There was about an hour left till midnight. Rainbow and Fluttershy still didn’t feel very sleepy since waking up during sunset. It was just like Rainbow said. Their sleep schedule was gonna be out of whack for a while. They hoped to get that fixed soon.
But they were currently busy with something else. Well, it wasn’t just the fact that they were traveling on Squiggles to get back to Ponyville. While they were traveling, Fluttershy requested something odd. Rainbow had one of her tongues extended out of her mouth. It was wrapped around one of Fluttershy’s forelegs, who was lightly tugging on it. The more she tried tugging, the more nervous she looked, and the less Rainbow wanted to go through with this. In the end, she spoke up.
“Listen Fluttershy, I don’t think you should be doing this.”
“Ooh…” Fluttershy whined. “Please Rainbow. I won’t be scared.”
“That’s not what I’m worried about,” Rainbow responded while Fluttershy was still holding her tongue. “I know I said I’d let you study my body, but I don’t think you should be doing anything strenuous right now.” Her eyes were focusing on the leaf and vines covering Fluttershy's left eye.
Fluttershy sighed with her ears drooping. “Okay…” she said defeated. What she wanted to do was test how much strength each of Rainbow’s individual tongues had. But the part that Rainbow was worried about was Fluttershy unnecessarily straining herself after the serious injury she had. So instead, Fluttershy just let it go so it could return to Rainbow’s mouth.
Fluttershy carefully walked closer to Rainbow and said. “Keep your mouth open and settled.” Rainbow did as requested. Although it was night, the moon was casting enough light for Fluttershy to see what she needed. But when she looked, her ears fell flat at the fear of being swallowed. It was hard to believe that an entire pony could fit through this, and that X was still currently down there. Biting her nerves, Fluttershy pressed on.
She saw that two of Rainbow’s tongues were sticking to the upper-left and upper-right corners of her mouth, behind her teeth. Her last tongue, the one with the knot, stuck to the bottom like a regular pony’s tongue. But that knot was nearly blocking her throat.
“Oh my… Do you ever almost choke on that knot?”
Rainbow just hummed, “Mmm, mmm,” and shook her head.
“Hmm… Stick it out again?” Rainbow did so. Carefully, Fluttershy poked at the knot. It squished, but no wince came from Rainbow. “It doesn’t hurt any-...” Her voice suddenly trailed off for a second. Then she repeated herself. “It doesn’t hurt anymore, does it?” And then she let it go.
“No,” Rainbow answered. Then she looked down and thought. “But I remember how bad it hurt that first day. Clang can really punch.”
Fluttershy nearly blanked with her thoughts, then asked. “Does that knot… ever get in the way?”
“At first it did, but I got used to it. So no. Not anymore.” Rainbow then noticed that Fluttershy wasn’t exactly paying attention to her half the time.
“Aaand… does it ever feel uncomfortable?”
At this point, it felt like some very pointless questions, especially if Fluttershy wasn’t paying attention. “Fluttershy? Are you okay?”
Fluttershy didn’t notice the question. She was currently thinking about the time when Rainbow stuck her tongues in a lake. When she first saw that, she was thinking Rainbow could drink through her tongues or something, until she saw that Rainbow was just cupping her tongues together for the water.
But when Fluttershy had a better look at Rainbow’s knotted tongue, she was thinking that could’ve been a possibility again. At least, that’s what she was hoping for. For some reason, there were multiple nerve-looking lines near the tip of Rainbow’s tongue, not visible from a distance. This could've been the result of Rainbow's tongue being in a knot for so long. And if that was the case, this worried her. After all, it was only the knotted tongue that she saw the hole in.
“Fluttershy?” Rainbow asked again. This time, Fluttershy heard.
“Huh?”
“Are you okay? You kinda zoned out there.”
“Oh…” Fluttershy wanted to shake her head, but didn’t want to cause more injury to her eye. So she just blinked. “Does that knot ever feel uncomfortable?”
“You asked that already, and I said no.”
Fluttershy frowned. “S-Sorry… There’s just so many things that I’ve been wondering and want to know. And I just don’t know when, or how to ask them.”
Rainbow didn’t respond to that. It looked like she was okay with that answer, but she just went silent and still. This wasn’t the response Fluttershy expected. With Rainbow just looking at her, Fluttershy nervously thought about what to ask next. Again, she almost asked about the tongue again. But if Rainbow said it didn't feel uncomfortable or painful, then she didn't have to worry about it.
It was then that their ride suddenly started getting very rough. Rainbow and Fluttershy had to brace their hooves against Squiggles’ scales while Fluttershy settled him down with gentle taps. Ponyville would soon be in view. Whatever Fluttershy was gonna ask, it would probably be the last thing she could ask right now.
“Um… H-How is X right now?” she asked.
“Still asleep,” Rainbow answered.
“Still?” Fluttershy asked a little surprised. “But it’s already been over twenty-four hours. Has she ever woken up?”
Rainbow shook her head. “But I was thinking, if what you said about her fear is true, then I’d say she probably has a lot of trouble sleeping. So she was probably very tired, and we didn’t know.” She looked down to her stomach as well. “Come to think of it, I wonder if she had any chance to sleep at all during the two days she had me caged.”
Fluttershy cringed at that. It was definitely a possibility. “And…” She hesitated as she thought about this next question. “What about how she… tasted?” Confusion filled Rainbow’s eyes as she looked up. “I-I mean… I remember that one of the reasons tatzlponies are more attracted to those they see as friendly... is because they taste better. And I remember when you swallowed Clang… he tasted awful to you. What about X?”
A light gasp escaped Rainbow. After placing a hoof under her chin, she responded. “Huh… I never thought about that.”
Fluttershy blinked. “Thought?”
“Well…” Rainbow took a moment to explain. “You’re right. When it comes to ponies I like, they did taste better. Ponies I hated tasted terrible. But X?” There was a pause. “She just tasted… normal…”
Another puzzled look from Fluttershy. “Normal? What do you mean?”
Rainbow tapped her chin a few times. “Normal like… like when you bite your own because you’re nervous. What you taste there, that’s how X tasted.”
Fluttershy understood what Rainbow meant. But the answer itself still made no sense to her. “But… why would that be? When you swallowed her yesterday, you sounded really… really…” Her question halted as she saw that it was suddenly getting harder to see. It looked like Rainbow noticed it too because she turned her attention to the direction Squiggles was going.
“Mist?” Fluttershy asked. That’s what it looked like to her. And it was getting thicker the more they traveled. She signaled Squiggles to move a little slower, and so he did. The mist was getting thick enough to the point they could barely see the trees in their path.
“Ponyville’s just up ahead though…” Rainbow said softly. They both looked to each other with worried expressions. Squiggles didn’t seem too affected by this. He was still able to navigate around the trees like normal. It didn’t take long until no more trees were visible. But that was because they had reached the end of the forest. When they realized this, Fluttershy had Squiggles come to a complete stop. Squiggles raised his head up high, allowing him, along with Rainbow and Fluttershy to get a good look off in the distance.
“What happened to Ponyville?” Fluttershy asked. All of Ponyville appeared to be shrouded in a thick mist. Almost nothing was visible from this distance. They could barely see the silhouettes of its buildings.
“How long has it been since I was turned into a tatzlpony?” Rainbow asked as she looked to Fluttershy.
“Um…” Fluttershy looked down and thought. “Twelve days.”
Rainbow narrowed her eyes then looked to Ponyville. “Fog…” she answered.
“Hmm?” Fluttershy questioned.
“This is what happens when the clouds in the skies are left alone. They get too heavy and fall to the ground, spreading all this fog.” Rainbow turned to Fluttershy. “I was scheduled to clear those clouds out about twelve days ago, like you said. I could never do that.”
Fluttershy’s mouth and ears dropped in regret. She remembered that during Rainbow’s memory loss and before they went to the Everfree Forest, she wanted to see if Rainbow remembered how to clear the skies. But just like returning to Twilight, there were other priorities at the time.
“But I don’t understand,” Fluttershy started as she looked to Rainbow Dash. “What about the rest of the weather team? Couldn’t they have cleared them out before they fell?”
“Yeah,” Rainbow answered. “If they were instructed to.” She then looked down towards Ponyville. “I wasn’t around. So I couldn’t tell them that I wouldn’t be taking care of it. Usually if I can’t, Twilight can lead those who can.”
Fluttershy looked around for a moment, looking to the left, then right, only seeing fog every which way. “How come she didn’t?” Rainbow didn’t turn around. She just kept her stern expression directed at Ponyville, more specifically towards the castle. That was when Fluttershy realized, making her heart sink.
“Let’s go ask her ourselves.” Rainbow spoke in a low and commanding tone. Fluttershy shuddered while Rainbow pointed a hoof out towards Ponyville. She then looked to Fluttershy. “The castle is over there. Let’s get going.”
With a heavy heart, Fluttershy nodded. Looking down, she gave Squiggles a signal with a tap of her hoof. Squiggles responded by raising his headed higher, releasing a mighty roar before he went to move again.
”AHH!!! MONSTER!!!” Fluttershy gasped and pulled Squiggles’ scales to signal him to halt. He obliged quickly. ”EVERYPONY RUN!!!” In the distance, they heard only a few quick movements being silenced by doors shutting. It was then they realized they might’ve just made a mistake.
“Oh…” Rainbow spoke up as she looked to Fluttershy with concern. “Maaaybe we shouldn’t bring Squiggles down there. He’ll scare the daylights out of everypony.”
Fluttershy’s ears fell. “Oh dear…” Squiggles had tilted his eyes towards her with a concerning growl. She went and signaled him to slowly lower his head down to the ground so that they could jump off him safely. Rainbow was able to jump off him without a hassle, being sure to keep her right hind hoof off the ground when landing. As for Fluttershy, she started off by gently sliding down Squiggles’ scales. But when she got to the ground, Rainbow used her body to halt her fall.
Fluttershy blushed sheepishly at the sight of her suddenly looking like she was riding Rainbow Dash again. Almost quickly, she looked away and hopped off. She looked to the ground with a quick and silent sigh of relief, then took notice of Squiggles looking down at them. He was looking at them with confusion and concern which made Fluttershy a little sad. When she reached a hoof out to him, he lowered his head a little more, allowing Fluttershy to pet his maw, slowly reaching further to his head. The sound of his gleeful purrs made Fluttershy smile for a moment.
“Come on, Fluttershy,” Rainbow said, breaking the mood. Fluttershy’s smile faded as she saw Rainbow taking a step towards Ponyville, waiting for Fluttershy to join her. But for some reason, Fluttershy didn’t want to join her yet. Looking off in the distance was very unsettling for her. They were going to go straight to Twilight, and they were gonna get their questions answered. Why was this so unsettling for her?
Fluttershy just didn’t know why. But the more she looked towards Ponyville in this deep mist, the more frightening it felt to her. She began visibly shivering to the point Rainbow could even hear it.
“Fluttershy?” Rainbow asked as she looked to Fluttershy. “What’s wrong?” More shivering continued, even with Squiggles gently nuzzling her mane. She even stepped back and sat down, letting her mane hide one of her eyes. Or in this case, her mane hid the eye that was bandaged up.
“Oh Rainbow…” Fluttershy began. The fear in her voice was very clear. “I don’t know about this…” It was like the day she first moved into Ponyville, back when she could barely get two words said to ponies she didn’t know.
“Come on, Fluttershy,” Rainbow said. “We have to go down there. We need to get to Twilight for answers.”
“I know Rainbow. I know…” Fluttershy responded. “It’s just… Rainbow… this is Twilight we’re talking about.” She looked to Rainbow as sternly as she could. “She’s our friend, but ever since she’s been brought up, you’ve been very convinced that she’s involved in a bad way. And no matter what, I don’t want to believe that.”
Fluttershy stood up and continued. “I know once we get to her, we’ll have our answers. But… it’s just…” Her shivering continued. “I have a really bad feeling about this. And I’m really scared to find out. On one hoof, if you are right, and Twilight really is involved in all of this, I just don’t know what I’ll say or do. It… it would be too heartbreaking for me to hear that she’s the reason why all of this has happened to us. Why you're a tatzlpony now. Why we've been attacked like this. Why my eye is now...”
Rainbow’s face went concerned as Fluttershy looked down and continued. “I’m really hoping you’re wrong about that. But on the other hoof, if you are wrong and Twilight isn’t involved in this at all, then…” Her train of thought was lost and she went silent for a moment. She shook her head and grunted. “No matter which one it is, I just get the feeling that something really, really bad is going to happen. Something even worse than what’s happened to us already.” Hearing that made Rainbow take a moment’s glance towards Ponyville, eyes quivering, yet determined.
“But Fluttershy,” Rainbow started. “We can’t keep waiting around. If we don't go down there now, we'll just waste more time that we can stay together."
Fluttershy slowly looked down and closed her eye. “I know…”
Rainbow saw that she was trying to be strong, but her shivering made it clear that she wasn’t very confident in what they were getting themselves into. Looking back to Squiggles, Rainbow asked. “You think we should bring Squiggles with us anyway?”
Fluttershy lightly gasped and opened her eye, looking to Squiggles as well. He was just sitting there, patiently waiting for whatever Fluttershy would tell him to do. “Hmm…” she pondered. “Maybe. But not like this.” Confusion sat on Rainbow’s mind as Fluttershy walked up to him. When Fluttershy raised her hoof, he lowered his maw again for Fluttershy to pat. “We should go without him. But we should have a way to call him in case either of us get into trouble. Not just me, but both of us should have a way to call him.”
Rainbow smiled at the idea and walked to Fluttershy. “Gotcha. But what sort of signal should we use?”
“Well… can you whistle?” Fluttershy asked.
A chuckle escaped Rainbow. “Yeah!”
“How loud?”
When Fluttershy asked that, Rainbow’s smile turned into a confident smirk. She extended her wings and moved both of her wing tips in front of her. Fluttershy gasped when she saw Rainbow taking a massively deep breath. Just before she blew into her wingtips, Fluttershy quickly placed a hoof into Rainbow’s mouth, squeezing her eye in the process.
What was probably about to be an ear piercing screech of a whistle suddenly turned into a massive fart sound covered in a lot of spit and saliva, all which drenched Fluttershy’s hoof. Some of it splattered into her face, or at least her mane covering her face. With her teeth gritting, she held on until Rainbow stopped blowing, then looked at her sheepishly.
“Um… I-I’ll take that as… really really really loud.”
Rainbow just scrunched her eyes, completely unamused. Fluttershy removed her hoof from Rainbow's mouth with an audible pop. A quick examine of her hoof told her practically how loud that whistle would’ve been. Squiggles would definitely hear that even a mile away.
As Fluttershy brought her attention back to Squiggles, Rainbow just looked back off towards Ponyville. She decided to test out her wings again with some flaps. If her feathers were restored, she’d be able to blow away this mist. But as they were, she could barely blow what was directly in front of her. And she could forget about flying. It was too much effort keeping herself airborne, let alone focusing on where she was flying combined with her injured leg crying out for pain.
A loud crash sounded behind Rainbow which she noticed was Squiggles burying himself underground. Fluttershy came up to her. “He’ll stay nearby for now. I also told him not to eat anypony here if we ever have to call him.”
Rainbow nodded. “That's good. We don't need what happened to Strike to happen to everypony else.”
Fluttershy gulped nervously at that. She took a few more seconds to breathe before taking that first step towards Ponyville. Once she did, Rainbow joined her and stuck very close to her side.
___
A few minutes had passed and neither of them had really said anything since they started walking. Nopony else in Ponyville seemed to be outside either. Not even the sounds of other hoofsteps or voices could be heard. That was probably due to the fact that it was midnight, and that roar earlier scared the rest to hide themselves in their homes. Needless to say, it was very quiet.
This alone time left Fluttershy back to her own thoughts again. There were still many things she wanted to ask Rainbow, especially when it came to her tatzlpony body. But the main thing that was sticking to Fluttershy’s mind right now was from her continuous rumbling stomach. Even after she ate those eggs, she was really hungry. But as hungry as she was, her own hunger wasn’t what was on her mind right now.
Rainbow Dash had gone longer than her without eating anything. If she was remembering correctly, the last food that Rainbow ate were those giant onions. But that was two days ago. Yet, every time food was brought up, Rainbow was far more concerned for Fluttershy’s hunger. And even stranger, Rainbow never showed any signs of being hungry at all, not even hearing a stomach rumble.
This really confused Fluttershy. Didn’t she conclude that tatzlponies had very big appetites? She witnessed it first hoof on multiple occasions that Rainbow could eat a lot as a tatzlpony. Although Rainbow was always a pretty big eater, she never saw Rainbow, or anypony capable of eating like a tatzlpony could. So why didn’t Rainbow look hungry yet?
Fluttershy looked down. Maybe this just meant that while tatzlponies could indeed eat a lot at once, they could also go for days without needing to eat. Either that, or maybe it had something to do with X being in her stomach right now. This made Fluttershy squeeze her eye and make her ears drop. If it was that, the implication would not sit well with her. She really hoped it was her former theory.
Fluttershy then felt something warm and comforting wrap around her. It was Rainbow’s wing, who was giving her a concerned look, but not saying anything. This made Fluttershy blush in embarrassment, but it was also doing a great job at calming her nerves. She had to remember that Rainbow had her memories back and knew what she was doing. If there was anything bad happening to X, Rainbow would know.
That was when the other question stumbled upon Fluttershy. If Rainbow had her memories back, then why was she continuing to suspect Twilight as much as she had? And then, Fluttershy gasped.
“Twilight…” she said, then looked her surroundings over.
“Hmm?” Rainbow questioned. Fluttershy seemed to be looking behind them as they walked. But when Rainbow looked, she didn’t see anything. All she saw was the mist.
“Rainbow,” Fluttershy asked as she looked to her with wide eyes. “When that fire was happening in the Everfree Forest, didn’t you say it was big enough for anypony to see in Ponyville?”
When Fluttershy said that, Rainbow’s eyes slowly widened in shock as she realized where Fluttershy was getting at. She looked her surroundings over again, noticing that the best she could see was the occasional silhouette of buildings they were passing by. Nopony could’ve seen that fire through this mist.
Rainbow’s breath sighed out in shock. That was one of the reasons that convinced her of Twilight being involved in this. Twilight… She repeated her name in her mind. What was she doing? Did something happen to Ponyville while they were gone?
The silhouette of the castle soon came into view. Both Rainbow and Fluttershy looked up to it as they approached. Fluttershy was quivering more frantically than ever. She felt Rainbow’s wing hold her tighter the closer they got. When they reached the door, they stopped.
From what they could see so far, there was nothing unusual of note yet. They looked to each other for a second, then back at the door, each taking a deep breath. Fluttershy continued to hold onto hope that there was some kind of misunderstanding. And Rainbow Dash, just wanted answers. Without hesitation, she opened the door.
“Twilight!” Rainbow called out as they entered. Fluttershy followed closely behind, leaving behind the mist that shrouded their vision. As they entered, they closed the door behind them, and everything was visible again. “Twilight? Where are you?!” Silence. Only silence followed. They looked at each other again questioningly before moving again.
“Hello?!” Fluttershy called out. “Is anypony here?!” Nothing. They continued traveling the halls. Despite being midnight, the crystal walls shimmered with the light they needed to see as they approached. So it wasn’t dark, but it was definitely ominously silent. “This is just like when X and Strike tried coming here in X's story. They couldn’t find her either.”
Rainbow snorted in frustration. She was really tired of things not going their way. If she could still fly, she would be searching all of Ponyville right now just to find Twilight if she had to. But right now, this was all they could search. And then, a light bulb turned on in her mind as they approached one of the doors in the hall.
“In there,” Rainbow said. Fluttershy looked to see that it was a door leading to the kitchen.
“You think Twilight’s in there?” Fluttershy asked.
“No,” Rainbow answered as she looked to Fluttershy, focusing on the bandage on her left eye. “But while we’re here, we should at least replace our bandages with more comfortable ones.”
Fluttershy looked to the vine wrapped around Rainbow’s right hind hoof, then placed a hoof to the leaf that was over her left eye. She nodded. So together, they entered the kitchen.
___
Home sweet home. That was the best way they could describe this feeling right now after being in the Everfree Forest for so long. At least, that’s how Fluttershy felt. The first aid kits that they had in the kitchen held all of the supplies they needed and more to treat their injuries. She continued spraying the smaller scrapes and bruises that decorated her body, along with wiping off all the dirt. They didn’t realize how dirty they were before coming in.
“Ahh. Here we go.” Fluttershy’s attention was brought to Rainbow after hearing her speak. She was holding something in her hoof, but Fluttershy was more curious on something else.
“What are you wearing?” Fluttershy asked. Rainbow hummed for a second, then looked to her wings and spread them. There was something black covering them whole.
“Oh these? They’re wing latexes. Weather pegasi sometimes use them to protect their wings during heavy thunderstorms.”
“Really?” Fluttershy asked. “But I thought pegasi used a suit for that for their whole body. And… I don’t think I’ve ever seen you use one of those.”
Rainbow spat her chuckle out. “Yeah. That’s because wearing them makes it harder to fly. The only reason I’m using them now is because... until my feathers grow back, I can't fly without them.” It didn't answer why the latex Rainbow had were wings only, but it was all she got.
Fluttershy noticed that Rainbow already replaced on her right hind hoof with gauze. Looks like she was already able to put weight on it again. And it was nice to hear that Rainbow found a solution to her current inability to fly. Of course, like she said, her feathers would eventually grow back, so this was just something she’d use until then.
But when Fluttershy noticed what Rainbow was carrying, her heart sank. It was a black eye patch. The sight of it felt crushing to her very soul. Hesitantly, she reached her hooves to the vines that were tied to the back of her head and slowly untied them. Rainbow moved closer to her to help her remove that leaf carefully. As it was taken off, Rainbow slid the eye patch over it, making sure the strap wrapped firmly behind Fluttershy’s head.
During the whole process, Fluttershy didn’t feel anything with her eye at all. But that’s what made the feeling so devastating. She kept her hoof on the eye patch for a while, trying to get some sort of feeling on her damaged eye. But not even pain registered. Only the soreness on her face surrounding it registered.
Fluttershy turned to a mirror to look at herself, slowly removing her hoof from the eye patch in the process. The sight was downright depressing to her. Her lips quivered and tears began welling up in her right eye. No tears were coming out of her left eye at all. She had to cope with the fact that she was probably never gonna see out of that eye again. All she could do was close her right eye and sob while her tears freely dropped to the floor. Rainbow came up behind her and gently wrapped a hoof around her back.
“Sorry Fluttershy,” Rainbow said softly. “If I had just been faster, you wouldn’t have gotten hurt.”
“N-No…” Fluttershy shook her head and sniffed. “It was my fault. You… You told me to leave. The only reason I got hurt was because I didn’t listen.”
Rainbow turned her eyes to the side. “Well… yeah, but I would’ve been a goner had you left.”
Fluttershy sniffed again. “You’re just saying that…” A blink of confusion came from Rainbow Dash, followed by a short moment of silence. Before she could respond, Fluttershy continued. “If I could survive that blast, there’s no reason why you wouldn’t have.”
“I still would’ve been hurt pretty bad,” Rainbow responded. But it didn’t seem to convince Fluttershy. She looked to Rainbow with her tear-filled eye.
“You had a plan to avoid that, didn’t you?” Fluttershy asked, but her tone sounded convinced that it was true. “That was why you told me to leave. And because I didn’t trust you...” She paused and turned her eye back towards the ground. Her heart became heavier as her regret continued to grow. “If I had just trusted you, this wouldn’t have happened. A lot of things that have happened to us wouldn’t have happened. Including you being trapped under that tree in the first place…”
Rainbow snorted in frustration, unable to think of a proper response. Fluttershy was doing it again, filling her mind with all sorts of regrets that made her believe everything was her fault. Nothing was her fault. The only one at fault was…
Rainbow suddenly picked Fluttershy up and started flying. “Twilight!” she yelled. The sudden flight caught Fluttershy by surprise and made her yelp. “Twilight! Where are you?!” They were taken out of the kitchen and flew through the halls. It wasn’t as fast as Rainbow normally moved even while carrying Fluttershy around, but it was definitely flying. Those latex wings were already proving useful.
It took a moment to recover from her shock, but Fluttershy noticed that Rainbow was taking them both to the room where the map was. She was hoping to find Twilight there, or at least a note of some kind. But when she slammed the door open… “Twi-” Her voice halted and she stopped just inside, hovering in the air with Fluttershy still in her hooves. When Fluttershy looked, she was just as confused.
“Oh my… It’s so dark in here,” Fluttershy said as Rainbow was placing her down.
“Yeah…” Rainbow responded. They walked together looking around the room. The crystal walls weren’t casting much light like they did with the rest of the castle. “And what happened to the map? It’s usually glowing bright enough to light up the whole room.”
“Oh dear… Nothing happened to it, did it?” Fluttershy asked. From here, they couldn’t really tell.
“Come on. Let’s take a closer look.”
Rainbow and Fluttershy walked up to their Cutie Marked seats, which was convenient for them as they were right next to each other. No walls seemed to be broken, nor any sort of debris near the map. So they had no clue as to why it wasn’t glowing. When they reached their seats, Rainbow hovered up to hers and plopped herself down. Then, Fluttershy carefully took her seat.
All of a sudden, Fluttershy's seat began to glow.
“Wha-?!” Fluttershy yelped as it glowed very brightly.
“What the?” Rainbow yelped too. Shortly hers began glowing just as brightly. Then their bodies began to glow. And finally, all the other seats along with the map glowed. The light was so bright that it was practically blinding. They both had to squeeze their eyes shut and cry out from all this sudden light. After some time, the light started dimming. It dimmed enough for Rainbow and Fluttershy to re-open their eyes. Both of them responded in kind.
“Huh?”
The map was now glowing like normal, and the rest of the room had regained its light. That was odd. But not as odd as what they were seeing on the map right now.
“Our… Cutie Marks?” Rainbow responded in disbelief.
“B-But that means the map is calling us,” Fluttershy responded in just as much disbelief. “It’s calling us now?!”
“Wait…” Rainbow held out her hoof. “If it is, look at where it’s calling us to.” They took a closer look at where exactly their floating Cutie Marks were hovering. “It’s Ponyville… at the castle…”
They looked at each other for a moment then back at the map. “But we’re already here…" Fluttershy commented. "And there doesn’t seem to be anypony around. Why would it be calling us?”
Rainbow’s eyes glanced around and caught attention of something else unusual. In the corner of her eyes, she saw something she didn’t notice earlier. It was faint, but the ground looked like it was resonating a light mist. She took a more thorough look around, trying to see if she could find the source of where it was coming from. Fluttershy noticed Rainbow looking along the ground, making her curious as she looked down and saw the mist.
“Over there,” Rainbow said. Fluttershy looked to where Rainbow was looking towards. There was another door behind them. And from the looks of its bottom gaps, the mist seemed to be coming from whatever was behind that door. They walked up to it together and proceeded to open it.
As soon as the door opened, large puffs of mist blew out of it. Rainbow had to cover her face with her wings while Fluttershy used her hooves. That amount caught them by surprise.
“Help me blow this fog away.” Rainbow said as she started flapping her wings. Fluttershy complied. Each flap of their wings pushed back more and more of that mist. Overtime, the room became clearer to see, but only in nearby areas. It was a pretty big room though. And whatever was causing that mist was surely in here somewhere. So all they could do was remove whatever was near them as they moved. They began seeing some odd things. There was some broken debris near the center of them room.
“Oh my…” Fluttershy said. “Did something break? What happened here?”
As Fluttershy inspected the debris, Rainbow looked up, trying to see if she could find where the debris came from. She decided to fly up towards the ceiling for a better look. Meanwhile, Fluttershy noticed something ahead of the debris. The floor further up had a very odd pattern of dust all going in one direction. She slowly followed that trail, halting the flap of her wings as she did so that the dust wouldn’t blow away yet. For some reason, her heart ached even more, giving her a terrible feeling.
Rainbow found what she was looking for, but found more than she thought she would. There were pieces on the ceiling that were chipped off. But they were in multiple areas, and no signs for what chipped them off. Before she could check how wide it spread, a very loud gasp sounded.
“Fluttershy?!” Rainbow immediately turned her attention to where she heard it. No response came from Fluttershy. The mist made it too difficult to see, so Rainbow decided to move to Fluttershy’s location. When she got closer, she heard Fluttershy’s stuttering breaths.
“Did you find something, Fluttershy?” Rainbow asked again, but still no response. Eventually, Fluttershy did come into view, but something else also came into view which made Rainbow’s eyes go wide in response. She landed next to Fluttershy as they examined it together.
The grounds in this area was filled with huge magical burn scars. It felt like there was a faint wind blowing from the scar’s source. They took a short glance at each other, both exchanging concerned faces, then looked back to the source and started fanning the area with their wings. As the source became more visible, their shock heightened. It heightened to levels they didn’t even know it was capable of rising without them fainting on the spot. What they saw was indeed the source of where that mist was coming from. No doubt about it. Many, many questions filled their minds, but there was only one that Fluttershy wanted to know immediately.
“R-Rainbow…” she started carefully. “D-Do you s-still think that Twilight is involved in all of this?” There was silence for a moment. Rainbow had to take a moment to process what she was seeing. She managed to answer.
“No… Not anymore.” Rainbow looked to Fluttershy, no longer sporting that convinced expression. Now it was a terrifyingly worried one. “I think… she’s a victim just like us…”
In front of them was a hole in the wall, a giant, massive hole with deep magical burn scars decorating its entire circle. The hole led outside the castle, which was how all that mist was getting inside. Whatever caused this hole was definitely some kind of powerful magical blast, like the ones they saw from Strike when he was attacking them. But this one was a lot bigger, and probably a lot more powerful.
They both stared at this hole for about a full minute, pondering and worrying about what this all meant. For Fluttershy, it was terrifying. But for Rainbow, it was her last straw, the last nail she needed. Twilight wasn't here, but she was still gonna get her answers right now. With a new serious look, Rainbow turned to Fluttershy, and spoke.
“Fluttershy, get this collar off me.”