The Meeting
One Week Later...
Rainbow Dash was bored, so very bored. She had already exceeded her five minute attention span for boring things and was shifting on her hooves impatiently and fluttering her wing in irritation while she waited for everypony to gather in the town square. Mayor Mare was going to tell them about the monster even though they all already knew thanks to the gossip fountains scattered around town, such as Rarity, who were unable to keep their mouths shut on the matter. Twilight had said something about an, "Official compilation of information and decision on course of action," whatever the hay that means. I just want to go monster hunting.
"Is everypony here and can you all hear my voice?" the Mayor's voice, magically amplified thanks to Twilight who was standing next to the podium, echoed through the crowd. The Mayor's question was met with a sea of head nods, "Alright lets get started, take a seat please." As everypony sat down the Mayor started her speech, "You all know that some strange creature has been sighted in the Everfree Forest," somepony behind Dash stood and started to say something but was silenced by the Mayor. "Please keep all questions and comments to yourself, I will be available to answer all of your questions if you still have them after the meeting," the pony nodded and sat back down.
"So, I have gathered you all here to collect facts on the creature," she continued with emphasis on the word facts. "Everything you have not seen with your own eyes please do not add to our collection of information, this includes you Rarity," she said looking at Rarity, who was sitting next to Dash. Rarity responded with a ladylike "Himf" of insulted pride and a flick of her mane, however, Dash was close enough to see her slight blush. She remembered Rarity saying something about, "The. Absolute. Truth." before saying that it was taller than a house, completely invisible, and ate foals. Dash had watched and laughed as Twilight took that theory apart piece by piece with logic, starting with, "Why are there no foals missing?" and finishing with, "If it's invisible how has it been seen?"
"So will everypony with information on the creature please get in line in front of Twilight. Everypony else thank you for your time, you're free to go until next week when there will be an update on all we have found out." As the most of the crowd dispersed four ponies headed over to stand in front of Twilight, Fluttershy, a pegasus that Dash didn't know, Applejack, and Ditzy Doo. The pegasus is believable, so is Applejack since she is the Element of Honesty and all, and Fluttershy has hardly stopped crying all weak; all I had heard was "Angel" before she collapsed into tears again so she must have something, Dash thought, as Fluttershy finished talking to Twilight and walked away from her, but Ditzy?
Well maybe, Dash thought, smiling a bit meanly, when she crashed into a tree her eyes went even more crazy than usual and she saw it without even trying. Dash walked over to where Fluttershy was sitting and crying to herself a short distance away from Twilight, who was still talking to the pegasus and Applejack. Ditzy was nervously shifting on her hooves behind Applejack, her eyes even less focused than usual looking longingly toward the sky, almost looking like she would fly away any second.
Dash put a comforting wing around Fluttershy's shoulder and tried to calm down her friend, who at Dash's touch managed to stop openly sobbing and instead began sniffling.
"There, there," Dash said, going for calming but the words coming out awkward and scratchy. As soon as we find this monster I'm going to give it a piece of my mind, and probably a hoof to the face, for making Fluttershy cry this much, thought Dash, already assuming the monster was the cause of Fluttershy's unhappiness. As her shoulder was being used by Fluttershy to dry her face after the onslaught of tears, Dash watched Applejack walk off with the unnamed pegasus by her side, noticing Rarity's devious smile as she also watched the pair.
Dash saw Ditzy walk up to Twilight, almost tripping on her own hooves in the three short steps it took to get within talking distance of Twilight. Ditzy started talking to Twilight, whose mouth promptly fell open slightly as her eyes stared blankly at Ditzy, Twilight reached over with her magic to pick up a new scroll and started writing on it seemingly without conscious effort. What is Ditzy saying? thought Dash, as Twilight's face went through an interesting series of emotions, finally resting on what Dash decided was a combination of insatiable curiosity and simmering anger.
I have just got to hear what Ditzy is saying to get that kind of reaction from Twilight. Dash thought as she carefully extracted herself from Fluttershy's embrace. "Fluttershy, will you be okay if I go over to Twilight so I can hear what they are talking about?"
Fluttershy nodded dejectedly, then turned around and started walking home at a speed that Tank, her pet tortoise, would have put to shame even without his propeller.
Rarity, noticing Fluttershy's condition began walking her to her cottage while filling her ears with mindless babble designed to take her mind off of whatever had happened between her and Angel. Dash, seeing that Fluttershy was in good hooves, walked over to where Twilight and Ditzy were still talking.
"...fter a whole week of giving him muffins and trying to catch a glimpse of this, 'Creature' as you call it, you never once thought to tell anypony about it? Not even once?" Twilight's response was a less than satisfactory sheepish hoof twirl on the ground combined with a wing shrug. "So please explain why you ever thought trying to confront a potentially danger- "
"Now wait just a minute, Twilight, Creature isn't any danger because it likes muffins and if you like muffins then you can't be a bad pony." said Ditzy, stomping her foot lightly for emphases.
Twilight removed her hoof from the middle of her forehead as Dash laughed out loud, startling Ditzy who was unaware of her presence behind her.
"Ditzy, there are so many flaws in that statement that I don't even know where to start." sighed Twilight, "Rainbow, help me out here and please help me explain to Ditzy why going monst-" After a misaligned glare from Ditzy, Twilight continued, "-Creature hunting in the Everfree by herself is a bad idea when we hardly know anything about it."
"Well it likes muffins, it's really shy, it lives somewhere different every day, and it must be able to breathe fire because I just look for the smoke and I can find it. So there, I do know something about it, several somethings in fact."
"You know what, I give up," said Twilight, " I am unable to make you see reason, Ditzy."
"I'm glad you see it my way."
"Ditzy... never mind... Anyway, Rainbow, I'm glad you are here, I want to go with Ditzy to spy on 'Creature' tomorrow and I don't trust her to carry me up to the cloud." As if on cue Ditzy's left eye drifted off course and ended up looking straight up while she sheepishly turned her face away from them.
"I may not be the best of flyers, but I can fly well enough to be the mailmare, so no need to be mean, Twilight," responded Ditzy somewhat defensively.
"Sorry, Ditzy, I wasn't trying to be mean; but the simple truth is I am not confident enough in your flying ability to ask you to carry me to the cloud." The rephrased wording seemed to sooth Ditzy's feelings somewhat so Twilight continued, "So, Rainbow, do you think you would able to do that for me?"
"Yes!" Dash shouted, jumping into the air, before realizing she had said that out loud. Oops, totally not cool, she thought, fluttering back down, "I mean, sure, if I don't have anything better to do," she replied nonchalantly. Oh my gosh, yes! Finally, monster hunting after monster spying, that's like more than twenty percent cooler!
Twilight shook her hear at her friends antics, "Well, if you manage to 'clear your schedule' we will need to be at Ditzy's house by three in the afternoon so she can show us where Creature is, okay Rainbow?"
Dash was much too busy imagining herself heroically saving saving Twilight and Ditzy from a rampaging beast to answer with words so she just nodded distractedly.
"Great, well I'm off to start making my checklist for tomorrows encounter with Creature, I'll see you girls later." Dash just nodded again, still caught in her daydream of heroism.
"Okay, Twilight, see you after work!" Ditzy called out as she took to the skies, heading back to her house.
After beating up thousands of evil monsters and saving all of Ponyville single-hooved, Dash blinked a couple of times finally coming out of the dreamworld and looked around herself, "Where did everypony go?"