It was a busy day for Twilight Sparkle; she had a lot of ponies stop by to ask for a certain book, spike was very little help as he seemed to have a lot on his mind. "Spike, focus," Twilight yelled as spike stared at the spine of an Equestrian fashion book.
“Oh sorry Twilight, here you go," Spike said still not half there. Twilight took the book from spike, giving the dragon a disapproving look; she turned and walked downstairs where Rarity stood in the door watching her descend.
"Here you are Rarity," Twilight placed the book in Rarity's saddle pack.
“Thank you darling, I was meaning to ask for this earlier but I got swept up in a burst of inspiration," Rarity said smiling and fluffing her mane.
"It's alright I'm always happy to help,” Twilight said not really thinking of Rarity, her thoughts were on spike, ever since he grew a little bigger she worried he would become greedy like before, his focus had already-
"Are you alright Twilight?" Twilight looked up at Rarity, who had look of concern on her face.
"I'm ok, but spike has been a little out of it lately," Twilight said drifting back into thought, before Rarity could reassure Twilight, footsteps caught her attention.
Spike walked down the steps over to Twilight, “Hey Twilight, the princess sent you a letter."
Twilight looked over and magically lifted the letter to read it.
'Dear Twilight Sparkle, This is Princess Luna with an emergency situation, the Everfree forest seems to be the housing of some unknown metal ponies who have a frightening superstition about them, many dragons in that area report seeing metal creatures walking around shining some odd light at the surrounding area. Our sister Princess Celestia went to investigate this and has not returned since, we ask that you and your friends go and investigate to see if you can confirm what these metal creatures are and perhaps see if you can find our sister. We advise caution as these ponies do not seem to want anything in particular, good luck and be safe.'
You’re Princess,
Luna
Twilight stood there wide eyed, Spike silently read over the letter and then proceeded to sit down, overwhelmed.
"May I read that," Rarity asked, Twilight only nodded her head and kept thinking about the Princess disappearing. While Rarity read the letter, Rainbow Dash flew in and landed by Rarity, she had finished her weather duties for today and wanted to check out the next 'Daring Do' book.
She stopped before asking Twilight when she saw her face and spike sitting down, looking shocked, suddenly she heard Rarity gasp next to her and turned to see her drop the letter.
"What's the matter guys," Rainbow asked wondering why they all looked terrified.
“Th-the Princess has gone missing in the Everfree forest," Twilight said with an apparent not of worry in her voice.
"Wait, Princess Celestia has gone missing," Rainbow asked shocked. Both mares just nodded and watched Rainbow Dash's expression suddenly change.
Twilight pulled her wits back in by a rope, "We need to get the girls all together, we need a plan," Twilight said to Rarity and Rainbow, who nodded in approval.
Later that day all the mane six were gathered in the library and were staring at twilight, waiting to hear what great scheme she had devised. "Alright, what we need to do is make our way to Zecora's house and then we can set up a fallback point in case any of us get into trouble."
"What if we spot one of the 'metal' ponies," Rainbow asked, imitating a weird a robot.
"I thought of a plan in that situation," Twilight said as she pulled out a round sphere the size of an apple, "These are signal lights, all you do is throw it into the air and it will pop with a light." She pulled out five more of them, each being the color of each pony, “Hopefully they won't find us before we find them."
Suddenly there was a crash at the door that made everypony jump in all directions, Rainbow dash worked up the nerve to walk over and open the door. On the ground, a Gray Pegasus with a golden mane lay, holding a package, “Oh hi Ditzy, what's up," Rainbow asked, relieved.
“My apologies Miss Rainbow Dash, I only wished to deliver this package," Ditzy Do said, hoofing the package over to Rainbow, who couldn't help but notice that Ditzy's right eye was clouded, probably blind, with a scar running from top to bottom.
As the mare turned she said, " Not everypony came out unhurt by Discord's rule," this statement caught Rainbow off guard, as Ditzy Do flew off, Rainbow closed the door and began to walk back over to where the others were gathering.
As Rainbow opened the package Pinkie Pie tried to guess what was in it, “Um maybe it's a fake moosestache, or OH OH a silly hat, or maybe it-" her guessing was cut off when Twilight magically zipped Pinkie's mouth shut.
“Or maybe we can wait and see what's actually in it." Twilight staring at the package.
"Sheesh you could have asked," Pinkie pouted, unzipping her mouth, Rainbow reached in and lifted out a circular piece of glowing metal.
"Hmm I wonder what this is supposed to be," Twilight said, examining it closer.
" Whatever it is, there are five more," Rainbow said looking back into the box, everypony took one and looked at it closely, there was a bright flash of light, blinding them, and then the light's changed to match each ponies color.
"That's mighty fancy," Applejack said looking at the device, "But what do they do?"
The ponies sat there for a while trying different tactics to try to get them to work, eventually they stuck them in their saddle packs and finished packing up for the trip, Rarity taking longer than the others.
Once they were off they all began to think twice about all this Everfree forest business, Fluttershy had not been in the forest for a very long time, but it did not seem the phase her a bit. Applejack kept looking over at Fluttershy, she was suspicious, they were close the edge of the Everfree forest and it didn’t phase Fluttershy a bit? Something was wrong. They stopped before they entered, it was silent, dead silent.
Everypony was sticking close to Twilight, none dared stray too far, Fluttershy was not paying attention, she was lost in thought. In her mind she was playing out a dream in her head, over and over, listening to a line she heard, " T!k3n, It's time for perfection." Fluttershy couldn't understand the first word spoken, she kept replaying it over and over, burning the phrase into her mind, and she would not forget it.
"Y'all alright there shy," Applejack asked noticing Flutter, looking at the ground, they all stopped and looked at her.
"What, oh yeah I’m fine," Shy replied, not enjoying the attention. She pressed forward without another word, the others exchanged looks and carried on, to Fluttershy, the walk to Zecora's lasted an eternity.
No sooner had she thought that, Shy hit Zecora's door, backing up the others as they drew near, nopony laughed when it happened. Twilight noticed no light leaving the Zebra's hut.
" Hello, Zecora, are you here," Said Rainbow suddenly, Pinkie bounced past and pushed open the door, noticeable before anything was a huge hole in the back of Zecora's home, through it Pinkie thought she saw something turn and run off, but she couldn't be sure.
The mane six walked around, looking for any sign of attack, or Zecora, "Man they really sacked the place," Rainbow said, looking at broken bottles. Everypony then heard an odd sound come through the open hole in the hut.
Pinkie heard a whoosh and looked around for the source, not finding any she assumed it was Rainbow dash. Ironically, Rainbow assumed it was pinkie pie.
More sounds were heard, this time from all around the hut, every pony backed to the middle, Fluttershy fell into the pot in the middle of Zecora’s house. From inside the pot Shy heard whooshing and clanging from the side off the pot, when she stuck her head out she saw nopony, just an empty hut.
======================
After the six mares had left, Spike began to focus; he noticed what a mess the library was. "Hmm better clean this up before Twilight gets back," Spike thought, beginning to pick up books.
Just as he was doing so there was a knock at the door, "Of course," spike said as he dropped the load of books he carried, he ran over to open the door.
Ditzy walked in before Spike even identified who it was, "Where have your pony friends gone," she asked looking around.
"Um they got a letter from Princess Luna saying something about Princess Celestia going missing, I wasn't paying attention," Spike turned and approached the Pegasus," Why were you needing them?"