The Vanishing of Twilight Sparkle

Author’s Notes

Well, it’s been a while. However, college work is all out of the way now, and the only things grabbing my attention at the moment are proof-reading and a bit of artwork for Donceluzza’s My Little Amnesia, and the imminent release of Guild Wars 2. Not gonna lie, super hyped for it.

All that aside, I’m hoping to get back on track with the weekly releases (already got the next few chapters panned out). Hope you enjoyed, and as always, criticism is appreciated, especially after this dry spell of writing. Thanks for following.

N.B. With regards to this chapter, during the recollection, Rarity’s dialogue will be in italics, while Pinkie Pies will be in italics bold. Done this way so I’m not constantly saying ‘…said Pinkie Pie / Rarity ‘

The group sat in silence after Applejacks’ recollection. Of course, they would be asking Dash after just in case Applejack had missed anything, but since she wasn’t here…

The barn door creaked. The three friends looked around, hoping to see the rest of their friends trot through the door.

Turned out it was just the wind.

Trying to rid herself of the anxiety, Applejack asked Rarity and Pinkie to go over what they had found out.

Rarity cleared her throat a little before she started to speak, but Pinkie jumped at the chance to flood Applejack with all that had happened.

“Oh, oh, well, we started in the morning, like you…“

Recollection: Pinkie Pie’s and Rarity’s Information Gathering Around Ponyville

Oh, oh, well, we started in the morning, like you, except we had to be suuuuper sneaky about what we asked, otherwise other ponies might start to get involved, and we don’t want that since they might get hurt. Anyway, as I was saying, we started early, so we thought the best place to start would be Carrot Top, since she was always up early because of the farm, plus she lives close to the Everfree, so she might have seen something. But she said she didn’t so we mov...

Now hold on there, Pinkie. That wasn’t what she said at all. Certainly, she said she hadn’t seen anything suspicious. However, she did say she saw some mist or fog coming out of the Everfree last week. Since she is also a farmer of sorts, she always keeps a record of what the Weather Patrol are going to do, and that week’s rota didn’t account for the mist, so she thought it a bit strange.

Oh yeah, I remember that now. Silly me. Anyways, after we left Carrot Top, we went to see Der…I mean, Ditzy Doo, since we aren’t allowed to call her that now. Anyway, we went to see Ditzy Doo, since she’s a mail mare, and has to be up early. We went around looking for her, and we found her, so we asked some questions, and she said she didn’t notice anything, since she had the day off.

Indeed. She said she spent the day down the park, since she didn’t get much time to relax.

Hmmm, I can’t think of anything else. We kept asking around for a good few hours, until we asked everypony I knew, which is everypony in Ponyville, since I know everypony in Ponyville…Oh! Except this one pony. I hadn’t seen him before. I was going to invite him to one of my ‘Welcome to Ponyville’ parties, but Rarity cut me off…

Quite. He was unusual since he wore a coat even in the sun. How strange. Anyway, it was a grey stallion, nothing too fashionable about him. We asked him some questions. He said he was just visiting, and then walked away. Quite rude if you ask m…

SLAM!

Once more, the barn doors blew open. Except this time, Rainbow dash stood in the doorway, panting.

With the still form of a blood-covered Fluttershy on her back.

The three stared in shock, before leaping into action. Rarity’s horn glowed and lifted the unconscious Pegasus off of Rainbow’s back. Rainbow collapsed to the floor, sweat streaming off of her coat.

“What the darn hell happened?! And why didn’t you take her to the hospital?! yelled Applejack.

It was a few moment before Rainbow answered, as she struggled to get her breathing under control.

“Sh-she’s fine. I checked her over before we left. God…her cottage…”

Pinkie stopped bouncing, and all three paid attention to the Rainbow after making sure Fluttershy was comfortable.

“It’s…well…all her animals…that she was taking care of…even the ones outside…all dead…

Recollection: Rainbow Dash at Fluttershy’s HouseWell, maybe I should start from the beginning.

After I headed from here, I flew around asking had anyone seen Fluttershy. A few had said they’d seen her flying around, but nothing more than that. So I headed over to her cottage.

As I got closer, all I could see around Flutter’s cottage was, well, death, I suppose. All the grass and plants, as well as them critters she was taking care of. Just, withered and dead.

So I went into the cottage, and it was worse. There was this grimy stuff all over the walls. Oh Celestia, Flutter’s animals, all dead. Pinned to the walls. Blood everywhere. I went upstairs, more of the same.

Flutter’s was on her bed, the only clean room in the house. And she was holding Angel. Bless him. Dead. Just like all of the others. She was sobbing, more in a state of shock than anything, I think.

After some coaxing, I managed to get her out of the cottage. When we were outside, she just sort of…well, collapsed. I couldn’t just leave here there. So I balanced her on my back and flew over here carefully. That’s why I took so long.

Oh yeah, flying over, I thought I saw somepony lurking around, but when I looked again, there wasn’t anypony there, so I guess I must have been seeing things.

Another silence. These silences are becoming more and more common, though Applejack, when will the good times come back?

After Rainbow’s telling of what happened, Rarity trotted over to Fluttershy, pulling a handkerchief out of nowhere. Applejack wandered off, just to come back moments later two bucket of water; one for Rainbow and one for Rarity. Rarity nodded her thanks, and set to work cleaning Fluttershy; she’d be in enough of a state when she woke up as it is. Being covered in the blood of the animals she was caring for, hay, the blood of any animal, probably wouldn’t help.

Rainbow lay there in silence, with her head in the bucket lapping away at the water. The occasional sob could be heard between mouthfuls of water. Pinkie trotted alongside her and gave her a hug, while Applejack trotted off, returning with a basket of apples.

After about half an hour in silence, with all the apples eaten, they decided to call it a night. Everypony decided to sleep in the barn; it was warm enough, and after what had happened over Fluttershy’s cottage, would probably safer. Still, Applejack walked over to the barn door and pulled a large beam down, effectively locking it secure.

Tomorrow would be soon enough to ask Fluttershy if she’d found anything out.