BUCK

Derpy Hooves had never been particularly good friends with Cheerilee. She was a fine acquaintance, and the news of her dissapearance saddened Derpy, but only mildly.

Derpy had awoken to find her daughter missing. Gone. Absolutely no trace. It did more than sadden her.

Without even calling in for a sick day, she took to the skies.

Zooming from place to place, tearing up at different intervals. “Have you seen Dinky?” “Sorry, have you seen my daughter?” “I just don’t know where she is!”

Derpy Hoove’s most precious muffin of all had gone missing.

She spent the whole day going up and down all of ponyville, checking places twice and three times. Suddenly, something stood forth.

Derpy stopped flying for the first time that day over the fields of Sweet Apple Acres. She looked down, mouth slightly agape, trying to piece together what it meant.

High in the branches of a tall apple tree was a beautiful blue dress, studded with deep red rubies. Wrinkled and cast away like so many lost kites, it screamed that it was the answer.

“SEND HELP TO SWEET APPLE ACRES ASAP”

Derpy lowered herself down to ground level and retrieved the dress form the tree’s grasp. She took a moment to inspect it, and turned it inside-out to find it lightly lined with purple-pink hairs.

Cheerilee.

As the puzzle pieces started to come together in her mind, she looked around, yearning for clues. After a while of perimeter-searching, she came across a rock which had what looked like a towel under it.

She drew a cold sweat as she began to nudge it.