September 2 – 2:01 PM
Apple Bloom had known that her situation was bad, but somehow, it seemed that she had managed to underestimate how much worse it could get. It wasn’t just the damp, numbing cold that was slowly but surely causing her body to shut down, nor was it the increasingly violent shivers from the pegasus she was shielding from the fog’s internal chaos. In the last few minutes, it had become clear that the temperatures were affecting Scootaloo’s mind as much as her body; her shivers were occasionally broken by active struggles against Apple Bloom. The pegasus filly kept trying to push her friend off of her, claiming that she was far too warm and needed to cool off, all while her teeth chattered noisily in the stinging chill. Apple Bloom’s feeble attempts to use reason to keep Scootaloo calm failed abysmally, and in the end she just had to rely on her earth pony strength to keep her friend pinned to the ground, where she was safer.
As if anypony could be safe in a fog like this, Apple Bloom thought bitterly as she listened for any sign of imminent rescue—or attack. She hadn’t yet heard anything that indicated that any humans were nearby, but surely they had to be somewhere in the mist. However, by this point, Apple Bloom was seriously wondering whether it might not be better for humans to find them. As far as she could tell, the worst thing they could do was put the two of them out of their misery faster than the fog might.
Even when Scootaloo’s ravings subsided, Apple Bloom’s worries didn’t, because the pegasus’ ramblings were not replaced with more reasoned discourse, but merely faded into unresponsive silence, punctuated only with occasional shuddering as the cold air continued its assault on the fillies. “C’mon, Scootaloo,” she said, gently shaking her friend in an effort to keep her from drifting off. “You gotta stay with me. I... I don’t think I can last if I’m the only one.” Fortunately, the pleading tone in her voice was enough to elicit a moan from Scootaloo, which Apple Bloom concluded was better than nothing. Somethin’s gotta happen soon, she thought to herself. Anythin’ is better than just waitin’ until both of us... pass out. It just can’t get worse, can it?
It was around this point that Apple Bloom noticed that the fog was considerably less silent than it had been before. She had no memory of the noise beginning, but as soon as she recognized the sounds as something out of the ordinary, it seemed as though it had been growing in the background for some time. At first, it sounded like a heavily muffled rattlesnake, but within minutes, the noise had grown far too loud for even a dozen rattlers. Aside from the volume, the rattle was accompanied by a cacophony of clicks and clacks that eventually started blending into a noisy din. Soon, the sounds were not merely somewhere off in the distance, but seemed to be surrounding the two ponies on all sides, including directly above them.
Once or twice, Apple Bloom thought she felt a rush of air, as though something had swooped towards her head. Nervously, she pressed Scootaloo against the ground as she squeezed her eyes shut. That ain’t fair! I didn’t even say it out loud! Just because she hadn’t thought the situation could get worse, that didn’t mean that Fate had to prove her wrong.
The situation had indeed worsened: something so bizarre and alien as this blanket of noise could only be the work of the humans, and Apple Bloom was now quite certain that they would have no reason to take pity on a pair of wayward fillies.
September 2 – 2:10 PM
Fluttershy nodded solemnly as she listened to the chirps of the grayish-brown bird on the windowsill. “I see... well, that’s certainly welcome news, though it sounds like there might not be a lot of time to act on it. Tell the rest of the flock to keep circling the area until some pegasi arrive wearing shiny suits like mine.”
The tiny bird let out an affirmative tweet and took off into the fog, making assorted clicks and rattles with its voice to help it avoid obstacles as it traveled through the murk.
“Good news?” Rainbow Dash asked hopefully.
“Oh, absolutely,” Fluttershy said with a slight smile. “The swiftlets have found Apple Bloom and Scootaloo. The trouble is that it seems that Sweetie Belle wasn’t exaggerating when she told us they were in really bad shape; if anything, she understated the problem.” Fluttershy then turned to Twilight and asked, “Um, you wouldn’t happen to have any bobby pins I can borrow, would you?”
Twilight seemed a bit confused by the request, but still, she answered, “Not really, though I do have a few scrunchies for when I need to keep my mane out of my eyes when I’m doing lab work. Will that do?”
“I think so,” Fluttershy replied.
As Twilight descended to her basement to locate the requested accessory, Rainbow Dash continued the conversation. “So, just out of curiosity, why did you have Owlowiscious get in touch with these birds? I thought for sure you were going to ask him to find a bunch of bats. I mean, he’s an owl. I’m sure he knows some.”
“Oh, he does, but the main reason I wanted his help was because he can fly through fog without too much trouble, not because he’s usually awake at night.”
“Okay... but still, why not bats? I mean, don’t they use screechy noises to see in the dark?”
Fluttershy nodded. “It’s true that they use a very sophisticated form of echolocation, but the thing is that it’s so sensitive that fog renders it much less effective. Cave swiftlets, on the other hoof, don’t mind fog nearly as much. Also, they’re diurnal.”
Rainbow Dash scratched her head. “Huh?”
“That means they’re active during the day, so they’re not as grumpy at this hour as a colony of bats would be.”
“But... if they’re awake during the day, why do they need to use echoes to see where they’re going?”
“Because they build their nests in dark caves. Granted, their form of echolocation is somewhat less sophisticated than the kind bats use, so a few of them had to swoop in close to them just to make sure, but they’re almost certain that they’ve found two small ponies. Right now, most of the flock is circling the general area above the fog.”
Rainbow Dash grinned. “Awesome. Don’t you worry about a thing, Fluttershy. Me and Thunderlane are gonna get those two back before you know it.”
Fluttershy, however, shook her head. “That’s not quite what I had in mind, actually. You see, even when you get to the swiftlets, you’ll still need to find the Crusaders in the fog.”
Rainbow Dash seemed perplexed. “Oh, yeah... so, what, you’ve got a plan to manage that?”
Before Fluttershy could answer, Twilight returned from from the basement with a scrunchie suspended in her magical aura. “Here you are, Fluttershy. Will this be alright?”
“Yes, I think so,” Fluttershy replied as she whipped her mane into a tight ponytail and deftly put on the scrunchie to hold it in place.
“Fluttershy? Your plan?” Rainbow Dash asked as Fluttershy started unknotting her cravat.
“Oh, um, right,” Fluttershy replied as she carefully laid the neckwear on a nearby table. “Well, in order to find the Crusaders in time, the swiftlets will need to guide you to them. And since neither you nor Thunderlane can talk to birds...” She trailed off as she pulled the silver hood of the fog suit over her head and stuffed a stray lock of hair beneath it.
Rainbow Dash looked stunned. “Flutters, are you saying what I think you’re saying?”
Fluttershy nodded as she strapped a pair of flight goggles over her eyes. “I’m taking the lead on this one personally.”
September 2 – 2:17 PM
The cold had been bad. The clicks, scrapes, and rattles of whatever contraptions the humans were using in their invasion of Equestria were worse. But the worst of all was yet to come—though given that Scootaloo had gone completely silent, and seemed to be struggling to even keep her eyelids open a crack, Apple Bloom fully expected the worst to arrive at any moment, and it was this that terrified her more than anything else.
“C’mon, Scoots... please... you just gotta stay with me. I... I don’t think I can face it alone....”
“It,” of course, was the end. It wasn’t really death itself that frightened Apple Bloom; she’d fully understood and accepted its inevitability from a young age, ever since she’d first asked Granny Smith why the other foals had mommies and daddies but not her. But she’d always thought of death as something that either happened in the blink of an eye, like when a stallion was mauled by a timberwolf while protecting his wife and children, or at the end of a long sickness, lying in a warm bed and surrounded by friends and family. But this? There was no speed to be found here, nor was there any certainty—the end might come from the numbing cold, or the fanatical zeal of a human, or perhaps something even worse that her mind, half-delirious from the cold, could not conceive. And if Apple Bloom lost Scootaloo, she wouldn’t even have anypony else to enable a last resurgence of bravery, to face the end with some measure of dignity.
The tears that streamed down Apple Bloom’s cheeks were not those of sadness and regret, but fear of the unknown and shame for wanting to leave before Scootaloo. After all, if she died first, then the pegasus would be the one who had to be alone.
That was when she heard a voice—no, two voices—cutting through the rattling din surrounding her. Apple Bloom couldn’t quite make out what they were saying over the noise, but one was definitely male, while the other was female. The voices grew louder, growing more and more distinct, until finally the male voice called out something unmistakable: “Apple Bloom!”
It had been a long time since Apple Bloom had heard her father’s voice; in fact, she barely remembered what it sounded like. She did, however, distinctly remember that the sound had always made her feel safe when she was frightened. And now that she thought about it, it did seem like the female voice sounded a little bit like Applejack’s....
Apple Bloom froze indecisively for several seconds. Part of her—most of her, actually—wanted to respond, if only so she could see her parents again, but at the same time she couldn’t bear the thought that she might be wrong. What if her mind was just playing tricks on her? Or worse, what if this was some cunning human trap?
However, before Apple Bloom could arrive at any resolution, the female voice now coalesced into something intelligible: “Scootaloo!”
It took Apple Bloom another second to realize that the voice sounded nothing like her memories of her mother—and why would her mother be calling out for Scootaloo when the two of them had never even met? In fact, the voice’s slightly raspy timber reminded her more of—
“Rainbow Dash!” Scootaloo shouted at the top of her lungs as her eyes flew open.
This was enough to snap Apple Bloom back into action. “We’re over here!” she shouted in the general direction of the voices.
The clicks and rattles died down a bit, and soon Apple Bloom could make out the comforting sound of hoofbeats on soil. She was momentarily panicked by the silver figure that emerged from the gloom, which bore no resemblance whatsoever to Rainbow Dash, but that panic dissipated as soon as the silver pony lifted her goggles and spoke out loud: “Are you girls okay?”
It wasn’t Rainbow Dash... it was Fluttershy. The gentle pegasus immediately embraced the pair in one of the warmest hugs Apple Bloom had ever felt, both emotionally and in terms of body temperature. “Oh, goodness, you two are cold. Don’t worry. Everything’s going to be alright.” She quickly pulled a blanket from out of her saddlebag and wrapped the two fillies inside of it before turning around and calling into the fog: “Rainbow! Thunderlane! I’ve found them!”
The next few minutes blurred together; before Apple Bloom knew it, she’d been wrapped in another blanket and tied to the stallion who’d accompanied Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash with a length of rope, and was soon dangling beneath him. It felt like being carried in an unusually cramped hammock, and it wasn’t long before Apple Bloom poked her head out of the top to look around her.
As Celestia’s sun beat down upon her face, Apple Bloom smiled broadly. She’d completely forgotten that it had been a warm day before the fog rolled in. Nearby, she could see Rainbow Dash transporting Scootaloo in a similar fashion. The fog slid beneath them, though it was a brilliant white now that they were above it. To the east, a great column of white rose over the Everfree forest, expanding outwards like a great vertical fan as the sun’s heat warmed and evaporated the newly reborn clouds, the whiteness gradually blending into the bold, bright blue of the cloudless sky. And to the northwest, the peaks of the Unicorn Range jutted out of the last vestiges of the fog, free to once again bask in the late-summer sunlight.
September 2 – 5:41 PM
Hard Hitter was not the most popular reporter on the staff of the Cloudsdale Eye. Most of his coworkers saw him as an arrogant jerk who thought far too highly of himself. It was widely believed that he cared more about his own reputation than about reporting the most important news to the paper’s readership. Hard Hitter was well aware of these opinions, and he didn’t care. He wouldn’t even argue that his primary goal was to increase his own status in journalistic circles, because he didn’t think it mattered. After all, when it’s your job to uncover and report the truth, that meant that the simplest way to increase your prestige was to do exactly that. Thus, as he strolled into the Eye’s offices and sat down at his desk with one of the most obnoxiously smug grins that had ever been plastered across his face, he was quite confident that his reputation was about to skyrocket.
“Hitter, there had better be a damned good reason why you weren’t in Ponyville today.”
The red stallion looked up from his typewriter and saw his editor, Grey Lady, glaring at him over a pair of spectacles. “Well, Boss,” he said, doing his best to appear apologetic, “I’ve been in Cloudsdale, following up on a lead I got on the first day of the fog. I’m fairly certain I explained that when I came back here yesterday.”
“You just left a message about ‘a potentially big development.’ Well, guess what? The situation’s under control now, which means there aren’t going to be any more big developments! This is easily the biggest story of the week, and you just took off on a wild goose chase!”
Hard Hitter took a deep breath. His rather vague explanations were, admittedly, a bit unprofessional, but he’d been writing for the Eye long enough to know that Grey Lady was quite forgiving when you turned in quality work, and he felt certain that this was going to be the best reporting of his career. “I was working on the biggest story of the week, but in the process I stumbled onto the biggest story of the year.”
“What are you talking about?”
“The Department of Weather certified Central Cloudsdale College’s Correspondence Course as part of its fog certification program.”
It took Grey Lady a few moments to fully process what Hard Hitter had said. “What in Tartarus... Are you serious about this, Hitter?”
“Dead serious,” the reporter replied as the aura of smugness around him grew even more palpable. “Here. I’ve taken the liberty of typing up my notes for you to read for yourself. I’d rather not waste time explaining everything at the moment.” He gave several pieces of paper to Grey Lady, each of them covered with typewritten lines.
His editor attempted to skim over the lines, but her eyes went out of focus; clearly, she had not been mentally prepared for this sort of information overload. “But... but this is Five-C you’re talking about. How could they possibly do that?”
“Well, I have a few ideas, but I don’t think I’ve found quite enough evidence to say anything with certainty, which is why I’d recommend letting me nose around a bit longer before I actually type up my article for you. For one thing, I’d like to compare this course to the ones offered at more traditional schools. That should let me know if we’re talking about plain old corruption or if it’s the certification process itself that’s screwed up.”
“Right...” Grey Lady replied, still sounding dazed. “I’m, er, going to be in my office looking this over.”
As his editor shuffled away from Hard Hitter’s cubicle, the reporter leaned back in his chair and chuckled triumphantly as visions of the Muckraker Prize danced in his head.
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So sad it's coming to an end. I felt really bad for Apple Bloom having to come to terms with her possible death like that. Well done.
Go Fluttershy the hero!
I'm surprised the birds weren't effected by the fogs temperature given the job it was doing on the foals and even Pinkie, their small size would make them more vulnerable to heat loss but I guess all the flying around countered it.
5223924 - Well, keep in mind that they can easily fly out of the fog and into the sun.
We're in the home stretch now and I can't wait to see the resolution. I imagine that the crusaders are going to get an earful once they're all safe and warm.
Hard Hitter is going to get hit hard once it's proven that Fluttershy is the beneficiary of what someone in the fifties called 'clean-cut corruption'; that and watching the CMC get yelled at for poisoning Derpy and risking their lives for fake monsters will be a nifty thing to see.
Something tells me Hard Hitter is going to get a smack in the face for his trouble.
Oh yes, Hard Hitter. Big things are going to happen to your reputation when it comes out that you are trying to muckrake somepony who not only successfully pulled off the assignment handed to her, but managed to personally save the lives of two fillies in the process. I'm sure that the effects of your report will be very far reaching and long lasting indeed, and that every newspaper in Equestria will remember your name.
Just not in the way you're hoping for...
5224139 5224131 5224130 - Now might be a good time to remind my readers that the last time we saw Hard Hitter, he had decided to drop the Fluttershy angle of his story completely, as it was plainly obvious that there was nothing newsworthy about her desire to save money.
Animal powers, activate! It's like Fluttershy is a less useless version of Aquaman.
Also, scrunchie powers.
"Time for some thrilling heroics."
That muckraker piece is going to look really silly when all the other front pages have photos of Fluttershy (as in, the Five-C graduate on the scene) leading the rescue party that saved the lives of two foals.
Nice use of Swifts, instead of bats,with explanations why as well. Typical, I didnt even consider them, and my Mum has a couple nests in old buildings at her place and I can hear them around locally on evenings as well.
5224159
So why is he still in the story?
5224397 - You'll find out once you read the epilogue, but for now, let's just say that his presence is necessary to achieve a satisfactory end for other, more deserving characters.
Wait, weren't Apple Bloom and Scoots still trapped in the dangerously sticky net? And that was the whole reason they couldn't move? Shouldn't it get at least a passing mention in the rescue?
Other than that, Woohoo Fluttershy! You saved the day and the crusaders!
5224180 Hey Aqua man resents that c2.staticflickr.com/4/3711/9286203806_59fc70e059.jpg
5223924
I'd expect that a cave species would be used to the cold and damp; feathers are great insulation.
Poor Applebloom, how many times has she had to consider the possibility of dying now?
Cave swiftles eh? You learn something new everyday.
5224619
Derp, i was about to ask how the birds were fine in the fog, but looks like you already answered that question. makes sense.
5224619 - Well, to be honest, I kind of cheated a little bit in choosing swiftlets. You see, only two kinds of birds are known to use echolocation (I chose cave swiftlets because they're the more well-known of the two--their nests are used to make bird's nest soup), but both of them are actually tropical birds. However, I decided it would be less complicated to just assume that the nonexistent Equestrian swiftlet is adapted to temperate climates than it was to have Fluttershy, who is supposed to be an expert in both animal behavior and fog, convince a colony of bats to find the Crusaders despite the well-documented fact that bats hate fog and will avoid flying into it unless they have no other choice. (The complicated part is coming up with a reason why Fluttershy would even think it was a good idea to try to do so in the first place.)
I really don't know how well real-world swiftlets do in the cold.
mylittlefacewhen.com/media/f/img/mlfw2604-Luna_saw_what_you_did_there.jpg
Nice little twist using swiftlets instead of bats to keep things sort of realistic, and it's always nice to see Fluttershy 'pony up' when her friends are in danger.
Heh. Grey Lady. Nice one.
fc09.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2012/148/f/8/twilight_with_a_ponytail_by_jennieoo-d51eyz7.png th06.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/i/2012/145/9/8/fluttershy_dash_with_a_ponytail_by_jennieoo-d5127qk.png
Yay, foals saved!
I don't know what Hard Hitters up to exactly, but it's nice to see someone trying to climb up in their field by doing good work instead of manipulation/ getting favors from higher ups.
Thank Celestia the foals are alright!
You know I find it kind of sweet that injured, delirious and suffering from severe hypothermia Scootaloo still recognize and responded to Dash's voice.