As Fluttershy sturred from sleep, her ears twitched to familiar and comforting sounds. Her ears twitched to better hear the bird song above her. Around her, she could hear various squeaks and purrs from various critters around her, if it wasn’t for the slow rising and falling of her impromptu bed, she would have thought she was back at her cottage, though Harry would not have made as comfortable a bed if she was a fully grown mare.
“Fluttershy!?”
A call on the wind, a slightly raspy voice calling out to her, while it was not the melody of the birds or the soft snores of the animals, the voice was still one that made her smile. Uncurling and leaping off the bear, Fluttershy stretched her back, limbs and wings to rid herself of the last remnants of sleep clinging to her body.
As if a silent alarm had awoken all the animals, the other critters began to disperse, leaving the temporary den they had shared with their Alicorn friend, all except Harry whose deep snores still reverberated from his maw, and a young white rabbit who decided who decided to cling to her back. Fluttershy scanned the sky looking for her prismatic friend, and it didn’t take long for her to find the filly creating the various rainbow contours.
“Rainbow, I’m down here” called the yellow filly, it was barely louder than what most ponies would consider a reasonable volume for polite conversation, but compared to what Rainbow was expecting, she might as well have yelled. Stopping her flight and looking for the voice she just heard, Rainbow quickly spotted her oldest friend who was waving up at her from a clearing, and began a gentle glide down to meet her.
“Hey Shy, you good?” Rainbow asked as she landed.
“Hi, Rainbow,” Fluttershy replied and investigated her forehead with a wing tip. After confirming she was indeed hornless, just like Rainbow Dash was, she smiled and nodded “I’m good now, thanks to Twilight, what about you?”
She’d expected Rainbow to reply straight away, after all in the dream last night she seemed fine, but now, Fluttershy saw a flash of pain cross her friend's face.
“Everything is ok Shy, especially now we’re together. But I think we should find Twilight, and get this whole business sorted.”
“But Rainbow, we’re just fillies, our parents will …” Fluttershy stopped, as memories flashed before her, a timid mother ashamed of her daughter, a drunken father who had long since locked himself from the world, and then there was Zephyr. Her brother was always a bit useless, from before, he would just stay at home, or half-heartedly get a job before getting fired, but the memory of this Zephyr brought a tear to her eye.
Zephyr had joined the Clousdale Officers Academy, he’d even graduated and been given command of a small squadron of scouts, something yesterday she wouldn’t believe possible. But then it all went wrong, it was 2 months into his first deployment when that letter had arrived, a letter stating that Zephyr had deserted his command. Her father had been strong at first, he’d spent more time with her, telling her everything would be ok, he’d tried to help her learn to fly, but she just wasn’t a good flier, and when he gave up on her, that was when the drinking started.
She started to cry as she looked at Rainbow “No pony is looking for me, are they?”
“It's going to be ok.”
“OK!” Fluttershy shouted, “How is it going to be ok, this isn’t my family, my parents don’t even look after me, how can this be ok?”
“Because it's not real Shy, this is just some weird time thing, like what Starlight did with the cutie map, we’ll find Twilight, and together we’ll fix this, and get our old families back. We’ve always managed when we worked together, so we’ll get through this.”
“Yeah, you’re right, we’ll find Twilight, and get back to our own time. We just got to take this one step at a time.”
“Ok Rainbow, but how are we going to find her?”
Rainbow smirked, “Theirs only one place she’d go, she’s not a princess, and Tirek should still be in Tartarus, where else do you think she’d go?”
“The Golden Oaks?” asked Fluttershy.
“The Golden Oaks!” confirmed Rainbow.
*****************
Deep in the planes of Zebrica, something very strange was moving across the land. Bathed in a sapphire blue aura, a chaise lounge steadily floated along with a rather unimpressed Kirin as its sole passenger.
Rarity surveyed the landscape ahead of her, it was unlike anything she had ever seen in Equestria, she was fairly certain that she should be marveling at its beauty, but the truth was, she didn’t care.
She’d had a hard time caring about anything, at least since she’d woken up, she knew she should be upset that not even her parents didn’t chase after her, but she wasn’t. She knew she should be annoyed that the village wanted her to leave, but she wasn’t. There was only truly one emotion Rarity was feeling right now.
Rarity was an only child, and no one in the village had been called Sweetie. In this universe, Sweetie Belle either had no relation to her or didn’t exist.
Rarity didn’t feel much in the way of emotions, but the one she did feel was loneliness, not because she was the only living thing for miles of desert, but because she might never see her sister again.
The sun had finally set in Zebrica as Rarity set down her vehicle. Once again igniting her horn, she created a crystal dome around herself.
Curling up on her chaise lounge, Rarity readied herself for a night's sleep, allowing herself to drift off, and reminisced of better times, and the songs her sister would sing.