//------------------------------//
// 5 - Secrets and Lies 
// Story: Courage the Cowardly Dog In: Mare-anormal Activity 
// by lunabrony 
//------------------------------//

	"Now wait just a minute!" Fluttershy said, stomping her front hoof down suddenly as the sunrise grew more intense off in the distance. Untold numbers of miles away, Celestia had awakened and was doing the job she'd been doing for centuries. One might wonder if she ever grew tired of it, or even if she ever secretly slept in now and again while Luna raised the sun instead. Could Luna even do that? She'd have to ask next time she saw one of them, but she was starting to distract herself again. Now was not the time to go mentally wandering.

Pinkie gave no answer at Fluttershy's outburst, but turned to look at her and raised an eyebrow questioningly. 

"You clearly know more about this than I do, and I want some answers. What is this fog? What happened to my friends? Why aren't we effected by it?" Courage nodded his head in agreement, silently backing her up.

"Your friends are gone," Pinkie said grimly. "Whatever the fog manages to use as a host effectively erases the inner contents. I'm sorry," she said. "The fog uses the husks of its victims like puppets. When the day is active they're dormant, but when night falls... they're a deadly force that I'd not recommend be messed with. You saw what happened back there."

Fluttershy said nothing, unable to form words but giving off a pained whimper. Friends... gone... she couldn't even comprehend that.

"As for the fog itself," Pinkie continued, "It's only dangerous once, when it first rolls in and corrupts everything in touches. You must have been lucky enough to avoid it. Once the daylight hits it for the first time, it poses no threat. When did you first encounter it?"

Fluttershy still stood stunned for a moment, and Pinkie shook her shoulder. "Don't fall apart on me! When?"

"M-morning," she whispered. "Yesterday morning."

"So the fog wasn't dangerous anymore by then," Pinkie confirmed. "If you had gone out during the night, though, it likely would have corrupted you, and you'd be as vacant as the rest of them. "

Fluttershy felt her eye twitch. "How... do you know all this?"

"Because I was in Donkey Xote last week, and the same fog came rolling through the town. Completely devastated almost the entire population. I think whoever is doing this is moving north," she said. "Which very likely means-"

"-Canterlot is next..." Fluttershy finished. "Twilight's up there!"

"As is Celestia," Pinkie added.

"We have to warn them! Maybe put a stop to it... we have to try!"

"Uh huh!" Courage agreed. 

"But... Ponyville..." Fluttershy began.

"Is already corrupted," Pinkie said. "There's nothing that can be done here. We have to get to Canterlot, and we have to fly. Using the roads will be too dangerous and time consuming."

Fluttershy looked down at the ground. "But... I don't like flying..." She said quietly, shuffling her front legs. "I'm not very good at it." She was preparing to say something else, when her mind struck a recent anomaly. "Wait a minute, we? What do you mean we have to fly?"

Pinkie grinned at her, and her body was enveloped by green fire. A monstrous black creature stood in her place with bulging blue eyes, and there was the distinct droning sound of buzzing insect wings as its dark carapace lifted off the ground.  "I didn't want to tell you at first," she said, sounding apologetic. "I wanted to help you, and I didn't think you'd trust me. Will you?" She asked.

Fluttershy stared at it the insect, her heart sinking. So Pinkie was gone as well, leaving only Twilight. Whatever cruel sorcerer commanded the purple haze was on the move, and likely already had a headstart on them. 

The changeling before her was enveloped a second time by green fire, and Pinkie once again stood in her place. When Fluttershy gave a questioning look, Pinkie shrugged. "You'd be surprised how much hate and intolerance I get... it's better that the others not know. You can keep a secret, right?" She said.

"Sure," Fluttershy promised. "My animal friends tell me secrets all the- my animals!" She cried.

Sensing her train of thought, Pinkie shook her head. "They should be fine," she said. "I don't think their neurological systems are advanced enough to be effected by the fog. Otherwise we would have been overrun with swarms of angry killer squirrels last night," she said.

"So if you can't be a changeling, how are you going to fly?" Fluttershy asked, her mind still distracted by the thought of swarms of angry killer squirrels.

Pinkie grinned, and the green fire burst around her again. This time she was replaced by Rainbow Dash, who posed heroically. "The most awesome way I know how," she said, intending to be funny.

Fluttershy just stared at her, still overcome by grief at the thought of her friends no longer being around. "Is that supposed to be humorous?" She asked.

Courage had been primarily silent during this exchange, but crossed his arms now in defiance. "I really don't think that's amusing, or my name's Hogglesworth," he said. "And it's not."

"Sorry," Rainbow said, sighing. "We only have one day to get to the bottom of this, maybe two at most, I don't know when the fog will roll through Canterlot," she said. "But we have to fly now," she warned. "And quickly. I know you're under a lot of stress right now, and it's a lot to ask for you to try and put that aside so suddenly, but-"

"I'll come," Fluttershy said firmly. "Twilight still needs our help, and we have to warn them."

"Thatta girl," Rainbow said, and took to the air in a streak of prism colors. Despite all her other shortcomings, Fluttershy had to admit the changeling was very good at bouncing from persona to persona, even if the result afterward was rather disorienting.

"Wait for me!" Fluttershy squealed, and took off for the castle in the distance with Courage cowering on her back, clinging to her neck and mane like his life depended on it.