The four ponies stepped off the train, onto the Appleossa train station. As the train pulled away from behind them, they continued to stand, staring out at the old, seemingly empty, town. Pinkie breathed in deeply, trying once again to feel negativity. She still didn't. She had been trying to feel negativity ever since her outburst at the apartment. The only emotions she had felt since then was happiness, and occasionally, anger. She had become so used to anger, fear, pain, and sadness in her life, that any other emotion seemed foreign and unnatural. Nonetheless, she still made her best effort to live up to her Pinkie Promise of being positive. She didn't even know what a Pinkie Promise was, but she still felt it held great importance, and could not be broken.
She thought back to yesterday, and how after lending four twenty carat gems to a mare and her three foals, and being lent four more, Rarity had activated another Element. Clearly, it was the Element of Generosity. That meant that the Elements of Honesty; Applejack, Laughter; herself, most likely Loyalty; Rainbow Dash, and Generosity; Rarity, had already been activated. That only left Kindness, and the mysterious Element known as Magic. After being told more about Fluttershy from Rarity, they had learned that Fluttershy was a reserved and secretive Pegasus, who would always come to a friends aid. Pinkie had deduced that Fluttershy would be the Element of Kindness, due to the fact that she apparently was incredibly willing to come to a friends aid. Now, all they had to do was find this Fluttershy.
"So......" Pinkie said, breaking the silence. "How are we supposed to find the Wool Harvester place?" Applejack smiled. "Easy! Ah got a cousin who lives here. He's probably seen the Wool Harvester place tons a' times." She started forward, as the other three followed closely.
They eventually came to a small barn in front of an apple orchard just as small. Applejack went up to the door, giving it a sharp knock. They heard a loud sound of falling and crashing items, as the barn itself seemed to rattle. Suddenly the door slammed open, revealing a slightly banged up blond coated Earth Pony, with a brown ruffled and shagged mane, and a slightly torn cowboy hat and vest. He stood panting, before perking up at the sight of Applejack. "Applejack?" She smiled. "Howdy Braeburn." "Cuz!" He leapt onto Applejack with a hug, knocking her off the porch and onto the ground. He then proceeded to tickle her to the point that tears streamed down her face. She laughed uncontrollably, struggling to form words. "BRA-BRAEBURN!!! WE-WE NEED SOME HE-HELP!!!!" He sat up, stopping his tickling onslaught. "We?" Applejack wiped tears from her face, and pointed towards her friends. Braeburn looked towards the three ponies, but his eyes quickly locked onto Rainbow and Pinkie's uniforms. "Soldiers?" He asked, standing up. Applejack struggled to her her hooves as well. "Yes. We're on a bit of a, um........trip. To say the least. Do ya happen to know where the Wool Harvester station's at?" "A' course Ah do." He said with a chuckle. "Ah've lived in these parts my whole life. Follow me." He began walking toward the far end of town, and the four mares followed behind him.
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They stood in front of a small wooden building. Well....it was more of a shack, really. It had a small porch, a door that was clearly coming off its hinges, and a flimsy board with a picture of shears painted on it. "This is it?" Rarity asked, looking towards Braeburn. "Yup. This is the Wool Harvester station. Well, Ah hope Ah could help y'all, but Ah gotta get back to the farm." He began to walk off, but not before giving Applejack another hug. "See ya cuz." As he walked off towards the apple farm, the four mares exchanged glances. "So......" Pinkie said, shuffling her hooves. "We just.....go in?" Applejack nodded, and they walked up to the door.
Rainbow pushed the door open, but as soon as her hoof made contact, it immediately fell off, collapsing onto the floor. "Oh, sweet love a' cherries. That door always comes off." The group looked up to see a cream coated Earth Pony, with a thick cherry red mane in a short cut beneath a camo cap held with a brown bow, and a Wool Harvesters uniform. She got up from her desk at the back wall, and came over to the door. She motioned the four ponies in, before grabbing the door with her hooves, and working it flimsily into the doorframe. After it was mildly secured, (but not really) she got up and turned to the four mares, sporting a wide smile. "Now, what can I do for ya?" Her southern accent was thick, almost thicker than Applejack's. "Well," Applejack said. "We were wondering if y'all had a 'Fluttershy' working here?" "We certainly do." She went back to her desk and sat down in front of a small microphone connected to a button. "Ah'll call her up to the front here." She pushed down the button and spoke into the microphone. "Hello? Yes, could you get Fluttershy to come up here to the front? There's some ponies asking for her. Thanks." She let go of the button, once again getting up from her desk. "Ah gotta go into the back for a while, so feel free to sit on those benches while ya wait." She pointed towards a set of benches, before going through a back door.
The four ponies sat on the benches, waiting. After what felt like an hour, the back door pushed open, and a pony walked through. She was a butter yellow Pegasus, with turquoise eyes, a soft pink mane in a short cut with bangs that filed onto the right side of her face, a Wool Harvester's uniform, and mud and dirt splattered on her face and hooves. She wiped some sweat off her brow, before looking around the room. "Um, do you know where Miss Jubilee is? I heard some ponies wanted to see me." Pinkie smiled. "That's us." The Pegasus blinked for a moment, unmoving. "Um, no disrespect intended, but....why would two Soldiers, a Canner, and a Uniform Maker, want me?" Rainbow frowned at her. "You are Fluttershy, right?" The butter Pegasus nodded. "Well, we've been looking for you. Rarity knew you when you used to be a Uniform Maker in Manehattan, and she remembered that you moved on to be a Wool Harvester in Appleossa. So, we came here." Fluttershy continued to stand there, her mouth slowly forming a skeptical frown. Pinkie inhaled sharply. Why didn't they just tell her why they were looking for her? It would be a lot easier. Rarity looked at Fluttershy curiously. "Don't you remember darling? Your friend Rarity from Manehattan?" Fluttershy took a small step back. Pinkie bit her lip as she felt her urge to blurt out their reason for being there grow. They could just tell her, and it would make things so much easier. "Ya sure ya don't remember sugarcube?" Said Applejack. Fluttershy took another step back, her frown growing.
Pinkie felt herself burst, as she shot upward.
"The-reason-we're-here-is-because-Applejack-got-a-visit-from-an-Alicorn-with-a-baby-dragon-who-said-she-was-named-Twilight Sparkle-and-said-she-was-from-another-timeline-where-Sombra-was-defeated-but-a-pony-named-Starlight-Glimmer-didn't-like-her-so-she-went-into-the-past-to-stop-the-event-that-made-them-the-Elements-of-Harmony-so-Twilight-went-back-to-the-present-but-another-timeline-had-been-created-where-Sombra-wasn't-defeated-which-is-the-timeline-we-live-in-which-is-how-Twilight-found-our-Applejack-so-she-contacted-The-Princess-so-when-The-Princess-went-to-Ponyville-where-Applejack-lives-Rainbow-and-I-were-her-bodyguards-so-when-we-got-there-we-found-out-that-we-bore-the-Elements-of-Harmony-in-the-other-timeline-Twilight-was-from-so-The-Princess-said-we-should-find-the-other-ponies-who-bore-the-Elements-which-included-Rarity-and-so-far-we've-activated-four-Elements-those-being-the-Elements-of-Honesty-and-Laughter-and-Loyalty-and-Generosity-so-then-we-found-out-Rarity-knew-you-when-you-were-a-Uniform-Maker-and-she-remembered-that-you-moved-on-to-be-a-Wool-Harvester-here-in-Appleoosa-so-we-came-here-to-find-you-because-you-bore-an-Element-of-Harmony-in-the-original-timeline!!!!!!"
You could have heard a flea blink.
Fluttershy stood frozen by the door, looking at Pinkie as if she was insane. She began slowly backing up. "Um....okay, um....I should, probably....get back to work." She rushed back through the door, leaving it swinging.
Pinkie stared at the door curiously. "Well......that didn't go as well as I thought it would." She looked to her friends, finally noticing that they were staring at her like she had nineteen hooves. "What?" They all pointed at the same thing just above her face. In that moment, Pinkie looked up to see a strand of bright pink poofy mane.
And then she realized it was her mane.
"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"