The morning air was chilly. Nonetheless, anypony could see that it was the first real day of spring. The sun was low in the sky, hardly warming Ponyville, but that would come later. Thin wisps of cloud vaguely dotted the sky, a light gust making them ever-changing. This served as the Weather Teams' "screensaver" while they were off doing other, hopefully-more-important things.
Twilight decided to take advantage of the weather by visiting Fluttershy. This was something she felt inclined to do often. Twilight always thought that Fluttershy might get lonely, what with her only company being the animals she cared for. But Twilight could understand her friend's introversion, but Twilight could also understand the fine line between seclusion and exclusion, a line which was miserable to cross.
Despite her reasons for coming, Twilight did enjoy Fluttershy's company. When not channeling her OCPD, Twilight was also calm, reserved, and generally reasonable. Teatime between the two hardly ever involved superficial small talk. Instead, they discussed more important things, like news and deep philosophical realizations achieved when one is in the company of people who generally don't care, and just laugh at you suddenly bringing up some malarkey about desire being a contradiction unto itself.
By the time she reached Fluttershy's home, Twilight had forgotten what she had spent her walk thinking about. She knocked on the cottage door three times. The silence that followed was filled by the clucking of chickens from behind the cottage. After a short wait, the door cracked open. Twilight leaned her head to see her friend behind the door, "Hi, Fluttershy."
"Good morning, Twilight," Fluttershy said more softly than usual, opening the door wide enough for Twilight to enter.
"Is this a bad time?" Twilight asked.
"No, it's just that the animals have been out-of-hoof recently..." Fluttershy stepped aside to let Twilight in.
"Oh..." Twilight said as she entered the cottage, "Is there anything I can help with?"
"Don't worry, Twilight, I'm a professional," Fluttershy said as she closed her bloodshot eyes to give the best smile she could.
"If you say so..."
For a few moments Fluttershy ignored her guest as she trotted towards the back door, but stopped suddenly and turned around, "Actually, could you make sure Angel Bunny is fine while I collect the eggs? He should be upstairs."
"No problem, Fluttershy," Twilight said, nearly tripping on a wrinkle in the carpet while on her way to the stairs.
The staircase was much cleaner than the rest of Fluttershy's house was. The surface of the second floor was littered with scattered pieces of straw, probably from the birds' nests above.
The bed wasn't that "made" either. In fact, most of the sheets were stacked up in what looked like a tower. And atop this Tower of Softness sat a sleeping white rabbit, peaceful and ignorant to the violet unicorn that had just entered the room.
From the stairs, a certain air of disorder was apparent. Whilst it was hard to pin anything down, a pony could sense it. Was it the mismatching seat cushions? The unwashed stack of tea cups on the table? The picture that was just a few degrees askew?
These things made Twilight a little bit uneasy, because Fluttershy was always organized, her cottage kept in tip-top shape.
But a knock at the door kept Twilight from pinning down the source of her uneasiness.
"Who is it?" Twilight called from the bottom of the steps as she walked towards the door.
"Twilight Sparkle?" a vaguely familiar feminine voice asked. "What are you doing here?"
"Is that...?" Twilight stopped in front of the door. "Lyra Heartstrings, was it?"
Twilight opened the door, revealing a mint green unicorn, "Yep, that's me!"
"So, what ARE you doing here?" Twilight asked.
"I asked you first," Lyra said defiantly.
Twilight gave Lyra a quizzical look, "I'm kind of close friends with Fluttershy."
"Huh..." Lyra's gaze drifted away as she said, "I didn't know that..."
"Really? It should be obvious," Twilight's quizzical look loosened, changing to one of confusion. "We're both Elements-"
"I guess you learn something everyday..." Lyra's gaze wandered as she stepped into the cottage, ignoring Twilight.
Lyra trotted around the room, looking around, "Where's Fluttershy?"
"Why do you need her?" Twilight asked as her impatience with the green unicorn peaked.
"Bonbon's off in Manehatten, and asked me to grab some eggs for her," Lyra answered.
Twilight let out a deep breath to calm herself, then said, "Well, she's in the back, gathering eggs. Should I grab her for you?"
"No," Lyra answered, "I'll wait for her to get done."
"Alright," Twilight said. "Fluttershy's taking a while, so I'll make us some tea."
"Thanks," Lyra said, looking around the room for something to do.
On a table was the day's paper. So, she carelessly walked towards it. Twilight was worried that she might trip over one of the wrinkles in the carpet, but she reached the table unscathed.
So, she grabbed the paper and hopped back to the chair, newspaper in her mouth. Then, sat awkwardly-positioned, sitting with her plot on the seat and her back to the chair's back. No matter what anypony said, it was still comfortable.
Twilight turned around to see this and asked, "How can you stand to sit like that?" After a few moments of silence, Twilight said, "Lyra, I-"
"Have you read the paper today?" Lyra said, her eyes wide and glued to the paper and her eyebrows raised.
"Are you alright?" Twilight asked. This pony, cheerful and buoyant not moments ago was suddenly looking grim.
"'Manehatten Quarantined'," Lyra read straight from the paper. "'Although this can't be independently confirmed, it seems that the City of Manehatten has sealed itself off. The Ponyville Chronicle has been receiving reports of sudden, unexplained illness since last Monday. An official statement from Princess Celestia is still pending.'"
"That's horrible..." Twilight said. But she stopped what she was doing when Lyra started to breath heavily. "Lyra! Lyra, are you alright!"
Lyra muttered something that was incomprehensible to Twilight.
"What was that?"
Lyra closed the paper, eyes still wide as ponily possible, and gazed at the floor.
"Oh..." Twilight slowly stepped towards Lyra, her head down, "You said that Bonbon's in Manehatten..."
Lyra slowly nodded.
It pained Twilight to see somepony like this. But how could she cheer her up? Reassure her?
A shape that vaguely resembled an ink well was at the edge of Twilight's vision. But when she looked in that direction, Twilight didn't see any ink well.
But it gave her an idea.
"Where could I find some ink, a quill, and paper around here?" Twilight asked.
Lyra lifted her head. Her expression was no longer one of distress. Her eyes were dreary, her eyebrows still raised, but it was less exaggerated.
"Why are you asking me?" Lyra asked in a tired voice.
"If anypony knows anything about this, it would be Celestia," Twilight said. "I'm going to write to her."
"You can do that?" Lyra's eyes widened themselves, and her expression became neutral.
"Sure I can!" Twilight said, wandering around the room, looking for a quill and paper. "But Lyra, Manehatten's a big city...-"
"Yeah, it is, isn't it?" a smile came back to Lyra's face. "Even if there's some sort of disease in Manehatten, who's to say that Bonbon would be affected?"
Twilight had meant to go on to say that there were too many ponies in the city to guarantee she could get any news about Bonbon herself, but that wasn't as encouraging as what Lyra had taken from it, so Twilight stayed silent.
Lyra took a deep breath in, and slowly exhaled. She got up and used her magic to lift a misplaced quill and ink from on top of the fire place, just as Twilight found some paper hidden under the carpet.
"Good job, Lyra!" using Magic, Twilight moved the items onto a table, dipped the quill in the ink, and let it hang over the paper.
"I haven't heard anything from the back for a while now..." Twilight said.
Lyra moved the newspaper from the floor and into the chair she was just sitting in, "Want me to go check on her."
"That'd be great," Twilight said. "Now... 'Dear Princess Celestia'..."
As she walked towards the back of Fluttershy's home, Lyra noticed how unnerving the minor messiness was. She stopped, "Twilight, why is this so... off?"
"Fluttershy hasn't slept," Twilight answered without looking up from the letter, "she said the chickens have been keeping her up."
Chickens? Why would the chickens keep her up? They never made any noise when Lyra ran errands for Bonbon...
"'Dear Princess Celestia,'" Twilight read aloud, "'I have just heard about Manehatten. If you could fill me in, it'd be much appreciated. I know somepony who's on a trip there, and I'd like to know if she's safe. Your Faithful Student, Twilight Sparkle.' That should do it. Right, Lyra?"
An uncomfortable silence followed, even though Twilight could still see Lyra as she slowly walked out the back door.
Twilight cast a spell to send the letter to Celestia, and asked, "Lyra, what is it?"
"Twilight, there's an... issue..." Lyra said shakingly. "It's Fluttershy..."
Twilight galloped for a few steps, then slowly stepped towards the door, "What are you talking-?" She stopped as soon as the entirety of the back yard was in clear view.
Though the figure in the opening didn't look like Fluttershy, it vaguely resembled her. Most of the figure was covered in a yellow dress. Just yellow, with no markings or trimmings or rufflings. Long pink hair covered her face. Or perhaps she was simply turned away, Twilight couldn't tell from this angle. The whole figure was not very ponylike, comfortably laying in a straight line. Where Twilight would think the hind hooves to be were the feet of a primate, and the forelegs were parallel to her body, branching off into five distinct appendages at the tip.
"What-? How-?" Twilight stepped past Lyra, lost for words. "Where did she get the dress?" Was the only intelligible thing that could come out.
"Really? REALLY, TWILIGHT?" Lyra rushed to the Fluttershy-coloured figure's side and walked around it, observing it. "Fluttershy suddenly turns into a human, and you're wondering about her blouse?"
"Blouse?" the unfamiliar word distracted Twilight's gaze, making her look at Lyra, confused.
"It's a type of human dress," Lyra answered. "I think..."
As Lyra continued to move around the figure, her gaze simultaneously grew more inquisitive and much happier. She began to, out loud, take mental notes on the figure, "Long hair, color still retained, five-fingered hands... five-toed feet, slender figure, cow-kass-eon skin tone... Breasts are larger than I'd expect, but all of that is genetic, so-"
A loud PING drew away Twilight's attention: Celestia's reply.
Twilight quickly galloped into the cottage and stopped by the table. As she removed the seal from the paper, a necklace fell out, but Twilight ignored it, hastily reading the message contained within.
"'Dear Twilight, While this affair puts the lives of ponies in the balance, I'm afraid to say that Manehatten is the least of our worries. Whatever is going on here, it's beyond all of us, even beyond Luna and I it would seem. I need to explain things to you that could never be expressed in a single letter, so I want you in Canterlot by the end of the day so we can discuss this matter.'"
The writing was messy and disorganized. Celestia put thought into the words, but had little time to actually write.
Almost as soon as Twilight had finished reading, another PING marked the arrival of a second letter.
"'Don't worry about time. I have had a special train car arranged to wait at the station until you show up. In the meantime, I need you to find a certain pony in Ponyville. I'm not sure what their name is, but they should respond to the sound of the word "human". The necklace is a stealth charm. I hope that the pony you are looking for will know when the proper time to use it is.'" A bit of writing was visible after this, but it was heavily crossed out.
"Human..." Twilight said to herself. "Wait a minute!"
Twilight quickly turned around and saw Lyra, still trotting around the figure, still saying things aloud, "No body or facial hair... Wait, no, that's wrong. There's some arm hair, but it's blon-duh-"
"Lyra!" Twilight called from inside the cottage. "Celestia sent back, she wants us to go to Canterlot."
"Us?" Lyra stopped in her tracks, then she slowly turned around. "What would she want with me?"
"I'm not sure, but you know what humans are. That MUST have something to do with it!"
"Alright, but..." Lyra turned her head and looked at the unconscious body of Human Fluttershy.
"She made it seem urgent!" Twilight snapped Lyra back to attention.
"Okay, I get it..." she couldn't just leave Fluttershy there...
"ANGEL BUNNY!" Lyra called out.
A loud 'thump' came from the upstairs bedroom. After a few moments, the white rabbit appeared in the doorway.
Lyra smiled at Angel, "Could you come over here, Angel?"
Angel reluctantly hopped towards the green unicorn. As he got halfway between the doorway and Lyra, he stopped and craned his neck to look around Lyra.
"Something's happened, I'm afraid," Lyra said. "You can tell this is Fluttershy, right?"
Angel Bunny slowly nodded, his eyes widening in horror.
"Don't worry, she's just unconscious," Lyra reassured. "Twilight and I have to leave. Please, watch after her, alright?"
Though not reassured, Angel was compliant. He quickly hopped towards Fluttershy, tears welling up in his eyes.
"Thank you, Angel."
Lyra trotted back into the cottage, and went straight for the front door.
"And that IS Fluttershy, correct?" Twilight asked.
"Beyond a reasonable doubt, yest," Lyra answered.
"This whole situation doesn't seem terribly reasonable, Lyra..."
Lyra let out a heavy sigh, trying to consolidate her thoughts as best she could.
"I'm going to grab some books from my house," Lyra began galloping towards Ponyville, leaving Twilight to collect her things. "Meet me at the train station!" She called back without slowing down.
