Rainbow Dash spent the last three hours decorating her home to suit the magnitude of her holiday spirit, and she was definitely succeeding. Different shades of green and red were made vividly apparent; Bounds of holly, of course, decked the halls, festive lights and streamers were common among the trimming of the cloud home, and the home just wouldn't feel complete without a dash of mistletoe to dangle just above the doorway.
She breathed in the chilled winter air, for just a moment, she tasted the Hearths Warming meal she would soon have on that faithful day.
"Man, Tank, this is going to be the best Hearth's Warming Ev-" She turned around to face her pet tortoise, only to find an empty space where he should have been. She scratched her head and glanced around. He was no where to be seen on the porch or the front of the cloud yard at all.
"Hmph. Fine Tank, I'll do it all by myself, since you don't want to help!" She huffed.
As she strung up the last of the lights, a thought weaved its way to the surface of her mind. Why would Tank disappear unannounced? It was very unlikely, being that he moved at a slow pace, being a turtle, and his rotor made rather loud sound, so he couldn't have flown away while she was decorating. She rolled her eyes at the thought, and finished the decorating.
She hopped off the roof and glided down to the front door. As she opened it up, Tank came to mind again. "Maybe that crazy tortoise wandered inside and I just didn't see 'em do it." She thought out loud. It's true it was highly likely, and she wanted to stick to that explanation, though last time she checked; Tank can not open doors.
She was confused by this notion and decided to do a thorough check through the home.
Living room
Check
Bedroom
Check
Dining Room
Check
Kitchen
Check
Every room she searched yielded no results. Confusion turned into frustration, which turned into fear.
"What if something bad happened to him?" She thought out loud once more, which, unfortunately, was also a high probability.
She bolted out the front door, grabbing her vermilion scarf as she did so. She left the cloud and flew down to the hardened earth that came with the Winter season. She glanced around, hoping to find him somewhere near the ground under her home to no avail. She huffed once more, tightening her scarf as she glanced around. Rainbow Dash's home was located on a stationary cloud floating above the outskirts of Ponyville not too far from Fluttershy's home, so she decided to check there first. She walked there instead of using her wings to soak in the beautiful atmosphere of the nearly gelid land.
The sight was so beautiful in fact, she felt bad for marring the quality of the winter wonderland. In fact, who would enjoy breaking in the pale icy sheet that glazed the land and trees in all of it's twinkling glory? Still, she carried on, not letting the beauty of the blanket of snow deter her and cause her to stray from her path to her dear friend's home.
Moment's later, she was at the door of her friend's home. She gave the door a stern rap, which caused the honey colored mare to jolt from her reading spot on the sofa and direct her attention to Rainbow Dash.
"Oh! Rainbow Dash, hello!" She greeted in her quiet, yet cheery tone.
"Heya Fluttershy!" She greeted back.
Fluttershy trotted to the door and opened it for Rainbow, who stepped inside and glanced around. She certainly had seen animals, but not her animal.
"So, did you need anything Rainbow?" Fluttershy asked.
"Yeah; Did Tank happen to stop by? He kinda took off on me while I was decorating for the holidays." She explained.
"Tank? Oh! Your tortoise! No I'm afraid not, do you need help finding him?" She offered.
"Oh! Well that would certainly help!" Rainbow Dash said.
"Well then, what are we waiting for! We have a flying Tank to find!" Fluttershy said with a giggle.
With that, the two left Fluttershy's home and began combing the entire town. This of course, took hours upon hours of time, and Rainbow Dash wasn't known to have a high attention span when it came to things that didn't regard her favorite book series or the Wonderbolts.
As the sun began to set, they had yet to check one more place.
The Everfree Forest.
As they approached the border, a nervous aura surrounded them both, affecting Fluttershy the most out of it all.
"Do we have to do this?" Fluttershy asked in a quiet, high pitched tone.
"Do you want to find Tank, Fluttershy?" Rainbow Dash asked, masking her nervousness with a firm tone.
"Yes, but-"
"But nothing, Fluttershy. Come on, I know you can do this!" Rainbow Dash cut her off, attempting to cheer her up.
"O-okay Rainbow Dash, I guess I'll try." She said nervously.
As they entered the Everfree, Rainbow Dash noticed that the snow made the forest even more eerie and dangerous than it already was. They huddled together, Rainbow Dash scanning the right side while Fluttershy watched the left. Their nerves were becoming more and more strained as they went deeper and deeper into the darkened forest.
"Wait did you hear that?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"Hear w-w-what?" Fluttershy said, her teeth chattering from the fear that pumped through her veins.
"It sounded like something was rustling over there." She said, pointing her hoof to a small bush covered in a thick layer of ice and snow.
"O-oh, um, I assume w-we have to check it out then?" Fluttershy asked, kicking around some of the snow.
"Yeah Fluttershy, we do." She said, swallowing her fear as she approached the bush slowly.
She bit her lip in anticipation, hoping to Celestia it was her turtle and not some weird bush monster. When she was in leg's reach of the bush, she extended her hoof out to push some of the brush aside to get a good look at what was causing the noise. The moment she touched it, two of the bush's branches extended out and lunged forward towards her.
Rainbow Dash back peddled and ran towards Fluttershy. "Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, so much nope!" She screamed as she grabbed a hold of the hoof of a confused and scared yellow mare and sprinted out of the forest.
Rainbow Dash went home both disappointed and concerned. She was hoping she would find Tank before the day ended. She went to her room, took off her scarf, and threw herself on her bed deciding that she would have to find him tomorrow.
"He'll be alright, he's tough after a- OW!" She yelled as something hard collided with the back of her head. She sat straight up and spun around to see what hit her to find something that made her both happy and mad.
A tortoise was fast asleep underneath her pillow.
