The Box in the Everfree

by Jh5kPony


A Rainy Night

Twilight Sparkle and Spike were busily cleaning up the library. Things have become much more hectic ever since humans had inhabited Equestria. However, most of these visits (of which there were only a few, but much more so than before the humans arrived) are purely for scholarly purposes, as the library held many books regarding unicorn magic, which humans have also started to learn, amongst other things. Twilight Sparkle re-shelved the books, by levitating many books at once, directing them with her magic. Spike was busy mopping the floor. The floor was a muddy mess of footprints and hoofprints before he was done. Just then, Spike remembered something.

"Twilight..."

"Yes, Spike?" Twilight said.

"I haven't seen Fluttershy in a while," Spike said.

"She said she'd be visiting Cloudsdale to see her family," Twilight responded, returning to her portion of the job.

By the time they were done, it was late night. Today there was an even larger amount to clean up than ever it seemed. The scholarly visits seem to expand more and more so as time went. Spike was finally done dusting. He was feeling quite sleepy. He was the first to go to bed.

Twilight was still not quite done, however. She still needed to place several more books. After about 10 minutes after Spike went to sleep, Twilight was finished. She let out a sigh of relief. She finally got the re-shelving done. Most of the time she'd be interrupted by, of all of anyone who would, Spike. Twilight then took a look outside her window. It was a downpour. In the distance, there was a thunderstorm heard. Twilight already spoke with Rainbow Dash not to spook anypony, or any human for that matter.

On the other side of the library, she heard a large thud. Twilight quickly galloped outside in the heavy rainstorm. She quickly went around the tree, and saw a hooded pegasus, near unconscious, on the side of her tree. Twilight then quickly noticed her cutie mark. Three butterflies. Speak of the Devil. It was Fluttershy. Twilight quickly carried her inside.

She removed Fluttershy's cloak. Her mane was extremely messy and was barely recognizable as Fluttershy's usually long and flowy mane. Whatever had happened at Cloudsdale was very rough, it seems.

Twilight dried Fluttershy up with a towel, then carried her to her spare bed in the bedroom. While all of this was going on, Fluttershy was muttering something quite weakly, even for Fluttershy.

"The Everfree Forest..."

Mangroves? It seemed quite unusual to mention. Perhaps it was just a dream she's having. Rainbow Dash told Twilight that Fluttershy had "...a bad habit of sleep-talking, enough to drive a pony crazy."

Throughout the night Fluttershy kept saying those words. It was going to be a rough night.