Amanda was already half way across the strange floor, and Fluttershy ran after her to catch up. They were in a strange room, where the walls and ceiling were made out of the same material as the floor. On either side of her, strange metal machines towered above her, their purpose unknown. She stayed low to the ground, occasionally hiding behind a pillar when she heard a loud noise.
Amanda was standing next to one of the metal things now, and had her hand connected to the machine. She pulled part of it open, allowing Fluttershy to see part of what was inside. There was a seat, and some crazy looking dials and controls that Fluttershy couldn't imagine what they could possibly do. Amanda sat down in the chair, and closed the door. Fluttershy wondered what she was supposed to do. Did Amanda expect her to open another one of the machines up?
Fluttershy stood there looking lost, till Amanda opened up the other side of the machine, and called for Fluttershy to get in. Fluttershy started over to the other side, but the sudden start of a strange noise caused her to dive for one of the machines lined up on the opposite side of the floor.
Fluttershy studied the noise. Maybe this was some kind of strange Earth animal that just wanted to be friends. The noise had an almost animal quality about it, but it was too regular, too mechanical to be an animal. That made it terrifying. Fluttershy cowered even deeper under the machine she was hiding under, oblivious to the strange substances that she was smearing on her coat. She hoped that whatever these were, it wasn't the machine's excrement. Amanda was standing by the rear of the machine, leaning under it too study Fluttershy.
"What are you doing under there! Your getting dirty! You are not getting in my car with that icky dirt on you." She said.
Fluttershy wasn't moving till the noise stopped. She moved deeper under the machine. She was well past the middle now, and she was almost at the far wall of the room. Amanda moved around to the side of the machine. Fluttershy felt pressure on her tail, and she was slowly moving out from her hiding place.
Fluttershy's first thought was whatever machine was making the noise had grabbed onto her, and she kicked and flailed as hard as she could. There was an even louder noise coming from directly above her, a strange piercing noise that she could only assume was some horrible monster that really wanted to eat her. Fluttershy took off as hard as her legs could carry her out from under the machine in the opposite direction as she was being pulled. There was a thumping crash.
"Shit!" Amanda screamed.
Fluttershy knew that was a human curse. She wondered if the machine had attacked Amanda as well. She ran clear of the line of machines, and back into the center of the floor. Amanda was smashed into the machine. There were lights flashing at both the front and back of the machine, and the noise was different now, it had changed to a repeated beeping noise.
Fluttershy was still terrified by it. She wanted to be back in Equestria, away from the madness, and machines that could eat ponies. She had almost started for the door, when Amanda extracted herself from the machine. She glared at Fluttershy, her glare almost as intense as The Stare.
"What did you do that for?" She asked.
"The machine was trying to eat me." Fluttershy whispered.
Amanda moved towards Fluttershy rapidly, and scooped her up again. Fluttershy was too scared to resist. She was unceremoniously dropped in the seat of the machine that was next to the one where Amanda had sat. Amanda fastened a piece of cloth across her legs and part of her neck, closed the door, and went back around to the other side.
She studied her surroundings. Everything was made out of some weird shiny material that Fluttershy had only ever seen before on things made by Humans. She tried to relax a little, but she was finding it hard. Amanda sat down on the chair on the other side.
"We'll have to get you cleaned up before you go to see the President's daughter." Amanda said.
Fluttershy studied her coat, and it was definitely dirty. She was suddenly jerked off of her hooves. Her head smashed into the shiny material in front of her with a thump. The material was soft, and padded, but Fluttershy could tell that there was metal under it. She looked up. She must have hit her head harder then she thought, because the ceiling was moving.
She relaxed back into the seat, and closed her eyes. That had to help. Or, it did till something flung Fluttershy deeper into the seat. She opened her eyes. They were outside now, and Fluttershy maneuvered herself so that she was perched on her rear hooves, with her front hooves resting on the shiny thing in front of her. That was the only way that she could see where they where going.
They were rocketing down some incredibly wide road. A road that had to be at least as wide as the entire Ponyville town square. There were more machines on all sides of them. They were just feet from the nearest machine. Fluttershy was pretty sure that this was how Scootaloo felt on her scooter. She didn't like it one bit.
Amanda was gripping a circle in front of her. There was metal pole leaning over the road, and the light in it magically turned from green to yellow. They were going faster now. Suddenly the light changed to red. There was a squealing noise, and Fluttershy was catapulted into the glass in front of her. She made as dignified attempt to dig herself out from the strange wedged shaped gap that she'd been forced into as possible.
It took her a few seconds, but she managed to perch herself on the shiny material. There was barely enough room for her, but it was less scary then not knowing where she was going. There was a wall of machines going across their path in front of them. Eventually it stopped, and they took off again. Finally, Fluttershy was forced to admit that it was less scary to not see where they were going. She dove back down into the chair, and threw her hooves over her eyes. She just wanted this to end.
An indeterminate time later, she heard the noise of Amanda's door opening. Fluttershy removed her hooves, and attempted to verify that they weren't moving anymore. They weren't. Amanda moved around to open Fluttershy's door. Fluttershy studied her surroundings.
There was a hill, with a giant white thing that looked like some strange column stretching into the air. This must have been what Rainbow Dash meant when she said tall buildings. She wondered how many ponies you could stack on top of each other, and still not reach the top of the building. Even more importantly, she wondered how they had built it without the aid of Pegasus flight.
Fluttershy stepped down to the ground. It was made out of the same material as the floor in the garage, although there was some grass on the hill surrounding the giant white thing. Rainbow Dash had said that there wasn't much grass on Earth, but she hadn't believed Dash. How could they have all of those fabulous animals if they didn't have any grass?
Amanda was putting the Human equivalent of bits into a metal pole next to the machine. Finally satisfied that she'd put enough in, she darted across the road in a gap between the machines driving on it. Fluttershy just stared. There was no way that her little legs could carry across that fast.
Something caught her eye. It was one of the things that had stopped Amanda before. Maybe this one would stop the machines that were driving by. She hoped it would, because otherwise she wasn't even going to attempt to make it across. Amanda was staring at her from across the road.
Finally, the light changed from red to green. The traffic going along the direction Fluttershy needed to cross stopped, and she shut her eyes, and galloped across the road.
Once she was on the other side, she was able to more calmly study her surroundings. There was a large open space filled with grass, and at the end of that was a large white building. That building had to be important, considering how the entire park seemed to be perfectly aligned to highlight it.
Out of the corner of her eye, Fluttershy saw a squirrel. She cantered towards it.
"Hello Mr. Squirrel! I'd love to be your friend!" Fluttershy said.
The Squirrel studied her, like it was expecting her to give it food. Unfortunately, she didn't have any food to give it.
"I'm sorry Mr. Squirrel, but I don't have any food to give you right now!" She said.
The squirrel darted away, towards a group of Human foals. She pursued it.
"Just because we don't have any food, doesn't mean that we can't be friends!" she pleaded.
It was no good. Fluttershy was faster then the squirrel, but it seemed to know the lay of the land, and was small enough that holes in the ground didn't bother it so much. However, after a long chase, she was almost there. Suddenly, one of the Human foals noticed her.
"It's Fluttershy!" One of the fillies shouted.
The Human ran towards her, making Fluttershy run the other way. It was hopeless, no sooner had she turned around then she was surrounded by Humans. She felt her mane getting petted, and her body was being poked. The foals were shoving pieces of paper in her face, asking her to sign.
Fluttershy was overwhelmed. She finally got up the courage to scream, although like mot of her screams, it came out no louder than most ponies' regular talking. It was nowhere near loud enough to cut through the volume of the foals excited shouting. Fluttershy tried to make herself as little as possible, and to curl into a ball. But, the foals hooves were digging into her sides, and pulling her out of the ball. There were hooves on every bit of Fluttershy now, and her heart was racing. Someone had to do something.
Her salvation came in the form of Amanda.
"Fluttershy has to take a bath so she can see the President." Amanda said.
The children parted, allowing Amanda to grab Fluttershy by the scruff of her neck, and drag her to a small building with a green roof. It was a bathroom, and she was unceremoniously deposited in a sink. Rather, as much of her as would fit in the sink was deposited in the sink. The rest of Fluttershy was dangling uncomfortably over the edge. Amanda started washing Fluttershy with soap from a metal box next to the sink.
"I can wash myself!" Fluttershy shouted.
Amanda didn't hear her over the sound of the running water. Even worse, a good number of the fillies from the school group had let themselves in so that they could watch Fluttershy's bath. Amanda was muttering under her breath about how messy Fluttershy was. Finally, the indignity was done, and Amanda manhandled her towards a white porcelain machine on the wall.
Amanda hit a button, and there was a tremendous whooshing noise. Fluttershy felt a wall of air hit her. It gradually warmed up. She was terrified. There wasn't anything she could do to escape, Amanda was holding on to her that tight. A few minutes later, most of Fluttershy was dry, and they left the bathroom, and headed across the park towards the giant white building.