“Ah! Oh no, help me! Anything, oh, anything but this!”
While exploring the forestry edges of Ponyville for Butterscotch, Elusive came face to face with one of the most deadly features of the wilderness, a giant mud puddle. After stumbling a few times to try to get himself out of this mess, he was finally able to succeed in standing up. He then tried to get as far away from his new found discovery as possible.
“Oh! Water, water!” he exclaimed. “I need some water!”
He whipped his head around frantically in his search. Luckily for him, for there to be a mud puddle, you need some good old H2O. He finally saw a little stream that ran nearby right behind the puddle. He rushed over to it as fast as he could, while making sure his body didn’t get anymore dirt on it. He kneed at the water’s edge and plunged his front legs into the water. He rubbed them back and forth against each other in a desperate attempt to get clean. He pulled them out, satisfied with the result, but as his eyes drifted down past them, he saw that he had a lot of cleaning to go.
He gulped nervously. He slowly inserted himself into the stream, with one leg gingerly going in after the other. He winced every time a leg made contact with the water that was lazily flowing down the stream. Eventually, he got himself completely submerged, well, all the way up to his stomach at least. He stood perfectly still for a while, not wanting to continue. However, he finally mustered up the will to start delicately flipping some of the water onto other parts of his skin, in a measly attempt to get the mud off. It was slow work, but he actually managed to clean most of his skin of the dirt.
He looked down at his reflection, to see sadly that he had missed one important detail, his hair. His wonderfully styled pink hair had now been accompanied by brown splotches of mud.
“Oh no…” he whispered in fear, “not the hair too…”
But he knew it sadly had to be done, because, if he didn’t, it would be harder later on to get out the dried mess. So, he took a gasp of air and plunged his head into the murky depths of the stream. He yanked his head out as fast as he could when he felt the water completely surround his head. Then, he scampered out of the water and back onto the dry land.
After recovery for a bit, he carefully turned around and lowered his tail into the water. When he thought it was clean, he yanked it out, hoping that finally all the work was done. To make sure of this, he looked down at his watery enemy and peered down to see his reflection. He was relieved to see a clean white skinned colt staring back at him.
“Wait…” Elusive realized something, “that’s not right…”
His horn started to glow as he casted the palette swap spell once again on himself. When the glow subsided, he was back to the colors of his disguise.
“That’s better!” Elusive commented, seeing his reflection now matched the correct colors of pink. “Now, I must fix my hair. The water has completely ruined my coiffure…”
His horn started to glow once more, but it was not alone. His hair started to peel itself from his skin and gain a little bit of volume, looking more like its original form. It then began to stylize itself on his head. The pink hair parted in certain places on his head, while other parts had begun to twist and fall perfectly down his neck. The hair on his tail seemed to come alive as well, regaining its curves that had been lost. He twisted his body around to get a better view of his work.
“Not too shabby, if I do say so myself!” he thought as he critiqued his handiwork. “Though it is not as magnifique as it is normally, I guess it will have to do for now.”
His thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a soft noise that was barely audible. It was just loud enough so he could hear words being said, but not understand what was actually being said. Elusive searched around, trying to pick out where this noise was coming from.
“Is it coming from over here?” Elusive started to walk towards a huge boulder sitting next to a huge mound of dirt, blocking his view.
He peered around the edge of the boulder to see that his ears were indeed correct. There was a thick group of trees packed tightly together, forming a wall. This wall seemed to wrap itself around in a circle. There was only one gap in this formation of trees, just wide enough for a pony to go through. Standing in front of this gap, the mystery of the mysterious noise was solved.
It was a mare, which was calling into the gap. The mare definitely looked nervous and worried, Elusive noted. She was pacing back and forth in between her soft calls and would bite her bottom lip periodically. Elusive saw something similar about this mare, with her light pink hair that flowed in straight bands, but winded downwards, curving left and right once or twice before ending. Her cream color skin was the nail on the coffin.
“Pale light rose hair, light grayish gold skin and obviously timid in both stature and personality…” Elusive quickly made his final conclusion, “Mare Butterscotch.”
Elusive pondered the idea of leaving her alone, due to that meeting Butterscotch’s double might put him in danger of being discovered, but he quickly shot that thought down.
“What kind of gentlecolt would I be if I ignored a mare in a time when she desperately needed my help?”
Elusive quietly walked over to the mare, trying not to startle her in any sort of way.
“Excuse me, miss?” he asked her, in almost a whisper.
Even with all of Elusive precautions, the mare still gave out a yelp of fear as soon as Elusive’s words escaped his lips. She slowly backed away, dipping her head close to the ground.
“I mean no harm!” Elusive replied, caught a tad of guard by her reaction. “But it seems to me that you could use some assistance. Is that true?”
She stared back at him, eyes still containing fear. However, she managed to make a response. She moved her head in one of the smallest of nods ever made.
“May I ask what the problem you are having is?” Elusive spoke softly and with deep concern.
She looked down at the ground and started to bit her lip again, looking uncertain of what to do. She looked back up at Elusive and took in a deep breath, but was stopped by a voice that came down from over head.
“Hey Fluttershy, what’s up?”
Both Elusive and the mare, which seemed to be named Fluttershy, turned to look at who ever had made the remark. Their eyes were met with one snarky, light blue pegasus as she landed right next to them. She turned and ended up looking straight at Elusive with a hint of disgust.
Elusive observed the new arrival. Her hair, which seemed to contain all the colors of the rainbow, flowed down to about shoulder length. This, along with her tail, stopped roughly with jagged ends, giving it a spunky feel. To go along with this, her bangs not only went down like normal, but also shot outwards. Her body, he observed, was very lean and aerodynamic, perfect for an athletic pegasus.
“Rainbow colored hair, light cerulean skin, and an in-your-face and bold attitude and style,” Elusive gave a slight groan, but at the same time gave a small smirk at the sight in front of him. “Mare Rainbow Blitz.”
“Oh, umm hiya…Dash...” Fluttershy cowardly replied.
Dash gave a short wave, but kept on eyeing Elusive suspiciously.
“Who’s this colt?” Dash finally asked Fluttershy. She stuck her face in Elusive’s, “Are you giving my friend a hard time?”
“That’s nonsense!” Elusive replied, a tad appalled by the accusation, “I was just asking your friend here if she could use some of my assistance. She looked like she was in some sort of trouble.”
“Really…” Dash doubted him. “Why in Equestria should I believe that!?”
“Umm…because it is the truth.” Fluttershy quietly defended Elusive.
Dash turned and looked at Fluttershy with a mix of confusion and surprise.
“He…he really did ask if I needed help,” Fluttershy began to gain some confidence in now speaking before the stranger, due to one of her friends joining in one the conversation, “And I…I was about to tell him when you arrived.”
“Ohh…” Dash responded. “Well, what's the problem?”
“Oh, well you see,” Fluttershy made a small gesture to the fort of trees behind her, “I was walking around when I saw a colt fighting with Angel and some of his friends,” she faced Elusive and explained, “Angel is my bunny friend.”
“I see.” Elusive replied.
“I stopped the fighting at first…” Fluttershy continued, with a hint of sadness, “but Angel came back with more bunnies and they over powered the poor colt and carried him away!” Fluttershy looked down at the ground in disappointment of herself, “I tried to stop them, but, but they wouldn’t listen! I followed them all the way here. I would go inside, but I’m a tad scared…”
“Well,” Dash moved over to Fluttershy and put her arm around her, “with me here, there is no need to be scared any longer! Let’s go!”
Before Dash could force Fluttershy inside, Elusive politely cleared his throat, to remind Dash that he was still there too. Dash looked hopefully at Fluttershy, wanting to just leave him behind.
“I...” Fluttershy stammered at first, “I would prefer it if he came in with us…”
Dash whipped her head around and glared at him. Elusive just smiled. He walked right next to the opening and paused.
“Ladies first!” Elusive told the mares, as he motioned to the open passageway.
Fluttershy giggled quietly as she walked past, with Dash right on her heels. Elusive however, stuck out his hoof to stop Dash from passing.
“I believe somepony owes an apology,” Elusive explained, with no malicious intents.
Dash paused to think about this for a moment. “Na, not really,” she replied and side-stepped his hoof and went off to catch up with Fluttershy.
Elusive was left with his jaw dropped open. He sighed and headed off in pursuit.
********************************************************************
A little while in, Fluttershy started to have a conversation with Dash just soft enough that Elusive couldn’t hear.
“Rainbow Dash!” Fluttershy whispered as sternly as possible. “Why did you have to be so mean to him?
Rainbow Dash turned and looked at her, “I…I just don’t trust him.”
Fluttershy raised an eyebrow, “Why? Did…did he do anything to you?”
Rainbow Dash shook her head. “No, no he hasn’t. But for some reason, something about him just bugs me.”
“Oh, alright…” Fluttershy replied meekly, “But, could you please try to be nicer to him though? I mean, he’s hasn’t done anything wrong.”
Rainbow sighed. “Fine,” she whispered back, “I’ll try. But I’m not making any promises.”
Fluttershy just smiled. “That’s all I want.”
Rainbow looked back at the colt following them. “What the dude’s name anyways?” she asked Fluttershy.
“I…I don’t know,” Fluttershy replied quietly, “I was going to introduce myself first to him…but I never got the chance to. I thought it would be rude of me to ask him without giving mine first.”
“Why don’t you go ahead and do it now?” she suggested.
“Oh…I guess that would be fine,” Fluttershy pondered this idea, and found no wrong with it, “Would you come with me?”
“Na, go without me,” Rainbow pushed that idea away, “I will probably end up making fun of his name, better not do it to his face.”
“Oh...okay then,” Fluttershy started to walk back to Elusive.
“Hey, one more thing,” Rainbow whispered back to Fluttershy. She turned back and walked with Rainbow Dash again.
“Remember our bet?” Rainbow asked.
Fluttershy nodded. “I…I’m pretty sure that I haven’t messed up yet.”
“Ya…” Rainbow seemed half-interested in what Fluttershy said. She glanced back once again at Elusive. “It has become more important than ever to keep it though, I want to test something and if you break the bet, it all becomes pointless.”
“Umm…okay,” Fluttershy was confused about what Rainbow Dash was talking about. Fluttershy slowly slowed her pace until the colt had caught up with her.
“Hello…” Fluttershy said when Elusive was finally standing by her side.
“Hello again,” Elusive returned her greeting.
“Umm,” she stared at the ground for a bit, before looking up at Elusive, “may I ask what your name is?”
“Of course you can,” Elusive replied sweetly. “My name is Elusive. What’s yours?”
“Oh, my name is Fluttershy,” she responded softly, “and the name of my friend over there is…Dash.”
“I’ll have to introduce myself to her later on,” Elusive commented. “It seems like we haven't gotten off on the right hoof.”
“Oh. I’m sorry about that,” she replied apologetically.
“Hey, it’s fine,” Elusive gave a small smile. “There’s nothing you could have done about it. What is in the past is in the past.”
Before Fluttershy could respond, Rainbow Dash called back from up ahead.
“Hey! I see light coming from over there!” Elusive saw that see was pointing to the left at something. She turned and headed off in the direction she had pointed.
“Let’s go,” Elusive stated. He looked down into Fluttershy’s eyes. She just looked up and him and nodded. He hurried off after Rainbow, with Fluttershy making sure that she was by his side.
********************************************************************
The trio popped their heads out of a nearby bush, one after another, to see what lay ahead of them. There was a tall wooden poll stationed at one end of a clearing, which formally was a tree. It had died due to all the other trees taking over all of the available sunlight. It was now being used as a holding devise for a prisoner. He was the colt that was talked about by Fluttershy. He was struggling now and then to get free from his prison. His purple legs had started to get little marks from the pressure of the ropes.
His captors were in fact the rabbits that Fluttershy had chased. They now had little lines underneath their eyes and some of them carried weapons, such as mini-spears. They marched around the colt, checking in periodically to make sure he was not going to escape. On a lowly stump, they had placed the captor’s precious hat. There was a humongous black pot in the middle of this encampment, roasting over a camp fire.
“Applejack?!” Elusive exclaimed.
The trio ducked back down behind the bush, so they wouldn’t be seen by any of the rabbits.
“You know that colt?” Rainbow Dash questioned.
“I do,” Elusive responded. “He is one of the colts that I came to town with. He is a good friend of mine, though we don’t always see eye to eye.”
“Gotcha,” Rainbow Dash said. “Let’s go take out the bunnies and save your friend!”
Rainbow Dash started to get out of the hiding spot.
“Hold it!” Fluttershy commanded meekly . Rainbow stopped in her tracks and looked over at her, “I don’t think just going at them is a good idea. Someone might get hurt…”
“I agree,” Elusive backed Fluttershy up on her idea. “We don’t want to cause injuries that can be easily avoided.”
“Oh come on,” Rainbow countered, “they’re just bunnies…”
“Oh, never under estimate a rabbit,” Fluttershy quietly answered, “they can be very mean sometimes...”
“Let’s make a plan of course of action that doesn’t include barbarically attacking,” Elusive pitched.
“A plan!?” Rainbow couldn’t believe what she was hearing, “A plan for tiny, delicate bunnies? I mean, if he was captured by some other ponies, then maybe a plan would work, but just bunnies?!”
Fluttershy and Elusive both gave Rainbow Dash a stern look. She finally gave in.
“Fine,” she said with a heavy sigh, “what’s the plan?”
*********************************************************************
Fluttershy and Elusive headed away from their bush encampment and went into their planed positions. Rainbow stayed behind in the bushes, waiting for her time to come. Fluttershy went to the very front of the camp and started her part of the operation.
“Umm, may I speak to you all…please?” Fluttershy spoke nervously. She had faith that they wouldn’t attack her… at first at least.
She was right. The rabbits’ first move seemed to be one of aggression, however, when they recognized the speaker, they decided against it.
“I…I’m sorry that this colt that you have here ate some of the carrot you found,” she continued, “but that doesn’t mean you can just tie him up.”
Fluttershy began to read the bunnies the riot act, but they paid as much attention to her as students do on the last day of school. Elusive on the other hand was sneaking through the shadows around the back of the camp. Due to the sudden appearance of Fluttershy, he easily slipped behind the wooden poll that Applejack was tied to. His horn glowed softly as he used his magic to carefully remove the ropes from Applejack. The ropes eventually fell to the ground, with Applejack soon following with a soft womp.
“Huh?” Applejack asked, confused about what was going on.
“Don’t move!” Elusive hissed. Applejack looked over his shoulder to see his rescuer.
“Elusive?” Applejack questioned the fact that of all ponies he would be rescued by him.
Elusive’s horn started to glow once again. This time, it wasn’t the only thing glowing. Applejack’s body had now started to radiate a dim light pink color. Applejack looked around frantically, puzzled about the whole situation.
“Don’t…move!” Elusive hissed once again.
This time Applejack obeyed. When the dim glowing around Applejack’s body and Elusive’s horn had finally ended, Elusive stepped a couple of steps backward. Applejack had a bewildered look on his face, before and even more after Elusive seemed to randomly shout, “Now!”
All the rabbits who were pretending to be engrossed in Fluttershy’s speech whipped around to see that their captive was now living free. However, before they could do anything to stop him, the bush the trio had called their base exploded into a variety of braches and leaves. Rainbow Dash shot out of it like a cannon and flew straight over to where Applejack was standing. She picked him up with ease and took off straight into the skies (the spell Elusive had cast made Applejack as light as a feather). The only thing left of Applejack left behind was picked up by Elusive as he ran back to Fluttershy.
“Allez! Come on!” Elusive commanded her with a hint of panic in his voice.
“But...but,” Fluttershy tried to protest, “I can stop the rabbits!”
Elusive didn’t believe her, “Not when they’re like this!” He paused before saying, “Please?”
Fluttershy looked up at Elusive, “Okay…” she quietly responded.
She hopped on his back, something that Elusive was not expecting. After a few stumbles, he got up to speed and sped off as fast as he could, with an army of angry rabbits chancing after him.
*******************************************************************
Meanwhile…
A dusky, gloomy room held the most important thing to Pinkie Pie. The only source for light was a lonely light bulb that swung back and forth, casting long shadows across the walls. The entrance was barred shut by a sturdy wooden door. Knocking could be heard from the other side.
“Let us in!” a voice cried desperately. “We can’t let you do this to him!”
There seemed to be no answer. A strange figure however gradually crept up behind the door. Its skin was a sooty, faint pink color. The hair of this beast was a dismal mix of purple and pink. The hair fell over one eye, blocking out any of the light that was shown its way. When it had finally arrived at its destination, it yelled in a bone-chilling voice, “No one takes the guest of honor!”
It slammed one of its hooves into the door, which gave off an earth shattering bang. Whoever was unfortunate enough to be on the receiving end seemed to have swiftly fled in pure terror.
The creature was satisfied. It crept back into the far debts of the room, hoping that its treasure would be disturbed no more…
*******************************************************************
“I…I can’t…I can’t go any farther,” Elusive was gasping for air in between words.
It had only been a quarter of a mile, but to Elusive it seemed like eternity. He was never one for sweaty, physical exercise, such as running, and now it was definitely showing. His adrenaline had helped him get so far, with the loud noise of the rabbits chasing after him, but his energy tank was starting to go on empty.
“I…” Elusive’s breathing made it hard to figure out what he was trying to say, “I just can’t…”
He finally collapsed to the ground in exhaustion. Fluttershy slowly got off, not sure what was going to happen.
“Go!” Elusive wheezally commanded her. “Save yourself! I’ll try to hold them off as long as I can!”
Instead of obeying his command however, Fluttershy stood facing the incoming rabbit attack. They were getting closer and closer, and Elusive was pretty sure that either Fluttershy had not heard him or that she was petrified with fear. However, neither seemed to be the case when she shouted with some actually firmness and volume behind it, “Stop!”
The rabbits in the front of the attacking stampede quickly put on the brakes, causing themselves to start sliding across the ground. The rabbits behind them couldn’t react in time, and ended up colliding into the ones in front of them. This continued for all the rows of incoming rabbits, until there was a giant pile of furry body parts heaped right in front of Fluttershy and a shocked Elusive.
“You all should be ashamed of yourselves,” Fluttershy scolded the pile a la rabbit, “this is no way to treat guests of your forest!”
She leaned into the pile to single out one in particular.
“And you Angel!” Fluttershy plucked him out of the pile and placed the little guy in front of her. “After calling peace before, you still went ahead and attacked-- “
She broke away from staring down Angel and looked over at Elusive. “You said his name was Applejack?”
All Elusive could do was give a dumb stricken nod. Fluttershy continued sternly on her speech.
“--Applejack and captured him and planned to do who-knows-what to him!” Fluttershy stepped back a little to help drive in the last line. “I am very disappointed in you.”
Angel looked gloomily at the ground, agreeing with the disappointment. He gave a tiny sniff, trying to hold back his rabbit tears.
“There, there,” Fluttershy quietly comforted her friend, “No need to cry. You’re not a bad bunny, I know that. You just made a bad decision. Now, go gather your friends. You just need to find a better spot to keep your carrots. That’s all. I’ll tell Applejack that you’re sorry, okay?”
Angel lifted his head and nodded to show that he understood. He beckoned the rest of the rabbits, who had successfully escaped their pile, to follow him. He slowly hopped back into the trees, with a long trail of rabbits running behind him.
“Wow…” Elusive’s thoughts were finally coming back to him, “I can never get used to Butterscotch’s, or rather in this case Fluttershy’s, connection to animals.”
Elusive gathered himself and got back on his feet. He walked over and stood next to Fluttershy. When she made eye contact with the colt, she suddenly found her leg something very interesting to look at as her face rapidly gained a tint of red. Before anything could be said, a familiar voice interrupted them once more.
“That. Was. Awesome!” The light blue mare quickly swooped down and landed right in front of the two.
“Ah definitely have to agree,” Applejack quickly slid off Rainbow Dash, gladly returning once again to the ground he knew and loved. “You definitely have a way animals Miss…”
He hung his statement, making hoof motions in the air to show that Fluttershy could finish it for him. It took a little bit for her to notice however.
“Oh! I’m sorry…” any sign of the stern, bold speaking Fluttershy had quickly disappeared. “My…my name is Fluttershy…”
“Why Ah thank you for helping me out of that jam I was in,” Applejack took off his hat and tipped it towards her in gratitude, “Ah don’t know where Ah would be if you didn’t come along to help! Same goes for you two.”
He made his way from next to Rainbow Dash over to Elusive. He pulled Elusive aside from the other two mares.
“Ah have to say,” Applejack whispered, “Ah’m surprised that you even came out here to this dirty forest and left your clean town behind.”
“I can handle the dirt and mud just fine, thank you very much!” Elusive shot back in whisper form.
Applejack raised an eyebrow.
“Okay…” a small smile had now replaced the look of pretend offendedness, “maybe I don’t handle dirt the best...”
Applejack grinned. “Maybe?”
Elusive laughed. “Okay, maybe I don’t handle dirt well at all, but that wasn’t going to stop me from saving you. Besides, how could I, a true gentlecolt, deny a mare’s call for help?”
“Oh, Ah see how it is!” Applejack had on a wide grin as he teasingly made eye motions from Elusive over to Fluttershy.
“What? No…you got it all wrong!” Elusive was now flustered, which caused
Applejack to burst out laughing. “I don’t…you know that…do you know who she is in our universe?”
“Who?” Applejack asked, still grinning from ear to ear.
“Butterscotch!” he exclaimed. He intently quieted his voice when he saw that Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash had started to stare over at them.
Applejack stopped his annoying grin and thought about that for a second. He glanced over at Fluttershy a few times, to double check Elusive’s suspicions. He finally stopped and just stared back at Elusive.
“Ah always knew you had a thing for Butterscotch!” he exclaimed before breaking out into laughter once more.
“What?!” Elusive yelled angrily, causing Applejack to laugh even more. He looked back over at the other two to see now that they had started to walk over to them.
“Umm...are…are you okay?” Fluttershy asked with genuine concern.
Applejack’s laughter slowly settled down. “Ya…” he still wore the great grin on his face. “Ya, Ah’m alright. Just got a little carried away there.”
“A little?” Elusive asked scornfully, a tad pissed off at Applejack. All Applejack could do was smile back.
“O…kay then,” Rainbow stated, completely unaware of just went down. She just wanted to get out of there and leave Elusive. “I’m gonna go now…”
“Hey,” Applejack held out his hoof, “thanks once again Miss…er…Rainbow--”
“—Dash,” Elusive finished for him, “Rainbow Dash.”
Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy exchanged glances. Rainbow then busted out a toothy grin.
“No, no, no!” she spoke slowly, sounding like there was a hint of evil intent in every word. “It was all, my pleasure.”
She shook Applejack’s out stretch hoof. Applejack and Elusive then exchanged set of glances of their own, ones full of confusion and uncertainty. Rainbow whipped around and faced Fluttershy.
“Come on Fluttershy,” Rainbow motioned Fluttershy to follow her, still having the weird tone in her voice, “I believe we have something that needs to be done.”
“We…we do?” Fluttershy didn’t like the way Rainbow Dash was acting. It made her very uncomfortable to just be around her.
Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy walked off, with the latter almost being forcefully shoved so they could leave quicker. As they left, Applejack could make out the words “clones”, “trap”, and “Twilight” being spoken by Rainbow. When the two had completely disappeared back into the forest, Elusive let out a heavy sigh.
“What was that all about?” Elusive questioned.
“Ah don’t know,” Applejack spoke slowly, “but Ah’m pretty sure that we’ll surely find out, whether we like it or not…”
Elusive nodded in agreement before turning to his left.
“I say let’s go home,” Elusive exclaimed. “I’ve had enough of this filthy forest for a whole year!”
As he started to hurry off, Applejack called him.
“Elusive,” Applejack gestured to their right, “Ponyville is that way.”
“Oh, hehe,” Elusive quickly made a U-turn and started off in a great haste.
Applejack just rolled his eyes. Before he followed in pursuit, he glanced over once more to where Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy had walked away. He wished that they wouldn’t run into those two ever again.
But sadly, that would turn out not to be the case.