Apple Bloom's POV

"Where in the world could she be?" I asked Apple Jack.

"I'm not sure, but we've been looking for an hour," Apple Jack reminded. I looked at my watch, and she was right! We'd come to find Fluttershy over an hour ago, and after finally losing patience with the doorbell, we searched her entire house.

"What are we supposed ta do?" I asked. "She coulda been kidnapped or somethin'!"

"By Princess Cadence herself," Apple Jack thought out loud. "I think before we do anything we need ta see if anypony else knows anything, and I know who to ask first. Look like that play date's gonna happen right now." Little Macintosh started waking up on my back. He'd fallen asleep during our Fluttershy search.

"Minnie, no! Put that down this instant! You'll poke your eye out!" Ah, the everyday noises of Rarity's boutique. Apple Jack thoughtfully approached the door, questioning if it was a wise choice to bother her, but then knowing it was the right thing to do. "I'm on my way, one moment please!" an abstracted Rarity hollered.

"It's an emergency Rarity! We ain't got time for yall ta fix yer mane!" Apple Jack yelled.

"Believe me," she answered in agitation. "I wish on every star of Equestria for my mane to be the biggest of my problems again." She opened the door, and she looked like a completely different mare. Her mane was tied up in a twister of purple bristles, over her ornery and testy eyes, only distracting us from her food-stained coat surely caused by the innocent doe-eyed twins. She looked like a complete wreck.

"Alright, well, I bet Fluttershy is wishin' the same thing, because right now she's missing in action."

"Missing?" asked Rarity in fear. "How could she go missing? She's a grown mare for goodness sakes!"

"Well, it don't matter how it happened: we need ta find her before someone finds her dead," Apple Jack suggested.

"Is it honestly that serious Apple Jack? I mean, really, sometimes you can be a tad dramatic," giggled Rarity. "MINNIE WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" screeched the world's-most-concerned-aunt. Little Minnie sat beside Rarity's kitchen trash can with an apple core between her little pink hooves.

"Yeah, right," sighed Apple Jack with a small facehoof. "Now, are ya gonna help us find Fluttershy, or are we going ta wait on Minnie to down the garbage?"

"Well I never!" gasped Rarity, scooping the apple core-less foal into her magic and putting her in the kitchen sink. The water turned on and Rarity began scrubbing her coat vigorously, cleaning herself in the process. "I must assure you, she's never attempted to take anything from the garbage bin in her life. In fact, she's never had an interest in garbage before. She runs away from the smell!"

"Yeah, I believe ya Rarity," Apple Jack assured. "Now let's stop waistin' time and get outta here!"

"Give me just a moment," pleaded Rarity. "I cannot- no- WILL not go traipsing through Ponyville in such a state of- er…"

"Ugly!" cheered Pearl with a giggle.

"Pearl Rose!" gasped Rarity. The magic reached across the room and plopped Pearl into the sink beside her pink sister. "We do NOT say those words!" Her hoof grabbed a bar of soap and Apple Jack grabbed it right before it found its way in Pearl's mouth.

"Rarity," Apple Jack sighed. "Let's just go now, ok?" Looking up at Apple Jack, she rolled her eyes and began to quickly brush her mane.

"Very well, but we must find a babysitter."

"Are yall kiddin' me?!" I finally chimed in. "We're gonna be Granny's age by the time ya have everything ready ta go! Just pick up and leave!"

"Just pick up and leave?" asked princess never-ready. "I do believe just leaving willy-nilly is the perfect recipe for utter disaster, fashion faux pas, missing filly reports-" Before she could take a breath to continue her little hissy fit, I started walking out the door.

"Where do yall think you're goin'?" asked Apple Jack.

"I'm getting' out a here!" I fought. "By the time you're done waiting on Rarity we'll lose all our chances of seeing Fluttershy again!"

"You leave that boy with me," Apple Jack demanded. "I don't want yall dragging him into somethin that's gonna get ya both killed."

"Stop it Apple Jack!" I fought. "I'm his mom and I'll protect him, either come or don't, but my son's safer with me than in this house with spoiled one and spoiled two."

"Well I-" Rarity began before the waterworks started again. "Maybe you two should find someone a bit less busy to help. I assure you that Fluttershy will be perfectly unharmed when you locate her, but do keep me posted." On her way up the stairs, the fillies' screams just got louder and louder. Ya gotta feel bad for the drama queen. After all, she ain't even supposed ta be raisin' those foals.

Twilight's POV

"Missing?" I couldn't help but sigh, knowing I had to explain. "Guys, Fluttershy isn't missing…" I admitted.

"Well where is she?" Apple Bloom asked. Apple Jack, Little Mac, and Apple Bloom felt like a crowd in my room. All they wanted to know was where Fluttershy was, and it still dried my throat like a desert. I had to admit she was in jail: and there was nothing I could do for her.

"She's…she's-uh…"

"Twilight?" started Apple Jack. "She's ok, ain't she?"

"She's actually…she's been sentenced to be monitored in prison until the end of her pregnancy," I admitted. The looks wavered on the Apples' faces, and then snapped back at me.

"Why did yall send her there?" an angry Apple Bloom challenged.

"I had nothing to do with it: whatsoever!" I vowed. "Cadence ordered it, and Fluttershy is doing better, but obviously she's not happy. I've been visiting her every day." I felt my facial muscles flop into a frown. "I've been bringing her all of her cravings, and I feel so badly for her," I admitted. "Poor thing hasn't been able to keep anything down, and she's starving."

"Well, how could she not be upset?" Apple Jack began. "If you shove a pregnant mare, with a broken heart, and a paper-thin back bone into a cage and take away everything she cares about: what else is gonna happen?"

"I agree with you!" I argued in frustration. "Unfortunately Cadence made a deal with Celestia, and unless we can get proof that Fluttershy didn't poison Shining shell be stuck in jail. So far all we've found is evidence against Fluttershy." Both mares stared at me a bit bamboozled.

"Who in the world could believe Fluttershy would be that…malicious?" asked Spike, butting in.

"Spike, stop it!" I demanded, hearing the sarcasm in his voice. He's on Cadence's side right now, and he hasn't said a word to Shining. "If Shining hears you he'll be cooking roasted dragon for dinner: and I might take part in it," I muttered.

"I'm just saying, all the evidence is obviously there," Spike reminded. "Not to mention the fact that it's always the quiet ones that snap."

"Spike!" fought my inner guardian for Fluttershy.

"You know the truth Twilight," Spike assured. "You don't have to get all defensive. You just need to admit what you know." I feel like he's right…but I can't say my best friend poisoned my brother just to make him cheat on his wife! Fluttershy is nothing like that, and everyone in Equestria knows that! It makes me so frustrated that I can't figure out what the truth really is. All I know is: I will not fight against Fluttershy.

Rarity's POV

"Minnie, stop it," I demanded. "I will not command you again! You need to listen to your auntie when she tells you to not to write on the walls with your lunch!" I don't think any other mare in the world has ever had to utter those words before.

"Not hungry!" sobbed Pearl, to my right. I jammed the spoon into her gaping mouth that had been roaring with hysteria only seconds before.

"You haven't eaten all day! You're hungry!" I growled. In what looked very much like fear, she swallowed. "There's Auntie's favorite little Pearl," I grinned. Every miniature fight I conquer with these twins: I rejoice.

"All done," smiled Minnie. I looked over and saw the bowl across the floor. My blood began to boil up the veins in my hooves. I bit my lip and dragged both of my disheveled nieces up the stairs by their ears.

"Yes! You are quite finished with your meals!" I shouted. "You're finished with both your meals and your day, because you will remain in this room until you both decide to BEHAVE!" My heart's beat made it hurl into my ribcage. How dare these little girls take advantage of the only mare, scratch that, the only PONY that cares about them?! They're so miserably ungrateful, and I took them in when their own grandparents knew they were too much of a hassle! It's all because of their boorish brute of a father. He passed down his genes and infested my family. How could they behave so carelessly after I selflessly took on the duty of raising them? It's their mother's job to-…Their mother's job to teach them manners.

It's their mother's job to teach them everything really. It is also their mother's job to love them, and care for them, and show them the joys in the world, and give them the little tidbits of love and joy that can only be embraced in their tight-knit relationship. It's their mother's job to do all of the things that she isn't here to do: and I don't do a good job replacing her. My role is supposed to directly be an aunt to these young fillies. Unfortunately, for everypony involved, our roles have all been strikingly altered. I cannot simply wipe a nose now and again, watching Sweetie feed, bathe, clothe, love, and teach the girls everything they need to know. I'm in charge of every little thing they need. The real question is: how can the element of generosity be so selfishly inclined? I'm not their aunt anymore, I AM their mother. How dare I not love and cherish them, teaching them every possible thing they need to know? I am all they have, and they're one hundred percent reliant on me. My poor darling, gorgeous lambs: what have I been thinking?

Fluttershy's POV

"So…I-I'm free to go?"

"Not necessarily," Twilight divulged. "There's still the whole "you had an affair with my brother, and now my sister-in-law is trying to get a vendetta on you" thing…"

"But, if Zecora is in trouble for selling me love poison, then why do I still get the blame?"

"You don't get the blame of poisoning my brother!" she gleamed. "You only get blamed for getting pregnant with him,…and ending the royal marriage, and actually FEEDING the poison to my brother…and-"

"So I still have to stay in this narrow penitentiary? Then, live in exile for the rest of my life?"

"Fluttershy, I'm a princess. I have just as much say as Cadence: maybe even more! Right now, you just need to focus on your foal and your future with it."

"What future?" my voice wobbled. "Cadence told me I couldn't raise the offspring of her husband."

"You won't," chimed in Shining Armor entering the room. Our heads snapped in his direction, and instinctively went to his side.

"Oh Shining!" I sobbed. He took me under his arm, and Twilight's face fell. Without seeing Shining's reaction, I knew it was insisting she leave the room.

"Fluttershy, listen to me," sighed Shining. "I really didn't want to have an affair with you, and when I found out you were pregnant…I honestly thought I'd made a self-ruining mistake. It's just…now that I've seen Cadence's lack of compassion, understanding, and reaction…I realize she was the mistake. Fluttershy, I know none of this was intentional, and that it wasn't your fault, so I'm going to make sure that witch of a princess doesn't demolish your life, ok? We're going to get you out of here before you have to give birth."

"Shining, Cadence is a princess," I reminded. "Doesn't she have more say than you?"

"Celestia is trying to convince the guards that Cadence is too distraught and irrational right now to make any choices."

"What if she can't?" I felt my heart somersault at the look Shining gave me.

"Then I'll have to have a word with her."

"Shining, please, we still don't even know the entire story! Zecora may have been vindictively trying to separate you!"

"Fluttershy, when they interrogate Zecora it's all going to come out that she's innocent. Just face facts: Cadence and I are over, and you and I…well hopefully you and I are moving forward."

Author's Note

Bare with me guys! I'll explain the whole Zecora thing in DUE time. :D Plus, if you've never read my story Aunty Rarity, things might be a bit confusing for you.