Thursday – 8:21pm
Fluttershy is missing.
I know this is only my second entry and this whole thing is supposed to be therapeutic or whatever, but I'm not really in the mood to beat around the bush today. With that in mind, I'll just get right down to it and start from the beginning. I wake up—later than I would've liked, but no weird dreams, thankfully—and go to check on Spike when I hear Rainbow Dash calling my name from the castle foyer. Spike was still asleep, but it wasn't restless and he looked fine for now.
I was prepared to spend the day checking up on that information regarding abnormal dragon sleep cycles, but I couldn't exactly leave the pegasus waiting. I wanted to tell her I was busy, and I probably would have, but the mare sounded worried about something. Very worried. So I set my plans aside to see what the issue was. The moment Rainbow sees me, she starts peppering me with questions about where Fluttershy is.
I, of course, have no idea. I'd gone into Ponyville to take care of a few errands yesterday, but never ran into Fluttershy at any point. I tell Rainbow Dash as much, and she tells me that she hadn't seen the mare at all that day. Mind you, this isn't anything new for Fluttershy. She has days when she doesn't leave her house at all, except maybe to take care of some animals in and near the Everfree Forest. I try to bring this up, but Rainbow cuts that notion down before it has a chance to properly propagate. The panicked pegasus tells me she already checked in and around Fluttershy's cottage and didn't see her there.
Evidently Angel Bunny was there, but none of us can understand the little demon like Fluttershy can, so naturally he was no help. After checking her home, Rainbow Dash did a sweep of the town and didn't see her anywhere either. She'd asked the other girls, but none of them had seen Fluttershy either. That brought Rainbow Dash to my doorstep. She'd done a cursory scan of the Everfree's borders, but she wanted to get the gang together to do a more thorough search of the Everfree Forest.
Of course, I agreed to help. I wasn't sure if Rainbow Dash was overreacting or if things were really that dire, but I wasn't willing to take the chance that they weren't. When it comes to the safety of my friends, it's always worth an investigation at the very least. So, with Rainbow in tow, I headed into Ponyville to collect the girls for our ponyhunt. I did a bit of searching myself around all of Fluttershy's usual hangout spots while I was in town.
She didn't have many, so it didn't take that long. Rainbow complained that she'd already checked, but I wasn't going to apologize for being thorough. With that done, we stopped by the Carousel Boutique to pick up Rarity, and looking back on the day's events, this is where things start getting a bit weird. No, even before that things were a little strange, but it's only in hindsight that I'm seeing it now.
It wasn't everypony, but there were some ponies we met along the way that seemed slightly off—like Aloe and Lotus, for example. Rainbow Dash and I stopped by the Ponyville Day Spa to ask around about Fluttershy. It was a long shot, but again, I just wanted to double-check. It was a slow day, so the only ones we ended up talking to were the proprietors themselves.
I didn't notice it at the time, but there was something strange about the way the spa twins spoke. The way they moved. The way they looked. If I had to describe their behavior in a word, I'd say slow. Or sluggish, maybe. There was a sort of drag in their tone and a weird distance in their eyes, like they were never really looking directly at me when they spoke, but rather past me. Through me.
It wasn't a big enough change to be blatant—like I said, I didn't pick up on it at first, and Rainbow Dash didn't pick up on it at all. If you knew what you were looking for, though, it was pretty clear the two weren't operating at full capacity, so to speak. This could have easily been written off as too much time in the workplace or something similar, but it wasn't just them.
Again, it wasn't everypony, but it was enough to give me some pause. The only reason I was able to catch on at all was because both Rarity and Applejack were acting the same way. They had that same slight sluggishness in their voice and movements, and that same slightly distant look in their eyes. Lethargy. That's the word that comes to mind. They all seemed not quite lethargic, but just shy of it.
I think I just figured it was that summer heat dragging everypony down. That might actually be the case, but then I think about Spike and I wonder. Is that really all it is? Just the blistering sun sapping away all of their energy? Thinking about it rationally, that's almost certainly the cause. But even if that is the case, that doesn't quite explain Pinkie Pie's behavior.
That mare is odd at the best of times, but today she seemed out of it. More so than usual, and not in the same way as everypony else. Unlike the others, when we picked Pinkie up from Sugarcube Corner, I knew immediately that something was wrong. If you weren't paying attention, it would've just seemed like Pinkie being Pinkie, and I think that's what she was going for. The others didn't pay any mind to her antics, and Rainbow Dash was already preoccupied with her worries about Fluttershy.
I could see it, though. Don't ask me why or how. Maybe it's just because I know my friends so well. Maybe it's a “Princess of Friendship” thing. I don't know, but I could see that Pinkie wasn't quite herself. As we entered the Everfree Forest and started our search in earnest, I kept an eye on the bouncy earth pony. I'd asked her if anything was wrong, but she'd just brushed my worries aside with a laugh and a quirky comment.
But there was an odd desperation to Pinkie's whimsical antics. A skittishness, almost. A sort of furtiveness that I'd only ever seen when the mare was at her breaking point. I asked about it a few times, whenever we had a moment alone, but she kept denying anything was wrong. All I could do was reassure her. I told her I'd be there if she needed to talk. She didn't say anything to that, and for a moment I thought she'd actually open up, but she never did in the end.
We spent most of the day scouring the Everfree for any sign of Fluttershy. We even went as far as to search the Castle of the Two Sisters from top to bottom, but ultimately, nothing turned up. We were all dead tired with nothing to show for our efforts, but still decided to search both Fluttershy's cottage and Ponyville one last time before Princess Celestia brought the sun down.
It didn't do us any good, and Fluttershy is still missing even as I sit here in my bedchamber writing all of this down. Spike was up and about when I got back to my castle, so that was something at least—though he still had that drowsiness about him. After giving the baby dragon a rundown of everything that happened earlier, I asked about his situation. From what he told me, Spike genuinely doesn't know what's going on.
He has no answer for why he's so tired and neither do I. On a whim, or maybe a hunch, I asked Spike if he'd had any strange dreams lately. He thought about it for a moment, then told me if he had, he couldn't remember. For some reason, I was relieved to hear that. I would've liked to spend more time with him, but I decided to record today's failure in this journal instead. Do I feel any better about the situation?
Not really, but it's nice to have a record, I suppose. Spike went back to his room, presumably to pass out again, and I'm about ready to do the same. Still, though, I really do need to find out what's going on with him. And we really need to find Fluttershy. I'm worried sick about the mare, but all we can do is try again tomorrow.
I agreed to meet up with Rainbow Dash in Town Square, so we'll see how that goes. Hopefully we can actually make some progress even if we don't end up finding Fluttershy herself.