For the first time in a while, Fluttershy stood in the main square of Ponyville. Although she was in charge of the weather team for Ponyville, she spent very little time in the town itself. She had met with the Mayor of Ponyville when she first took the position, and of course she did her part in the town's Winter Wrap-Up every year. Generally, though, she avoided the ground, preferring to remain in the clouds when she wasn't working. Her hometown may have been bigger than Ponyville, but at least it was familiar.
Normally, this would not be a problem for her, but now she found herself in a town that, for all the time she spent flying over it as part of her job, was pretty much unknown to her. She was in a strange place, and she was alone. She didn't really know of anypony around here that well. The more she thought about it, the more she realized that, despite several conversations with her, she wasn't sure she could remember the mayor's real name. Even the weather team pegasi that made their homes down in Ponyville would all be busy at work right now, so for all that things were strained between them, she couldn't even count on them if she needed help.
She could use some help right now. She began to regret turning down Cloud Kicker's offer to accompany her to Sweet Apple Acres, but chastised herself for being so selfish. The clouds that they were both responsible for still hadn't all been cleared yet, and Cloud Kicker still needed to get everything ready for her sister's visit. Between the trip to see Rainbow Dash and the planning afterwards, Fluttershy had already taken up enough of her friend's time. It wouldn't be right of her to keep her busy for something that, while personally important, wasn't an emergency. Despite her polite refusals, Cloud Kicker, no doubt still worried about the close call that morning, insisted on at least seeing Fluttershy to the surface and got her to agree to avoid unnecessary flying.
It was that promise that was at the heart of her current problem. Fluttershy realized, after her friend had already departed, that she didn't know how to get to Sweet Apple Acres from where she was. The vast fields of apple trees would no doubt be foal's play to spot from a few hundred feet in the air, but it didn't seem necessary when it wouldn't be that hard to ask somepony.
At least, it shouldn't be that hard to ask somepony. Fluttershy looked around, trying to decide who to ask. She didn't want to bother anypony that was busy. She first noticed a couple of young mares, dressed in hot pink shirts, standing around and approached them. She asked them for directions, but the only response she received was an annoyed sigh from the headband-wearing blue pony. Her pink friend simply rolled her eyes behind her sunglasses as the two of them turned their backs on her and walked away.
Discouraged, Fluttershy looked elsewhere. Another pair of ponies walking by looked like they might be able to help her.
"Excuse me, but I was just wondering, if it's not too much trouble, if–" Before she could continue, a third pony charged past, nearly knocking her over. The newcomer was a pink earth pony with a flower in her blonde mane and a look of utter panic on her face.
"It's terrible, girls!"
"What's wrong, Lily?" asked the cream-colored pony with the two-tone red mane.
"I'm sorry, but if I could–"
"Caramel was just in the Everfree Forest yesterday, and now's he's cursed! It must have been that mysterious enchantress!"
"It would only take a minute. I just need–" While Fluttershy was not unafraid of curses, this one seemed easily avoidable by just staying out of the Everfree Forest. Not that she needed another reason to do that. The weather over it didn't work like it was supposed to, and who knew what was lurking in there beneath the trees? Enchantresses, apparently.
The other ponies apparently did not agree with her about the lack of difficultly involved in avoiding the curse. The pastel purple pony shouted "The horror! The horror!" and all three ran into a nearby building. Three pairs of eyes soon peeked out from beneath the curtains.
Fluttershy's ears drooped as she again failed to get anypony to pay attention to her. She hung her head and started walking without any direction in mind. After some time, she wasn't sure how long, she heard a voice asking if somepony was okay. She looked up from the ground and realized the speaker, a cheerful earth pony mare with a dark purple coat and a purple and pink mane, had been talking to her. She explained that she was fine, and was trying to find Sweet Apple Acres. The other pony gave her directions, and then added, "You seem familiar. Aren't you on the weather team?"
"Yes," Fluttershy said, somewhat sheepishly. She wasn't going to mention she was in charge of the team if she didn't have to.
"I thought so. I was sure I'd seen you at Winter Wrap-Up." She extended a hoof. "Cheerilee."
"I'm Fluttershy."
"It's nice to meet you, Fluttershy. I teach at Ponyville Elementary. If you need anything else, you can probably find me here at the library." Cheerilee gestured to the large tree behind her that somepony must have hollowed out and turned into a building. "It's been a couple of years since we've had anypony running the place, so somehow I wound up looking after it. Somepony had to."
Fluttershy thanked Cheerilee for the directions and headed off.
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Thanks to Cheerilee's directions, Fluttershy was able to easily make her way to the entrance of Sweet Apple Acres. The path she was walking on wound on into the trees until she lost sight of it. The trees, all laden with plump, juicy apples stretched as far as the eye could see. Fluttershy's mouth watered. When she met the farm's owners and had the chance to ask about that pony from Other Fluttershy's memories, she'd have to remember to ask if she could buy a few. It was already past lunch time.
To do that, though, she'd have to find them first. She saw dozens and dozens of trees, maybe even hundreds, but no ponies. Hoping it lead to the tall red barn that stood out in the distance, Fluttershy headed down the path. She walked along in a near-silence that was broken only by birdsong. She could have curled up in the shade of one of the trees and listened to them sing for hours. It wasn't often birds made their way as high as Cloudsdale, and they usually weren't songbirds. The chance to hear several at once was a rare treat. She forced herself onwards, though. What she was here for was important, and she couldn't let anything interfere with that.
After a few minutes, her reverie was interrupted by a significantly less melodic sound. From the orchard came a small, high-pitched grunt followed by a thwack. It soon repeated – grunt, thwack, grunt, thwack. Fluttershy looked around for the source of the noise. A few trees deep off one side of the path, a little yellow filly with a big red bow in her mane was standing with her back to the trunk. Around the tree, a few empty wooden buckets were arranged. The filly reared up on her front legs and kicked the trunk of the tree as hard as she could. The tree gave the slightest shudder, but nothing happened. She kicked again, and again nothing happened. Frustrated, she backed up and charged at the tree before leaping in to the air and kicking with her right rear leg. She slammed against the tree like this, but only bounced off. For a moment, it seemed as if, once again, nothing was going to happen, before a single apple detached and fell, bouncing off the filly's head before landing in a waiting bucket.
"Oh my goodness! Are you alright?" Fluttershy rushed over to check on the filly.
The filly sighed. "I'm never gonna be able to help Big Macintosh." She looked up and realized that she didn't recognize the pony she was talking to. "Welcome to Sweet Apple Acres! You new in town? I don't think I've ever seen you around here before."
"Yes. Well, no. I mean, sort of. I spend most of my time in Ponyville up in the sky, so I don't really know the town too well. My name's Fluttershy."
"Nice to meet ya, Fluttershy. I'm Apple Bloom."
"It's nice to meet you too, Apple Bloom. Is there something wrong? If you don't mind me asking, that is."
"Applebuck season is comin', and I thought maybe this was the year I could help my brother so he wouldn't have to hire anypony. An' maybe I'd even get my cutie mark, too. But it isn't working at all."
"I'm sorry. But maybe there's something you could help me with." Apple Bloom's face brightened. "You're part of the Apple family, right?"
"Of course!"
"I'm trying to find somepony, and I think they're part of the Apple family, too. I was hoping maybe somepony here might know them." She described the pony she'd come all the way out here to ask about.
"That sounds kinda like Applejack! She's my big sister."
Fluttershy couldn't believe her luck. This pony, this "Applejack", lived in Ponyville after all? Maybe she was closer to getting some answers than she thought. "Is your sister around? I'd really like to speak with her if that's okay."
"She doesn't live here. She left to be a fancy big city pony in Manehattan before I was born." Apple Bloom paused, thinking. "Since you're lookin' for my sister, does that mean ya know her? What's she like?"
Fluttershy didn't know her, but she felt as though she did, or at least she should. Of course she couldn't tell that to somepony she had just met. Explaining what was going on would just make her sound crazy. "There are a few ponies I need to find because I need their help, and I think she might be one of them. I don't actually know her. I'm sorry."
"That's alright. Y'know, you should come talk to Big Macintosh – he's my brother. He could tell ya how to find her. Applejack writes to us all the time."
Fluttershy agreed, and the two ponies, mare and filly, headed off towards the center of the farm. Fluttershy noticed that Apple Bloom kept glancing to Fluttershy's side in a way she assumed was intended to be subtle. She was not prepared for the very sudden and loud gasp from the younger pony.
"Is something wrong, Apple Bloom?"
"You don't have a cutie mark!" Apple Bloom blushed, embarrassed by her outburst. "I'm sorry, my brother says it's rude to go around askin' ponies about their cutie marks. It's just that everypony in my class already has their cutie marks. At first, it was just me an' Twist who didn't, but even she's had hers for a while now. Everypony I talk to about it tells me I hafta be patient, but it's really hard being the only one. Waiting was already tough, but I can't wait until I'm grown up, I just can't!" More to herself than anything, she added, "What if I don't ever get one?"
Fluttershy was sorry to see the filly so upset, even more so because she had inadvertently been the cause. She remembered when she was a filly, she couldn't understand why she wasn't getting her cutie mark. As the years passed and her flank remained unadorned, she had come to terms with it. In its own way, being a full-grown mare without one made her just as distinct as any mark could. Although a small part of her held out hope that she'd finally get one someday, she rarely ever thought about or noticed cutie marks anymore. It was just a symbol and it was something she had no control over; she wasn't going to let it affect her life. She wanted to believe that she had never made as big a deal about it as Apple Bloom was, but that probably wasn't true.
"It may seem difficult right now, but you're a hard worker. You'll discover what makes you special." She could see Apple Bloom about to object and pressed on. "And don't worry about having to wait until you're an adult. I know a lot of ponies in Cloudsdale," she said, which was pretty much a lie, but one she felt nopony would hold against her considering the circumstances, "and I don't know of any others that grew up without getting a cutie mark. I really think it's just me."
"But it isn't just you. This lady was here earlier talkin' to my brother, an' she didn't have one either. An' whenever I ask Applejack to tell me how she got hers, she just ignores the question. Maybe she doesn't have her cutie mark yet either!"
Fluttershy could tell that trying to convince her that wasn't going to happen would be a lost cause. Perhaps a different approach would work better. "I know it isn't easy to wait, and having ponies that already have their cutie marks trying to reassure you probably doesn't help much. Would it help if I told you that it's not so bad? It used to bother me when I was a filly, but I'm okay now. I'm happy. You'll get your cutie mark, but until you do, you're no less of a pony for not having one."
Apple Bloom seemed to give some thought to Fluttershy's words. "It's not just not havin' a cutie mark that's the problem. It's the ponies that keep teasin' me for not havin' a cutie mark."
It was a feeling Fluttershy understood all too well. "When I was little, other ponies would tease me because I couldn't fly very well. One day, I finally got it, and they didn't tease me any more. A friend helped me then. I have something important I need to take care of, but when I'm done, I'd be happy to come back and help you discover your special talent."
Apple Bloom's eyes lit up as a seemingly-impossibly wide grin spread across her face. "Really? Ya mean it?"
"I promise."
"Thank you so much, Fluttershy! Maybe I can help you get your cutie mark, too!" The two continued down the path, a skipping Apple Bloom leading the way.
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It wasn't too long before the duo made it to the center of Sweet Apple Acres. Fluttershy had passed the time by listening to Apple Bloom tell her all about living on the farm with her big brother and granny. They all seemed like such nice ponies. Apple Bloom assured her that they'd like her, although she wasn't quite sure what to think about Apple Bloom's expressed hope that Big Macintosh would really like her.
Apple Bloom had just launched into a story about her family's famous zap apple harvest, when something caught her eye. "There he is! What's she still doin' here?" She leaned in to whisper. "She's the one I was telling you about before." Fluttershy turned to look and saw a pair of ponies coming out of the farmhouse. The first was a large red stallion wearing a plow collar around his neck. Outside of the princess herself, he was the largest pony she had ever seen. Beside him walked the color pink in the form of a pony. Her coat was pink. Her long, straight mane, which hung down over her left shoulder, was pink. Even the sharply-tailored business suit she was wearing was a bright, cheerful pink.
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Fluttershy considered the patient sitting on the table before her. "You're going to be fine. It's only an upset tummy from so much excitement. Just try to avoid being over-stimulated for the next few days."
The recipient of this advice gave no indication of having understood or even heard the pony giving it. He simply sat there and blinked, first with one eye, then the other.
Instead, a response came from a bouncy pink pony. "Did you hear that, Gummy? You need to take it easy for a few days." She paused, as if waiting for an answer from the little alligator. "I know, I don't know what I'd do if I couldn't do anything exciting for a couple of days, but you know what will cheer you up? When you're feeling better, I'm going to throw you a party!" Pinkie Pie caught a glance from Fluttershy that suggested the latter didn't think that was a very good idea. "A small party."
After determining to her satisfaction that Gummy was content, Pinkie turned to her friend. "Thank you so much for coming over, Fluttershy. When Gummy wasn't his usual energetic self this morning, I got so worried! I guess he just can't handle two parties in two days yet. He is only one year and two days old, and that's probably pretty young for an alligator! Maybe I was just being silly." The normally upbeat pony's face fell. "I was silly a lot yesterday."
Fluttershy couldn't remember if she'd ever seen her friend sad like this. She'd certainly seen her angry – they all had – yesterday, when Pinkie had thought they were abandoning her, but she looked like she was about to cry. "Pinkie, is this about the surprise party? I'm sorry we made you worry. We should have–"
"No, no, it's not you girls at all! I'm lucky to have friends like you." She smiled. "It's, well, I'm not very proud of what I did. Everypony was planning a surprise for me and I assumed the worst. But even more than that... Pinkie promise you won't tell anypony?"
Fluttershy agreed, and recited the rhyme Pinkie had created, idly wondering what the part about "hope to fly" was supposed to mean to somepony with wings. Pinkie told her all about the "party" she had held at Sugarcube Corner the day before, and Rocky and Madame LaFlour, and Rainbow Dash dragging her all the way across Ponyville by her tail. When she had finished, she was surprised to see her pegasus friend reaching forward to embrace her.
"Everypony's done embarrassing things, Pinkie," Fluttershy said, thinking of her own behavior when the princess had asked the six of them to talk to that sleeping dragon. Even though it had all worked out, there were parts she didn't like remembering. She had very nearly ruined everything. "But we're your friends. We understand."
"Thanks." Pinkie returned the embrace and the two ponies hugged while Gummy sat there, blinking in his peculiar way.
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When Fluttershy recovered from the latest appearance of Other Fluttershy's memories, Apple Bloom was by the side of the stallion, presumably Big Macintosh, excitedly telling him all about her new friend and how she was going to help her get her cutie mark. The pink pony approached Fluttershy, smiling.
"Hello!" She stuck out a hoof. Fluttershy reciprocated. This was one of the ponies she was trying to find, and she was being so friendly. Could it really be so simple? "My name is Pinkamina Pie, of Pie Family Rocks & Stones," the pink pony said, vigorously shaking her hoof.
Fluttershy wasn't sure what to make of this new pony, or why Other Fluttershy's seemed so different. She had the feeling that Pinkamina was expecting something of her. "Oh, um, I-I'm Fluttershy."
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Fluttershy. Can I ask you a question?" She didn't wait for a response. "Are your rock needs being met?"
Since she had decided on this course of action, Fluttershy had been trying to figure out what she would say when she found the ponies she was looking for. Nothing she had come up with so far had really been any good, but even bad plans were still plans. None of them covered a situation like this one. What was she talking about?
"Well, um, I don't really wear gems." Fancy jewelry was the kind of thing popular amongst the ponies in her parents' social circle, but that was never the kind of life she wanted. Besides, flashy gems tended to draw attention to the pony wearing them. Fluttershy really preferred attention to be drawn somewhere else.
"With the Pie family, every rock's a gem! ... But not literally, we sell normal ones too. That's our new slogan, by the way. What do you think?"
"It's... nice."
"Thanks! I came up with it myself. I added the second part because my sister said she thought it might be confusing otherwise. Here, take a look at our products." With this, she pulled out a catalog from... well, Fluttershy couldn't see exactly where she had pulled it from, but she had no time to think about that as Pinkamina flipped through the pages, showing off the many different kinds of rocks they had for sale. Fluttershy had never thought rocks could come in so many varieties. She had never really thought about rocks much at all, as only gemstones tended to find their way up to Cloudsdale. She suddenly realized that she had completely stopped listening to the salespony's incessant list of rocks somewhere around her description of the different types of sandstone. Fortunately, Pinkamina didn't appear to notice.
"...cobblestones, paving stones, and bricks! And then there's gems. I know you said you don't wear them, but when you take a look at these babies, I think you might just change your mind."
Fluttershy decided it would be a good time to interrupt to avoid another interminable list. "Um, Pinkie?"
The pink pony gave her an odd look. "Pinkamina."
"Right, sorry, Pinkamina. I'm sure your gems are very nice, but I really don't like being the center of attention. I also live in Cloudsdale. We don't build with rocks. We build with clouds. Rocks would just fall. So, well, I really don't need any rocks. I'm sorry."
Pinkamina was unfazed. "Okay, but if you ever change your mind, here's my card." She suddenly held a small piece of paper – where was she keeping these things? – and gave it to Fluttershy. "You can keep the catalog, too." She thanked Big Macintosh for his order before turning and walking away.
"Wait!" cried Fluttershy, again faced with the possibility of somepony walking away before she'd had the chance to bring up the reason she'd been looking for them.
Pinkamina was back at her side faster than she'd have thought equinely possible. "Changed your mind? They're simply too tempting to pass up, aren't they? They also make excellent gifts!"
"No, that isn't it." She'd better try something quick. Pinkamina wasn't likely to stick around when she found out she wasn't at all interested in buying rocks. "Do... do you know me, Pinkamina?"
She thought for a moment. "Sorry, but I can remember all my customers, and I've never sold anything to you."
"Actually, um, I d-didn't mean as a customer. What I meant was as, um, as a f-friend."
"No. I've never met you before, I'm sure of it." Fluttershy thought she saw a flicker of sadness in the salespony's eyes, but her smile never wavered. "Unfortunately, I have other appointments to get to, but if you need any rocks, you know where to find me."
Fluttershy watched as her latest hope at some kind of explanation walked down the path to the town. She noticed as Pinkamina turned that Apple Bloom hadn't been mistaken – Pinkamina really didn't have a cutie mark either.
"Excuse me, Miss Fluttershy?" She turned to see the red stallion addressing her. "Apple Bloom's been telling me about how you offered to help her. That's awful nice of you. Would you like to stay for lunch?"