As Rarity walked down the road, things were curiously quiet. The town seemed nearly deserted, but that was fairly normal for this time of the morning. No, it was something else. Something was missing, for the only sounds were the clop of her hooves and the purrs of Opalescence. It almost seemed as if the cat knew they were headed towards its birthday party.
Strange.
Rarity halted, listening to the area around her. A breeze ran through the trees, making a slight rustle. A bell chimed in the distance. She couldn’t shake the feeling that something was missing...
The birds! I can’t hear any birds! It was the strangest thing. Their nests were in the trees, yet their chicks could not be heard. The birds normally filled the air with music at this early hour. It was an oddly disturbing realization.
Yet with this knowledge, she pushed her unease aside and continued down the path. Picking up her pace, Rarity thought to herself, I’m sure the birds are just busy somewhere else.
The road continued for a short time, but soon enough she saw her destination. Rarity sighed as the warm smells from Sugarcube Corner’s vast oven hit her. The aroma of rising muffins and baking cake filled the air. Walking up to the doorway, Rarity braced herself and opened the door.
As expected, she was barraged with her friends’ typical, uncouth greetings. Applejack ground her slimy, disgusting hoof into Rarity’s shoulder as Rainbow Dash hovered over them, casually posing.
“It’s about time,” she said.
Rarity glanced up, towards the annoyed comment. “Well some of us don’t get to nap all day.”
A light crash came from the far side of the room as Twilight’s pile of books toppled over. As she muttered a few choice curses—hardly befitting the Princess’s personal protégé, let alone Rarity’s poor ears—Twilight trotted over, with sweet little Spike cleaning up behind her.
“What took you so long?” she asked.
“Oh, you know, this and that. I just finished that big order from Hoity Toity. I can’t believe he wanted more already!” replied the fashionista.
But for the second time that day, she felt like something was missing. She looked around, trying to find it, before her eyes stumbled across Pinkie. Her mane had lost some of its usual luster, hanging slightly limp from her head. Soft blue eyes filled her face, staring at the door. She was unblinking, unmoving.
“Pinkie, dear, are you alright?” Rarity asked. “You seem awfully quiet.”
Snapped back to reality, Pinkie regained her usual smile. Her mane curled up, and her eyes returned to their usual, if still rather large, size. She looked at Rarity, genuinely confused, and said, “Huh? Oh, I’m just waiting for Fluttershy. After all, we can’t start it until everypony is here. Otherwise it wouldn’t be a party, and then how would poor Opal feel if she didn’t get her party. Y’know I haven’t seen her around here in a while. Do you think she’s alright? I hope so, ‘cause I made her favorite punch!”
“Oh, I’m sure of it. She told me that she’d be a little late. Something about having to feed Angel. I think he’s sick,” said Rarity, in a desperate attempt to soothe her friend. She knew it wasn’t quite true, as she had heard this a few days ago, but given Pinkie’s reaction last time somepony missed a party, she figured it was best to be safe, rather than honest.
Pinkie put a hoof to her chin, before saying, “Maybe we should head to her place. I bet she’d think it’s super-tastic!”
“Are you sure? You spent so much time getting Sugarcube Corner ready. I wouldn’t want to make you clean all this up for nothing!”
“Not a problem, silly. The party cannon goes in reverse!”
“Wait,” called Spike, “why not just bring her back here?”
Pinkie looked at him, eyes dancing in the light. “Why would we do that? This’ll be even faster!”
Trotting to a corner of the room, Pinkie found the party cannon, sitting exactly where she left it. Making sure to pull the hidden switch the other way, Pinkie yanked the cord out, and watched as the cannon sucked every single decoration back into the muzzle. As her friends stared in shock, Rainbow laughed. “Pinkie, you are so random.”
“Thanks! That’s a good thing, right? I mean, there are a lot of kinds or random, like the poison joke; that was not fun! There’s even more kinds too, like a two headed mongoose that shoots lasers from its ears!”
Twilight suddenly stepped in, saying, “Pinkie, do you even know what a laser is?”
“Nope!” smiled the pink mare.
Twilight stifled her response, repeating in her head, Pinkie will be Pinkie. Pinkie will be Pinkie.
“Well, what are we waiting for?” called Rainbow Dash, already flying through the door.
Walking out the door, the six friends left to check on their missing companion. In their hurry, though, they forgot a certain feline.
Swooping down by her friends as they walked on the path below, Rainbow asked, “So, Twilight, what is a laser?”
“It’s basically a beam of magical light that cuts or hurts things. Really mean stuff, but really useful, too,” explained Twilight
“Wait a second, light can hurt ponies? That doesn’t even make sense!” challenged Rainbow Dash.
“Remember when we were fighting the Changelings, and Pinkie kept aiming my magic so that I could fight easier?” asked the purple magician.
“Yeah, why?”
“Those were lasers,” she stated.
Stunned into silence, Rainbow kept on flying, pondering—in surprisingly deep thought—the implications of such a thing. Then she saw the tree.
THWACK!
Her vision darkened. Rainbow Dash could feel herself slide down the tree. Sound faded in and out, and she could’ve sworn she heard somepony call out to her, but couldn’t tell what was said. “What?” she groaned.
“Ah said, Rainbow, y’all right?”
Opening her eyes, Rainbow saw a familiar Stetson blocking the light from her face.
“Oh, hey Applejack. I’m fine,” she grumbled. “Just fine.”
“Well Ah’ll say! Ya nearly busted Fluttershy’s door!” exclaimed Applejack.
As the two chuckled, the others began to make it over the hill. “Rainbow, darling, are you alright?” called Rarity, her voice echoing around the trees.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Just went a bit faster than I meant to. That’s all,” laughed Rainbow Dash.
“Ya sure can take a beatin’, can’t ya?” Applejack commented.
"Yeah, I guess I can—not that I want to,” she complained. Carefully getting back to her hooves, Rainbow winced when she put weight on her left foreleg. She felt her back pop in several places, as her spine readjusted itself from the impact. Nothing too bad, but there’s definitely going to be a bruise in the morning.
“Girls!” yelled Twilight, teleporting in with a brilliant flash of violet. The others were close behind her, making the extra effort seem completely unnecessary. “Rainbow, are you okay?” she asked.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Why?”
Twilight paused, her ears twitched and swiveled. “Listen. What do you hear?”
“Ah don’t hear anything,” said Applejack, nonchalantly inspecting the wall.
“Me neither,” said Rainbow, rubbing her flank.
“Neither do I,” said Rarity, suddenly conscious of her walk over.
“Well, I hear voices in my head. They talk to me, they understa—”
“Pinkie!” yelled the others.
“Oh, nothing!” she exclaimed.
“So, why are we listening?” asked an impatient Rainbow Dash.
“Where are the animals?” pondered Spike.
There was silence. Dead silence. The only sounds were the leaves blowing in the wind: not a birdsong, nor a cricket’s chirp, nor a squirrel’s chatter.
“Shouldn’t some o’ the critters have run out when Rainbow here hit the wall?” asked Applejack, worry straining her face.
But no, there were no critters. The house looked as if it hadn’t been lived in for many years, and yet that could not have been the case, because abandoned homes were always the home for more animals. There was no life here. It had all vanished. The chipmunks and birds no longer rested on the roof. The frogs stifled their croaks in the nearby pond. Even the hen-house was empty, the gate swinging in the wind.
“Come to think of it, there were no birds on my way to Sugarcube Corner,” mused Rarity.
“None were tryin’ to get at our apples, neither,” Applejack recalled, putting a hoof to her chin.
“We didn’t have to shoo away any critters from the clouds,” continued Rainbow Dash.
“And even Gummy’s gone!” Pinkie yelled, and gasped in sudden terror.
“Pinkie, Gummy is always gone. He’s never here until you find him,” declared Twilight, exasperation slowly beginning to overwhelm her usual calm.
“Oh, yeah!” Pinkie said, immediately going back to her cheerful self.
Suddenly, a large crash sounded out behind them. They heard wood splintering, and a large crack. Looking over, they saw Applejack, with her rear hooves stuck in Fluttershy’s door. Rainbow Dash kept laughing, but still tried to pull her out.
“Applejack! Why would you do that?” yelled Twilight. Fury edged its way into her face. She was so close to losing control.
“‘Cause we need to get in, and the door was locked,” The farmer replied flatly.
“So you broke your friend’s door down?” Twilight asked with disbelief.
“Yes! Look at the place! Nopony’s been here in a long while, and it doesn't look like she’s comin’ back anytime soon, neither.”
“Well, we might as well go in now.” Twilight rolled her eyes.
Trotting through the wrecked door, the ponies gasped. The inside was dark. There were cobwebs everywhere, despite it being abandoned for such a short time. The smell of animal droppings filled the air, despite Fluttershy’s best attempts to have kept them out—while she was there, at least. Hardly any light made it through the dusty windows, and what little did was a bleak gray. The air seemed choked, sad, and lonely. Twilight and Rarity lit their horns, revealing the depression around them.
Many things were missing from the home. Pictures were no longer on the wall. Her saddlebags were no longer next to the door. Even Angel Bunny’s hideaway was completely desolate. Any signs of Fluttershy being there were virtually erased.
The same pattern continued as they wandered through the house. There were more missing pictures, sentimentals, and supplies. The cupboards weren’t stocked like usual, and even her room was void of anything valuable. Then they saw the note.
Twilight levitated it off of the bed, casting a light purple glow through the room. She blinked away the tears. This was bad; very, very obviously bad, and everypony knew it. She breathed deeply, using every meditative action she could think of. It did little to calm her but she had to be strong for the others. She couldn’t bear to look at them. She knew it would break her if she saw their faces.
Twilight never saw the realization in Rainbow Dash’s eyes. She never saw the knowing pain in those deep pink orbs. She never saw Applejack’s confidence shatter, having placed so much of her own grief into the missing mare.
Twilight never saw the tears readily flowing from Rarity’s eyes. She never saw fashionista’s comforting hoof on Pinkie’s shoulder, or the straight-maned mare crying into the unicorn’s shoulder. She never saw Spike’s eyes fill with fear and sympathy. He remembered when he left and how hard it had been.
No, Twilight refused to recognize the grief around her, if only to be strong for just one more moment. She blinked again to clear her vision, and then she began to read aloud, “Fellow Elements of Harmony.” Twilight winced at her friend’s formality. She couldn’t see the others, but she imagined they felt the same.
“Since this is the last time you’ll hear from me, I may as well not tarnish it with false emotions. The time I’ve spent with you has been the best in my life, but it can go on no longer. I am breaking off contact, not because I want to, but because I can no longer take the burden of society. Had you been paying attention recently, you would know that I’ve been fighting something within me, and to be honest, it won. This is the last thing I can do for you, my former friends. I’m going where I belong now, and no, it’s not Cloudsdale. I know you’ll look there just because I mentioned it so bluntly, but I wouldn’t go back there to save my life, or what little’s left of it. All I can do is ask that you don’t follow me, for your own well-being.
Sincerely,
The former Element of Kindness,
Fluttershy
PS. Don’t worry about Angel. He’s with me.”
A long silence took hold, permeating the air. The letter fluttered through the air as Twilight lost her concentration.
“Twi?” asked Applejack.
Twilight was unreached, gone. She stood perfectly still, tears spilling from blank eyes. Inside her, a sea of turmoil boiled, furious winds disturbing the normally smooth currents. She could hear Applejack’s voice over the wind, but no matter how loudly she shouted, it never made it through her shattered mind.
A chill claw touched her foreleg, and for a moment, the seas calmed. She remembered how every time that she had “freaked out”, or been sad, her friends had been there. They still were, but now they needed her. Slowly, she turned, facing her distraught friends. Something had to be done, but what?
“We have to find her,” stated Spike.
“But how?” sobbed Rarity.
“I’m sure we can,” he said.
“Why couldn’t I see it?” asked Twilight.
“It’s not your fault. None of us could have.”
“I could!” cried Rarity. “I knew she was stressed, but she just kept making excuses! I should have said something. I should have asked! Now she’s gone...”
“So you would just abandon her?” yelled Rainbow Dash, as she advanced upon her friend.
“No! It’s not like tha—”
“That’s not what friends do, Rarity. Friends don’t abandon each other, just because they didn’t want help!”
“Rainbow, are you alright?” asked Spike.
“Don’t you remember all those Applebuck seasons? Remember how we had to fight with AJ, just to keep her sane?” she interrogated.
“Yes, but if you would jus—”
“Isn’t this the same thi—”
“STOP!” shouted Spike as he threw himself in between them. “How dare you? What would Fluttershy say if she could see you now? I’ll tell you: she’d say that you didn’t care. This isn’t about some petty differences! This is about finding our friend in her time of need.”
“Ah reckon Spike is right.” put in Applejack. “But we don’t even know what ‘er problem is, so how can we know what t’do? I know we need to help ‘er, but I just don’t know how. Besides, look around. We’re at least three days behind ‘er, and we have no idea where ta go! What can we do, Spike? Twi?”
As the unicorn stared at her friends, she realized just how right Applejack was. What could they do to help if they had no knowledge at all? Then her eyes fell on Pinkie. Her mane had straightened out, reaching the floor, as her sad, blue eyes stared in the distance. They hadn’t heard a word from her this whole time.
“Pinkie, what do you think we should do?” she asked.
“I-I don’t know. Why would she leave?” sobbed the pink mare. “She said... ‘former friends’. Does she not like us anymore? Why would she leave us? Me?”
It was at that moment that it clicked. Everypony knew what they had to do, but waited for the others to say it. When nopony did, they waited longer. Before they knew it the sun began to fade from the cracked windows. Twilight looked up and asked, “Do you think Celestia could help?”