was never good at making decisions for myself. Now that he’s gone, I’ve had to do that. But why must it happen like this?
Today, I found somepony, somepony I owe my life to. You’d think I’d be happy, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. I wish I had never met them. What have I gotten myself into?
I can’t keep doing this. This may very well be the last time I write here. Without him, I have no one left to write for. I know I should keep writing, but those creatures...”
Fluttershy gasped in curiosity. The rest of the entry was scribbled out to become unreadable. It looked like quite a lot was scribbled out too. The only readable parts was that last sentence, despite also being somewhat scribbled out.
“Somepony they met?” Fluttershy asked out loud. “Somepony they never wanted to meet?” Her head turned up to look toward the forest as she pondered what that meant. She didn’t think long on it though. There were more pressing matters right now.
“Rainbow Dash…” Fluttershy thought about Rainbow’s decision. This whole time, they had been searching for answers as to what a tatzlpony was, and who turned her into one. It seemed they got one of their answers, and it wasn’t one they liked. Tatzlponies were indeed bad, and very dangerous. According to this journal, that’s just how they naturally were.
Fluttershy wanted to believe that this wasn’t true. But after what she experienced, how could she deny it? She suffered a serious illness that her medicine had no effect on. Only the flower seemed to cure it. The pony who wrote this journal suffered an illness that couldn’t be cured, but the flower also had an effect on it. That couldn’t be a coincidence. Both illnesses had to be the same.
The journal mentioned that a dangerous creature that tried to eat them was also the cause of that illness. That meant because of Rainbow Dash being around, she eventually suffered that same illness, and almost didn’t make it. There was just no way those similarities were a coincidence. Rainbow really was dangerous.
“No…” Fluttershy said with a stern face. “Rainbow Dash isn’t dangerous. A tatzlpony may be dangerous, but she isn’t.” But when Fluttershy tried to lift herself up, she found her strength faltering. The illness was still having somewhat of an effect on her.
“O-Ooh…” Simply picking herself up felt painful. When she managed to inch herself up enough, another strange thing caught her eye. Underneath the bushes, she saw sprouts growing out of the ground. These sprouts looked familiar. She couldn’t understand why, but these sprouts looked like the ones she saw at the entrance to the Everfree Forest.
“M-Mmmh…” After a shaky struggle, Fluttershy managed to stand again. “Rainbow Dash…” A few pants escaped her as she looked her surroundings over. “I have to find you. Where did you go?” She wasn’t sure how she would start until she noticed the hoof prints on the ground. Up ahead was practically a path of destruction that could only be described as the result of predators chasing prey. Many sticks were snapped in half, leaves were crunched, dirt was kicked up, and parts of tree barks were ripped off.
Fluttershy left the bush to take a closer look. She was woozy, and felt she shouldn’t move around too much. But she couldn’t let that stop her. Those hoofprints lead through that trail of destruction. That must’ve been the direction Strike and X fled to. But she also recognized one of those hoofprints as Rainbow Dash’s.
Fluttershy’s heart skipped a beat while her pupils shrunk. “Rainbow? A-Are you trying to… to turn yourself in… to protect me?” Heavy breaths escaped Fluttershy. “N-No… This is a mistake! Nothing good can come out of this!” It occurred to her Rainbow probably didn’t read that last chapter.
From what Fluttershy could gather, those ponies were probably hired to capture Rainbow Dash just like Clang. So he wasn’t working alone. Whoever their client was wanted to capture the tatzlpony, Rainbow Dash. According to these ponies, it was because tatzlponies were very dangerous creatures. But if that was true, why would anypony want to turn Rainbow Dash into a tatzlpony? Thinking to that last chapter of the journal, it probably wasn't for anything good. Which means... if Rainbow Dash turns herself in...
Fluttershy reached inside her saddle bag. “I… c-can’t let that happe-en.” She pulled out some painkillers from her bag with a determined look. “I can’t let you sa-acrifice yourself for me. I have to find you.” With shaking hooves, she took the painkillers swiftly. Normally she would never think to take these. They were unhealthy and sometimes a dangerous solution to treating illnesses. But this was important. Without her strength, she would never catch up to them in time. Even now, it seemed impossible, but she had to try.
Fluttershy threw away her empty bottle of painkillers. She intentionally only brought one with her, so she wouldn’t be tempted to take more if such an emergency were to occur. Now it was time.
After taking a deep breath, Fluttershy ran and followed the trail, enduring her wooziness.
______________________________________________________________________________
Meanwhile, on the other side of the Everfree, two ponies found themselves in a small clearing, thinking they managed to lose the timberwolves. They were wrong. At this rate, they could no longer continue running from them. Their strength would give out long before the timberwolves would. Strike was twitching, watching the timberwolves slowly close their distance. X was shivering intensely behind him, excelling painful sounding moans.
The ring on Strike’s horn suddenly shined, causing his eyes to grow wide. The timberwolves were ready to lunge. Before they could, he grabbed X in his hooves and magic. X yelped and clutched herself in that grip. She attempted to step back, but was instead taken above Strike, ready to be thrown at the timberwolves. Her pupils shrunk. The timberwolves roared. Strike yelled while X screamed.
Before anything else could happen, a rainbow streak hastily approached their position. It was the tatzlpony they were trying to capture. Rainbow Dash.