//------------------------------// // Chapter 33: Surprise // Story: What is a Tatzlpony? // by Skylight77 //------------------------------// Sly’s hypnotic stare slowly settled upon Fluttershy’s request. While he closed his eyes, he lowered his head back down to his body, breaking the hypnosis. The swirls in X’s eyes soon vanished as a result. After blinking, her eyes returned to normal and she was conscious again. The first thing she saw was both Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy giving her a serious look. She shut her eyes as she panicked and squirmed, making the butterflies detatch themselves from her hoof. Due to Sly’s grip, X's efforts to go anywhere was in vain. “Please, settle down,” Fluttershy said. “If you cooperate, we promise we won’t do anything to you.” X continued to squirm and whimper, but her efforts were slowing down. Gritting her teeth harshly, she made one final attempt to break free of the grip. When she couldn’t handle anymore, her muscles gave away and she instantly stopped all her struggles. She began sobbing after that. A few tears even started escaping her eyes again. The butterflies looked her over, waiting for a few seconds. When they believed X was done with her squirming, they returned back to her hoof to ease the damage. “It’s over-r-r…” X sobbed out. “I… I f-failed… failed…” She finished with a sniff. Fluttershy’s eyes grew concerned. It was hard to believe that a pony like this caused them so much trouble. Seeing her sob out like this just didn’t make her feel right. Rainbow Dash however kept her stern glare at X as she felt no guilt at all. While Fluttershy didn’t understand why, she did understand that despite this guilt, they still needed answers. “X, listen to me,” Fluttershy started. “I need you to answer a few questions.” X only responded with more whimpers and tears. She wasn’t saying anything more, so Fluttershy continued. “Tell me again. Why are you trying to capture Rainbow Dash and separate us? What does your client want with a tatzlpony? You say that they are dangerous, but how? Tell me.” There wasn’t any immediate response. X continued to shiver, but her whimpers turned into gasps of breath. The way she was breathing made it seem like she was just recovering from suffocation. But all she was recovering from was just intense fear and acceptance. Fluttershy began to wonder if she’s had to experience fear like this quite often. Maybe that was why she was the way she was? Finally, X opened her eyes and began answering. “T-They’re p-p-poisonous…” she answered. “E-Everytime they breathe… They-y-y… release some of that toxin… i-i-in the air.” X proceeded to tell Fluttershy everything she told Rainbow Dash earlier. She explained to Fluttershy that the toxin may be very small, but if she stayed exposed to it for too many days, she would be affected. Rainbow was careful to listen on what X was saying to see if there was any changes to what X told her. Unfortunately, there was nothing out of place. There was however something else that she added. “E-Even if you cured it… you’ll only be affected again…” And then, X finished with that last thing she told Rainbow Dash. “If the tatzlpony… e-e-ever gets sick, they’ll… their toxin spreads f-faster. I-It’ll affect an entire town within a day!” X finished with a gasp of whimpers and moans. That last revelation got to Fluttershy. It made her look at Rainbow Dash with her mouth open in concern. And yet, Rainbow Dash still didn’t look regretful. Why? Fluttershy looked back to X and continued questioning. “Okay. But what about your client? Why does your client want to capture Rainbow Dash?” X took a few breaths before answering. “To… prevent this tragedy from happening. If… If the tatzlpony is left alo-” She didn’t get to finish before Fluttershy interrupted her. “What would your client do though? When they capture Rainbow Dash, what will they do to her?” A heavy pant escaped X. “They’ll…” There was a pause, a long pause. “T-They’l-l-ll…” Another pause came, but it was cut off by her going silent when she released a silent gasp. Her eyes looked a bit stunned. “I don’t know…” Fluttershy’s eyes widened at the response, not just because of the words, but also because of X’s tone when she said it. No fear was present in that tone. It was very calm and collected. “You don’t know?!” Fluttershy asked in surprise. “We never thought to ask,” X responded with that calm tone. “Never thought it was needed.” After hearing fear in her voice for all that time, it was so strange seeing X so collected all of a sudden. Unfortunately, it was short lived. Rainbow started growling, causing X’s eyes to shrink as she began shivering again. “Then what do you think they’ll do to her?!” Fluttershy asked with a slight anger in her tone. “Would they release the toxin from her, or would they do something else?!” X’s eyes shut as she began whimpering again. “Answer me, X. Just like Rainbow Dash doesn’t want anything to happen to me, I don’t want anything happening to her either. What do you think your client would do?” X’s eyes were squeezing tightly as she was gasping for breath, moaning deeply as if she was pleading for something, something that would get her out of this situation. And then, X responded, but not with Fluttershy’s answer. “I can’t hear them! I c-can’t hear the-e-em! Why-y-y?!” It was a strange way to respond. Rainbow began wondering why X kept repeating that. She was saying that during the time they were fighting too. There was also another time she was saying it, but the exact moment escaped Rainbow for the time being. Fluttershy seemed to be curious too, because she asked… “Who are you talking about?” It took a moment, but X’s shiver slowed to a halt. Opening her eyes, she answered. “Clang… Strike… our client… I-I can’t hear the-e-em…” Fluttershy just stared at X for a few seconds. Her eyes turned to the left, then to the right, then back to X. She was trying to process why X would be saying that. “You can’t hear them because they’re not here,” Fluttershy said. But X just shook her head. “N-N-No… You don’t under-rstand…” X said. “I-I… I can hear them… when they’re not around.” Fluttershy blinked at that. “W-We can hear each other even when we’re separated. We could… B-But now…” It was then that X’s tears returned as she closed her eyes. “This wasn’t how it was supposed to go. Capture the tatzlpony. Return her to our client. Harm nopony.” There was a pause as X panted her breaths. She opened her eyes and looked at Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy pleadingly. “Before our mission began, we gathered together... in Ponyville… gathered to discuss our mission.” Fluttershy sat down and listened closely to what X was saying. She didn’t want to interrupt X because wherever this was going, it could be important. ______________________________________________________________________________ X shivered at the doorway of this house she was meeting at. Clang was waiting for them inside. There was an obnoxiously loud racket going on inside, most of which consisted of hooves hitting against metal. Every time they sounded, she flinched and coward further away. She looked around the area where this building was located. For some reason, it was actually rather barren on this side of town. By barren, not many ponies were setting hoof in this area. And any who did were indoors. One would think it was because of the loud racket going on here, but it was barren before Clang came here. X yelped when she heard a hoofstep nearby. Looking to its direction, she saw that it was Strike giving her a scowl. “You did not have to wait for me, X,” Strike said in a growling tone. X just shrunk back. And then she yelped and shut her eyes when there was a sound of metal banging inside the building. Without waiting, Strike turned to the door and it with his magic. All of a sudden, the racket stopped. “Ever heard of knocking?” Clang commented. He was at the other end of the room on top of a ladder. “With all that noise, you wouldn’t hear us,” Strike responded as he went inside with X following behind him. “Now stop foaling and gather around. Our client wants to speak to us to review our task.” Clang chuckled, but he started putting his tools away as the others moved to the center of the room. “X?” X flinched when Strike called to her. Strike didn’t have to say anything for her to know what he wanted. She reached over to the bag Strike was carrying and set it down. After searching through the bag, she pulled out a ring, which Strike grabbed using his magic. As he was setting it to the center of the room, Clang dropped down from the ladder to join them. The center of the circular device shined a blue light above. Inside this light, vocal waves emitted as well as a voice. It was their client. ______________________________________________________________________________ “They told us what they could about a tatzlpony, and a few things we should not reveal,” X mentioned. “Such as who our client is. Most of this... you already know now." ______________________________________________________________________________ ”The creature that you’re after, I’ve decided to call it a tatzlpony,” the client continued. “I won’t bore you with the details of why, just what you need to watch out for. If it gets a hold of you, it will swallow you alive.” X’s ears dropped and she shrinked back further from the light. Strike’s serious expression went unchanged, and Clang just smiled. “Something I want you to do, refrain from mentioning the details about this creature unless they ask specifically.” Strike raised an eyebrow at that. “Why so?” he asked. “Every detail they learn about this creature will give them false hope,” the client answered. “A false hope that took somepony away from me.” X shrinked back further than usual upon hearing this. “The more hope they have, the more they’ll resist.” “Heh!” Clang laughed. “Why not just make up some lies then?” “Because then they won’t believe a word you say, and that’ll only be worse. Remember, nopony is to be harmed during this duty. Do what you must to ensure capture, but if fighting can be avoided, take it.” “Alright, you got it,” Clang responded. “I’ll keep myself in contact for the time being. If you have anymore questions, give a call. Out.” After those words, the light turned off and went back inside the ring that was emitting it. Strike was levitating that ring. Now that the call was done, he moved it back up to his horn and attached it. “Hah!” Strike laughed. “In an operation like this, there’s ALWAYS gonna be fighting involved. Never expect any le-” Strike got interrupted by the sound of knocking at their door. Confused, they all looked to the door. “Strange,” Clang said. “Nopony’s supposed to be coming over here.” As Strike made his way to the door, X’s eyes shrunk as she cowered back. Her nerves were suddenly attacking her all over the place. When Strike opened the door, he found what he could only describe as an old hag, light purple with white hair. She was holding a package out to them. “Special delivery,” the old mare said. Strike scowled. “Beat it old hag. We didn’t order anything.” When he was about to close the door, the lady responded in a sudden mean tone “It’s a gift, FROM ME!” She suddenly threw the package above Strike’s head and inside the building. X gasped as it headed her way. She flew out of the way and went straight for cover while Clang and Strike watched where the package was landing. The lady suddenly left. As soon as the package hit the ground... ‘Bam! Boom! Flash! Kaboom!', and what ever else could describe a bomb going off. Firework levels of explosions scattered across the entire building. Explosions from the left, explosions from the right, explosions from top to bottom, explosions blinding the area, explosions on top of explosions, and even a rocket launching out of the explosion. Every split second caused a boom, every five seconds sounded about fifteen booms, and every boom emitted an epilepsy level of flashing lights. ______________________________________________________________________________ Meanwhile, Fluttershy began wondering if what X was describing was accurate, or an exaggeration out of what her fear experiences. But she remembered meeting that lady just after Clang tried to capture them. She blew up the door to that building, yelling at them for making so much noise. Clang wasn’t too happy hearing her voice again… which meant… Before she could finish thinking on it, X continued. ______________________________________________________________________________ The entire building had about fifteen full seconds of nothing but explosions before the noise finally settled. Everything inside was charred. Clang was charred, Strike was charred, their tools and bags were charred, even the debris that were falling from the ceiling was charred. The only thing that wasn’t charred was X, who had taken cover before the explosions went off. And then the lady returned. “NOW KEEP IT DOWN OR I’LL HAVE THIS WHOLE BUILDING TURNED TO ASHES!!!” She finished with slamming the door closed, causing more charred pieces to drop in the house. It was suddenly silent minus the shivering and whimpering coming from X. After being able to open her eyes again, she took a peak from her covering spot. Clang and Strike were left speechless and stock-still against the walls their bodies were thrown at. Nothing but char covered their bodies. Both of them were purely pitch-black with their eyes closed. When they opened, they blinked twice before one of them could manage a response. “WHAT THE HAY JUST HAPPENED?!” Strike yelled. “THAT OLD HAG JUST BLEW UP ALL MY HARD WORK!” Clang yelled back. While they were yelling, X started coming out of her cover zone, whimpering at the destruction that was left behind. Posters were shattered to pieces, shelves were toppled over with their items scattering the place, ceiling lights were dangling towards ground level, and everything in the ground level was painted black. It was everything you would see from a destroyed building, but with all its walls still somehow intact. And because of all the lights shattered, the room became quite dark. “What was her problem?!” Clang asked. “What kind of old hag just blows stuff up like that?!” Strike suddenly thought of something. “Hold on. Why did you choose for us to meet here again?” he asked Clang. “Because this side of Ponyville was barren. I don’t know why and nopony would say why. The only ones I’ve seen coming here are the ones shopping at the-” Clang cut himself off when the realization kicked in. There was a bomb shop at this side of Ponyville. It had to be run by somepony. When he put two and two together, he came to a conclusion. The reason this place was barren was because of that crazy old lady, the same pony running that bomb shop. His face turned into a deep scowl. “That… witch…” he commented in a very deep tone. And then... he started chuckling a very deep chuckle. Strike’s eyes raised. He knew what that chuckle meant. “Clang!” Strike said. “Our client specifically asked us not to harm anypony! Don’t get any ideas!” But Clang’s expression didn’t change. He just released a few more chuckles before he abruptly stopped and looked towards X. X flinched away from that sudden stare, making Clang grin more. “You know what?” Clang started as he turned to Strike. “You two can go to that meeting without me.” Strike scowled even further. “What did I just tell you?!” “This isn’t about our mission,” Clang responded. “THIS... is personal.” “This is a WASTE of time!” X had her hoof to her mouth as these two argued. She turned her head every time they made an exchange. But suddenly, Clang’s exchange was directed to her. “This is FAR from a waste of time.” Clang started walking towards X menacingly. “When a mare like her scolds you like that, NEVER give in to their sass.” X’s eyes shrunk further. She started backing away while Clang approached closer. “If you do, you’re giving them nothing to fear. They’ll keep lashing out at you, making you fear them from just their words.” It was then that X found herself backed to a wall, gasping heavily as Clang’s face approached inches away from her. “Never give them that sort of power. You gotta pony up and give them a reason to fear you. Show them who’s boss, even if you have to use physical force. Else, every lady like that will ALWAYS take advantage of you, no matter how strong you are compared to them. I'll never allow that. Never.” Clang finished by raising his hoof in the air. It was directed at X. X looked away and covered her face with her hooves, shivering intensely against the wall. He was going to punch her, punch her really hard. At least, that’s how it looked like, but Clang intentionally stopped right there to show his point. But Strike was not amused. “Almond Clang!” Strike shouted frustratingly. “I am ordering you to put a stop to this silly campaign of yours while we are on this mission. Do as I say!” Clang just continued looking at X with that threatening smile. Still shivering, X moved her hooves slightly to take a peak. Of course, he saw that fear in her eyes, which delighted him. And then he closed his eyes and put his hoof down. He then looked to Strike in a smug way. “I’m sorry. But last I checked, you’re not the boss of me!” he said, which made Strike’s expression go into shock and fury. “Don’t… you… dare…” he growled. But Clang just rubbed it in. “Dare I what?” Clang said as he moved closer to Strike. “You seem to be forgetting who the real leader is, unless you can prove otherwise!” Strike was grinding his teeth in a seething manner. X could hear his growls and shivered at them. “You gonna do something about it? Go on then! Do it!” She saw his horn start glowing through his rage. The ring on his horn glowed as well as sparks were leaking out. Seeing all this, X’s shivering turned to whimpers of fear worse than what Clang was causing. “Prove your worth as a leader!” With that final word, Strike released his rage. A focused beam fired straight out of his horn. But it wasn’t aimed at Clang. It was aimed… at X. The moment he fired, she yelped and jumped away from where she was standing. When it hit the ground, it ricocheted off and went straight for X again. Using her wings, she accelerated herself enough to fly behind one of the lights dangling from the ceiling due to that explosion earlier. Pulling it in front of her, her eyes shut tightly as she blocked the beam with that light, causing it to ricochet again thanks to the glass mirror it had. Strike gasped. Clang saw where the beam was headed. Before he could react, the beam hit his target, causing him to shut his eyes tightly as he lowered his head. The beam’s impact left a blinding flash with an intense screech. There was no yelling oddly enough. But that could’ve been because the target was too frustrated to even give a sound. Clang and X opened their eyes to see the target of that beam. Strike was still standing, eyes closed, practically motionless, and completely redecorated in pitch-black again thanks to his own magical beam. To X, it was a moment of agony, but to Clang, it was a moment of brilliance, a moment which he thought supported his example quite well. “Our leader, fillies and gentlecolts,” Clang said. It took a moment, but Strike finally opened his eyes, causing a bit of char to flick off his body from just the movement of his eye-lids. He was no longer seething at least, but he still looked extremely frustrated. “Tell me that did not just damage my ring,” Strike said. Almost immediately after, he heard a response. But the response was heard in his mind. (“I don’t know. Can you hear me?”) That was Clang’s voice in his head. X heard it too. Strike could only respond with a groan, somewhat wishing his ring HAD been damaged. Clang continued, but in a vocal manner. “That ring is the only thing allowing us to communicate from a distance. It would be a real shame if anything happened to it from YOUR actions.” ______________________________________________________________________________ Fluttershy was at a loss for words. It didn’t seem possible, but from what X just described, it was. She just had to ask to be sure. “X… Y-You’re their leader?” X didn’t nod, nor did she shake her head. All she did was turn her head away as her eyelids drooped in a sad expression, all the while whimpering. Maybe it was true. Or maybe, it was just the way Strike and Clang viewed her as, but she didn’t. There was one thing it did mean though. “So… when your client offered you a job to capture a tatzlpony by force, y-you accepted... willingly?” A few seconds of no response went by. X turned her head and gave a different answer. “A tatzlpony’s breath is poisonous. I-If it’s left alone, everypony would suffer. W-We… h-h-had to…” So that was it then. The only reason X took the mission was because she believed it would protect everypony from that toxin. If they could just convince her that Rainbow Dash… that a tatzlpony wasn’t as dangerous as they thought it was, maybe they wouldn’t want to continue their mission, and maybe they would tell Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash about their client. But that was easier said than done. The story that X told, it felt like there was something wrong with it. Even worse, it felt like she was forgetting something very important right now, but she couldn't figure out what. As she thought, X continued. "T-That was the start of everything going wrong. From then on, things only got worse. We... We continued with our mission. Strike and-" X was suddenly interrupted by a loud gasp coming from Fluttershy. The gasp was so intense, it caught Rainbow by surprise, frightened the butterflies tending to X's hoof, and even made Sly flinch, whereas X yelped and started whimpering. Rainbow had to hold her stance, wondering why Fluttershy released a gasp like that. Well, if Fluttershy had seen what was in X's bag, it would've made perfect sense to her. But Fluttershy didn't and she doubted that's why Fluttershy gasped. This made her really wonder what Fluttershy managed to catch that was so surprising. After the initial surprise, the butterflies looked at Fluttershy cautiously as they floated back down to X's hoof. Afterwards, X opened her eyes again, and looked at Fluttershy. Fluttershy was staring at X with a seriously curious expression, a face that demanded answers. "When you were telling the story, you mentioned something," Fluttershy started. "Clang... mentioned something. According to you, he said this. 'You know what? You two can go to that meeting without me.'" When Fluttershy said that, X gasped out loudly, shaking her head in a terrified motion. "No... N-No No!" A painful yelp escaped her. "You just had your meeting with your client, and you were all together," Fluttershy continued. "What was this other meeting he was talking about?!" X was starting to struggle in her grip again, continuing to shout her responses. "No! No! I-I can't! I wasn't supposed to mention that! Ohhh!" 'Wasn't supposed to mention that.' Those words repeated in Fluttershy's head. Their client mentioned that there were some things they shouldn't reveal, because it would give them false hope. This hope was anything but false. Even Rainbow Dash was starting to glare at her. Fluttershy approved it this time. "What was that meeting about?!" Fluttershy scolded. But X continued to remain speechless. All Fluttershy could do was shake her head. There had to be something important about that meeting, else they wouldn't try to hide it. But how was she going to get it out of X? Fluttershy noticed Rainbow Dash moving past her and closer to X, fiercely growling as she approached. It looked like Rainbow was ready to pounce at X at any time. While Fluttershy didn't approve of that, it gave her an idea. She put a hoof to Rainbow's head gently, moving her mouth to Rainbow's ear as she whispered something to her. Rainbow's expression took an immediate curious change. She looked to Fluttershy to make sure she heard correctly, and Fluttershy nodded. So she stayed where she was while Fluttershy continued. “I’m sorry, X. But I need to get that information. I don’t believe a tatzlpony is as dangerous as you think they are. What your client said about it being false hope, I don’t think it is.” Rainbow Dash started inching towards X as Fluttershy talked. X could only tilt her head back while gritting her teeth nervously. “X, will you tell us?” Her breaths got heavy, breathing in and out a few times. She slowly shook her head again, disappointing Fluttershy. Rainbow Dash soon got into position directly in front of X. Slowly, she lowered her head and spread her wings, making X shiver and whimper. The butterflies tending to X’s hoof stopped what they were doing, looking to Rainbow Dash a bit worried. Fluttershy continued. “I don’t like making ponies suffer, X. I don’t like to see them get hurt, and I don’t like hurting them myself.” Hearing that, the butterflies looked to each other, nodded, then hopped off X and hovered towards Fluttershy. “However, this tatzlpony, my best friend, Rainbow Dash, is very much the opposite of me. She may have lost her memory, but I know it’s still there somewhere. Like right now, she loves seeing ponies get hurt. She loves seeing them suffer when they deserve it. And right now, I think she believes you deserve it if you don’t tell us what we want to know.” X was still breathing harshly as a sweat gland started sliding from her face. Despite how frightened she looked, she was still slowly shaking her head. No matter what Fluttershy said, it seemed baseless threats wasn’t gonna get X to crack. It sounded a lot like what Clang was telling Strike during that story. Perhaps that little campaign was influenced because of X? Regardless, this wasn’t planned to be a baseless threat. Rainbow moved closer with that thought. “But… even now I can’t allow her to hurt you. You’re still injured from your fight with her yesterday. I can see it, and I’m very sorry that that happened to you. However...” Fluttershy then opened her eyes in a mean expression. X gasped. At the same time she opened her eyes, Rainbow’s wings started pointing towards her. And when Fluttershy’s eyes started resembling her Stare, X’s eyes shrunk. “There is a way to torture somepony without causing them pain.” Her voice was raising. “And if you won’t tell us what this meeting was about, then I’ll have no choice but to allow her to do it!” X started shaking violently as she noticed where Fluttershy was going with all of this. Those feathers that were pointing towards her, they were pointing at her exposed hind hooves. She began shaking violently, shaking her head violently. “No! N-No! N-N-NOOO!!! AHH!!!” After that last ‘no’, Rainbow motioned her right wingtip forward, moving it until it made contact with X’s left hind hoof. She began brushing up and down the hoof, causing X to wail in a mixture of both yelps, and laughs. Her hoof desperately tried to bend away from the feather, but had nowhere to go. The feather just continued brushing and tickling. “Tell us what the meeting was about, X,” Fluttershy continued. The butterflies had landed on both sides of Fluttershy’s ears, watching the torture that Rainbow was causing to X. “AHAHA!!! I, HAHA… C-C-CAN’T!!! Ah… AAAAHAHAA!!!” With that second denial, Rainbow’s other wingtip joined in the frey and started tickling X’s right hind hoof. X’s body was trying to break out of her rope again, but because of her strength, Sly didn’t require much effort to keep himself firmly coiled around her. Tears of laughter started dripping out of her eyes. And because of her sitting position against the tree, her hind hooves could barely move, making it impossible to escape the tickles. “P-P-PLEASE!!! HAHA! STO-AHA, STO-O-OP!!! AHAH!!!” Fluttershy didn’t make Rainbow stop. She encouraged her to keep going. And she encouraged her, because X knew very well how to get Rainbow to stop. This would continue until X told them what they wanted to know. During the torture, X managed to open her eyes. She could see the tatzlpony grinning in enthusiasm from the torture she was giving her. And she could see Fluttershy staring at her, waiting impatiently for the information she wanted to know. The tickles didn’t stop. It wouldn’t stop. And then… Rainbow Dash started opening her mouth. One of her tongues started slowly sticking out. "Tell us!" Fluttershy warned. "Or she’ll start licking.” It was then that X couldn’t take it anymore. As that tongue inched closely to her right hind hoof, she gave in. “WE WERE… HNNGH, HNGH! WE WERE GONNA MEET WITH THE PRINCESS OF FRIENDSHIP!!!” When X finally told them what they wanted to know, Rainbow halted her tongue, halted her wings. She stopped the tickling as promised. Retracting her wings to her side, and retracting her tongue back to her mouth, she gave a proud smile as she watched X gasping for breath in tears. X may be able to handle baseless threats, but it looked like she wasn’t immune to torture. In fact, she may have been far more vulnerable to it than most ponies were. Torture was essentially a test of physical and mental strength. Her mental strength was debatable, but her physical strength was clearly lacking. All this wasn't just familiar to her, it felt really good. Looking to Fluttershy, she gave a smile. Or… that’s what she wanted to do, but when she did, she only grew concerned. Fluttershy looked stunned from the information she got. Her lips were quivering. She stuttered, trying to form words and make sense of what she had heard. Once again, that feeling she was forgetting something important crawled up again, stronger than ever. “The princess of…” she mumbled quietly. “But that’s… Why would…” All of a sudden, it all came rushing to her like an avalanche. She gasped really loudly, causing the butterflies on her ears to float off in fright. “Oh my gosh! I completely forgot! I never told Twilight that Rainbow Dash turned back into a tatzlpony!” Rainbow turned to Fluttershy completely, more concerned than ever. Fluttershy had backed away, falling to her haunches as she grasped the situation. She was shivering, shivering like she was at the presence of a dragon. “B-But Twilight... s-she…” She could barely form her words. Her heart was pounding out of her chest. “We never saw her after that… Sh-... She never checked up on us, never wrote us a letter…” The more she grasped the situation, the more terrifying it became to her. Everything that had occurred since that visit, they kept distracting her from thinking about it. Rainbow swallowing Scootaloo, recovering from a timberwolf attack, trying to learn Rainbow's past, and of course, ponies like X trying to take Rainbow Dash away. The light left Fluttershy's world. All she could see now were the flashbacks of her visit with Twilight. She thought she was imagining it, and she didn’t want to believe it, but some of Twilight’s actions at the time were a bit strange. When she was about to perform the spell to turn Rainbow Dash back, she took longer than usual to get her spell ready. It seemed intentional. There was a time where she blinked rather harshly, like there was something she saw in Rainbow Dash. A terrifying grandfather clock bell began playing in Fluttershy’s background. Her body fell forwards, her hooves barely holding her face from pressing against the ground. She had her eyes fixated on the grass, unblinking, and all she saw were the images of that visit with Twilight. This had to be some sort of mistake. It just had to be. But the questions she had told her otherwise. “D-Does she… a-already know-w-w?” she forced herself to ask. “Is she somehow... involved in all of thi-i-is?” The questions she asked made her want to hurl. This couldn’t have been true, not their Twilight. But then, why was she acting so strange? Why was she never seen again? Did Twilight not check up on them because she knew the spell wouldn’t work? And if she didn’t, then why didn’t her spell work? All these questions swimmed in Fluttershy’s head like a hurricane. And then, X said something. What she said changed the perspective of everything that Fluttershy was questioning.