Pinkie opened the door. "I'm home."
Cloudy Quartz poked her head out of the kitchen. "Just in time. We're having salad."
"Okay." Pinkie moved calmly and evenly to the table and began eating with mechanical regularity. The rest of the Pies watched in horrified fascination. Maud's eyes widened by almost a millimeter.
After what felt like an eternity compared to Pinkie's usual rate of consumption, she emptied her bowl and rose from the table. "Thank you. I'm going to bed now." Five sets of eyes tracked her as she left.
"I don't think I've ever been more profoundly disturbed in my life," said Maud, her voice almost audibly louder than normal. "Pardon my outburst."
"I'm getting to the bottom of this," snarled Limestone, home from business school for the summer. She whipped out her phone. "Whatever messes with my little sisters has to deal with me."
"Who are you calling?" said Maud.
"Who do you think? Good thing Pinkie gave me her number." Limestone held up a finger. "You have some explaining to do, Shimmer! Pinkie just came in here like she was tranquilized, and I demand to know what happened to her! And you'd better hope you're really immortal, because if you say you don't know, we're going to find out for sure!" She hung up. "Got her voice mail."
"Wrath is a vice most unbecoming in a young lady, Limestone," said Igneous Rock.
"Yeah, but it's all I've got going for me."
The next morning, Pinkie was back to normal, or at least back to Pinkie. She arranged a meeting with her friends by Fluttershy's grove. The group's schedules and sleep patterns being what they were, only Applejack and Sunset could come.
There was an obvious edge to the grove now. On one side was the park, same carefully cultivated lushness as always. On the other side was primeval forest, thick, moss-covered trunks hedged by thigh-high undergrowth flourishing in the morning sun.
Applejack nudged a shrub with a boot. "That definitely ain't natural."
"What happened, Pinkie? All I know is that your sister's going to try to tear out my spleen."
"Yeah, she does that." Pinkie frowned and tapped a finger against her chin. "Still, most of yesterday is pretty fuzzy. I was hoping that being near where it happened might jog my brain a little, but all I can really remember is something about raucous ape noises and Fluttershy ordering me to leave."
"Ordering you?" said Sunset.
Pinkie nodded. "Definitely an order. And my body left without my brain getting involved." She shuddered. "It's actually really freaky now that I think about it."
"That sort of magic is rarely used for anything pleasant. But Fluttershy shouldn't be capable of anything like that. Not unless..." Sunset's gaze grew distant for a few moments before she gasped. "Oh no."
"What is it?"
"I can't see Fluttershy."
Pinkie tilted her head. "You mean you can't see Fluttershy because of all of the trees in the way, or you can't see her in amazing Sun-O-Vision?"
"The latter." Sunset started pacing back and forth. "When I try to look at her, all I get is a hole in my awareness. I think it's the privacy spell I put into place for her. Maybe being physically connected to the area let her feed her own magic into the spell, or maybe ambient energies, or..." Sunset shook her head. "I don't know! And it doesn't matter. The point is, she's turned my magic against me. I can't look in there, and I doubt I can summon her out of there either." Her spellgem glowed for a moment, but all she got was sparks. She sighed. "It's like trying to catch water in a net."
This called for the worst profanity Applejack could think of. "How the pear-flavored fuck did you not notice this?"
Sunset gave her a flat look. "Applejack, I'm going to tell you what I've been trying to tell the entire world for the past few months: I. Am not. A god. Yes, I have access to more magic and knowledge than most people. Yes, I am responsible for the continued integrity of the universe. But I am neither omnipotent nor omniscient, nor have I ever been so. I kept an eye on Fluttershy for a week. After no sign of adverse effects, I focused on other, seemingly more pressing matters."
"Like what?"
"Making my 'what not to do with magic' vlog, stymieing the radicalization of my church, keeping the sun's helium-4i levels below the point where they'd generate a system-wide magical shockwave, that sort of thing." Sunset sighed. "I thought she'd be fine."
Applejack scowled. "Well, ya thought wrong."
Sunset rolled her eyes. "Yes, I can see that."
"Then let's go fix it!"
"I don't think I can let myself go in there," Sunset said with a shake of her head.
Applejack groaned. "This ain't no time fer a guilt trip!"
Sunset shook her head. "You don't understand." She reached out towards the overgrown area, only for her hand to come against a glowing green barrier. She looked back at Applejack, her headgem shining the same color. "I literally can't let myself go in there. My own magic is stopping me."
Pinkie gawked at this. "Seriously?"
"Seriously. At least I know why. You both remember how the Fall Formal crown was a magical artifact I stole from Equestria." Sunset waited for them to nod before continuing. "It was an Element of Harmony, sort of a fruit of the Tree of Harmony. You're each connected to an Element; even if you weren't during the Formal, you definitely were when we changed the world. It's possible that you even are my Elements of Harmony. Whatever the case, Fluttershy's using that connection to turn my power against me. She might even be why we've never been able to meet up long enough to all see her at once."
"How can she even do that?" said Applejack.
Sunset blinked. "I just—"
"Spouted a lot o' magic malarkey that went so far over mah head, it dinged a satellite. Plain Wranglish, Sunset, what's she doin'?"
Sunset bit her lip. "Well, when I tried to go in just now, she... asked nicely."
"She asked nicely."
"Very nicely. I literally couldn't say no. It's a request so polite that it's basically a geas." Sunset held up a hand. "An irresistible magical command, not a bird."
Applejack sighed. "Pinkie, I'm guessin' you ain't keen on meetin' up with Fluttershy again."
Pinkie shook her head. "Not while she's still hopped up on crazy fruit magic."
Applejack cracked her neck. "Welp. Guess I'll be back soon." She strode off.
"Um, Applejack?" said Pinkie. "Fluttershy's that way." She pointed at the small patch of ancient woodland.
"I know that, Pinkie. I'm gettin' mah work duds first."
Applejack grumbled as she fought her way through the overgrowth. The forest was doing a decent impression of a jungle, plant life trying to fill every available scrap of space. That meant ducking under vines, muscling through shrubs, and sweating like a hog thanks to the long-sleeved shirt, thick overalls, and sturdy boots that were keeping her safe from anything thorny. Not there was anything thorny, of course. Applejack kept her gratitude for that fact to herself. The last thing she wanted was to give Fluttershy ideas. Speaking of...
"Fluttershy!" Applejack cried for what felt like the fiftieth time. "I know yer in here somewhere! And don't go thinkin' you can put some kinda whammy on me just 'cause I got fingernails bigger'n a prize-winnin' pumpkin. My family's been tendin' orchards fer generations. I ain't takin' no guff from no tree, even if that tree is one o' my best friends." After a moment, Applejack shook her head and muttered, "Don't know which one's goin' crazier, me or the rest o' the world."
She hauled herself over a fallen tree and took a deep breath. She had to remember that this was Fluttershy she was dealing with. A different sort of Fluttershy than she was used to, but Fluttershy all the same. "We ain't mad, sugar, we're just worried. After Pinkie told us what ya did to 'er, Sunset tried t' get in touch with ya. Said she couldn't." Applejack shrugged. "I didn't follow why too well, but all I needed t' know is that it meant I had t' go see you the old-fashioned way.
"An' you really need th' help, Fluttershy. This place needs weedin' with an axe an' a shovel." Applejack came to a halt before a massive thicket of roses that she swore hadn't been there a second ago. She scowled, pulled a pair of work gloves out of her back pocket, and started clambering over it. "An' maybe a flamethrower while we're at it."
Applejack wasn't sure how she tripped. There should've been enough thorns hooked into her clothes to make any kind of movement a hassle. But somehow, trip she did, landing on her rear. She looked back and saw several scraps of cloth still attached to the bush. That explained why her back felt better ventilated. She turned forward and saw a clearing, or at least an area clear of any plants larger than grass, excepting Fluttershy herself. Applejack had somehow managed to get here behind her. However, what the space lacked in plant life, it more than made up for with a carpet of fuzzy, fluffy life.
"'Scuse me." Applejack kept her feet low, moving them slowly to nudge the critters out of the way. They made room for her, but turning back showed her how they filled the gaps as soon as she left them. She fought back a shudder and focused on Fluttershy. "I suppose it's late t' say it, but I'm sorry I never touched base; been real busy on the farm lately."
Fluttershy said nothing.
"Uh, Fluttershy? You ain't sore at me or nothin', are ya?" Applejack worked her way around her friend so that she could face her.
All she saw was a living sculpture, eyes shut, arms folded across the chest like a Anugyptian sarcophagus, incredibly detailed but totally immobile.
"Fluttershy!" Applejack thought back to that first time back at CHS. All it had seemed to take was Twilight touching Fluttershy. Twilight, whose magical abilities were second only to Sunset's. Applejack snarled. "I ain't givin' up that easy." She put her hands on Fluttershy's shoulders and shut her eyes. "C'mon, Shy, I know yer in there somewhere."
There was a sensation. A feeling in Applejack's mind that didn't come from it. Awareness. Recognition. Fondness.
"That's right, sugar. It's me. Come on back to us now."
Refusal, polite but insistent. And even that felt fainter than the impressions before it.
"Fluttershy? Fluttershy!"
Nothing. Applejack was just holding a hunk of wood.
She shook her head. "No. You ain't dead yet. I'm gettin' you outta here. Just wait an' see."
A chorus of squeaks, squawks, and hisses sounded from all around her. None of them sounded happy.
Applejack swept a glare across the clearing. "Let me make one thing clear, varmints. I got boots and I ain't afraid t' use 'em." Applejack stomped a foot, driving it an inch into the soil. She pulled it out of the loamy crater with no sign of effort. "Now I suggest y'all let me by. Do that and I ain't ever comin' back this way. Deal?"
The birds took wing. The other creatures arranged themselves to create a narrow path towards a gap in the foliage that Applejack knew hadn't been there before.
She tipped her hat. "Much obliged." She strode out without haste, her way unimpeded by anything.
Pinkie pounced on Applejack almost before she emerged. "Well? How is she? What did she say?"
Applejack didn't say anything, instead moving away from the copse. The others followed. "What is it?" said Sunset.
"That place has ears." Even several paces from the area, Applejack kept her voice low. "Shy ain't doin' well, but I got a plan."