Both parties stare in shock at the sight of each other in awkward silence. The mysterious mare smiles nervously and stays frozen like a deer in a headlight. Misty is unsure what to think of this situation; on the bright sight, they found a mare that may help them get out of this forest, but on the other and more pressing matter, there is a stranger in the campsite. She hides Sparky from view using her body and mane as much as possible. While Aaron's face is of glee, fear, and wonder as war wages through Aaron's mind in the face of this mare. ‘It’s not possible. But that long flowing pink mane and yellow wings; there is no mistake who she is. But it has been over a thousand years. But she looks so much like her. I must know,’. Aaron shallows raising a shaking hoof at the mare, “Fluttershy?”,
The mare gave a weak eep before rushing back where she came closing the door behind her, “Wait!” Aaron goes to the door, trying to find a way to open it. He taps the floor and the door, trying to find a switch or a button but found nothing. He thinks to himself before speaking out loud, “Open,” Nothing, “Angel Bunny, Mellon, Open Sesame, 00000000, Swordfish, Buddy, Tiger, 12345, I accept the risk,” Aaron continues to say random passwords hoping one of them would work. That is, if this door works with a password and not a lever on the other side. Misty gives him a strange look as he continues to say nonsense,
“What are you saying!?” Sparky wakes up to the noise before he gets up and tries to find out what Aaron is doing.
Aaron sits there for a hard minute before giving this one last attempt. ‘If this doesn’t work, then nothing will,’ “Friendship is magic,” The door opens halfway as he smacks the ground in frustration, “Knew I should have started with that one,”
Aaron reaches for the door, which alarms Misty to get up quickly, “Aaron, wait! You don’t know where that leads.” Much to her surprise, Aaron closes the door before saying the phrase again and closing the door before opening it one more time, “Ah?”
Aaron looks over his shoulder as if nothing is wrong, “I wanted to make sure that it wasn’t a fluke.”
“So, you close the door to make sure it would open without knowing if it would open ever again?!”
Aaron rubs the back of his head as Misty moves next to him, “Well when you put it that way,”
“Yes, it sounds as dumb as it is!” She looks at the half-open door worriedly, “So what now?”
“We go after her,”
Misty did a double take trying to understand his logic, “WHY?!”
Aaron opens the door revealing a dark hallway lit with torches lining the walls, “Misty, there is a good possibility that this mare is from a thousand years ago. From the Golden Age of Equestria and one of the heroes of Equestria. If she is still alive, then there could be others, and no pony has seen them for over a thousand years. We must go after her!”
Misty thinks about this as Sparky tries to walk down the hallway before Aaron stops him, ‘On one side, we are already in trouble with the law, so what more could we possibly do to get in trouble? And on the other hoof, if Aaron is right, then we might get a pardon for discovering a long-lost group of Ponies. But then again, there is no way to know if these ponies are friendly since that mare ran away at the sight of us.’ She quickly looks over herself and Aaron, ‘Then again, we look like we survive an encounter with a chainsaw. My poor dress.’ She lifts the helm of her ruined dress,
“Ok, fine,” She reluctantly agrees before heading inside, “It beats staying lost out here, at least,”
“Also, for the record Misty. We were not lost,” Aaron calls after with Sparky on his back,
“Don’t start!”
They walk for about a minute in silence until they came to a double door half open with light coming through at the end of the tunnel. Aaron pulls the door open, and they are greeted with the sight of a ruined city with no signs of life anywhere. It is hard to tell what happened here, but even with the city in this state, no pony could mistake where they find themselves, “Canterlot,” Aaron says for the both of them as they gaze at the once great capital of Equestria,
Misty looks back at the tunnel exit and sees that it is connected to a small house. She walks around it a few times and scratches her head in confusion, “But where is the rest of the tunnel we came from? I don't remember going up or down coming from there,”
“I remember reading something called the Gate of Ancients that has the power to take ponies to Canterlot, like entering the room next door. Maybe that passageway had one of those inside, or it works similarly to one. But considering that this is located in the center of the plaza, where it leads, and the fact that the door opens inward. Makes me think that this was some form of emergency evacuation route,”
“Maybe. But it wouldn't explain why the passageway was hidden on the other side and needed a password.”
"Maybe it was added later on. But this is all speculation," Misty agrees with him as he notices one important missing feature to their location, “Where is the mountain?”
Misty tilts her head, “What Mountain?”
“There should be a mountain here. This city was built into- WHAT am I talking about? Where did Fluttershy go?” Aaron remembers why they came here in the first place,
"Fluttershy, you mean that mare we saw earlier? How do you even know her?"
"Can we talk about this after we find her?"
Misty reluctantly agrees with a sigh. Both ponies fan out, looking for any signs of the mare. Misty is a bit pessimistic, thinking that she would be long gone by now, before seeing a pair of eyes quickly leaving the window of one of the shops nearby, “Over there,” Misty says, causing Aaron to head her way,
“Oh, poor Joe’s Doughnut Shop. You have seen better days,” Aaron reminiscence as they enter the abandoned establishment, Misty looks around for the mare as Aaron looks at an old dried-up doughnut, “You never had a chance,”
“Can we focus here, Aaron?” Misty snaps at him,
“Right, sorry,” He drops the doughnut in a hurry, and it rolls across the floor before stopping at a long pink tail sticking out from under a table. Aaron rolls his eyes at the failed attempt to hide as Misty also notices the tail, “Gee, I wonder where she is hiding?”
“Ah, Aa-” Aaron covers her mouth, shaking his head, and moves next to the tail, “So are you coming out of there, Fluttershy, or do I have to pull you out?”
The tail retreats under the table as a scare mare peaks out, “Ah, please don’t do that if you don’t mind,”
Misty is not convinced that this mare is as sweet as she appears to be; Aaron, on the other hand, ‘OH MY GOODNESS, SHE IS SO CUTE!’
“Ah, so if you don’t mind me asking. Who are you ponies?”
“Oh, right!” Shaken out of his trance, Aaron compose himself, "I am Aaron, this here is Misty, and the one on my back is Sparky,” He points to each one of them as the mare peeks out a little more,
The mare stares in awe at their little companion, “Oh, a baby dragon. Are you two babysitting him?”
“Well, not exactly,” Misty says, “He got lost, and we went after him and ran into you in the forest. Speaking of which, why did you run?”
“Oh, I am not good at meeting new ponies. I got scared and ran away,” She looks away, thinking before looking at Aaron, “Also if you don’t mind me asking, how do you know my name?”
“Well, you are Fluttershy, the element of kindness, hero of Equestria, and the befriender of all,”
“Wait, she is that Fluttershy,” Misty says, finally inform on who this mare is,
“Oh, well-” She start before a cold wind blows between the ponies causing Fluttershy to become concerned, “Oh dear,” Before Aaron could say anything, he and his companions were sent into the ceiling, stuck as if gravity went in reverse for them with great force. The groan in pain was stuck and helpless as Fluttershy emerged from hiding, calling out into the room, “Dystopia, don’t hurt them!”
“Don't worry, Fluttershy,” A voice calls out into the room, “I will deal with them,”
“Dystopia, stop this right now,” She says, gaining the courage to stand up to Dystopia, “Or I am going to tell your mom,”
“Mom?” Aaron grunts. It was then he was able to look at Fluttershy cutie mark and see one large butterfly instead of three small ones, ‘She is not the Fluttershy I know,’
“What, why? I am only trying to help,”
“This is not helping. You are hurting them. So, stop that right now,” She stomps her hoof on the ground, which was no more than tapping the ground,
“Fine,” Gravity went back to normal for Aaron's group as they fall down to the ground before stopping halfway there and landing safely. Aaron looks up to a flash of light as what he can only describe as a young teenage female Discord staring at him. If the Twilight-style hair and butterfly hair pins were anything to go by, “So who are these ponies, cousin?”
“I was getting to that before you came in and started hurting everypony,”
She swims in their wrapping around Fluttershy before combing her mane and patting her head with her claw, “It was only a little gravity manipulation that would have sent them to the moon. If the ceiling wasn't there. Nothing to sneeze about,"
Fluttershy looks unamused at her cousin, “You know Grandpappy won't approve of your methods,”
"Not from what Grandmama told me,"
“Can somepony please tell me what is going on here?!” Misty says, interrupting the two as Dystopia's eyes turn into flames of fire as she slowly walks to Misty,
“Excuse me. We are having a family discussion here!" Misty unconsciously hides behind Aaron as Fluttershy gets between them, staring down the small entity of chaos,
“Dystopia, that is enough. I will tell on you if you keep this up,” Dystopia huffs and mumbles something before teleporting away in a flash of light. Fluttershy sighs and looks back at the ponies as Misty walks away from Aaron as if nothing happened, much to his confusion, “Sorry about that. She can be quite protective of our family. Please forgive her if that is okay with you, that is,”
“I'm not too sure about that, but on another note, Who are you, ponies?”
“They are the descendants of Fluttershy and Discord,” Aaron says out loud, answering for the everypony,