09:15 AM
Applejack’s worries piled higher. Maybe she was paranoid but she could feel a growing number of eyes on her the whole way. She didn’t know if it was her new pony magic telling her this, her imagination, or a case of the heebie-jeebies.1 For all she knew heebie-jeebies were an actual thing in this world.
And they could be all around her!
Even worse, that forest, the dangerous one according to Sunset, had a cottage matching Cheerilee’s description right at the edge.
“Can’t be that dangerous if Fluttershy lives so close, right?” She looked around, noticing a lack of other residences in the area. “All by her lonesome.”
She took a breath and turned back to the cottage.
Just in time to see a pair of squirrels on the side of a tree looking back at her. The look in their eyes was clear.
She wasn’t imagining anything.
“Uh, hello there, uh, squirrels, is Fluttershy around?”
She smiled brightly, making herself look as friendly as possible and thought the situation through. “Can all ponies talk to animals here? Fluttershy seemed to understand that bird just fine back in Twi’s palace. But is that just Fluttershy or all ponies? Fluttershy's been able to talk to animals since we got our geodes. And how smart are squirrels here? Maybe Ponyshy trained the animals to guard her, that’s why they’ve been staring at me! Makes so much sense now!”
The two squirrels glanced at each other, then turned back to Applejack, made some noises that Applejack was sure wouldn’t translate well on prime-time television, and scampered away.
Some more rustling all around her drew her attention to the sides as grasses and bushes swayed for just a moment before everything fell silent again.
“Uhhh …. Okay?” Applejack’s eyes darted around. “What in the Sam Hill am ah walking into? What did Fluttershy walk into?”
*** *** ***
09:00 AM
Fluttershy couldn’t believe it.
Angel was never this demanding back home!
Sure he got cranky if story time got interrupted before bedtime, or if his tail wasn’t fluffed just right, or if he didn’t get the right brand of carrots. But this Angel? Does he normally demand a three course salad with his tea that had to perfectly match the picture on the recipe book? Does he always get impatient if it took too long to find the right ingredients in the cupboards? Or even take too long to figure out where the cupboards are in the cottage? Or the pantry? Or to figure out how to open them once found?
There was also the issue of actually preparing the food with hooves. Opening boxes. Not dropping boxes. Knowing where each animal preferred to have their food left for them. Learning all their names. Hoping Robert wasn't still angry if he and his family were nearby.
And the other animals were acting strange too. So critical. As if they were silently judging everything she did. Sunset was right that animals are smarter in this world than back home, but did that completely alter their behaviors too? They had seemed so cheerful at first. But that changed more and more as their breakfasts were being prepared.
And isn't a bit late in the day for breakfast? I usually feed my animals much earlier than this.
They had slowly begun giving each other glances, giving Fluttershy more space, ducking into small spaces and under low tables. Some began to look angry.
They all seemed to watch Angel Bunny.
Has he been giving orders? Is that what those gestures meant?
Oh my! Is that a jackalope? They’re real here? That’s amazing! Wait. Is he sharpening his horns?
Was that a tiny torch? That little, adorable hamster wasn’t going to light it was she?2
As Fluttershy finished preparing food for every creature, they all walked, flew, or otherwise moved to their respective meals. She noticed that none of the animals had begun to eat. With each completed meal, the owner(s) had come up and inspected the food while other animals watched. They sniffed the offerings. Some licked. A few took nibbles. It was as if they were worried about poison.
Fluttershy looked around at all the animals.
The animals all turned to look at Angel.
Angel looked at Fluttershy.
“Oh, dear. Have I done something wrong? I tried my best to do what your Fluttershy would do.”
With that said, there was a sudden change in the eyes of all the creatures in the room.
Angel grabbed a toothpick off the counter and raised it as if it were a sword.
He barked some squeaking orders.
The other animals suddenly retreated to parts unknown.
Angel smugly folded his tiny arms and gave Fluttershy a satisfied smirk.
A moment later the animals were back.
And they were armed.
“Oh dear.”
They had chosen fight. Time for Fluttershy to choose flight.
She turned and rushed for the front door.
A kitten was there.
He was so cute!
But he was blocking her path!
She turned around and ran for the back door.
It was closed.
Thankfully it had a doorknob similar to the cupboard doors she had practiced on and it only slowed her down a little.
Once outside she just ran straight from the cottage, remembering she had wings after her path was blocked by a stream, then flew until she realized she wasn’t actually being chased anymore.
Fluttershy looked behind her. The animals had stopped. They had all just stopped and were shaking their weapons at her while barking, chittering, honking, mewing, squeaking, tweeting, quacking, and making various other animal sounds at her.
They were all lined up at the bank of the stream, even the ones that could fly. Perhaps it was the edge of her pony counterpart’s property.
It was also the edge of the forest that she had flown deep into.
*** *** ***
09:17 AM
Applejack continued on, wary of the sudden lack of animal life. Not even the birds were chirping. But then again, they could all be in on it together, couldn’t they?
But in on what?
She crossed the bridge leading to Ponyshy’s cottage and found what she could only describe as tiny pitchforks and tiny, burnt torches. The torches appeared to have been lit, but recently put out.
“What in the—?”
A sudden thud behind her caused her to jump and spin around.
Nothing was there.
“Consarn it!” she called out to the emptiness. “What’s going on?! I nearly jumped out of my sk—uh, fur.”
More rustling got Applejack to spin again.
That bush moved. She was sure of it.
She rushed to the door, used her recently discovered knowledge of hooves to … find out it was locked. She was trapped outside.
“Fluttershy!?” she called, knocking on the door. “Anyone?”
A sound of wings passed quickly behind her and she turned to again find nothing. Those didn’t sound like Fluttershy or Rainbow Dash’s pegasus wings. Smaller. A bird, perhaps.
“Alright, now. Ah ain’t here to hurt nobody. Ah come in peace.”
No change.
“Er. Take me to your leader?”
Another rustle and another got Applejack spinning and taking a few steps backward.
Suddenly pain!
The sharp spike in her hoof made her jump, the slap against her backside tumbled her forward, making a half somersault.
From her new position, belly up on the ground, she saw her attacker.
A simple rake left discarded along with the pitchforks.
Applejack stood back up, growling her frustration. “That just gets my goat!”
“BwaAaAa. I don’t belong to you,” bleated a voice.
Applejack snapped to her hooves and turned to see a goat in what appeared to be a post officer's uniform, carrying a sack of letters.
“Who are you?!” she asked, ready to defend herself. Or at least make the attempt, not really knowing how to fight with a pony’s body.
“Name’s Gort,” he answered.
“Gort, the goat?” Applejack asked with a confused tilt of her head.
“Yes.”
“Well, what are you doing here?”
Gort pointed at his postal worker’s uniform. “Muffin’s out with the feather flu so I’m covering her shift.”
“What with the who now?”
“Mail call for—“ Gort checked an envelope he pulled out of his sack, “—Fluttershy. Is that you?”
“Uh. No.”
“Then I’ll leave it in his mailbox.”
With that, the Gort simply put the letter in a mailbox outside Fluttershy’s cottage and turned to leave.
“W-wait!” Applejack called. “Uh, Gort. Sir. What was all that rustling just now? And the thing with the animals?”
Gort looked back, confused, holding out a map of the town. “Rustling? Animals? Don’t ask me. I’m on loan from another town. Just trying to find the next house on the route. I’m already an hour behind.”
Applejack looked on as Gort returned to the map and trotted away.
“So …” Applejack began. “It was just in my head all this time?”
After Gort faded into the distance and disappeared around a corner out of sight, Applejack turned back toward the cottage.
And came face to face with a hoard of animals of all sizes holding tiny pitchforks and tiny, lit torches. A bunny stood at the front, an arm held high holding a toothpick pointed directly back at her.
“Nope. So much Nope.”
She decided to not stick around and headed back the way she had come.
The animals gave chase.
*** *** ***
09:06 AM
Fluttershy looked forward again, away from the line of protesting animals just in time to dodge a tree branch by changing the angle of her wings and ascending just enough to clear it. She then had to do the opposite to dive under the next branch.
This forest was growing thicker the more she traveled. Much thicker than she had realized from the outside.
She thought about slowing down, but it felt like her wings wanted to beat at their own rate as if they were trying to keep pace with her heart.
After a few minutes, however, it was her lungs that signaled a halt.
Finally slowing her wings enough, Fluttershy came to ground on some snow, apparently left over from the colder temperatures of winter thanks to the thick shade under the thicker trees.
She looked around while catching her breath. It was still day wasn’t it? The patch of forest she found herself in was so dark the sun might as well have been setting.
Fluttershy thought back to the cottage. What did she do? Why were those animals so upset? Some of them looked angry, but others …, others were afraid?
“Oh no! Did they realize I wasn’t their Fluttershy and thought I was trying to hurt them? No wonder why they were upset! Should I go back and try to explain? Those poor little cuties must be so confused!”
She wiped some sweat from her forehead, frowned at dampness left behind in her fur, and considered her options.
“If I go back, they might hide or attack again. They have better ears and noses than I do; they might know I'm coming back before I could even see the cottage. That won’t work at all. I’d have to get a friend to help. Someone they trust. I have to find pony Fluttershy!”
With a new goal, in addition to also finding pony Twilight, Fluttershy took a resolute breath and turned back toward town.
Or tried to.
“Um. Oh dear. Which way was it?”
*** *** ***
09:30 AM
The chase didn’t last long, all things considered, though it felt quite a bit longer. A pony at a full gallop with an army behind her is a mighty fast creature after all. The birds dive-bombing her were a concern though. Thankfully Applejack managed to be nimble enough to avoid their “ordnance,” leaving haphazard trails of white and black splotches in their wake.
It was the animals themselves who broke it off. Once they got fairly close to town, they all stopped, forming a line as if daring her to try returning.
Applejack did not return. She kept going.
“Not sure what’s going on, but there’s no way Fluttershy would be back there! Best to try the palace, maybe she got back now.”
She spied the star atop Twi’s palace in the distance and headed straight for it.
Well before arriving, she came to another strange sight. Though it was the sound that first alerted her.
It sounded like three sets of heavy breathing. Filtered heavy breathing.
At the base of the town side of the bridge were what appeared to be three ponies wearing hazmat suits.
“Oh, now what?” she groaned.
The three turned to her and paused.
Applejack stared.
All three ponies looked back at her through hoods with clouded over face-places.
One-by-one they began screaming at her.
“CHANGELING?”
“CHANGELING!?”
“CHANGELING!”
Then they all ran off toward town, yelling in unison. ““CHANGELING! Help!””
Applejack could only stare for a moment longer.
“Maybe we should’a stayed home.”