//------------------------------// // What Happened Next // Story: Broken Apart, Fixed Together // by Mapbird //------------------------------// Fluttershy laid in her bed, trying to get to sleep. Her mind was racing at a million miles an hour, new memories and thoughts surfacing in the dark, quiet room. She decided to get up and do something else for a while, before going to her bed and embracing Dreamland. She descended down the stairs and headed toward her front door to go outside. She slowly and quietly opened the door and a chilly wave of air blasted her in the face. She felt like going back to her bed, but she quickly dismissed that thought, knowing only more thoughts would run through her head, driving her to get up again. She stepped outside into the cold night, closing the door behind her. She felt unsafe, so she looked around for any signs of danger. But there were none, so she closed the door behind her and went over to the chicken coop, to check on her chickens. All the chickens and chicks were all fast asleep. Occasionally one would wake up and look at her, but it would soon bob its head and go back to sleep. Watching them sleep calmed her down a little, which helped her forget that she felt unsafe. She was ready to go back inside when she heard a click; it was faint but she had definitely heard one. She left the chicken coop and carefully listened out for any other sounds. A loud scream emitted from the forest, the voice sounded familiar. She ran into the forest. Her mind was fixated on who the pony was that screamed. Suddenly the answer came to her, as if it was just casually walking to her brain. That voice was Apple Bloom's! "Hold on Apple Bloom, I'm coming!" she cried as she ran further into the forest. Apple Bloom was scared. She was going to die. All because of a box! She uselessly tried to shuffle the dirt away so she could breathe, but the rate of the dirt being put in the hole was too fast for her. All she could hear as the sound of a shovel tipping dirt into the hole. She wished that her friends hadn't fought right in front of her. She didn't want them fighting to be her last memory, but it sure looked that way. She curled up into a ball and tried to think of good things, but all she could think about was her friends fighting. The dirt felt warm around her, she felt like she was in her bed, with the cover pulled over her head. The sound of the shovel pouring earth in the hole became fainter. She could faintly see something within arm's length, so she reached for it. It was the box. She wrapped her hooves around it and pulled it towards her, finding solace in it. She closed her eyes, hoping her friends would forgive each other, and fell unconscious. Sweetie Belle was frantic. Rushing around the Everfree forest was always never a good idea for two fillies, let alone one; but only one thing was on Sweetie Belle's mind, her accidentally foalnapped friend, Apple Bloom. Scootaloo was rushing after her, trying to keep up with her distraught friend as she raced through he forest looking anywhere for a sign of her friend. "Sweetie Belle! Slow down!" Scootaloo said through a few deep breaths. She couldn't believe that Sweetie Belle was faster than her, but at the moment she was worried Sweetie would run off and get lost. "Are you joking?" Sweetie Belle began "The slower I go, the more Apple Bloom could be in danger, and I will not let anything happen to one of my friends!" "Well, blindly running around won't help!" Scootaloo shouted. The gap between them was getting bigger and she was desperate to get her to stop or slow down. "But Apple Bloom could be in danger!" Sweetie Belle replied while speeding up. It was no use, she was too panicked to try talking to. She must be pushing herself into overdrive thought Scootaloo. The size of the gap between Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle was very large by now and Scootaloo was panicking, she couldn't keep this up for much longer. Suddenly, she tripped over a root and tumbled headfirst into some mud. "STOP!" she screamed at the top of her lungs, trying to wipe the mud out of her eyes. By the time she'd wiped the mud out of her eyes, Sweetie Belle was gone and she was all alone. "Hello?" she said, all her courage gone. She trembled as she walked, trying desperately to find someone. "Sweetie Belle? Apple Bloom? Anypony?" If there was one thing she couldn't stand, it was being alone. She walked the way they'd been going until she came to a fork in the road. "I DON'T KNOW WHICH WAY TO GO! COME BACK SWEETIE BELLE!" She screamed, before collapsing on the ground in tears. The daring, adventure loving Pegasus, had been reduced to a frightened, lonely filly by the forest. The Pegasus heard a noise coming from her left, through some trees. It sounded like a shovel, scooping up dirt and tipping it into a hole. She got up and tried to peek through the trees but she collapsed onto the ground feeling tired. She tried again to peek through the trees and succeeded. She saw a stallion standing in a clearing with a shovel in his hooves burying something. She began to walk forward and was going to ask him for help when she stepped on something. It was a sack,the one that had stolen Apple Bloom! She tried to remember the memory of Apple Bloom being taken by the stallion, which she saw through the window she was sitting in front of. Finally it came back to her. ================================================================================ "Dumb sissy!" she shouted at Sweetie Belle. She was beginning to get bored, so she began looking out the window. That's when she saw Apple Bloom. "Hey is that Apple Bloom?" "I bet it isn't you dumb liar!" Sweetie Belle said moving over to the window she was siting at. She shuffled over so she could sit down. "What's she doing? Why is she crawling into that violet sack?" Scootaloo wondered. "That's clearly a lavender sack. Hey, Doctor Whooves picked up the sack. WAIT A MINUTE SHE'S STILL IN THERE!" Sweetie Belle cried. She and Sweetie Belle had bolted out the door and had started chasing him. ================================================================================ That man was going to pay.