//------------------------------// // Too Late For Second Guessing // Story: We Were the Ones You Used to Make Fun of // by EpicGuy //------------------------------// Suddenly the picnic sheet was torn away and Fluttershy was flung into a dark alley void of life. The only light was that of her bright pink mane, but even that wasn't much against the cold nothingness of her current enviroment. She yelled out and tried to move, but whoever had captured her also bound her by the hooves. Her wings were free, but as of late they were not responding correctly. She felt like she was back in Flight Camp- she could barely get her hooves off the ground and she felt like those appendages attached to her back were useless and weak. "Somepony! Help me!" She cried. She squirmed against the rope that held her hooves together tightly, but to no avail to free herself. "Where in Equestria am I?" Nothing answered her calls. The pegasus wailed and thrashed about on the cold floor. This went on for a while until she realized there was probably no hope for her getting out, and reluctantly Fluttershy dipped her head and fell unconcious. "Where did I put those darn spectacles?" Cranky Doodle Donkey was hunched over, eye to the dirt, trying to find his wire-rimmed glasses he had somehow lost while making a trip to Canterlot. It was hard to not see the glasses- they were abnormally huge and spotless- but still the donkey had a hard time finding them. He stuck his nose in the rough dirt and tried to sniff out his prized possession. Within a few minutes he realized he was getting nowhere. "Where in Equestria are those dang glasses?! I had them just a day ago!" Suddenly his nose bumped a brick wall and he yelped in suprise. "Who-wha-where-when-why?!" He stumbled about in confusion and ended up tripping on a stone and falling backwards onto his back. "Yeow!" He exclaimed. Before getting up the donkey looked up at the brick wall. It was quite tall- maybe Celestia's height- and unusually dark colored. There was a little hole by it, as if it was a tunnel of some sort. Very curious, Cranky Doodle Donkey got up, brushed himself off, and began to walk clumsily towards the tunnel. Then he stopped and began to sniff a peculiar fluff of fur caught in a bush by said tunnel. "What in tarnation?" He stuck his nose in it and moved it around before sneezing and pulling it back out. "Pinkie?" He looked at the pink fluff and cocked his head. "What are you doing here?" The donkey carried on a conversation with the fur for a while before he got bored and moved into the dark tunnel. "What do we have here?" He asked himself, stopping at a peculiar looking feather. It didn't look like a natural color for a bird- it was bright yellow, streaked slightly with lighter yellow. As blind as he was without his faithful glasses, Cranky was still a sucker for fine art. "So pristine..." He mused, reaching out to touch the fine feather. It felt soft and fine, as if it were perfectly groomed by its owner. Calmly the donkey put the feather in his satchel and carried on down the tunnel. "Get ya fresh apples 'ere!" Applejack yelled. Her cart was surrounded by multicolored ponies of many colors, bartering over shiny apples. She took time from her unicorn customer to wave at the pegasus colt that just flew off with two large bags of Red Delicious, saying "Thanks ah lot, come back soon!" The pegasus turned around as well and smiled, an apple already in his mouth. Suddenly from the line came two unicorns in particular who decided that they didn't want to wait for the tempting apples that were only a few dozen ponies away. They dashed up to the stand, their horns glowing as they flung random citizens out of the way. One of the unicorns held a coffee cup with her magic, for some reason Applejack didn't know or didn't care to know. "Heyah! Stop right there, lil'-miss-ah-can't-wait-in-line! Ah gotta lotta customers who-ah fine waitin' for me to get to em', and two uni-corns who-ah' got ants in their pants!" Applejack protested as the duo reached her cart. "Now get back in line, or else no apples fo you!" The two unicorns stopped in their tracks and Applejack could no make out their faces. Her stone-cold stare instantly softened and the earth pony motioned them up to the counter. "Well howdy do, Twilight en' Rarity! Whatcha doing out this early?" She asked. Rarity, who's mane was still disheveled and sticking out of many places, brought her coffee cup closer and took a large sip of the hot liquid. "Just for the record, my dear Applejack, this was not my idea of what to do on a beautiful morning." She yawned and scratched her back with a nearby stick. Twilight Sparkle sighed and rolled her eyes at her unicorn friend. "We've got a little problem.' She began. "Apparently Fluttershy and Pinkie are in trouble." Applejack reared onto her hind hooves and whinnied. "Pinkie an' Fluttershy? What 'ere we waitin' for?" She looked ready to leap into action no matter what her friends said to calm her down. The purple unicorn did exactly that, grabbing the earth pony with her telekinesis and setting her gently behind her cart once more. "Applejack- listen. We don't know where they are, and-" The farm pony gasped and her hat bounced wildly. "What in the hay are we waitin' for? We gotta find 'em!" "APPLEJACK." "Sorrah." Rarity finished her coffee and sadly tossed the cup aside. "We haven't the slightest clue where our friends might be, but there might be somepony who can held speed up the process." She flicked her head at a rainbow tail falling out of a pure white cloud. Applejack cocked her orange head. "Rainbow? Really? Why, she was just 'ere ah hour ago! But how're we gonna get 'er down 'ere?" The unicorns were silent as if they hadn't though that part through. "Well?" Rarity fashioned a makeshift brush out of the stick and began combing her luscious mane into its signature curls. "I have an idea." She pronounced. Cranky Doodle Donkey emerged from the dark tunnel into an even darker alley, if that was even possible. Determined to stay focused the donkey kept going forward, not caring if he ran into anything or broke something. "I'm gonna find you, glasses." He vowed. His hooves clicked on the brick floor as he tried to find his prized glasses. There were no glasses in sight, but he didn't notice. Suddenly his nose bumped something soft and- feathery? He backed up to get a better look at what he had ran into, then smiled slightly. It was a bright yellow pegasus, with a creamy pink mane and pleading eyes. She seemed to be bound with rope at her hooves, which were delicate and small. "What are you doing down here, Missy?" He asked gently, nudging her slightly folded wing. It shivered and tucked snugly behind her back. "I'm not gonna hurt you." The poor pegasus squeaked and hid her emerald eyes with her hair. "I-I-don't know." She whispered, still hiding behind her mane. Cranky Doodle Donkey studied her knots. "Who did this to you?" He said as he examined. "I don't k-know." He frowned at the incredibly tight rope wrapped around her hooves. As he tried to move it the skin beneath was revealed, blistered and bleeding. "How did you get this tied up? Even I couldn't tie this-" "I DON"T KNOW!" The pegasus collapsed on the hard floor, crying a pool of tears. "I don't know how I got here, where I am, how this happened... I just want to go home!" She managed to say. The donkey felt a pang of sympathy for the poor pony, and decided that he couldn't let her stay like this. "What's your name, miss?" The yellow pegasus sniffed and awkwardly wiped a tear from her eye. "F-f-luttershy. My name's Fluttershy." She choked. Cranky puffed out his chest. "Well, Miss Fluttershy, I promise you're not gonna be like this any longer." He smiled and carefully picked her up, nudging Fluttershy up his back until she was in a spot she wouldn't be able to fall off in. With that he headed off for the entrance of the tunnel, Fluttershy sleeping peacefully on his back as the sunlight warmed her cool face once more. The masked crusader's breathing was quite heavy. Despite his/her supreme strength and speed, it was tired after completing one long task. "But it'll be all worth it." The pony thought happily. Their hooves rounded the corner and leaped off of the wall, catapulting it into the clearing where it had left it's passenger. But there was nothing there except for a pair of wire-rimmed glasses and a hoof-full of yellow feathers. "What?!" It gasped aloud, thankful nopony could her its familiar voice. The pony angrily threw itself upon the evidence, thinking of all the possible causes of her captive's disappearance. It recognized the glasses, fortunately- they were those of a new citizen of Ponyville it had seen a couple of times around town- a donkey, it thought. The feathers were soaking in a pool of clear liquid, water, maybe. A closer look revealed it to have the salty stench of tears. "Tears? I know Fluttershy's stronger than that." The mare had faced a dragon, defeated a cockatrice with only her eyes, and even flew past Rainbow Dash! How could she be reduced to crying? The pony groaned, unhappy that her prisoner had escaped, and gathered out the feathers and glasses sadly. It stuffed them down its dark suit, then with a face of stone hopped out of sight.