//------------------------------//
// Part 7: A Journey in Vain 
// Story: My Little Pony: Friendship is Cine-magic: Shaun the Sheep Movie 
// by IndyWriter Productions 
//------------------------------//

Now that the entire team was reunited, it was time to shift back to their original priority; searching for The Farmer. The herd peered around a corner that led into an alley.

"Glad that ordeal is over." Rainbow said.

"Agreed. But, now we're back to our original problem." Twilight pointed out. "We still have no idea where The Farmer is."

"Actually, we saw him walking down the street when that animal control officer carted us off to the shelter." Spike said.

"That's right. We did." Fluttershy perked.

"Wait, really?" Twilight asked in surprise.

"Yeah, I think it was right around the corner of that fancy restaurant." Fluttershy explained.

"But, he's prolly miles away from that location, since ya saw 'em when ya were bein' taken away." Applejack pointed out.

"Oh, you're right." Spike said woefully.

The rest of the Main 7 were brought down by that presumption. Shaun, however, remained strong. Then he remembered something. He tapped Timmy's shoulder. The little sheep turned to him and Shaun pulled out his teddy bear out of his nap sack. Timmy grabbed and hugged it close, then hugged Shaun in appreciation, which Shaun happily accepted.

"Oh, that's so sweet." Rarity cooed at the happy moment.

Shaun opens his eyes and sees something that makes him gasp. The mangy mutt runs out into the alley. The group follow her and stop to see a giant billboard on a wall. But, it's what was on the billboard that caught their attention.

"Is that..." Twilight started off.

"It is! It is!" Pinkie hopped in place.

The billboard showed a picture of The Farmer holding the hair clippers that said "Mr. X. He's Here!" on it. With an optimistic grin, Shaun pointed to the billboard. The sheep ran closer to the billboard of their owner.

"I-I can't believe it. This might actually be easier than I thought." Twilight said, but then began to think. "But, why would he be on a billboard? And why the hair clippers?"

"Who cares? We're one step closer to finding him." Rainbow said.

Shaun walked up to the billboard where a map of a city block was shown. The mutt clambers onto a trash can to study the map. She barked and gestured to Shaun to follow her.

"I think she knows where that location is." Fluttershy presumed.

"Then let's follow her." Applejack said.

The sheep, ponies, and dragon all followed after the mutt. Bitzer lingers behind a bit. He looks at the billboard skeptically before running after the others. The mutt climbs up a dumpster and throws down the lid. She opens a grate in a brick wall and crawls into a vent. 

"The things we do to complete these missions." Rarity sighed as she crawled into the dusty vent.

"How's the big one supposed to get through there?" Rainbow pointed to Shirley.

Applejack and Pinkie exchanged glances.





"Heave!" Applejack yelled as the three ponies pushed hard to get Shirley through the vent.

"How do we always get ourselves into these situations?" Rainbow said to herself.

Further on, the mutt opens a skylight and directs the herd over a rooftop. The sheep, along with Pinkie, playfully slide down the rooftops, while the others carefully stepped across. They leapt from one building roof to another, right above an oblivious window washer.

"Hi, there!" Pinkie waved to him before disappearing over a building.

The window washer looked up after hearing the voice, but saw nothing out of the ordinary.

The sheep frolicked across a high ledge, while the main 7 treaded carefully. One sheep pirouettes and slips. Luckily, Rainbow was fast enough to grab him before he could fall over the ledge.

"Gotta be careful, man." The cyan pegasus pulled the sheep back onto the ledge.

The mutt, sheep, ponies, and dragon bound across scaffolding and down a ventilation duct.

"This is so. Much. Fun!" Pinkie slid down the duct.

The flock bounced off an old mattress and into a pyramid formation.

"Wait, where's the big one?" Spike asked.

The duct began to shake as the sound of a sheep echoing from it.

"Oh, no." Rarity squeaked.

Shirley shot out from the duct and crashed into the group like a bowling ball. The ponies, sheep, and dragon scattered everywhere like bowling pins.





At long last, the flock had finally made it to their destination. Shaun and the mutt were the first to make it to the hair salon. The young sheep saw The Farmer working on a customer and smiled happily. The two made it to the window and bumped fists. They watch as a satisfied customer feels over his hair and shakes The Farmer's hand before leaving. The Farmer sips on a cup of coffee as Shaun slowly walked into the salon. He taps The Farmer on the back of the leg. He turns around, confused, then looks down at the sheep in front of him. Shaun smiles up at him warmly. The other sheep, bitzer, and the Main 7 reach the salon in the meantime.

"We finally made it." Twilight said, satisfied.

"Go on, Shaun, reunite with him." Fluttershy encourage quietly.

Shuan gazes up, while The Farmer remains slack-jawed, almost seeming confused. Shaun steps closer, but The Farmer shrinks back. He then begin to try and shoo him away. Shaun gasps in disbelief. The others outside watch, distraught.

"W-What's going on?" Fluttershy asked.

"I don't think he's happy to see him." Rainbow assumed bluntly.

"I guess that whole ordeal create more animosity than we thought." Twilight said, her ears drooping.

The manager and other stylists watch in surprise as The Farmer tries to wave off the sheep. Shaun's eyes fill with tears. Bitzer runs into the salon and protectively nudges Shaun away. One of the stylish, wielding a broom, shoos off the sheep and sheepdog.

"We need to leave." Applejack calls out.

The rest make a run for it down the street. Shaun glances back sadly to The Farmer, who continues with his work with a dismissive wave. Tears stream down Shaun's cheeks as he lopes after the others. The mutt directs him down a manhole and into a sewer. When he reaches the bottom, Shaun and Bitzer shared a disheartened look, while the mutt closes the manhole.

"Are you going to be okay, darling?" Rarity asked.

Shaun looks at her with tearful eyes and shakes his head.

"Well, that was a bust! Now what do we do?" Rainbow asked, upset.

The mutt nudges aside a sheet of metal, revealing a tunnel. She nods for the others to follow her. Bitzer waves over the others, who follow him. Shaun, stays behind with a discouraged look. Twilight stopped and turn to face him.

"Shaun, is everything okay?" She walked up to him.

Fluttershy noticed her alicorn friend talking to the sheep and walks over.

"Hemph." Shaun muttered.

"No, everything is not alright. The Farmer hates me now, all because of that stupid plan. You were right, Twilight. I shouldn't-" Fluttershy stopped her translation and gave Shaun a serious look. "Shaun, we've been over this. You shouldn't go beating yourself up over this."

"Bah-bah?" Shaun asked.

"Then why did The Farmer shoo us away? Why did he act like he didn't recognize me? He hates me for what I've done. We've lost everything because of my actions."

"Shaun, please, you're hurting. I'm sure we'll be able to fix things." Fluttershy try to reassure him.

"Bah?" Shaun asked.

"How?" She translated. Fluttershy tried to think of a solution, but she couldn't. Trying to talk to The Farmer seemed like a no-go. "W-Well..."

"Bah."

"There's nothing we can do. It's hopeless." Fluttershy translated.

"But Shaun..." Twilight tried to say something, but the sheep just walked sadly away.

The two mares exchanged worried and sorrowful looks.

"I know what he did was wrong. But, he doesn't deserve this." Twilight said with regret.

"I feel so awful." Fluttershy's lips qivered. "All we can hope for now is a miracle."

"I don't even think a miracle is possible." Twilight said dejectedly.

The mutt leads the group out to an abandoned area underneath a freeway. Bringing up the rear, Shaun slips through an opening in a chain-link fence.

"Wait, you expects us to live here?" Rarity asked dismay.

The mutt steps inside a cardboard box and turns around. She smiles and gestures welcomingly around the industrial wasteland.

"Oh, no! No, no, no! We are not living in this dump!" Rarity opposed.

"Yeah. We already have our own homes in our world. We can't just stay here forever." Rainbow agreed.

"And some of us have families to look after." Applejack added.

"But...how are we going to get home?" Fluttershy ask. "W-We failed our mission."

The rest of the Main 7 we at a loss. The Farmer wanted nothing to do with them.

"Well...maybe we could try and convince him to come back." Rainbow suggetsed.

"He seems vehemently against us, though." Rarity said.

"Oh, oh. I know. Maybe all he needs is a bit of cheering up with a party. A sorry-for-locking-you-in-a-camper party." Pinkie said.

"Pinkie, for the umpteenth time, a party is not going to fix this." Rainbow argued.

"You do know that for sure." Pinkie argued back. "Don't knock it till you try it. That's what I always say."

"Oh, who will look after my boutique if I can't make it back." Rarity lamented dramatically. "...And look after Sweetie Belle."

Rainbow groaned in frustration.

"You know what? I blame Shaun for all of this." She yelled. "He was the one who acted in the plan first. None of this would've happened if it wasn't for him."

"Agreed. He was bein' too dreamy about a farm life. There ain't nothin' borin' 'bout that." Applejack agreed.

"You can't blame him for all of this. He pretty much had no control over it." Fluttershy defended.

"Oh, come on, Fluttershy. It was a stupid idea from the start. He was just being selfish." the pent-up pegasus snapped back.

While the others were arguing, the other sheep chose to ignore them began picking up stuff around the area to feel more at home. Shaun just stood, guilt-stricken and heartbroken. He looked down and walked glumly over to a pile of crushed building materials. He lies back against a wooden palette and stares up at a piece of graffiti art, depicting a spider in it's web. It reminded him of the spider that live in the upper corner of the barn back home.

The ponies were still arguing with each other, until Twilight finally couldn't take it anymore.

"Enough!" She yelled, her wings flaring out and magic sparks fizzled from here horn.

Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow, Pinkie, and Fluttershy stopped arguing and turned to the frustrated alicorn.

"For Celestia sake, girls, I understand you all are upset, but blaming Shaun for all this is not helping the situation." Twilight said fiercely.

"But, Twilight, he was way over his head on his plan. You showed clear frustration toward him when The Farmer first got lost." Rainbow walked up to her.

"Yes, I was. But, I understand that now is not the appropriate time for being mad at him." Twilight argued.

"Of course it is. We're at our lowest point right now." Rarity butted in.

"So you think we should make the already negative atmosphere even worse with your animosity?" Twilight questioned them. "I'm not happy about it either, but I'm not going to point hooves at the guilty party when there's more productive things to do."

"Like what?" Rainbow asked.

"Helping them out." Twilight to the other sheep gathering items around the wasteyard. "And maybe thinking of a way to still fix this."

She walked away with Spike, who stayed silent to whole time, following just behind her. Using her magic, she picked up several items for the sheep and carried them over to them.

"M-Maybe she has a point, girls. Perhaps it's best we just try and think of a plan of action instead of being bitter." Rarity spoke first.

"Yeah. I can't be the Element of Laughter without showing positivity first." Pinkie agreed and hopped over to the makeshift living quarters of the sheep.

Applejack straightened her hat with a solemn expression.

"She's right. It's better to look past this fer the time bein'." She said to Rainbow.

"Alright, but I still don't how things can magically become better." Rainbow sighed and followed.

Fluttershy, meanwhile, walked over to the depressed Shaun.

"Shaun, I...I'm sorry for what my friends said. I don't blame you for this. You only wanted some more enjoyment in life. I understand that." Fluttershy said.

Shaun didn't respond. He rolled onto his side and pulled out the missing persons poster of The Farmer.

Literally at the same time, The Farmer stared out uncannily through the salon window. He looked back at his clippers. He had no idea why a sheep was in the city, much less looking for him. But, for some reason, that sheep sparked something deep inside a head. It felt like an itch, but The Farmer just didn't know why.

Back at the wasteyard, Shaun was still looking at the missing persons poster. Fluttershy put a hoof on his shoulder to try and comfort him. A strong breeze came in and blew the poster out of Shaun's hoof. It carried the piece of paper across the cloud-covered city. Shaun sighed and looked down, while Fluttershy, the caring mare that she was, rubbed his shoulder.





At the animal containment unit, Trumper was just sitting around in the still locked cell. Two workers enter the cell block, looking for their boss. Hearing them Trumper grabs the cell bars and clears his throat to get there attention. They found the keys and set him free. Now out of the cell he made his way over to his office.

He grabbed the pictures of Shaun, Bitzer, Spike, Fluttershy, and the mutt off his board. He crumpled them angrily and walked over to a frame that showed off his achievement as a animal control officer. He tapped the frames and a section of the wall receded and split apart. However, it got jammed halfway through opening. Trumper bumps it with his fist, unjamming it. He smirks, while is coworkers stand startled upon seeing high-voltage catch gun along with pair of red gloves and a sleek pair of goggles.

Trumper puts on the gear and powers up the gun. It lights up, showing a red glow from the skull-shaped indicator. He pulls the trigger and an electrified harpoon clamp shoots out and completely fries a teddy bear sitting on a high shelf. A toy robot stares at it, then raises it's arms in surrender. The coworkers stand there, mortified, while Trumper let's out a dark chuckle.





Back at the wasteyard, the sheep, ponies, and dragon, and sheepdog did their best to get comfortable amongst the grimy junk. One sheep draws a picture of a pillow and lays on it, while another tries to stay warm with a space heater that wasn't even plugged in. Shirley was hungrily munching on a piece of packing foam from a cardboard box.

"You do realize that's not food right?" Spike asked.

Shirley responded with spitting out the foam in disgust. Timmy, meanwhile, was whimpered in his mom's arm.

"There, there, Sugarcube. Everything all be all right." Applejack tried to reassure him.

Bitzer even tried to cheer up the crying lamb with his teddy bear. Fluttershy and Shaun, who were still sitting at the other end of the wasteyard, sat sadly at the situation.

"Oh, if only there was something we can do to cheer him up." Fluttershy sighed.

That's when Shaun remembered something in his nap-sack. He pulled out his tape player and pressed play. The familiar song sounded through the wasteyard. Timmy looked up and saw Shaun walking over to him with the tape player. He smiled happily.

"Well, at least it'll brighten up the mood a bit." Spike said.

Unfortunately, it didn't last long. The tape player suddenly popped open and a tangled mass of film spewed out of the device. Timmy, now mortified, when back to crying.

"Nice one, bud." Rainbow sarcastically rolled her eyes.

With the tape player out of action, Shaun was forced to improvise. He began to whistle the song. Timmy stopped crying again and turned back. Shaun continued to whistle.

(Pause at 1:36)


At the salon, The Farmer was at work shaving a customer's head. He pauses and drops the customer from his knee. He wanders into a supply closet where a window lies, slightly ajar. The Farmer could hear a song that he swore sounded familiar. He opened the window the rest way and began mouthing along with the song.

(Continue video)

Timmy, now happy and content again, fell asleep in his mom's arms. Bitzer nods his head stoically and Shaun smiles back at him.

"That was beautiful, guys." Fluttershy said warmly.

"Agreed." Rarity said.

Twilight bumped Rainbow in her side. The pegasus sighed.

"All right, all right. That honestly wasn't very bad." Rainbow admitted.

"That was amazing! I loved it!" Pinkie said happily.

Shaun was quick to shush her, so as to not wake Timmy.

"Oh, sorry." Pinkie whispered, but with a large grin.

The Farmer stares as his medical chart, still unsure of what to make of it. The manager then came in and tapped her wrist, basically telling him the time was of the essence, before leaving. The Farmer crumples up the paper into a ball and leaves it on the windowsill before leaving, too. It rolls over the edge and down a rain gutter onto the busy freeway. It whipped up into the air from the flow of rush-hour traffic and floated down into the wasteyard. Below, one sheep was still singing, while another plucks the spokes of a bicycle tire.

"Guys, we're past that now." Rainbow told them.

They stop and head over to the rest of group where a fire was burning in an old, industrial garbage can. The paper falls to the ground. Shaun picks it up and adds it with the collection of junk carried in his arm. He joins the rest of the herd and drops the materials into the fire. Bitzer sniffs around, catching a familiar scent.

"What's wrong, Bitzer?" Twilight asked.

Bitzer spotted the picture of The Farmer was the chart began to burn. He quickly tried to grab it, but the flames were much too hot. He winced away. Shaun noticed the picture, too and gasped. He grabbed Bitzer knit cap and uses it as a pot-holder to grab stick and fish the chart out from the fire.

"Hey, what's going on?" Rainbow asked.

"Bah." Shaun told them.

"Check this out." Fluttershy translated.

The Main 7 gathered around Shaun and Bitzer to look at the smoldering piece of paper. There, in bold, blue lettering, was the diagnosis of memory loss on The Farmer's medical chart. Shaun's eyes widened as he remembered the man aggressively shooing him away at the salon. That's when he realized the connection of his behavior and the diagnosis and so did the others.

"He must remember anything from the farm." Fluttershy said.

"So, he didn't shoo Shaun away because he hated him. He shooed him away because he didn't recognize him!" Twilight concluded.

The others gasped in shock.

"That means..." Rainbow started

"There's still hope!" Rarity beamed happily.

Both Shaun and Bitzer tremble clutch each other and tremble. The other sheep and the Main 7 began to celebrate in excitement. There was still a chance the mission could be saved.





Back at the animal containment unit, Trumper shines a flashlight through a hole in the chain-link fence. Walking over to it, he discovers clumps of fleece stuck around the hole. He grabs one and takes a quick whiff before tasting it. He spits it out in disgust. With a hardened expression, he presses a button on the side of his goggles, which activates an infrared view that showed animal tracks leading down an alleyway. He crawls through the whole with his gun in-hand. A cynical grin formed on his face. Those animals...were as good as his.


To be continued