"Okay, so now what do we do?" said Twilight.
"Let's lead an army of ninjas!" exclaimed Rainbow Dash. Clearly, she had been influenced by Pinkie's randomness, from staying with her too long.
"That's not really going to help. Anyway, where's Angel?"
Applejack read the note again and noticed something else at the bottom:
P.S. We also got that bunny. He was helping Fluttershy fight.
Rarity fainted again.
"Now I see why you told Rarity to stay here," Rainbow mumbled, staring down at Rarity.
"Well, she'll be okay. Right now we need to concentrate on finding Fluttershy," said Twilight.
"Isn't there a spell to find her?" asked Rainbow. "After all, there are spells to teleport, lift things, and turn the pages of a book."
"Even if there is a spell to find Fluttershy, it's not in any of these books."
"Ya have like, a hundred books and there isn't a useful spell in any of them?" Applejack said, exasperated.
"You didn't say that when I fixed that water pipe," mumbled Twilight. Then she said, "I guess we'll have to find Fluttershy manually."
She started by waking Rarity up.
"Rarity, you and Rainbow pack some stuff we might need. Pinkie and AJ, you bring some food. And get a bag, too. We'll need it to carry our stuff. While you're carrying really heavy stuff, I'll sit here and plan where to go. It might be a long trip."
Having just regained consciousness, Rarity didn't know what she was packing, but she packed some sweaters she had gone back to take in the middle of the night. Rainbow got some binoculars, soap, toothbrushes, toothpaste, some sleeping bags, and a first-aid kit from the house. She also got a Daring Do book.
"I never knew there was so much stuff in the Apple Family's house," said Rainbow. Just then, Pinkie arrived with two dozen cupcakes. Pinkie had managed to bake them in five minutes. Applejack was holding some apples.
Twilight looked at the map of Ponyville.
"According to the marks that Rainbow made on this map, Fluttershy was here, next to the town hall while we were fighting. So, she should be somewhere near here. If she's not, my theory is that Fluttershy was blindfolded and dragged away. We should be able to see strands of her pink mane forming a trail to wherever she is!"
"Take care of our pets, will you?" said Rainbow Dash to Scootaloo, who had somehow appeared in the span of 30 seconds upon hearing that Rainbow was staying at Sweet Apple Acres for a while.
"Of course!" said Scootaloo, elated that Rainbow asked her for help, even if she wasn't exactly the best with animals.
Since Twilight, Pinkie, Applejack, Rainbow, and Rarity had their pets taken care of, the five set off on a journey to the town hall.
Once they reached there, Twilight explained what to do. "It might be a little hard to find anything, so don't be intimidated if-" Suddenly she was interrupted by Pinkie.
"I found something!" cried Pinkie, holding up a lock of hair. It was very short. As short as the hair of a pony's coat.
"That's from your coat, Pinkie."
"No, it's not! It's way too light coloured to be mine!"
"Look, if you don't believe me, I'll prove it." Twilight cast a spell to check the two DNAs to see whether they were the same. But, as it turned out, it really was Fluttershy's.
"Okay, it really is Fluttershy's. Are there any more of these?"
Before Pinkie could say anything, Applejack pointed to more hair, next to a small bush. Usually, Twilight would notice that, but she was so panicked about Fluttershy getting kidnapped that she hadn't been looking properly.
"Let's follow the trail," said Twilight as she noticed a small trail of bright pink hair.
--------------------------------------------- Twenty minutes later---------------------------------------------
"It's a dead end! How awful! I've been walking for so long, and there's not even a clue of where Fluttershy is!" exclaimed Rarity. Rainbow was annoyed, but she didn't say anything. At least she's not fainting this time, thought Rainbow. Twilight, who was no longer panicked about Fluttershy, looked around again, hoping that there was some hair that they missed.
There was nothing.
The five were somewhere in the Everfree Forest, even though they weren't deep inside. There was a stream in front of them, stopping them from going any further. It wasn't that deep, only slightly bigger than a kitchen sink. They could easily walk through it, but Rarity wouldn't go inside because of the fish swimming inside it, which she described as 'horrible, stinky and dirty.'
Just then, Zecora appeared from behind them, holding a basket to collect herbs.
"Why are you in the Everfree, is it to visit me?" asked Zecora.
"No, we're looking for Fluttershy." answered Rainbow.
"What happened to your friend? Is it for her the end?"
"No, not as long as we find her. Say, can we stay in your hut until we figure out what to do?" asked Applejack. "We've hit a dead end."
Zecora nodded. She couldn't think of any rhymes, so she didn't say anything. She led the five to her house, which was nearby. It was just as they remembered, small. Rarity thought that it was too poorly decorated for her to stay in, but didn't say anything to be polite.
Zecora offered to make dinner for the ponies, but they declined and ate their own food while the zebra cooked her own food, which was just soup.
"Thanks for letting us stay here, Zecora," said Twilight. "We need to think of a way to get through the stream. Rarity won't step in it."
"Yeah," added Rainbow. "If an egghead like Twilight can't think of a way, who can?"
"At your intelligence I snort. You do realize you could just teleport?" replied Zecora.
"Oh yeah. Why didn't I think of that? Come on, we'd better go!" Twilight ran out of the hut, desperate to find Fluttershy.
Suddenly, she felt a drop of water fall on her mane. She looked up and saw that dark clouds had gathered in the sky. More rain fell and Twilight heard thunder, and then lightning struck a nearby tree. She watched as the tree fell. The pegasi probably hadn't meant to do that.
Twilight went back inside the hut.
"I guess I'll have to wait."