It was relatively quiet in and around the cottage on the edge of Everfree Forest. While the forest encompassed the unknown and difference, which many a pony feared, there was a sweet, gentle familiarity that gathered around the home of Fluttershy. Birds sang as they lined the branches of trees. Others poked their heads out of the many birdhouses. Beneath them, squirrels and bunnies played in the grass, rarely alone and if so not for long. They slid down rocks or scuttled over the bridge in front of the cottage, nattering away.
For many, the owner of such a calm residence would not be the first to come to mind when one wanted to enter Everfree Forest accompanied. And it hadn’t been, for the most part. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle dismissed the idea of going into Everfree Forest by themselves immediately, having been in there before and remembering what happened all too well. They were explorers, but neither were keen on going in there as a duo.
The first pony they (though mostly Scootaloo) came up with was Rainbow Dash, and Scootaloo’s imagining of what would entail became crisp and elaborate. In fact, she rehearsed what she was going to say as they scoured Ponyville for her idol, taking into account all the possible things Rainbow Dash could verbalise and branching off from there. Sweetie Belle merely smiled, agreeing whenever her friend demanded she give her opinion on one of the many, many responses Scootaloo came up with.
It was all in vain for Rainbow Dash was nowhere to be found. It was rather jarring for Scootaloo, who prided herself on having made a timetable of Rainbow Dash’s week accurate to the hour. Other than helping keep the weather in order, she didn’t seem to have many other responsibilities. She wasn’t snoozing above a cloud, nor was she brightening the sky with her presence. She was gone.
This was merely the predictable yet unpredictable day of Rainbow Dash, who could and would on a whim change her plans even if she was in the middle of doing something. Pinkie Pie, when asked, mentioned something to do with visiting an old friend but didn’t or simply wouldn’t say anymore. She offered them a cupcake though, and that sort of made up for it.
The two fillies approached the stream in front of Fluttershy’s cottage. Scootaloo bent down and took a drink from it, slurping.
Sweetie Belle scrunched up her face. “Ew.”
“What?” Scootaloo raised her head, dribbling. She wiped her mouth with her tongue and gulped. “All this running around looking for Rainbow Dash made me thirsty.” She rolled her eyes at her friend’s expression. “You spend way too much time with Rarity.”
“Probably,” admitted Sweetie Belle, but there wasn’t any guilt in her tone. “It’s still gross.”
Scootaloo glared and took another sip. Sighing, Sweetie Belle surveyed the area, stopping when she caught of their next destination. Everfree Forest was fully visible from where they were, and only then was what they saw its skin. There were gaps between the branches and trunks, inhabiting green darkness and shadowy shapes that could have been the silhouettes of anything. It was much quieter than the world around the cottage, like the forest was sleeping... or waiting.
“Do you think Applebloom went into the forest by herself?”
A response didn’t come straight away. Scootaloo’s curt ‘yep’ was only preceded by a second, but Sweetie Belle picked up on it. She transferred her gaze from the forest to look at her friend, frowning. Scootaloo was still situated by the stream, too uncaring.
“Maybe we should have gone with her,” said Sweetie Belle.
There was no reply. Even when Sweetie Belle sat beside her, Scootaloo pointedly stared at the stream. Undeterred, Sweetie Belle gazed at her. Scootaloo’s attention flickered between Sweetie Belle and the stream a few times before she closed her eyes and groaned.
“What do you want me to say?” Scootaloo whacked her hoof against the grass. “We should have gone with her? Stopped her? What?”
“I don’t know. I feel funny, like something bad is going to happen to her.”
Scootaloo’s eyelids drooped. “So what? She can take care of herself.”
“Can she?”
Nostrils flaring, Scootaloo rose to her hooves.
“Duh! But Diamond Tiara can’t, can she? All we’ve gotta do is get Fluttershy to go into the forest and find her, then we can get Applebloom and go home and... and... yeah.”
Scootaloo headed towards the bridge, not realising that Sweetie Belle hadn’t moved. The stream shivered, distorting Sweetie Belle’s reflection. She regarded it. “Do you think Applebloom will still want to be friends with us? I mean, she seemed really upset when we left.”
This wasn’t something Scootaloo wanted to think about. Her brief lapse of anger went unseen by the pony behind her. Gritting her teeth, Scootaloo snapped, “Stop fussing. Of course she’ll still want to be friends with us. We’re the Cutie Mark Crusaders! We’re awesome!”
Sweetie Belle opened her mouth.
Scootaloo raised her voice, sending animals diving for cover. “You can worry later! We need to get Fluttershy right now. And... And just drop it, okay?”
“... Okay.”
The fear in Sweetie Belle’s voice didn’t go unnoticed by Scootaloo, who was as anxious as she was. Turning her head so her smile could be seen, Scootaloo said in a calmer tone, “Come on, let’s go see Fluttershy. She’ll know what to do. She’s brave.”
There were many things Fluttershy was and wasn’t. She was kind, quiet, sweet and gentle. She loved her friends, both animal and pony. Before she arrived in Ponyville, Fluttershy had not had many friends. There was Rainbow Dash, but she hadn’t been a close friend. ‘Protector’ was a more fitting word to describe her with, but Fluttershy treasured any friendship. Her old room had been decorated with drawings of kind, pegasus ponies, stuck to her walls neatly and evenly. The variety of ponies present was rather limited, but the number of posters gave a different impression. It was like she had lots and lots of friends and sometimes, Fluttershy nearly believed that.
Imagining what it would be like to be popular and adored by everypony- what it would be like to be Rainbow Dash, was not a stray thought that passed through Fluttershy’s mind. Instead of flying through clouds, she often wondered what it would be like to not be a bumbling, clumsy pony that tripped over her words as much as she tripped over her own legs.
They were nothing more than questions with no real answers. Her room was a secret only she knew. Fluttershy would have died if anypony saw how babyish and pathetic she was. Those days harbored enough bullying.
Now that she was older, Fluttershy knew that the quality of friends was more important than the quantity. So there was only one photograph of her close friends in her cottage because she didn’t need any more. The rest of the cottage was very much Fluttershy. The zigzagging staircases for minute feet were her desire to help others. The birdhouses on her walls were her wish to look after those dear to her heart. Engraved around the front door were butterflies and on the ceiling flowers, and those were the things that had made her decide to stay in Ponyville.
Fluttershy saw her real friends often and at this time she was with Applejack. They were situated around a small table that had a puppy on its top. The puppy was mostly black, with a white snout and chest. Fluttershy stared into the puppy’s eyes while Applejack paced around her, throwing her head this way and that as she voiced her thoughts. Only half-listening to her friend’s vocalisations, Fluttershy’s cyan eyes held a deeper, silent conversation with the puppy.
“She’s been avoidin’ me recently an’ ah knew if there was a pony who’d be able to find out why, it’d be you.”
Fluttershy grinned. “Well, I do have a way with animals, if I say so myself.” She leaned towards the puppy. The puppy tensed but a bigger smile from the yellow pony relaxed her immediately. Barking, the puppy licked her cheek. It was rough and wet but Fluttershy didn’t mind at all, simply letting out a giggle in response. “There doesn’t seem to be anything wrong.”
“Well... there is!” Applejack stopped, peering at the puppy.. “Ah mean, Kekona ain’t bein’ disobedient. She does what’s she’s told but when ah ain’t tellin’ her anythin’, she’s hidin’ from me like she’s done somethin’ wrong. Ah didn’t have this problem with Winona.”
Fluttershy allowed her gaze to move. “And has Kekona done anything wrong?”
“A few times... like once, she spilled all ma apples an’ beat up ma cart a bit. But I told her what she did wrong and-”
“Did you reprimand her during or after this happened?”
Applejack blinked. “Well, after. I didn’t see her do it but ah came home from buckin’ apples later that day and...”
“You musn’t do that!” Fluttershy piped up, her pink mane trembling. “You’ll only confuse her. You can only reprimand her while she’s doing whatever she’s doing or just after.”
“But ah know it was her!”
“Even if you are very positively sure it was her, you can’t tell her off after such a long time. She won’t know why you’re cross with her...”
“... So she’ll try an’ avoid me!” Applejack laughed. “Ah get it now. Fluttershy, what would ah do without you?”
Fluttershy blushed and scuffed the floor with her hoof. “Oh, it was nothing. Really. Making you happy is more than enough-”
The door slammed open and Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle stormed in. Fluttershy squeaked but no one could hear her as the door smashed into her green wardrobe. Scootaloo’s hoof slipped under a rug and she fell on her face. Sweetie Belle tripped over her and rolled a few times, stopping when she crashed into a blue end table roughly two thirds across the room from the door. It fell over and with it a pot of flowers.
Kekona leaped off the table and skidded across the floor, catching the pot of flowers on her back.
“Oh, thank-” Fluttershy was interrupted by the table Kenona was just on toppling over and slamming into another table. The photograph on the latter table fell on its face. Fluttershy quickly set it upright, widening her eyes at the crack on its front.
Sweetie Belle coughed. “Um... hi?”
Fluttershy and Applejack stared at her.
Sweetie Belle looked around. “I... like what you’ve done with the place? Very modern.”
“What we’ve done?” Applejack stood over her. Fluttershy stood to her left, but she didn’t look anywhere near as intimidating. If Sweetie Belle hadn’t known Applejack, she would have been terrified. But this was Applejack, and she knew (or at least hoped) that there was nothing for her to worry about. “Ah hope y’all got a good reason for rushin’ in like that.”
“We do!” Scootaloo shoved her face into Applejack’s. “It’s terrible!”
Sweetie Belle’s face joined Scootaloo’s. “Horrible!”
“Awful!”
“Dreadful!”
“Bad!”
“Abysmal!”
“Oh my,” said Fluttershy.
Applejack grimaced, gently pushing Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle back. ”What happened? Did Granny Smith lock herself in the sheep pen again?”
“No,” said Scootaloo.
“Does Granny Smith think she’s a sheepdog?” asked Fluttershy.
“Again?” added Applejack.
“Even worse!” Scootaloo dragged her hooves down her face.
“Oh my!” went Fluttershy.
“Ah ain’t got time for riddles!” said Applejack. “What happened?”
Scootaloo breathed in. “Diamond Tiara’s somewhere in Everfree Forest...”
“And we think Applebloom went after her!” finished Sweetie Belle.
A pause. Then, Applejack sighed in relief. She mopped her brow with her hat.
“Y’all had me worried for a moment,” she said. “Applebloom knows how to take care of herself. Ah mean, ah used to think that she was just a li’l filly, but now ah can trust her to go an’ see Zecora. An’ ah doubt someone like Diamond Tiara would have the guts to go very far in.”
“Yeah, but what if Diamond Tiara got lost and tried to find her way out? And who knows how far in Applebloom could be!” Sweetie Belle pleaded with her eyes. “She might have got lost and gone really, really deep. She might have been turned to stone or... or worse! Like... she could have been turned into cheese and eaten by giant rats!”
“Then why didn’t you stop them from going in?” asked Fluttershy. She cringed. “I mean, if you could...”
Sweetie Belle glanced at Scootaloo. Scootaloo bowed her head. “We... had an argument. We were trying to find our talents when we saw Applebloom’s cutie mark. I thought she was gonna tell us about it but she didn’t and we only saw-”
“Hold on there.” Applejack blinked a few times. “Applebloom has a cutie mark?”
“Yeah. Anyways, Sweetie Belle saw it when we were going over to Rarity’s but we only mentioned it when Silver Spoon said she had one because we were hoping Applebloom would-”
“What does it look like?” asked Applejack.
“I don’t know. A sword? Best friends aren’t supposed to keep secrets and she’d told Diamond Tiara and who knows who else... it was like she didn’t want us to know and-”
“A sword? Are you sure it wasn’t a knife? Maybe her talent is choppin’ apples.”
“THEN ME AND SWEETIE BELLE WENT TO FIND RAINBOW DASH BUT WE COULDN’T FIND HER SO WE WENT HERE BECAUSE FLUTTERSHY HAS THAT STARE THAT COULD TOTALLY HELP US WHILE WE’RE LOOKING FOR APPLEBLOOM AND DIAMOND TIARA!”
Applejack winced. “I could hear ya before. There ain’t no need to try an’ blow the house down.”
Scootaloo narrowed her eyes. Sweetie Belle piped up, “We really need to find them. I mean, Diamond Tiara can be a bit mean at times, but she’s just a filly and Applebloom is our best friend!”
“Remember when Twilight went in there and got turned to stone?” Scootaloo said. Fluttershy nodded. “Who knows how long it’d have been until someone found her!
“They make very good points,” Fluttershy murmured.
Scootaloo’s and Sweetie Belle’s ears pricked up. “So you’ll go?” said Scootaloo.
“It ain’t a question!” announced Applejack. “Of course we’ll go!”
Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle cheered, standing on their back legs and waving. “Cutie Mark Crusaders: Explorers of the Unknown!”
“Not so fast, you two,” said Fluttershy. “Going to visit Zecora is one thing, but going,” she gulped, “deep into the forest isn’t for small ponies like you two. I mean...”
“We can’t not go!” Scootaloo exclaimed. “We told you about this and we have the right to come along too! Right, Sweetie Belle?”
“Right.” Sweetie Belle nodded.
“Ah, let them go,” Applejack said, turning to the front door.
Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo hi-hooved. “Yay!”
“But y’all gonna stay where we can see ya and do as yer told.” Applejack spun around, staring at them whilst squinting one eye. Now they were slightly scared. “If ah send ya back, ya have to go back no questions asked. Rarity would kill me if somethin’ happened to you, Sweetie Belle, an’ yer parents would kill whatever’s left. If you fool around an’ get into trouble, ah’ll double- no, triple the trouble afterwards. Got it?”
She glared at them.
“Got it?”
They nodded.
“We’ve got it,” squeaked Sweetie Belle.
Scootaloo grinned. “Yeah, you’ll barely know we’re there!”
***
“Everywhere we go!” sang Scootaloo.
“Everywhere we go!” repeated Sweetie Belle.
“Ponies always ask us!”
“Ponies always ask us!”
“Who we are!”
“Who we are!”
“And where we come from!”
“And where we come from!”
“So we tell them!”
“So we tell them!”
“We’re from Ponyville!”
“We’re from Ponyville!”
“Mighty, mighty Ponyville!”
“Mighty, mighty Ponyville!”
“And if they can’t hear us!”
“And if they can’t hear us!”
“WE GET A LITTLE LOUDER!”
“WE GET A LITTLE LOUDER!”
“EVERYWHERE WE G-”
“That’s enough singin’ for now!” snapped Applejack, who was leading the group. Some leaves above them rustled and she froze. Each pony looked in a different direction, straining their ears. The forest fell silent and the ponies lowered their heads, directing their gaze away from the overhanging trees either side of them. A few seconds later, Applejack continued walking and the others followed suit.
“What was that?” whispered Sweetie Belle. They had only arrived in the forest a few minutes ago and panic already squeezed her throat. She couldn’t recall the forest being this unnerving in her last visit. It wasn’t even nighttime yet. Perhaps ignorance prevented her from being frightened before? She darted to Fluttershy’s side.
“It’s nothin’ to be scared of. Whatever it was, it was prob’ly just gettin’ away from all yer singin’. Ah’m surprised anythin’ is still anywhere near us.” Applejack wrinkled her snout. “Y’all’ve been singin’ the entire time we’ve been here.”
“But we want Diamond Tiara and Applebloom to hear us,” Scootaloo pointed out.
“You probably scared them away too.”
Fluttershy nodded. “Your singing is lovely... but loud. Very loud. We don’t want to wake everyone up.” She somehow lowered her hushed voice. “The animals here can be very cranky if they don’t get enough sleep.”
“But it’s like the middle of the day!” Scootaloo cried out. The sound of beating wings echoed and Fluttershy jumped, her gaze twitching as she showed all of her teeth.
“M-Many of the animals here sleep during the day,” explained Fluttershy. “They like to come out when it’s dark and quiet.” She looked up, focusing, and smiled. “Oh! I can see Zecora’s hut. How about we ask her if she’s seen them? Maybe we won’t have to go look for them after all.”
They sprinted to Zecora’s hut. Upon reaching it, they peered through the window. Even in the daytime the interior was dark, the coloured containers of various ingredients tinted grey and barely visible against the bark walls. The owner of the hut was browsing through her many jars and bottles, all arranged neatly on shelves, unaware of the other ponies’ presence. Her bracelets clinked as she shifted ones she didn’t want to the side. A gentle bubbling came from the cauldron in the centre of the room, with the occasional pop rising above the ever-present noise. It was peaceful, like a pool of untouched water, but ripples had to be planted in it sooner rather than later.
The door burst open and the ponies charged in. A combination of cinnamon and rosemary and something else wafted through the air, greeting their noses. Zecora chuckled and faced them, her turquoise eyes the brightest things in the room. She placed the jar in her hooves back onto its designated shelf.
“Hello, my dear friends, it is nice to see you four. Your company is something I truly adore.”
“Yeah, hello, Zecora,” said Applejack. “I don’t mean to sound rude or impatient, but have you seen Applebloom or a filly named Diamond Tiara today? Apparently, Diamond Tiara wandered into this here forest an’ Applebloom went after her.”
Zecora shook her head. “I’m afraid I have seen neither ponies today, but I am always happy to help look for those who have gone astray.”
“Oh, that would be lovely,” gushed Fluttershy. “I’m sorry if we interrupted anything. We’re just so worried!”
“I’m always free when a friend needs me, or a good friend I would not be.”
They departed from the hut, looking around. There were many ways the fillies could have gone; through the undergrowth, down the path they had come from... It was Applejack who noticed hoof marks in some mud near two trees. She approached them slowly, the others close behind her. Applejack bent down and examined them.
“Somepony’s been here,” she announced, straightening up. “Somepony small. Come on, girls!”
Applejack lunged into the gap between the two trees, breathing heavily. She could barely hear the others behind her; heck, she could hardly hear her own hoofsteps as she stormed through the trees. Branches, both drooping and low, whipped her with sharp cracks but Applejack carried on without a single stumble. Her hooves pressed into the wet grass, leaving a trail behind her that the others followed. She couldn’t wait for them to catch up. She had to keep going.
Applebloom could take care of herself... most of the time. Diamond Tiara was one of them fancy ponies and most fancy ponies wouldn’t venture far into the forest by themselves, especially if they were only young. Applebloom was headstrong like her sister, and that worried Applejack. Applebloom could walk into something that could overwhelm her. The braver she was, the more danger she was likely to be in.
“Look!” yelled Sweetie Belle.
Applejack skidded to a stop, finishing at the beginning of a clearing. Zecora promptly came to a standstill next to her, and they watched Fluttershy run out with an ‘eep!’ Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle emerged a few seconds later, the latter carrying something in her mouth. She spat it out onto the grass.
It was Applebloom’s ribbon. There were a few stray hairs wrapped around it like she had been running through the trees and hadn’t stopped to untangle it when it had got caught.
“Applebloom...” murmured Applejack. How could she have missed it? It was large and pink. She stared at them. “Where did ya-?”
“It was on a spiky plant,” replied Sweetie Belle.
Applejack returned her attention to the ribbon. She picked it up with her mouth and mumbled, “Applebloom doesn’t go anywhere without it!”
Fluttershy gulped. “I’m s-sure Applebloom is okay, I mean, she-”
“Yeah! Okay!” Applejack snorted. “She’s okay! I know that.” She laughed. The ribbon fell out of her mouth so she picked it up again, placing it inside her hat.
“It seems we are heading in the right direction,” remarked Zecora, looking around. “But we must carry on without any more hesitation. Come, my friends, let us journey further. The swifter we are, the sooner we will find her.”
“But which way do we go now?” asked Sweetie Belle. “She could have gone like... anywhere!”
“Why don’t we split up?” Applejack suggested. “Zecora goes one way, I’ll go another way and so will Fluttershy.”
Fluttershy didn’t look keen on going deeper into the forest by herself, but she didn’t say anything.
“Who will we go with?” asked Scootaloo.
“Y’all go back home,” instructed Applejack. “Tell the others to search for her an’ then find somethin’ to do in Ponyville.”
Scootaloo gasped. She shook her head and stared, eyes wide. “What? Why?”
“Ah don’t want whatever got Applebloom to get you as well.”
Scootaloo stomped her front hooves. “Applebloom is our best friend and you want us to sit at home worrying? You said that she was fine a few seconds ago!”
“Applebloom’s ma sister!” snapped Applejack. “Ah’m sorry, but I ain’t got the patience to debate right now. Fluttershy, take them back an’ then get the others.”
“No!” Scootaloo stomped her hooves again. “That’s not fair!”
“What if Applebloom’s already gone back?” Fluttershy said. “Don’t you two want to go see?”
“We went all around town for ages when we were looking for Rainbow Dash!” said Scootaloo. “No Applebloom anywhere. She’s in here somewhere and we’re going to look for her until we find her!”
Sweetie Belle nodded fiercely.
“Young ones...” Zecora stood in front of them. The rings around her neck made her look taller, and her striped Mohawk built upon this. She tilted her head forward and stared at them. “Your hearts are in the right place, I cannot deny. But your minds are not, and I think you know why.”
Scootaloo gritted her teeth. Sweetie Belle narrowed her eyes.
“Applejack, you carry on for do not forget that Applebloom has not been found yet. I will deal with these two and will start searching shortly after you.”
Applejack hesitated. The sound of ticking echoed in her mind. “Well... All right.” She darted to some trees and with a flick of her tail, she hurried through them.
“You can’t send us home!” Scootaloo said when Applejack’s hoofsteps faded away. “We won’t go!”
“Yeah!” Sweetie Belle chimed in.
Zecora’s eyes lingered where Applejack had disappeared to.
“Like I said, you are following your heart and not your mind. Many creatures that inhabit here are not like our kind.”
“But- But-” Sweetie Belle bowed her head. Scootaloo did as well.
“Yet your hearts are in the right place and that is why, I will let you tag along with Fluttershy.”
Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle raised their heads, gawping, before laughing. Fluttershy smiled slightly. Zecora smiled once more before going down a small path between two trees. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo chanted ‘yay’ as they skipped around Fluttershy, who had been rather keen on getting some more ponies to help search so she could pair up with one of them.
Rainbow Dash would have scoffed at her apprehension and dragged her along. Twilight would have reassured her and explained what every shadow belonged to. Pinkie would have laughed and sang songs, and Rarity- her good friend Rarity- would have acted like they just were relaxing at the spa or strolling through town, talking about her latest dresses and how Fluttershy just had to see them.
“G-Girls?” Fluttershy examined the surrounding area. Nothing jumped out at them. “Maybe it would be a good idea to get some more ponies to look as well? I mean, Everfree Forest is very big.”
And spooky.
They came to an abrupt halt and stared at her. From their expressions, Fluttershy knew she wasn’t going to win them over. Before they had the chance to argue back, she gave in.
“Never mind. Let’s go, girls.”
They grinned and it made Fluttershy feel like there was a possibility that she had done the right thing. She let them go ahead so she could keep an eye on them. Then, allowing herself one final glance behind her, they left the clearing.