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The Bag992 words
Diabolical Mastermind2,078 words
Play it Cool2,326 words
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She's On Fire!1,980 words
Suspenseful Suspension 3,284 words
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Once and For Wall4,347 words
It Certainly Was Something...2,009 words
A Hero's Tale: The Divine Comedy (Also Called the Epilogue)669 words
A Couple More Weeks Later (Also Called Epilogue Number Two)1,221 words

Play it Cool

“I’m so sorry for making you do this. If there was any other way…”

Backing out of the cottage, Dash waved her hoof smugly and dismissed, “No, no, it’s cool Fluttershy. That’s what friends are for.” She shut the door behind her and began to tread down the walkway, her held high. Her face was emotionless, calm, as if she totally didn’t care that she was heading home to get ready for smuggling furry contraband.

Then, when she was safely out of view, Rainbow Dash began to awesomely freak out.

Pouncing behind a bush, the pegasus began to hyperventilate, her eyes bulging out, her legs flailing every which way. She eventually rolled onto her back and buried her face in her front legs, uttering, “Ohmygosh, ohmygosh, ohmygosh. This is so not cool.” She began to teeter back and forth, curled up into ball, repeating the same words over and over. This continued for only a few more minutes, even though to her it felt like an eternity.

Then suddenly, she propped herself up on her haunches, her face pulled into a scowl. She slapped herself across her cheek numerous times, telling herself, “Pull yourself together, Rainbow! What was that old saying? Friends help friends sneak live animals into other countries or something? It can’t be that hard. If Flutters could do it all by herself, then this should be a piece of cake!”

Her pep talk was untimely cut short, however, by somepony whispering behind her, “Rainbow? I thought you’d gone home to get ready.”

“Fluttershy!” Dash cried, quickly scambling to her hooves. “What are you doing here?”

“This is…my house?”

The two pegasi continued to stare at each other for an awkwardly prolonged period of time, neither saying a word. Finally, scratching her mane while looking at Fluttershy out of the corner of her eye, Rainbow Dash said, “I…should probably get going.”

“Yes.”

So with a flourish of her wings, Rainbow Dash left Fluttershy’s cottage behind, and this time for real. But of course, being the kind of stand-out pony she was, Dash didn’t get very far. The pegasus had just flown into town when a voice behind her shouted, “Rainbow Dash!”

Just ignore her, Rainbow. Maybe she’ll go away, Dash told herself, continuing to fly on.

“Rainbow! Hey Rainbow! Where ya headed off to?”

Okay then, she’s not going away...just act normal Rainbow. Act cool.

The pegasus swung around to find herself face to face with none other than Applejack. Applejack, on the other hoof, was greeted by a mildly unsettling smile that could also be mistaken as a grimace of pain. But despite the enormous set of pearly whites Rainbow Dash was showing off, the cowpony said calmly, “I was wondering where ya went off to! You were gone fer a bit longer than I thought!”

“Hi…AJ. What are you doing around here?” Dash asked, feigning innocence.

“Umm, mah farm’s just down the street.” Applejack pointed behind her towards a large painted sign that screamed the words Sweet Apple Acres in bold red.

Well shoot, Dash screamed in her head, mentally kicking herself.

While she continued to scold herself, Applejack continued, “I was waiting fer you to come back an’ tell me how yer talk with Fluttershy went!”

“Oh yeah, that! Yeah I just got done talking to her, y’know. I went inside, we had some coffee, we talked, we stopped talking, and now I’m on my way to do some important….weather patrol business.”

“But it’s Sunday. You don’t work on Sundays.”

Despite the fact that she was saying a few unsophisticated things in her mind at the moment, Dash put on her best smile, adding a small shrug for good measure. Putting on a good show of knocking her forehead with her hoof, the pegasus said, “Oh right, I forgot! Guess I oughta head home and fix my schedule.”

She started to fly away when she felt a sudden tug on her tail. Applejack had it clenched tightly in her teeth, pulling the pegasus back to the ground. With her eyes narrowed, the cowpony stated, “Jeez, Speedy, ain’t you the jittery one? It ain’t like you got anywhere to be. Yer actin’ like Fluttershy told you she was some kind of wanted criminal or something.”

Every muscle in Rainbow Dash’s body suddenly tensed up, causing her to stand erect. Her heart began to beat faster, and her pupils started to dilate as AJ’s words sank in. Applejack gave her a stern glare, and the pegasus could have sworn she had seen a twinkle in her friend’s all-knowing eyes. Oh crud, she thought, biting her lip.

Then without warning, Applejack burst into laughter. “That’s crazy talk! Fluttershy? A criminal? Ha! That’s funnier than Granny Smith wearing lingerie in the middle of a sweaty hot day.”

“Heh, fuuuuny,” Rainbow replied, letting out a secret sigh of relief.

“No, no it’s not,” the farmer added, for some reason still chuckling. “But anyway, what’d she really tell ya?”

“She actually…uhhhh...” Rainbow Dash started to glance at things all around her; the sky, the ground, the grass, anything that wasn’t directly in Applejack’s hardened eyes. After licking her lips for what seemed to be the hundredth time, she blurted, “Dropped one of her contacts earlier and passed by to try and find it! Yeah….that’s it.”

For a second, Rainbow Dash caught glimpse of Applejack’s eyes. And for that one split second, she could feel those eyes glaring at her, drilling into her, piercing her very soul. Those eyes made her tremble; she was ensnared in a web of her own lies, trapped by those green orbs of terror.

“Aww shoot, I hate it when that happens!” Applejack responded, her head actually turned towards the field, not even looking at her pegasus friend. “Big Mac loses his contacts all the time, an’ it takes forever to find ‘em. Not to mention he’s gotta put ‘em in with them big clunky hooves of his. I hope she found ‘em.”

“Y-yeah. I think she did. Everything’s all good,” Dash assured, slowly backing away.

“But wait…then why would Fluttershy be in the field earlier?”

This time, the cyan pegasus didn’t wait around to give an answer. She sputtered, “Yeah, ‘kay, gotta go, bye!” and rocketed off into the sky, her wings pumping as fast as they could.

Applejack held tightly onto her hat as the gust from Dash’s wings hit her. She looked up at the speck in the sky with raised brows, muttering to herself, “Since when did all my friends turn into wierdos?”

xxx

The day soon passed into night, the moon hanging over Ponyville like an ever-watching eye. Fluttershy stood in her backyard, looking up at this glowing eyeball, a slight frown prevalent on her hooded face. For some reason, there was something about this moon, something that made the pegasus uneasy. And yet she couldn’t put a hoof on it, no matter how long she stared at the sky.

The cottage was surrounded by darkness, the only light coming from a tiny torch held in Fluttershy’s hooves. Being so far from town, the only sounds were rustling leaves and faint growling coming from the nearby Everfree. And even after living here for so many years, Fluttershy still hadn’t gotten used to it.

Suddenly she heard the crunching of a twig, causing her to jump. She peered into the darkness, only able to make out the faint outline of an unknown creature. Fluttershy drew in a breath, shakily shining her torch in the creature’s direction.

“Calm down, crazy. It’s just me.”

Rainbow Dash stepped out of the darkness, and Fluttershy slowly began to settle back down. Pulling back her hood, she whispered, “Oh Rainbow. You scared me.”

“Yeah, what else is new?” Dash mumbled, leaning herself against a fencepost. She wore a black beanie over her colorful mane, letting only the tip of her forelock hang out. “So are we gonna get going now, or what?”

“We’ll leave soon Dash. But first, I’d like you meet the animals.” Fluttershy made her way over to a tree stump where she had put their living contraband. She picked up a satchel bag, out of which popped a trio of tiny otter heads. They each had a silver stripe running down their backs, and they shoved each other, vying for some space.

“These are the otter triplets: Giovanni, Anton, and Francesca. Don’t worry, they’re fraternal.”

“Yeah…right,” Dash replied, staring at the bickering otters, trying to figure out which one was which. They all look like stinkin’ otters to me, she thought, already giving up on remembering their names.

“This is the Phoenix Family. Mama Phoenix, Papa Phoenix, and Chibi,” Fluttershy said, leading Rainbow to a birdcage holding three docile-looking phoenixes.

“Y’know, it kinda looks like Spike’s old bird. You don’t think-?”

“Nope, probably not, okay moving on,” Fluttershy interrupted, quickly shuffling over to a small glass box containing a small blue rattlesnake.

“This is Fang,” she began, as Rainbow began to lean in and inspect it. She caught a glimpse of the snake’s eyes, bright red slits contrasting against its blue scales. That was when Fluttershy added, “Don’t worry, he doesn’t bite as long as you don’t look him in the eye.”

Rainbow’s eyes widened as the snake suddenly lunged forward, baring its surprisingly long venomous fangs. Suddenly, there was a loud thunk, followed by the sound of angry rattling. Dash had been saved by the inch of glass between them, and she made sure Fang knew it, closing her eyes and blowing a raspberry. “Nice try, Fang,” the pegasus taunted before following Fluttershy along.

They soon came upon another small cage, this time containing two white mice. “What about these lil’ guys?” Rainbow asked, gingerly picking up the container.

“Those two are Martin and Mathias.”

“They just look like regular mice,” Dash said with a smirk, putting her face right up to the bars.

“Yeah. Except they spit poison.”

Fluttershy had said this just in the nick of time, and Dash swiftly moved her head out of the way just as a blob of poison sped past he face. The tip of her mane sizzling, she carefully put the cage down, never taking her eyes off the two creatures.

However, Fluttershy didn’t even seem to notice, continuing her spiel as though nothing had happened. “Oh, and there’s one more animal. I call him Fluffy. He’s pretty feisty.”

Rolling her eyes, Dash replied, “Fluffy? Sounds terrifying.” Fluttershy went up to a container akin to a dog cage, with a cloth draped over to hide the contents. Giving a quick glance at her friend, the pegasus gasped the cloth and gave a swift tug.

The first thing that Dash could register was the deep guttural roar that shocked her from her thoughts. Then the tiny cage started to thrash about, bouncing and turning as though Fluttershy’ had managed to contain a twister. Then the creature lunged forwards, propelling the cage towards Rainbow, allowing her to see its ferocious feline face. The creature’s red mane surround its face, which held long pointed teeth that could easily shred an animal’s skin. But when Dash saw the pair of small bat-like wings, and the pointed, scorpion-like tail, she let out a small shriek. “Sweet mother of Luna, what the buck?!” Rainbow cried, leaping into the air.

“Language!”

But Rainbow wasn’t listening. She flew above Fluttershy, ranting, “A…a manticore! We’re taking a manticore with us?”

“Oh come on, Dash. He’s only a kitten,” the caretaker answered, somehow able to drape the cloth over the cage once again. “Mature manticores get to be four times his size!”

Dash’s mouth hung wide open, a look of disbelief plain on her face. “Y-yeah, but…but…aw forget it,” she muttered, waving her hoof dismissively. “J-just run the plan, Flutters. Before I decide to back out.”

Giving a little nod, Fluttershy whipped out a large map seemingly out of nowhere. She spread it across the ground, and grabbing a twig, she recited, “I used to take them through the forest north of here, but Luna has since placed a slew of Royal Guards on patrol. So this time, we’re going to have to go around, through the swamp. We’re going to follow along the edge, keeping an eye out for any guards that stray away from the forest. If we see any, we’ll be able to hide in the foliage.”

“Or fight ‘em,” Dash muttered under her breath, only half-serious.

“Err...okay...once we get past the swamp, we’ll make our way into the plains. There’s a lot of tall grass that we’ll be able to hide. Then, we’ll cross Deep Crevasse…”

“You’d think they’d come up with a cooler name than ‘Deep Crevasse’,” Rainbow interrupted, giving a small chuckle. However, Fluttershy didn’t look too amused, to the cyan pegasus added, “Sorry.”

Smiling politely, Fluttershy continued, “After that, it’s a clear shot to Cragslane Rock, which marks the border between Veneighzuela and Equestria. Once we get across that border, we’ll be home free. Do you…um…understand?”

“Yeah. Whatever.”

“Good,” Fluttershy said, slinging a pack over her bag before placing the large map inside. “Then it looks like we ought to get going as soon as possible.

“Well, I still can’t believe I’m doing this,” Dash uttered, picking up her own little bag Fluttershy had packed for her, complete with juice boxes, granola bars, and apples. “But on the bright side, I’ll look pretty cool doing it.”

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