The morning once again brought a flurry of animal noises to Fluttershy’s ears. She wasn’t concerned by the cow mooing this time, but the chickens sounded like they were worked up into a frenzy again.
Worried that the creature that had been hounding the poor newcomer and had possibly taken Peckenzie was in her yard, Fluttershy fluttered out her window and down to the chicken coop again.
“What’s wrong? What’s got you all so excited this morning? Is something bad here?” Fluttershy asked.
They all in unison looked in the direction of the other side of the pen, where her filthy chicken friend was pecking away at the ground. Fluttershy stared, confused. She had caged that chicken when she went to bed, hadn’t she?
Fluttershy flew back inside and went to the cage in her living room, and found it occupied. The hen was still inside clucking contentedly to itself. She opened the cage and brought the hen outside and set it down in the pen. The two filthy chickens immediately clustered together and clucked at each other. They were, indeed, friends. But Fluttershy couldn’t understand a word they were saying. That concerned her more than anything else.
The chickens were fast friends with each other, and retreated to one side of the pen, leaving the cleaner chickens alone. That didn’t solve the problem Fluttershy had with them integrating into the rest of the flock, but that wasn’t her first concern anymore. When the first chicken appeared, she lost one of her own. She needed to know if that had happened again.
Fluttershy went to her flock and began counting. When she finished, she felt a cold fear creep in. She was missing another chicken. This time it was Abigull.
“Oh no, no, no!” Fluttershy paced in small circles as she tried to determine what could be done. Something was taking her chickens! She was glad these new ones were safe, but they had led something terrible to her happy little cottage, and now it was stealing away her animals! Possibly even harming them!
Fluttershy took several deep breaths. Panicking wasn’t going to help. She needed to think through this carefully and take action that would protect the flock from whatever was out there. She also still needed to feed them. She could do that, and think about what could be done.
The food was distributed to those that needed it. Many of the animals were independent and didn’t need her to hoof-feed them, but she stopped to talk to all of them and let them know to keep an eye out for Abigull as well.
She bustled hither and thither, trying to set up protection for her animals. She reinforced the fences, double-checked for holes or tunnels, and set Harry guard duty. If anypony would be able to protect her chickens, it would be Harry. He was big, though, so small entrances needed to be covered up. When it was all done, Fluttershy retired to bed, hoping that they would be able to catch whatever animal was attacking her poor flock.
When morning came, she was dismayed to find that yet another cow had appeared. She immediately went to check on all her other animals, but all the chickens were there, nopony else was missing, and Harry had seen nothing all night.
As Harry yawned and tried to catch up on his sleep, Fluttershy was rushing about in a tizzy, checking with all the animals, trying to find anypony at all who had seen or heard something. Anything to go on would help her find out where these animals were being chased from, because now she had two cows and two chickens from somepony else’s farm.
Fluttershy took care of her daily chores, and once all the animals were fed, she planned to go see Applejack and find out what could be done to help the cows, or maybe protect her cottage from wildlife. If Timberwolves were getting close, Harry should have been able to take care of them, but the second cow had made it onto her property and Harry professed that he hadn’t seen anything approach. Not even the cow.
It was a problem she didn’t know how to fix, and it was causing her a lot of worry. If she couldn’t keep her own cottage safe, she couldn’t keep all the animals here. It wouldn’t be enough to protect them.
She gave her cottage a brief flyover to try to find evidence of animals coming in from outside, but there was nothing obvious she could see. No timberwolf tracks, no cragadile paths, no parasprite spoor, no flyder-webs, nothing. She landed and started down the road to Applejack’s farm, when suddenly the cows started crying out. The two chickens started clucking wildly, which set off the rest of the pen, and Fluttershy rushed back to see what was the matter.
“What is it? What’s going on?” She whipped about, fluttering just above the ground, looking for something that caused their reaction.
There was nothing. Harry had been woken up by the sound and just shrugged. Angel was confused and annoyed. He had his ears pulled down around his head to try to drown out the sound. None of the other animals seemed to have heard or seen anything.
Eventually they appeared to have calmed down, and Fluttershy once again started down the road. There was another loud reaction, and she came hurrying back.
“What’s going on? What has you so scared? I’m here to help! Why won’t you talk to me? Please, I can’t help you if you won’t talk to me!”
Fluttershy was on the verge of tears. She couldn’t understand the new animals, which was worrying enough, but then there was the problem of where they came from, and what was chasing them, and why they were so skittish now that they had a pen and other animals to help protect them. She would have thought Harry would have scared them somewhat, but they didn’t care about him. He could walk by the chickens and cows and not elicit more than a quiet cluck or moo. The whole situation was strange.
Fluttershy decided to stay home. If they were worried about her leaving, maybe that meant they were starting to warm up to her and she was the one that made them feel safe? She didn’t know if that was true, since she still couldn’t get close to them, but if it helped them feel more at home, she would stay.
She stayed and watched them for the rest of the day. She tried to clean the chickens again, since they were easy to catch, but the dirt that covered them was caked on thick, or had set into the feathers more than she had originally assumed. Despite a vigorous brushing, they still looked like they were covered in a thick film of dirt and grime.
Frustrated with her inability to fix anything, Fluttershy caged the two dirty chickens and retired to bed angry and confused. She couldn’t clean the new animals properly, she didn’t know where they were coming from, and she didn’t know what was chasing them, and whether it was the same thing taking her chickens. She felt impotent, and that made her mad.
She tossed and turned in her bed, annoying Angel, who stomped off downstairs to try to get some peace and quiet. She lay staring at the ceiling, listening to the sounds of the night filter in her window. She heard owls and insects, all come out to hunt and mate under the cover of night, but she heard nothing else.
But neither had Harry. He was big, and he was brave, and he was a predator, but he hadn’t heard anything either. Maybe that was because the thing could fly! If it was flying, Harry would have only heard the sound of wings, and a flying creature wouldn’t leave tracks! The chickens and the cows should have, but she was more interested in protecting her own animals than immediately finding out where the new ones were coming from. She was kind, but she had her priorities.
Fluttershy threw off the covers and fluttered out her window. She looked down at the pen for her chickens and saw nothing, but the night had only just begun. She looked over to the brook where the cows were sleeping. There was nothing there except the two of them, huddled next to each other. The blanket she had offered hung off the branch where she had left it, unused.
There didn’t appear to be anything out of the ordinary going on around her cottage. She flew to and fro and there was nothing unusual that she could see. Animals hunted, slept, or just went about normal foraging activities. Still, Fluttershy couldn’t leave it to chance or anypony else. She had to keep an eye on things herself.
Fluttershy stayed up all through the night, watching and waiting. She kept an eye most closely on the chickens and cows. She saw nothing enter the pen or the coop, and the cows went unmolested and unmoved during the night. There wasn’t even a single peep or cluck, and from her vantage point up above, she didn’t even see much movement. There was the occasional bat that flew by, but other than that, the night was quiet and calm.
With the rising of the sun, however, a flurry of noise and activity came from the chicken coop. Fluttershy swooped down as the hens all piled out of the coop, wings flapping and feathers flying. They scurried off to one side of the pen, and to Fluttershy’s dismay, after them came a filthy hen.
A new one had arrived.
Fluttershy gasped and turned to her chickens. She counted them and found yet another one missing: Peggy.
“No! Why is this happening? What is happening!” Fluttershy started crying. “Why is this happening? Why? Why? Why?” She turned to glare at the new filthy chicken. “Where are you coming from? Where are my friends being taken? Where!”
Fluttershy stamped her hooves at the dirty chicken. It jumped, shedding dirty feathers everywhere. Fluttershy stomped the ground at it harder, chasing it around the pen.
“Why won’t you talk to me! My friends are disappearing, and I know you know what’s going on! What’s out there? Tell me!” She broke down and started crying on the ground. The filthy chicken didn’t spare her a second glance and went right back to scratching and pecking for food.
The rest of the flock came and gathered around Fluttershy. Those that remained tried to offer comfort and Harry even lumbered into the pen to give her a hug. She sobbed into his fur until she felt better. He wiped the tears from her eyes and offered her a reassuring smile.
“Thank you, all. I’m sure we can *sniff* get to the bottom of this. I just need to be more vigilant. I can find whoever is doing this and stop them. Even if *they* won’t help.” She glared at the three dirty chickens.
They ignored her. Again.
Harry grunted and roared sadly. He pointed at the chickens and blubbered.
“It’s okay, Harry. I know you did your best. Whoever or whatever is doing this is just much sneakier than we expected. We’ll have to keep our eyes open just that much more.” Fluttershy looked around. “Angel! Angel Bunny come here!”
Angel poked his head out of the house and glared.
“I need your help, Angel, please,” Fluttershy said.
Angel hopped out to the pen and folded his arms. He motioned for her to get on with it, but he was listening.
“I need you to stand guard at the chicken coop tonight, okay? Don’t let anything in or out, and yes—” Fluttershy took a deep breath. “—if that means using violence, please do so. I can’t have anypony kidnapping any more chickens. Their safety is our main concern now.”
Angel Bunny broke out in a grin and punched the air, pretending to box an invisible opponent. He smiled at Fluttershy and punched one paw into the other.
Fluttershy winced and turned to Harry. “Harry, I need you to stand guard from the forest. If it’s coming from anywhere, it’s coming from there. I’ll keep watching for anything airborne. We’ll catch this thing, whatever it is. Just enjoy your day for now, okay? I’ll bring food to both of you for the night’s watch.”
Harry smiled and nodded. Angel grinned. Fluttershy gave a sad smile, then went to do her chores. She fed every animal, even the cows and new chickens. She let the other two dirty chickens out into the pen where they clustered up with their new friend. She frowned at them, but didn’t molest them further. She’d manage this without their help.
As the sun set, Fluttershy prepared food and water for the overnight watch they would be doing. She brought Harry a large portion of fruits and bucket of water. She brought Angel a plate of vegetables and a bottle. She, herself had a meal set out just on her windowsill where she could fly down and grab if it she needed something to eat during her watch.
She ate a little something before it got dark, but she was ready to stay up all night again if necessary. Surprisingly, she didn’t feel tired, but she chalked that up to the adrenaline of losing some of her friends. She wouldn’t let that happen again.
While she ate some of her food, she sat on the couch in her living room. She looked up at the painting and winced as the familiar faces of her chicken friends stared back at her. She knew it was just the pain of loss hitting her, but they looked so much like them. Abigull, Peckenzie, and Peggy were all suffering or… or dead, wherever they were. She missed them.
She started to sniffle but held it back. She needed to be strong tonight. If something was out there, she needed to be ready to catch it in the act. If it came anywhere near her cottage and her friends, she would be on it as fast as she could be. Harry and Angel would help, and they would subdue it and make it pay for what it was doing. Scaring chickens and kidnapping others was unforgivably mean!
She sighed and picked up her dishes. She went to the kitchen and washed them, then turned out the light as she went to the front door. Her eyes had not yet adjusted to the dark, and she couldn’t see the shadowy head of the painted pony turn to follow her as she walked. When the front door shut, the pony was on his way down the road toward the frame of the painting.
Outside, the animals had all been tucked away. The birds in their nests, the chickens in their coop, and the cows had lain down together. Angel gave Fluttershy a thumbs-up from his spot in front of the coop door, and Harry likewise gave her a thumbs-up from his spot facing the forest. Fluttershy flew up past her bedroom window and hovered in the air, taking a birds-eye view of her cottage and its surroundings.
It was quiet for almost an hour, at which point there came a sound. The front door opened, then shut again. Angel crouched as if to hop toward it, but Fluttershy stopped him.
“Angel! Don’t move! Block that door!” Fluttershy ordered.
She flew down herself to have a look, and found the door tightly closed. But something had opened it. There was nopony here, and no signs of anypony passing. It had been all of maybe five seconds, so where had they gone?
Fluttershy flew up into the sky again and looked down. All around her house appeared to be clear. There was nopony to be seen. Angel was in front of the coop, Harry was in his spot near the forest, and Fluttershy was up here. The clouds moved away from the moon, and Fluttershy could see the faint outline of her shadow, flapping in the darkness.
That was when she saw it: A faint shadow, moving across her yard, passed directly underneath Fluttershy’s own shadow. It was going toward the chicken coop!
“Angel! I see something! It’s coming toward you!” Fluttershy yelled.
Angel swiveled around, paws at the ready, but there was nothing there. Nopony was visible to him at all, and he just jumped in a circle, confused.
“It’s invisible, Angel! Swing to your right!”
Angel swung, but hit nothing.
“Your left!”
He spun around and swiped with a paw, but hit nothing but air.
“He’s going inside the coop!”
Angel swung at the open doorway, but still hit nothing at all.
Fluttershy swooped down and pushed Angel out of the way. Nopony was going to steal another one of her chickens while she was here! She stepped inside, the blackness of the coop prevented her from seeing anything, but she felt movement. She tried to grapple the invisible thing, but just fell on her face. The sound disturbed the chickens, who were already tense from Angel’s presence, and suddenly there was a squawking flurry of activity as they all tried to escape the coop at once. They squeezed out the tiny door in a line, clawing their way overtop of Fluttershy.
When the flurry ended, Angel was picking Fluttershy up and pointing. He was pointing at the house, and Fluttershy hurried outside. One of her chickens was being carried by nothing back toward the front door!
“Stop right there! Leave my friends alone!” Fluttershy flapped toward it and grabbed her chicken. Some invisible force held onto it and tried to pull away. It was far stronger than her, and Fluttershy had to let go when something pushed her backward. She rolled away from the door and could only watch in horror as her friend was carried silently inside the house.
She followed as soon as she could, throwing the door open, but she arrived only in time to see her chicken–and the shadow–disappear into the painting.
“No! No, it’s true! It is you!” Fluttershy cried. “Peggy! Peckenzie! Abigull! Give me back my friends!” Fluttershy scratched at the painting, but all that happened was she tore a line into the canvas.
From the hole issued a thin stream of liquid paint, and Fluttershy could hear a deep, nasty laugh coming from all around her. She needed help! This was something nasty and strange she couldn’t deal with alone. It was definitely wicked magic!
She pulled the painting off her wall and put it inside the cage with the dirty chickens. If that thing came out again, maybe it would be stopped by the cage. She thought it unlikely, but it was still something. She raced outside to get Angel and ordered him to watch the cage.
“Keep the lights on at all times, Angel! If anything comes out of there, you attack it! No mercy! It’s a wicked, wicked thing! Get Harry if you need help. I’m going to go get Twilight!”
Fluttershy opened the front door and galloped down the path to Ponyville as fast as she could. She had just crossed the brook when she ran into something. Something she couldn’t see.
She rubbed her nose in pain and blinked. She shook her head and stood up and tried to see what it was. She pressed a hoof against it and it had a small amount of give. It felt coarse, and rough, but was soft enough to be pliable.
“What in the world?”
She pushed harder, but she didn’t quite have the strength to break it. She followed it to one side as far as she dared, and hit another barrier. This one felt like wood. She tried to go around it, but there was another wall, hard and unmoving. The only soft barrier was directly in front. She pushed on it again, but this time something happened.
A rainbow of colors appeared high in the sky and ran down the pliable but invisible surface in front of her. It revealed a picture in the sky, of moving ponies and a view of several other pieces of artwork. Fluttershy flew back and above her cottage to get a better look.
“Oh no… oh no, no!”
A new painting appeared in Wheat Grass’s stall. It was an idyllic little country scene, with a cottage at the top of a small hill above a babbling brook. There were cows to the left, and chickens to the right cooped up in a pen. A large brown bear stood silently in the background, and a yellow pegasus with pink hair flew above the scene, staring down the road toward the viewer just across a tiny little bridge. A pony stood admiring it and tilted their head in appraisal.
“How much for this painting of the cottage?”
“Ten bits for a drawing, twenty bits for paintings, thirty bits for sculptures, forty for a carving,” Wheat Grass said, without emotion.
“I’ll take it!” The pony said.
The End.