Mechanist's Flutter

Chapters

Part 01: Creation and Discovery
Part 02.1: Initial Observation: Day 1
Part 02.2: Initial Observation: Day 2
Part 03.1: In search of Fluttershy: Day 1
Part 03.2: A New Goal
Final Section: To Bring the End

Part 01: Creation and Discovery

Mechanist's Flutter
[A story by ZekeDraco, Edited by digital-ronin.deviantart.com]

In ten years nothing had changed for the better, the machines we had were still automobiles and the occasional remote control devices. Roboticists were hired left and right for building weapons and were not allowed to pursue their own projects. Morris is a Mechanist; he devised the title to escape the stigma of the Roboticists. He took joy in developing little trinkets and toys that worked with precision and delighted people who saw them. Little devices that displayed a little light show, medium sized devices that could perfectly fold clothes, large devices that could squeegee clean your car (with some minor tweaks for different models). Though this seemed to make him happy, his machinations were all that he had.

Machines to his left, machines to his right; surrounded by machinations constantly. He stepped up his research by learning how to make his own circuit boards and microchips, being cautious not to completely fall under the Roboticist's stigma of a title. Innovations were made that opened new doors and new machines could be made, his efforts in meticulous crafting let him create hundreds pieces and components, that he often considered tiny little bones. A little project of his involved crafting thousands of little pieces and parts that when combined formed the skeletal body of a small dragon, that he considered a drakeling because of its housecat size. He worked with gears and motors defining set limits of movement for limbs, and prior to the final step created artificial scales of a deep blue hue. Finally, the implementation of the circuits and wiring gave life to the little being, the mechanist was happy to have some company at long last. So happy he named the mechanical drakeling Avustre.

The drakeling's AI worked well but soon it grew lonely because it could only be with a human, not another of its kind. So the mechanist made a second one, naming him Cifer. The two drakelings accompanied Morris wherever he went, often snarling at other passengers on the bus he took between home and work. This happiness didn't last long for the mechanist however, the drakelings started distancing themselves from their creator, hiding away in out of reach nooks and crannies in the mechanist's apartment, sometimes for so long they would forget to replenish their energy and shut down until they were found.

Morris felt alienated by his own creations, almost wanting to make more, but couldn't knowing that they would also start acting like Avustre and Cifer. One rainy day his niece had come to visit him, throughout her visit she was playing with a toy, a little pony that was shy, yet she cared for her friends and for her animals. The clock hit 5pm and with eerie timing his sister came and got her daughter, after they left he noticed that his niece had left the little pony on his living room table. He picked up the little pony and got ready to call his sister when his mind started wandering; he looked the little yellow pony in the eyes and grinned.

A day went by and he stepped out of his guest bedroom that he turned into a mechanics lab and over to his computer where he sat down the metal shell of a new project and began to watch an old show. Weeks went by and in his lab he formed the basic skeletal structure of his project. The head came together and fit perfectly on the frame, his handiwork perfect, allowing the full motion of every leg, every vertebrate, and both wings.

Three months had gone by when he reached the first test of the AI, he had put everything into context, she would be kind, cautious, and would be a masterpiece. Performing one last check, he ensured that the completed head had a yellow coat and the pink mane of the original. He reached to the console and turned on the power, the eyes on the head achieved their focus and the iris' tinted Cyan. As the circuitry controlling the mechanical pony warmed up an automated greeting emerged from her, "Oh! Hello ... my name is Fluttershy."

Morris answered this greeting saying, "I-I'm Morris."

The gentle machine looked around the lab and asked, "Where ... am I?"

"The place where I create all sorts of machines."

"Machines? What kind of machines, Mister Morris?"

"Little gadgets, some time-savers, even toys."

"Toys?"

Morris nodded at her

"What kind of toys? Can I see one? ... I mean if that's okay with you?"

Cifer clawed his way out from under the table and Morris looked down at him. "Cifer?"

"Hunh?" She followed Morris's eyes to see the drakeling, "What is that? He's so cute!"

Morris grinned a little, "He's one of the smarter machines I've made. He can think like a little Dragonling."

She let out a grunt, then a whimper, attempting to get her limbs to move. After realizing that she could not even move her tail, she began crying. In a squeaky voice she whimpered out, "W-why can't I move... what's wrong with me?"

Morris' eyes widen a little, "Y-you're just stuck that's all."

"B-but... not even my wings..."

She turned her head just enough to see her own side out the corner of her eye. As she did Morris hesitantly reached for the console. In response to her mechanical appearance, the pony unleashed an ear-splitting shriek. Morris turned off the power via the console, and her eyes lost their color with the look of horror stuck on her motionless face.

Morris looked over at the unfinished pony and stared at her horrified expression for minutes. He sat down in a chair and and began pondering, he had built this machine and gave it a form of sentience, all in the pursuit of not being alone for the rest of his years. All he desired was someone to be with, and he found a caring soul or rather made one. Thought after thought ran through his mind, he realized that he had a chance to correct some of this error. She knew something was wrong, she knew she was a machine. If he could complete her body before giving her power again, he could try and make it seem like she was having a nightmare; but he knew he wouldn't have the heart to try that.

Over the next few months, Morris reviewed different designs for components, and determined how to make the proper pieces. Assembling pieces and parts as he continued his masterpiece. The AI was kept out of the body and baseline tests were performed to ensure that every leg moved completely, that a lightweight frame and a special device allowed her flight, and that even her tail could move. His schedule would not, could not be altered, he had a goal in his sights and intended to complete it. All the while, his mind jumping between questions about what will happen, why is he compelled, and how he can do this right.

He came home from work, and went straight to his lab; he was on a schedule and didn't have what he needed to complete her artificial coat. He sat the pony on the ground where she stood, sleeping, looking peaceful; his heart was pounding, he was hoping that this time would work better. Hooking a power cable to the machine mare he braced himself the best he could, moving closer to the power switch on the console. As the color returned to her eyes, she looked disoriented. "W-what just happened?" She asked.
Morris replied, "Just a little panic, that's all."

"Oh... I'm sorry", she sat down and looked around, "How did I get here?"

"I took the time to build you."

"Build?"

Memories of her previous activation resurfaced and she immediately turned to look at her back which is still mostly mechanical. She lifted herself up, and tested out her wings; soon enough the gentle pony was in the air, hovering before Morris.

"How is that?" He asks.

She softly set herself down again, hardly making a noise on landing. Her words were laced with disappointment as she replied, "It's ... fine ..."

"It's not the same is it."

"I'm...", She started saying, "I'm not really me, am I?"

"No. Just a copy"

She sighed.

Morris replied, in as calming a tone as he could, "It's okay, nothing to be ashamed about."

"If you say so... But"

Curiously Morris asks, "Yes?"

"N-nothing"

"You can tell me"

"I just wonder ... about ...", Her words became completely unintelligible as she trailed off.

"About?"

She tried to repeat herself but the words were completely inaudible.

"It's alright, what do you want to know about?"

After taking a deep breath she managed to spit out, "The other Fluttershy!"

"Well...She's not here"

"But... she's okay?"

"I suppose she is, I wouldn't really know."

"Oh... okay", letting her uncertainty get the better of her she kicked at the ground, as if that would somehow alleviate her worries.

"Can you move alright?”

She simply nodded.

"Good...Who else do you know?"

"Um... well... I - I don't know."

"Think carefully."

She whimpers, "I - I ... don't ... want to..."

"Oh.", Morris stopped himself from asking further questions and noticed as Avustre walked in with the Fluttershy toy balancing on his back.

She sees Avustre, "Oh! You made another?"

"Hm? Oh, I've made two drakelings, one to keep the other company."

"Oh, how nice. What's that?", She reached for the toy but Avustre backed away from her a little. "Oh... I'm sorry", she said, backing away in response.

A moment passed as Avustre realized she wouldn't hurt him, he let the toy fall off of him and nuzzled it towards her.

"Hm?", She looked confused by the gesture, until Avustre gave a small playful rar.
The confused pony looked at Morris who, grinning a little bit, explained, "He's being friendly."

Using her hoof to pull the toy closer to her, she looked at it, "It's ... me?"

"Yeah"

"Did you make this, too?" She staring at the toy version of herself intently.

"No, it's something my niece had with her.", Morris lets out a yawn, "I need to get some rest, that cable should be long enough you can wander my home. Is that alright with you?"

She stopped staring at the toy, and looked up at Morris, "Cable?" Turning herself around she found a cable attached to the middle of her back. "What's that for?"

"It's supplying your body with the energy it needs for you to function, when I get further along you won't need it."

"I ... need it?"

"Just for now"

"Oh..." She said, and sat down, wrapping her tail around herself as a child would do with a blanket to feel safe.

Morris looked at her for a moment, before wandering off to bed.

After spending some time looking around the room, the faux Fluttershy made herself comfortable near the outlet she was plugged into. After learning of her dependence, she was afraid to stray too far. Instead she curled herself up and discovered that even as an artificial life form she had the ability to sleep.
"H-hello? Is anypony there?", Fluttershy called out into the inky black of space. Never before had she felt so alone. No matter how much she searched none of her friends could be found. Eventually she came across a light, which she followed like a little lost filly. She felt she had no other hope in this bleak world.
The light led her back to the library. Excited she burst through the door, only to find it empty of life. Even the shelves were devoid of the ever-changing collection of books. She turned and looked back the way she came, only to see an equally empty Ponyville.
"No... it's not possible... It can't ..."
From the basement door in the library, she heard voices. She knew they sounded familiar. It was Applejack, arguing with Rainbow again. Fluttershy ran in the direction of the voices and found herself once again in the black nothingness, falling into eternity.

In a start, Flutter woke from her dream, screaming: "NO!"

The drakelings on the living room couch jump to attention, Avustre from a sound sleep, and Cifer with the chewed on TV remote in his mouth.
"I'm sorry I woke you two", Said the mechanical pony as she approached them. Once again hearing the voices of her friends the pony looked at the screen. At first she was unsure of what she was seeing. However, as she watched the artificial pony came to a realization. She did not want to believe it, but in a world in which a man could create artificial life as he saw fit it was entirely possible. She watched the stories that defined her life flash before her eyes, and felt the crushing pain of realization bear down on her. "It's ... all ... fake?"

The drakelings watched curiously as the heartbroken pony ran back to her life giving outlet, and gripped the cable in her mouth. No matter how hard she tried, for some reason she could not bring herself to pull her own plug. Instead she sat back and just glared at the outlet. From out of Morris's bedroom, his voice sounded, "What's going on?"

He walked into the living room, still in his clothes from earlier. "Flutter?"

She doesn't respond.

He hears the TV play the MLP credits, and snaps completely awake, "...You know...don't you..."

The smallest whisper came from the pony, "I ... tried. I ... tried ... to"

He walks over to her and kneels down.

"I tried to pull the plug."

Morris looks at her and pauses, "This is too much for a kind soul like yours to handle. All the memories you hold could only be complete if I were to build the entire world around you, and built all of your friends."

"It still wouldn't be the same."

"I know. You can't keep going can you..."

"How can I?"

"I was always told there is a way..."

"Not for me... Not for Fluttershy"

He felt a strong sense of sorrow try to overtake him, "I've built so much throughout my life, and could never bring myself to undo that work, I've rebuilt Avustre twice because of his tendency to fall from high places instead of leaving him broken. I can't bring myself to take you apart, to essentially take your life... All I could offer is an unending sleep."

Something seemed to change in her voice, "Do it."

Morris stood up and moved to the control console, he slowly input a code and paused. His emotions trying to overpower him and keep him from doing this, keeping as much composure as he could he looked at her once more and said, "Good...night...gentle mare." He pressed the power off button and then sat on the floor, bracing for what would happen. With the last of her quickly fading strength the pony curled up as if she was going to sleep, and closed her eyes. Minutes went by as Morris stared at the motionless mare, "No dreams await you this time... But maybe... someday... Things can be right."

6 Months later

The drakelings gathered around the hooves of the pony as she wandered out into the living room, she kneeled down to greet them as Morris watched from the doorway to his lab. She didn't have the memories of her friends, her personality wasn't as accurate, and that didn't settle well with him. The power core she had let her freely fly around the apartment as she followed Avustre during his bookshelf crawling, no cords and no plugs to constrict her movements. The only solace Morris could find in this version is that she was complete, not a single mechanical component to be seen and able to do things on her own. He went into his lab and cleaned up some cables and loose parts, putting them where they belong; he reached for a cabinet door and paused. Opening it he frowned at the sight of the still sleeping mare, he made sure she was completed so she could wake up one day. Though what has bothered him these last 6 months is that he never gave her her cutie mark, yet out of nowhere she had developed one of her own.

Part 02.1: Initial Observation: Day 1

[Mechanist's Flutter Part 2]
[Initial Observations: Day 1]

[Rather empty if you ask me]

Looking around she could see nothing but what seemed like a teal colored fog. There was no sun or light source around her but she could see herself. She lightly kicked at the non-existent ground with a metallic silver hoof, causing the void under her to crack and drop her into a freefall. As she fell her pink mane drifted fluidly through the air, as she tumbled she could see the reflections of her face on her silver flank, covered in soft-yellow fur with cyan eyes. She tried to use her wings, the steel blades unfurling and flapping futilely. She opened her mouth, trying to call out for her friends, but she could only hear a squeak. It echoed along invisible walls, eventually becoming mixed with a sad voice saying "Good...night...gentle mare." Now, she truly felt alone, even if she was not the real Fluttershy, she wanted to be with the friends she knew. She closed her eyes and in a panicked voice shouted, "I want to go home!"

She no longer felt like she was falling, she opened her eyes and saw that she was standing outside of Fluttershy's cottage. Every detail she knew was intact, the chicken coop was even in use by clucking hens. She went to the front door of the cottage and opened it, and wandered inside. She could see some of the things she was familiar with, a sports helmet, water wings, and the remains of a failed table repair. She recognized them as her mind went to the memories from the show. With a tone of disbelief, she muttered under her breath, "Cutie Mark Carpenters?"

[A coffee-scented encounter?]

She exited the cottage and lifted up into the air, after gaining enough altitude she began to look around. She saw the distant capitol of Canterlot, the Everfree Forest, and even Ponyville. She smiled a little before flying towards the peaceful town. She approached Ponyville admiring the warmth of the sun, and the clear skies. The smell of rain was lingering in the air as Celestia's sun had risen just above the mountains, she could even see some pegasi still moving away light rain clouds. She descended into Ponyville and started to wander around, mentally asking herself questions as she saw everypony talking to each other or running errands. The questions started off as expected, "What's going on here?", "Is this real?", and to top it off "What do I do?" The questions piled up more and more as she trotted along until they all spontaneously combusted.

The voice of a mare who had apparently been living off of exorbitant amounts of coffee and few hours of sleep came from behind Flutter asking, "Fluttershy? Is that you?"

Flutter quieted a squeak, and then turned to a lavender colored mare hiding her surprise. "O-of course, I could never be anypony else..."

Tilting her body to the side a little Twilight looked at Flutter's mechanical construct, "Okaaay... Why are you dressed like that?"

Flutter looked back where Twilight had looked, and realized her wings were spread by instinct, "Uhm...I was...", she shuffled her hoof on the ground, "...was...going to a...costume party?"

Twilight sported her not-amused look, she knew she was being lied to but didn't feel like calling the bluff directly. "As...What?"

Flutter froze up, her mind reading through memories as fast as it could, "Uhm... I...", BINGO the thought was synthesized, "One of the...Warcolts from before Celestia and Luna brought Harmony to Equestria."

Twilight looked at Flutter a moment, Flutter couldn't have done research into that without her knowing, she lived in the library after all.

This was making Flutter nervous, so she diverted her sight to the pink stripe in Twilight's mane and inched backwards a little, "It was... Rainbow's idea..."

This little fact only dug Flutter deeper into a hole, Rainbow Dash never did anything with books, except knock them off shelves. Twilight didn't want to see how deep the hole went, "Say Fluttershy, I was going to ask you to help me clean the library but you've got on your...costume... and ... ooh ... It looks so impractical..."

Flutter twitched her ear, "Uhm...as much as I would like to...uhm...help you Twilight...but I-I...think I hear my laundry calling." With that the machination ran with all her might, kicking up a cloud of dust.

Once the dust cloud cleared, Twilight stared where Flutter used to be for a moment, "Didn't I use that excuse?"

[Encounter with more than one Pie]

Flutter came to a stop nearly on the other side of Ponyville, standing on her hind legs with her back pressed against the wall of a building. She wasn't actually breathing hard, just simulating it. Once she stopped she peeked around the corner, unwittingly touching muzzle to muzzle with a Pink Party Pony, who quickly shouted, "SURPRISE!"

"EEEK!", Flutter jumped into the air passing through a cloud and the lemon meringue pie that a blue maned pegasus in a Wonderbolts uniform was about to eat. She landed on the ground with a yellow mane and a white body, as the Pegasus above shouted, "My Pie!"

"Hi Fluttershy, you're pretty wound up today!", Pinkie said with a smile.

"Oh...just a little..." She said. Shaking off the surprise color scheme, she accidentally splashed Pinkie with a cloud beard, and a pie tin cap.

"Little? You're makin' me look calmer than Twilight." Pinkie smiled and the cloud beard followed suit, only to be dispersed by a gasp. "You know what? You need a party to calm you down! One of Auntie Pinkie Pie's super-duper-parties!"

On reflex Flutter muttered, "I'm a year older than you."

Pinkie didn't hear it, "Gonna get balloons, confetti, fireworks! Well maybe not fireworks. Cake, punch~"

As Pinkie kept building more into a party frenzy listing different things off, including some things that would make Seuss and Douglas Adams both pause and wonder, Flutter simply inched away out of sight.

Pinkie finished up her list by saying, "And to top it off some pin the tail on the...pony? Hey where'd you go?"

[Oy in the sky]

Flutter landed on a cloud, and laid down. Looking around she could see she had miles between her and--

"Hey, Flutter."

She winced and turned to look at the colorfully maned, Rainbow Dash. "Hi..."

"What're you doin' up here? Don't you need to be watching your animals?" Rainbow's Rose eyes had locked onto Flutter.

"They will be alright... For a little while."

"Okay. What's with the metal? Going into the Everfree Forest or somethin'?" Rainbow moved closer.

Flutter moved back just as far, "Uhm....maybe?"

Rainbow looked at Flutter curiously, "Y'know, you're not a fast flier, and that looks pretty heavy... Hay, even I would have problems with that."

"I got up here....didn't I?" Flutter responded.

"I'll give you that, but how long did it take you?"

"A few seconds...I think..."

"Really? Show me." Rainbow crossed her front hooves, sitting on her haunches expecting a show.

Flutter was happy that Rainbow bought into the 'wearing metal' bit so quickly, but hid her grin. "O...ok"

She poked her head through the cloud real quick and saw that Pinkie Pie had moved on, getting a laugh out of Twilight with a crazy shenanigan involving Gummy, a roll of tape and more confetti than you could shake a stick at.

"Well?", Rainbow's voice demanded.

Flutter jumped down and landed on the ground, then flew back up in about 5 seconds. She landed on the cloud and looked at Rainbow, "How...how was that?"

"Not bad, could've been a little quicker. Lemme show you how it's done."

Flutter scooted back a little expecting Rainbow to show off. And boy did she, Rainbow went to the ground and back up in 2 Seconds. "Way to go Rainbow..."

Rainbow hovered in the air and grinned.

"That was 250% faster than my time" Flutter grinned, then realized she did some math.

"And 20% Cooler" Rainbow added.

Flutter smiled a little, Rainbow didn't catch on that she--

"Wait '250% faster'?" Rainbow asked

Flutter squeaked, "Lucky guess?"

"We'd have to ask Twilight."

Flutter blurted out, "Or Big Macintosh.", then covered her mouth with her hooves.

Rainbow looked at her a moment, "I guess, but we can do that later, I've gotta go get a sneaky little rain cloud."

Flutter looked around and saw a little black rain cloud slowly coasting over Ponyville.

"There you are!" Rainbow took off to pursue it, as it attempted to make a....fly for it.

Flutter was happy that Rainbow was being Rainbow, but she couldn't shake the feeling that something else was brewing.

[Meanwhile... At the Legion of...erm...The Library]

Twilight was in the main room of the library, her face buried in different books about Pre-Celestia history of Equestria. Spike reached for one last book on the top shelf, and the front door slammed open costing him his balance. Rainbow Dash and Applejack both slid to a stop in front of Twilight, they looked at each other under their respective hats, before Rainbow realized she was wearing a Dragon.

Rainbow was first to say it, "I was first!"

Applejack refuted as Spike climbed off of Rainbow's head, "No, ah was!"

Twilight looked up from the book, "Seriously, another race?"

Rainbow hovered in the air and crossed her forelegs, "And I won."

Applejack just rolled her eyes, "And I did the whole apple harvest by myself..."

Rainbow landed with enough force to shake the sarcasm from the air, and stared daggers right into Applejack's eyes, "You wanna go?"

"Anytime, anywhere, sugarcube."

"GIRLS!", Twilight shouted, "There's no time for this, we need to find out what's going on!"

A cultivated trans-Atlantic voice, matching its upper-class owner sounded, "What ever is going on here?"

AJ looked at Rarity then to Twilight, "Twi? What're we lookin' into?"

Twilight finally had the floor, "Well, there's something going on with Fluttershy."

Rarity simply had to ask, "You're talking about that awful ensemble she's wearing?"

"Well, partly, yeah."

"She just needs something more befitting of her."

AJ rolled her eyes and asked, "Like what?"

"Well, for starters. Almost anything is more fashionable than what she has now."

Twilight interrupted, "It's not all about what she's wearing."

Rarity looked at her for a moment.

Twilight continued, "It's the way she's been acting all day, she's been running away from anypony who has tried to talk to her. Even quicker if they ask her why she's dressed like she is."

Pinkie Pie adds in her comment, appearing from nowhere, "She even left me behind when I tried to set her up a party."

"The way she tried to make it sound, she was going to a costume party as a Pre-Celestia Warcolt, something suggested to her by Rainbow Dash."

Rainbow twitched, "I didn't suggest any costumes for her. The most I did with her today was show her that her Everfree Forest armor was slowing her down."

Applejack pushed in, "Everfree Forest armor?"

Rainbow scratched at the back of her neck, "That's what I woulda figured, it only took her around 5 seconds for her to jump off the cloud we were on and fly back up."

Twilight raised a brow, "5 Seconds? In metal armor? Judging by how heavy it looked, even you wouldn't be that quick, Rainbow. Even then, I don't think Flutter would be that quick to get onto a cloud without you pulling her, without the armor."

"Sounds to me like somethin awful fishy's goin' on with Fluttershy." Applejack adds.

Pinkie jumps in, "Oh, OH! Maybe she's taming a Manticore? Maybe she's friends with a dragon! I KNOW! Maybe she's been replaced by an eeeeevil mechanical copy!"

The other four stare at her for a moment, "NAH!"

[Cottage Geez]

Flutter had managed to stay out of the way of everypony else and now the princesses were moving their respective celestial bodies into place for night time. Her method of hiding actually did very well, as she poked her head out from underneath the cloud that she had burrowed into. Looking in every direction she made sure everypony was either at home, or heading home. The Carousel Boutique was dark, the Cakes were cleaning up shop for the night, the Library was only lit by one little candle, and Big Macintosh was watching the stars with Granny Smith asleep in her rocker next to him. Flutter pulled her head back into the cloud and unburied herself, looking up for any pegasi that happened to be going overhead. Nopony, she was in the clear and took the opportunity to land on the ground. Between where she landed and her cottage, she encountered only a mysterious vanishing blue box. She walked along the bridge to her cottage and paused, something was not right. She could hear Elizabeak and the other chickens rustling their feathers in preparation for the cold night ahead. The birds in the trees were also nestled together, forming rainbow colored balls of feathers on branches and in nests.

"None of the animals are alert", she thought to herself before she started to push the door open.

The table inside fell over and the sound of somepony jumping could be heard. She stopped pushing on the door and listened as it slowed to a stop a third of the way open. She stood there, waiting.

"Guess it was the wind", a book smart voice muttered.

A southern voice followed, "Ah assume th' wind also knocked over that table."

"Very funny", a disgruntled tomboyish voice replied.

From behind Flutter, an excited voice yelled, "Surprise, Again!"

The look on Flutter's face was a look of absolute surprise. Flutter rocketed forward into the cottage crashing into the other mares within. A crash, a thud, a whumpf, and a tumble could be heard in the darkness. The room was quickly illuminated by Rarity, who had lit the lantern hanging from the ceiling with a magic spark.

"I must say, that it is such a relief not to be standing around in the dark." She commented, prior to looking at a heap of mares consisting of Rainbow, Applejack, Flutter, Twilight, and somehow Pinkie Pie.

Pinkie laughed, "Let's do that again!"

Twilight pulled herself from under the party pony, "Let's not and say we did."

"Okie-dokie-loki. Wasn't it great doing that twice!"

The distinct sound of a hoof impacting the forehead of a lavender unicorn was followed with a groan, "Can we just try to figure out what's going on?"

In the blink of an eye Applejack managed to pull herself from under Flutter and place her Stetson back on straight. This left Flutter unsupported to fall onto Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow just looked up, "You mind gettin' off of me?"

Flutter jumped up, "I'm sorry..."

Rainbow Dash managed to dust herself off as Flutter looked around, the 5 mares had surrounded her, AJ and Rainbow were blocking windows, Rarity and Pinkie were blocking emergency hiding places, and Twilight was at the front door watching Flutter.

"Fluttershy, we're worried. You've been acting strange all day. Why? Are you worried about something? Is somepony stalking you? What's going on?" Twilight asked.

Rainbow jumped in, "Yeah. What's with the armor?"

Flutter just backed down in whatever direction she could, she could see even the concerned look forming over Pinkie's smile. She starts stuttering, "I..."

She looked at the calm dismay on Applejack's face, "I..."

She looked to Rarity's slightly confused concern, "I..."

She looked to the grim determination on Twilight's face, "I..."

Finally she looked at the curious worry in Rainbow's eyes.

Twilight took a step towards Flutter, who let out a squeak before hiding behind Dash.

Rainbow looked at her, "What the?"

The look of fear and sadness on Flutter's face made Rainbow think back to the time she saved Fluttershy from being ridiculed at Summer Flight Camp. "Guys, maybe we should leave her alone..."

Twilight looked at Rainbow, "Why? We might be able to help her."

Rainbow glared at Twilight, "I'll stay here, the rest of you go..."

Twilight scooted back, "I-if you insist."

Applejack intervened, "What in tarnation has got you so giddy?"

Rainbow spread her wings and stared Applejack down, "Pegasus business, go away!"

Rarity saw the fire in Rainbow's eyes, to her they went from Rose to a Searing Red, "Applejack, we should do as she says, it sounds important. You too Pinkie Pie."

Pinkie walked past Applejack, her mane losing a little of its poof, "Come on, we can go do something else."

Applejack walked away following Pinkie, Rarity and Twi.

The cottage door closed, leaving only the machination and her rainbow maned friend. What just happened needed time to sink in, something that felt like it took longer than it should have. Finally, Rainbow let her wings fold back against her sides, "It didn't feel right to do that, but they shouldn't have been ganging up on you like that."

Flutter looked up at Rainbow, "Th-thank you..."

"I haven't seen you that scared since we went to go kick that dragon out. It's not fair that we'd make you feel that way! I mean, what could have you wearing armor?"

Flutter felt most comfortable around Rainbow Dash, because she didn't seem to care too much about why she looked different. She started slowly, "Well...you see... I'm...", Flutter's line turned into a squeak.

"You're a what? A spy?", Rainbow joked.

"I'm not...", she trailed off into a mumble

"Hey, remember the basics behind a good cheer"

"I'm not...", the mumble was a little louder but still inaudible

"Louder..."

"I'm not...Fluttershy", she finally said.

Rainbow kept a serious look for a moment then fell over laughing. "You've got to be kidding me, nopony could imitate you!"

Flutter just looked a bit surprised for a moment, "No...really, I'm not her."

Rainbow just laughed harder, "Whe-When'd you become a comedian, Flutter?"

A minute passed and Rainbow pulled herself together, the eerie silence returning.

Rainbow caught her breath, "Seriously, if you aren't her you'd have to have some proof....right?"

Flutter thought for a moment, and within moments a process or two cranked out an idea, "I know..."

"Huh?"

Flutter lifted off the ground, not using her wings and made a portion of her torso open revealing to the Cyan Pegasus a neatly arranged series of cables and circuits, with a glowing blue power-core in the middle. After a few seconds Flutter closed up and landed, "See?"

Rainbow just stood there looking completely shocked and awestruck.

Flutter shied away a little, "I'm not even a Pegasus...Mr. Morris said I was a machine..."

"This...is...soooooo awesome!" Rainbow went into her fangirl squeal.

Flutter looked at Rainbow, "Awesome? Rainbow?"

"But...I gotta ask, where's the real Fluttershy?"

"I don't know.", Flutter responded

"Well, we oughta go find this Morris pony and teach him a lesson, he might know!"

"I don't know where he is either, I woke up outside the front door to her cottage. After some sort of falling..."

"Hmmmm... We've gotta figure out something... The real Fluttershy could be in danger."

"You're taking this awfully well."

"Why shouldn't I? Now there's two Fluttershy's, one more awesome than the other! Wait...You aren't evil or something, are you?"

"OH! No! I don't want to cause any trouble..."

Rainbow scratched the back of her head, "I guess Pinkie was wrong about that..."

Flutter kicked at the ground a little, "Could you...not tell the others?"

Rainbow looked at her, "Why not?"

"Well, I...I don't want them to worry...and I don't want everypony knowing what I am..."

"Why don't you want anypony else knowing what you are?"

"Are there any other machine ponies out there?"

"Uhm....Good point...Alright, I'll keep it a secret. But you've gotta promise me we'll find the real Fluttershy, deal?"

"Deal!"

[How touching, it seems amongst all this mess, the little falsity has made herself a friend. I desire to see just how far she can go before everything starts falling to pieces. Hm? The Father Program... Looks as though I need to bother her... Hurry up and go to bed, "Fluttershy", we need to discuss things...]

Part 02.2: Initial Observation: Day 2

[Mechanist's Flutter Part 2]
[Initial Observations: Day 2]
[A Cheery Morning]

Morning came, Flutter woke up and looked around, it was the sort of dream that made her curious about what was really going on. It's not often that the Dragon she stared down would surface in something that wasn't a nightmare. It seemed like he was trying to tell her something when she finally got him to back down, something about an old castle. She shrugged it off, assuming that he was trying to talk about an old place that he used to live.

She pushed the sheet off of herself, after her wing blades had snagged on it once or twice. The birds outside were chirping energetically, each chirp playing off of another almost like a song specially arranged. She could even hear the beat and the rhythm as the serenade played on. Memories of how Fluttershy usually started her day went through her head and one figure was present in every one of them, "Where's...Angel?", she asked herself. During her time in Ponyville these last 24 hours, they have been completely void of even a single white hair of a familiar hare.

She turned to look around every inch of the cottage, looking for her the little bun. "Angel? Are you in here?", she called out to the room. Her mane was a bit of a mess, covering her metallic front legs as she knelt down looking for Angel. The bunny appeared with a smile and a salute.

"There you are, are you feeling well today?" She asked him.

Angel smiled so wide that it pressed his eyes closed, and he nodded enthusiastically.

She stood up and shook her mane back into its smooth curve, revealing her metal legs and body, "That's so great, let's go get you some breakfast."

Fluttershy felt a tiny paw tapping on one of her metal joints.

She looked down at him, "Huh? Is something...", she realized he's looking at her body, "Oh..."

He stood back from her so she can see the questioning look on his face. He shrugged his shoulders asking the unspoken question. 'Why?'

"You aren't hungry?", Flutter said, attempting to change the topic.

Angel narrowed his eyes, letting Flutter know how unimpressed he is. He shook his head, then stamped her metal hoof.

"It's just something to keep me safe from some things that would want to hurt me..."

He gave her an impressive eye-roll, before looking her in the eyes, expecting the truth.

She tried to ignore the little rabbit's stare, walking around him and to the window, "It really is a beautiful day", a few birds perched on the window frame looked at her, "Isn't that right?"

The birds seemed to sense something off-kilter and flew away from her.

"Oh my...", she looked back at Angel and grinned as innocently as she could.

The bunny brought a paw to his face.

Flutter looked a bit depressed, "I guess you're right, I can't be her, I can only sound like her, and partly look like her."

Angel's ears dropped, he approached the pony. Tapping her softly he looked at her with eyes that wanted to apologize.

"It's ok, Angel. I may not be her, but I still want to care for things in her place...hopefully she'll appear.", a moment passed and she realized, "We still need to get you something to eat."

Angel smiled and hopped out the door towards his little bunny house. Along the way he made sure to pass the word that this Flutter was to be trusted and treated like the Fluttershy they all know and love.

[o/* The best part of wakin' up, is Coltgers in your cup! o/*]

Twilight Sparkle woke up from a three hour nap, buried in a pile of books. The only thing on her mind was a cloud of fog. She pushed some books to the side revealing a small corner of her bed before climbing out of it. The aroma of freshly brewed coffee was flowing around the library, which meant that Spike saw the stack of books on her bed. She followed the sweet life giving aroma right to the kitchen. This coffee was strong, even just the smell was strong enough to start to lift the fog of sleep from the unicorn's mind.

Her green and purple colored scaly assistant was in a good mood, which meant he actually slept through everything that happened last night, "Morning, Twilight.", he greeted her.

Twilight didn't respond at first, she magically levitated the mug of steaming liquid from the table and up to her muzzle and took a good long sniff of her personal ambrosia. Almost as quickly as possible, she gulped down her lifeblood, two cups of piping hot caffeine and she grinned. Spike could have sworn that her throat was as heat tolerant as his. An enormous twitch and the cup rocketed to the ceiling, joining several others from previous mornings. Spike gave her the 3-hour night special, loaded with enough sugar to get that initial kick to hold her until the caffeine surged in. Finally she looked to spike with a little smile, "Good morning, Spike."

"You were up awfully late last night, were you researching another new spell?" Spike asked as he mixed a little salad for her.

"Not that I know of, last night...", she paused and thought for a moment, the morning fog in her mind cleared revealing Flutter hiding behind Rainbow Dash who was giving a rather sharp glare, "...right, I was trying to see if there was anything in these books to help me understand why Fluttershy would suddenly be wearing armor."

"Armor? Why?", Spike asked as he brought Twilight her breakfast.

"That's what I'd love to know. She's been acting like she's afraid of something...well...more so than usual."

"Maybe she saw something scary that looked at her.", Spike guessed.

"Doubtful, if it were something like that she wouldn't have been acting like she was last night. Normally if she's scared about something she would tell us, but last night she was even afraid to talk to us."

"Maybe she doesn't want help?"

"I wouldn't be a very good friend if I just let whatever it is her keep bothering her."

"I dunno, maybe good friends would know when to let something go.", Spike jumped onto a stool and bit into a small gem covered cereal.

"Either way, it feels like it can't be left alone."

Spike just looked at her with his mouth full of his breakfast. He recognized the way her eyes were narrowing, she had entered problem-solving mode. Spike swallowed his mouthful of milk and gems, "Anyways, I oughta get started on putting back those books you used last night."

"No Spike, I still need them." She finished her salad and went back to her studies.

Spike felt she was letting her obsessive personality get the better of her, again. This time Fluttershy was both the target, and the obstacle. This could very well ruin not only Twilight's relationship with her friend, but Fluttershy's willingness to trust any friend.

He took a moment to try and think of a more important distraction, he figured the best one would be her top obligation, "Say, Twilight don't you need to send a letter to Celestia today?"

"I sent her one the other day, so I don't need to worry about that until next Tuesday."

Spike warded off the urge to face...erm...snoutpalm, one or the other. He started trying to figure out ways to distract her from going overboard with this.

[The clouds have eyes? This isn't that fungus kingdom...]

Flutter had finished feeding all the animals she could, some still ran away even with Angel telling them that they could trust her. She was happy that Angel tried to help her, so happy that she was trotting along. Maybe today would go better than yesterday, maybe everypony wouldn't be as worried and wouldn't bother her as much.

Of course, that didn't happen, no more than five minutes later Flutter was surrounded by ponyfolk who were concerned or curious about her armor and her behavior the previous day. Surprised Rainbow Dash jumped awake on her cloud and looked around for a moment. Nopony had crashed into the side of her cloud and there was not a single trace of something dropped from above. She looked down and noticed a pair of scared Cyan eyes looking up at her from inside the cloud, "S-sorry Rainbow..."

Rainbow sighed, "Lemme guess, Twilight?"

"No...Everypony else."

"Huh?", Rainbow looked over the edge of the cloud and she could see a gathered mass of ponies looking back up at her, "Oh..."

"I don't want them to keep bothering me..."

Rainbow hollered down at the crowd, "Hey, leave her alone, she's just..."

"Having a bad dream", Flutter suggested.

She just went with it, "...having some nightmares, alright?"

The crowd looked amongst themselves and gave a sigh of relief before slowly dispersing. Flutter felt some relief, and dug herself out of the cloud.

Rainbow stretched a bit, "Y'know that's twice you've gotten me to help you. I oughta start asking favors in return."

"Uhm...What kind of favors?"

"First off, you hafta help me find the real Fluttershy."

"I would have done that anyways."

"Second...", Rainbow paused and started to think.

[A favor?]

Sweet Apple Acres was in good health, aside from a couple ancient trees that had died a couple days ago after a little accidental flood. Flutter walked along the path to the Apple family house with Rainbow flying alongside her. They approached Applejack as she was trying to help Apple Bloom learn how to buck the apples off of a tree.

"Now, try it agin'" Applejack instructed.

Apple Bloom hit the trunk of the tree with her hind hooves, putting every fiber of her being, and her ribbon somehow, into the buck. She turned around ready to see an apple fall off, but only a leaf fluttered down. "Aw, phooey", she mumbled.

Applejack smiled, "Yer doin' better Apple Bloom, you got somethin' off it this time."

A challenging voice sounded a ways away, "Hey! Applejack, you still owe me a hoof-wrestling match!"

She looked in the direction of the voice, "What in tarnation?"

Rainbow dashed ahead of Flutter a little and landed in front of Applejack, "You heard me, we still have a score to settle."

"As much as Ah'd like to, Ah've got apples to harvest."

Flutter caught up, "I-I could gather some apples while you two do that."

"No offense, sugarcube... but you ain't exactly the strongest pony around. It'd be better to let other ponies take care of the hard work. Besides, with that armor y'all'd prolly end up hurtin' yerself."

"Well...I could try...if you don't mind."

"First off you dunno how to buck like we do, second off nopony can applebuck like an Apple."

Apple Bloom looked up at Applejack, "Ah could teach her, AJ! Ah've got lotsa practice!"

Applejack looks at her little sister, "Ah really don't want you to trouble yourself."

Flutter looks at Applejack, "It wouldn't be any trouble, Applejack."

"Well, alright, you can go teach Flutter how to buck, you've got the technique down at least."

Apple Bloom skipped around shouting, "Yay!"

"Now, why don't you go on ahead a little Flutter, I need to tell Apple Bloom somethin' right quick."

Flutter nodded, "Okay", then wandered ahead a little.

Applejack looked at Apple Bloom, "Now somethin's goin' on with Flutter, whatevah it is it's got her spooked enough t' wear that armor. Now don't you go askin' her about it, ya hear?"

"I'm Waaaaaiiiiting.", Rainbow loudly grumbled.

"Ah'll get to you in ah moment"

Apple Bloom looked up at her older sister, "Alrighty, ah won't."

"Good, now git goin'."

Apple Bloom ran to catch up to Flutter.

"You ready to do this, RD? Ya know Ah'm strong."

"Nopony is stronger than me!", Rainbow wittily replied as they locked hooves.

[Like a wound-up springboard]

A minute passed and both Applejack and Rainbow Dash have locked each other into a serious match of hoof-wrestling, Big Mac watching as the judge. In the meantime Apple Bloom and Flutter wandered out to a tree in the orchard. It was fairly healthy, a few dead branches were void of leaves, while the rest had apples waiting to fall. Flutter looked at it for a moment, oblivious to Apple Bloom who was using the reflection off her side to adjust her ribbon.

"Is this one the one we're going to use to teach me?", Flutter asked.

"Yep. This one's smaller so we have a better shot at knocking an apple off-a it.", Apple Bloom grinned.

Apple Bloom positioned herself in front of the tree, "So, ya place your front hooves in the ground, pull up yer hind legs and...", she followed through with her instructions and kicked the tree, "...hit it in th' right spot."

The smaller tree should have given at least one apple, but to Apple Bloom's disappointment not even the twig hanging from a thin spider web fell, "Awww...Well, you give it a try."

Flutter nodded, "O-okay."

She positioned herself, pushed her front legs into the ground, pulled her hind legs up--

Back near the farmhouse Big Mac was watching as neither Applejack nor Rainbow Dash had made any progress in the hoof-wrestling match, the piece of wheat he was chewing on was drooping, as though it shared his enthusiasm as he watched.

In the orchard a distinct KATHWACK could be heard, Big Mac looked in the direction the sound came from, "wwwwwwWhoa!", he jumped to the side and the uprooted practice tree landed next to him. Both AJ and RD looked at the tree completely surprised, the surprise lasted longer with Applejack, as Rainbow Dash took the chance to accidentally win the match.

Back at what is now a small hole, Apple Bloom was staring at Flutter completely amazed, and Flutter in the meantime was completely shocked blushing.

A grin crawled along the little filly's face, "That was amazin'! Can ya do that agin'?"

Flutter didn't respond.

Applejack, Big Macintosh, and Rainbow Dash quickly arrived. Applejack and Big Mac both looked at the hole that once housed the roots of a tree. Rainbow was just as surprised as Applejack, maybe not for the same reason, but still, rather surprised.

"A-Apple Bloom?! What happened?", Applejack asked.

"It was amazin'! Ah showed Fluttershy how to buck an' she copied mah instrucshuns and she uprooted this ol' tree!" Apple Bloom jumped around with excitement.

Big Mac looked at Flutter, "From out here clear to th' farmhouse's front path? That don't add up!"

Applejack gazed at Big Mac than back to Flutter, "Jus' how hard did you hit that tree?"

Flutter dug at the ground with a hoof, "I did what Apple Bloom told me, I dug my front hooves in, pulled my hind legs back, and put everything I had into it..."

Applejack looked at Flutter completely puzzled. Was there more to this soft, kind Pegasus? More than innocent little Fluttershy? If anything Applejack would have figured that Rarity would have more of a buck than Fluttershy, assuming she were ever willing to use it. She looked at Big Mac and for once she agreed with him on a topic he knew, "Yer right, this don't add up! Fluttershy what's goin' on with you?!"

Flutter could feel suspicions forming, stronger than last night at her cottage.

"Did somepony do somethin' to you? There's no way in all Equestria anypony can be that strong! Even Big Mac couldn't send a tree that far!"

"Eeeeyup..."

"I...guess the weight of my armor helped?", Flutter tried.

"Ah, don' buy it sugarcube."

Rainbow walked up beside Applejack, "Say shouldn't you two go clean up that tree? I don't think Granny needs to see that."

Big Mac sprung into action shouting, "Ah'll go take care of that!", before he ran off.

Rainbow's ploy only got one of the Apple's to head off, Applejack was still staring down Flutter, "You can tell me, who did what to you?"

Rainbow even knew trying to offer Applejack another challenge wouldn't work, she had no options outside of trying to scare off her friend. As luck would have it the familiar buzzing of two little wings was approaching, "Uhm...I'llbeback!", Dash dashed off.

Applejack started to move towards Flutter, who backed away with each step.

"Hey, Apple Bloom catch!" Scoots shouted from on top of Rainbow's back.

Scootaloo threw Apple Bloom's Cutie Mark Crusader cape towards her, and Rainbow did a quick sweep around it causing a small gust that carried the cape over AJ's head, where it caught the rim of her Stetson and covered her face, "What the hay?!"

Rainbow looked at Flutter and tilted her head quickly a couple of times, she took the hint and took off flying towards the closest cloud thick enough to hide her. AJ managed to shake the cape off, and looked at Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo.

Rainbow replied to AJ's annoyed gaze by saying, "What?"

"Whatevah's goin' on, ah'll get to the bottom of it. This here's fishier than that trout cake Pinkie gave us."

"You're just paranoid.", Rainbow looked up at the cloud Flutter went up to, "Whoops, missed a cloud."

Scootaloo jumped down from Rainbow's back and watched as she flew up and started to push the cloud along, "Fluttershy in armor, I guess that makes her cooler."

[Just a drift?]

Rainbow stopped pushing the cloud once she was sure that they were out of sight of Applejack, "So, you're also stronger than anypony I know. That is just plain cool!"

Flutter poked her head out of the cloud, "I could have hurt somepony..."

"Well, you lucked out, that tree didn't hit anypony. And lucky again, Big Mac had uprooted a tree before, which is why he only uses one hoof to buck with."

"He'll tell Granny Smith he did it on accident?"

"Yeah, AJ'd probably go along with it too. If I were you, I'd try to figure out how to control that awesome strength", an idea comes into Rainbow's mind, "Hey, maybe we could enter hoof-wrestling tournaments, we'd never lose! Wait, you're not that competitive...Are you?"

"Maybe when we find the real Fluttershy, I could try to be.", Flutter dug herself out of the cloud and stood on it, "We would make a great team."

"It's settled then, we find the real Fluttershy, then we start kicking tail!", Rainbow struck a pose.

"That sounds great, Dash."

[Apple and the Worm]

Twilight had entered her zone, she was reading a page of small print every three seconds. Spike was busy cleaning things, it turned out all the things he tried to distract Twilight with were his jobs. A knock came at the library door, Spike looked, while Twilight kept reading. He went to the door and opened it greeting the pony on the other side, "Hi Applejack, do you--"

"Twi...Now...", AJ was resolute in who she wanted.

"She's in the sea of books.", Spike pointed a thumbclaw behind him, at the enormous number of books stacked in the middle of the main room.

Applejack marched forward and pushed books to the side, heading straight for Twilight, "Twi...We need to talk..."

Twilight could see stacks of books moving and snapped out of her reading trance, "About what, Applejack?"

"Yer not gonna believe this but the Element of Kindness just kicked a tree a good 50 yards."

Twilight looked at Applejack questioningly, "If that's some kind of joke, it's not funny."

"Tain't a joke Twi, Fluttershy was learnin' how to buck apples from Apple Bloom, nex' thing I see is Big Macintosh dodgin' a tree! Went to go see what happened and Apple Bloom is jumpin' around Fluttershy who bucked the tree clean outta the ground."

"Are you feeling alright? I mean, Fluttershy couldn't possibly be able to--"

"Ah know that! It surprised me too. I start askin' her if somepony done some things to her and Rainbow Dash starts trying to distract me."

Twilight raised a brow, "Rainbow Dash was trying to distract you?"

"She got tricky and got Scootaloo to help her block my view, Fluttershy does a vanishin' act. Nex' thin' Ah know, Dash is cartin' a cloud off. Ah think Rainbow Dash might know somethin' about what's goin' on with Fluttershy."

[No, she doesn't blend...in]

Flutter and Rainbow both were flying over Ponyville, looking for anything out of the ordinary. Everything was normal around town, even Sugarcube Corner was relatively normal. The two met up back at the cloud they started from.

Rainbow asked, "Find anything?"

Flutter shook her head, "Did you?"

Rainbow gave a disappointed look, "Nothing. If nothing is out of place in Ponyville then maybe there's something in Cloudsdale, or the Everfree Forest. Hay, maybe even as far as Canterlot."

Flutter thought for a moment, "If three of us were in this we could cover all three at once.", she suggested.

"No way, I'll do Cloudsdale and Canterlot, you keep looking around here.", with that said, Rainbow blitzed away leaving a rainbow trail as she headed for her old hometown.

Flutter just smiled, Rainbow was being loyal to her wanting to keep the secret. She jumped off the cloud and landed on the ground, she was trying to decide where to go. Either she wanted to see the basement of Sugarcube Corner, or if the Carousel Boutique was open. She looked at the Boutique as Sweetie Bell, Scootaloo, and Apple Bloom all went inside. Within seconds of the door closing Rarity gave a rather epic scream of distress. Knowing that Rarity would be in as many pieces as her current project, Flutter wandered over to the sweet shop. As she walked along the ponies who weren't busy with chatter or tasks would watch her go by, some with worried looks. She counted the sets of eyes that she could see watching her, 12 sets in total, one set was looking in two directions at once.

She entered the sweet shop, the midday rush had already come and gone so there were only the Cakes and her inside. Mrs. Cake looked over at Flutter, "Oh, hello Fluttershy, I heard you were having some nightmares. They're only bad dreams, dontcha know."

"I still feel a little safer wearing this.", Flutter replied.

"You sure about that? It looks awful tight! How'd you even get it on? You look like you'd need a can opener to get out of it. I'm pretty sure I've got one somewhere...", A familiar voice says behind her.

"It's not tight at all, Pinkie.", Flutter knew this encounter was coming so she had prepared for the sudden appearance of the Pink Party Pony.

"A lot calmer today, that's good. Like I told Mrs. Cake, you were so wound up yesterday that you made me -- ME the premier Party Pony of Ponyville, maybe of all of Equestria -- look as calm as Twilight is after a 4-day reading spree!"

"Well...It's because I tried some of Twilight's...Coffee?"

"You tried some of -HER- coffee? Wow, that stuff is so potent that you get a super duper kick of energy just by being in the same house with it! No wonder you were so jumpy!"

"Uhm... Pinkie could I ask a favor, could I look in the basement real quick?"

"This place has a basement? Hey, Mrs. Cake does this place have a basement?"

Mrs. Cake looks at Pinkie, "Oh of course, it's where those Cutie Mark Crusaders went and found Spike when he fell into that vent over there. Feel free to go take a look, it'd be nice to turn that into an extra inventory room one of these days. Key is next to the back door, Pinkie."

"Okie-dokie-loki, let's go Fluttershy" Pinkie bounced out of the room with Flutter following her.

Around back Pinkie opened the basement door and wandered in, Flutter following. Pinkie lit a lantern revealing nothing more than an old rocking chair.

"Wow. It's pretty empty, it'd make a great place to put things." Pinkie Commented.

Looking around Flutter noticed the vent Spike had fallen in was boarded up. There really was nothing down here, nothing important at all. The lantern went out and she turned around, "Pinkie?"

The lantern relit, with its light focused pointing up underneath Pinkie's face and there was Pinkie, grinning widely at Flutter with a knife between her teeth and her mane folded flat, "There could be so many other uses too!"

Flutter shuffled back and Pinkie bit into the knife which gave a squeak. Pinkie just broke out into a laugh, "Gotcha!", as though she willed it her mane poofed back out again, "I'll hafta do this on Nightmare Night! It'll scare fillies muzzle to tail!"

"H-How did you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Make your mane flat?"

"Oh! This?", She makes her mane flatten again, "I figured out how to do that after you guys threw me that party a coupla weeks ago! What do ya think? Izzit a cool trick?"

"I guess so."

"And it worked so well I could hear your heart humming!"

"Uhm..."

Pinkie realized what she said, "Wait, humming? Don't hearts normally go ba-bump ba-bump?"

"Well...maybe it was going so fast it sounded like a hum?"

"I guess so? Oooh, you might still have some of that caffeine high from Twilight's coffee, maybe that's why.", somehow the pink pony made a -DING- sound, "I know! I've got a super-relax cupcake that I could make you that would help you get rid of the rest of that coffee! Come on!", with that Pinkie Pie dragged Flutter out of the basement and back into the store up top. She went into the kitchen and five minutes later comes out with a purple and blue cupcake, "Here you go!"

Flutter didn't know if she could eat anything without encountering problems, "Could I just take it home and eat it?"

"Why? it's blueberry flavored!"

"But I--"

Pinkie Pie shoved the cupcake in Flutter's mouth, "Eat up!"

Flutter swallowed and an indicator appeared in her sight, "Wha? 'Energy Level plus' what's that?"

Pinkie looks where Flutter sees the indicator, "That one's new to me! I'm used to seeing some 'ei' thingie there."

Flutter looks at Pinkie, "You can see that?"

"I see all sorts of things but that's new to me, oh, is that yours?"

Flutter looks around and Pinkie watches where it moves, "Yep! It's yours, what's it for? What's it for?"

"I don't know..."

"Well, it's yours so it's gotta be some important thing right? Hey look it's fading away"

Mrs. Cake happened to put some muffins on the counter, "What's fading away?"

"This thingie that showed up in Fluttershy's vision"

"Well, it may be a good thing it faded away", Mrs. cake went into the kitchen again un-fazed by Pinkie seeing things again, it happened so often it seems.

"Pinkie? Can you keep that a secret?"

"Of course I can. Cross my heart and hope to fly; stick a cupcake in my eye.", she replied, "Just let me ask something really quickly."

"What?"

"You're not evil are you?"

"No, I'm not"

"Yay! If you need any help just call on everyponys favorite party-host with the most!", Pinkie smiled widely.

[Metal Pony Flutter and Fashion has a Marshmallow flavor?]

Flutter wandered out of Sugarcube Corner as Pinkie started helping Mrs. Cake with a new rush of customers. She began to look around Ponyville, thinking about where she would look next. She figured that she could try to find other little hidden areas around town, until she saw Applejack talking with some pony. The pony pointed at Flutter, and Applejack turned to look, "There you are!"

Flutter didn't squeak, just ran. She cut between buildings and over fences, even quietly sneaking behind her pursuer in evasion. She hid inside of a bush, up in a tree, and on top of a low flying cloud. A low flying cloud low enough that it slowly sailed by Applejack after Flutter abandoned it. She finally evaded Applejack by hiding in a cart a stallion was pulling along. She jumped out in the wrong place though, because now Twilight had found her.

"Fluttershy? I think I figured out what could help you.", a book levitated up in front of Twilight, "It says here that a pony who spontaneously dons armor is likely to be fired out of a cannon...Oh wait, wrong book", She looked up and Flutter was gone, "Hey!"

Running around and hiding in more places, Flutter was positive she was teleported by Twilight around 7 times before she lost her second pursuer by ducking into a building, closing the door and locking it. She was so focused on avoiding everypony she knew, that she didn't notice that the building she was hiding in was the Carousel Boutique.

Rarity looked over at Flutter, with a little surprise.

"Fluttershy? What are you doing here?", she asked

"Well, I...", She couldn't find much of a reason but she didn't want to go back out there, "...I was wondering if you could make this armor less....obvious?", she had blurted out what she thought would get her off the hook.

Rarity looked at her, "But of course, Darling. Are you sure that's what you want?"

"Just a little something that can let me feel like I don't have my wings covered, and my tail..."

"Well, if you're sure... why don't you leave that armor... ummm... Ah!"

Rarity moved a pile of garments out of the way, creating a space for Flutter to leave her armor.

"There, leave your armor there and I'll see what I can do about it!" Rarity instructed. She was happy to have a different project to work on, as it would distract her from her current conundrum.

Flutter shuffled a little, "Uhm...I can't take it off, it's stuck"

"Stuck? Why didn't you say so? No wonder you're so sensitive about it. Here, let me help you out of that."

"Couldn't you work on while it's on me?"

"I don't know... it looks awfully tight, and I'd feel absolutely horrible if I hurt you..."

"Oh, I didn't want you to remove anything, just add things on.", Flutter grinned a little to hide a little bit of embarrassment.

"Now, Fluttershy, you know me better than that! I won't settle for doing second-rate work for anypony, especially for one of my best friends."

"Please, Rarity? I don't want to give up any protection..."

Rarity let out a sigh of defeat, "Very well... Just let me get some measurements and I'll see what I can whip up."

Some time passed as Rarity worked, Flutter was able to stand completely still when needed, almost as still as a mannequin. The result was very satisfactory for Flutter, even though Rarity couldn't go as far as she wanted she still put everything she had into it. She spread her wings and they looked the way the wings of a Pegasus should, her tail was now long and pink, matching her mane.

"Are you sure that's all you want?", Rarity asked.

"Oh, yes. This will do just fine."

"You know I could make something to cover the rest of...that...just to see if you like it?"

"No, thank you though."

"I could even stitch in your cutie mark?"

"No...This really is enough.", She said, a bit assertively.

"Alright, if you're sure."

A knock comes to the door, making Flutter jump a little, the voice on the other side is Twilight's, "Rarity, are you in there?"

"Coming!~" Rarity sang out.

Flutter looked around for a any means of escaping or hiding. In the meantime, Rarity had made her way to the door and, with a delicate touch of unicorn magic, opened it.

Twilight looked at Rarity, "Rarity, have you seen Fluttershy?"

"Oh, she's just upstairs, trying on some pieces I made to cover her armor. I can't, for the life of me, understand why she'd want wing coverings, but refuse to cover all of that dreadful armor."

Applejack walks up as Twilight asks, "Can we go and see how she's doing?"

"Of course! Come along!"

Rarity led both Applejack and Twilight upstairs, along the way Twilight looks at Applejack who gives her a confirming nod. When they enter the room Flutter is nowhere to be seen.

"She was just here a moment ago, honest!"

Twilight looked around for a moment and noticed that the curtains around an open window were drifting in the breeze, Applejack was able to comment the quickest, "I think she might've flown off."

Twilight groaned a little, "Still, we all need to discuss what's happening. Rarity, could you meet us in the library soon? We might be in for more than we thought..."

"Of course I will, I'm just as worried about Fluttershy as the next filly."

[A little tie-dye chat]

While Twilight and Applejack were at Rarity's house the library was empty aside from one figure. Spike wasn't in the library, he was sent off to run some random errand. Owloysius wasn't even around to try and help. Rainbow Dash was just going to have to sit there tied up until somepony untied her, preferably not the farmer who tied her up to begin with. She was tied up pretty well, too. Her wings tied close to her body and her four hooves up in the air tied together.

She grumbled for a moment then grumbled at herself, "Yeah, let's land on the cloud that's hoverin a few inches off the ground and try to unbury 'Fluttershy', digging right into a trap. Brilliant Rainbow, just brilliant...I oughta", she drifted into a little muffled rant.

The library door creaked open and Rainbow looked over briefly before diverting her eyes to, though she won't admit it, a book on the bookshelf. Applejack walked in half expecting Rainbow to have at least worked her hooves free, Twilight, Pinkie and Rarity behind her.

Applejack looked at Rainbow, "Well good, y'all still here."

Pinkie Pie looked at Applejack, "Did you really need to do that? She doesn't look happy at all."

Rainbow snorted angrily.

"Calm down there RD, we just need to know what exactly you know about Fluttershy"

Rainbow tried to cross her forelegs, "I'm not saying a word..."

"Horsefeathers! Somethin' happened to Fluttershy, thar's no way she shoulda been able to uproot Bloom's trainin' tree!"

Pinkie looked at Applejack, her mane subtly straightened out.

Even Twilight was taken aback by that outburst.

Applejack continued, "I wanna know why somepony would take a Pegasus sweeter than Celestia and turn her into that! More importantly a wanna know who that somepony is!"

"Now, now, Applejack", Rarity said, "There's no need to get upset, I'm sure there's a perfectly reasonable explanation for Fluttershy's behavior."

Pinkie's mane had gone completely flat, "Yeah, there's gotta be a good reason, right?"

"I'm sorry girls," Twilight said, even she was uncharacteristically somber, "I don't have an explanation."

"Rainbow, I know darn well that yer workin' with Fluttershy, y'all gotta know what the hay happened to her...", Applejack lost some of her steam, "Did those Diamond Dogs take her to somepony? Did she wander into that part of the Everfree Forest agin'? What happened?!"

Rainbow shook her head, "I made a promise, I can't let you guys know what's going on..."

"Tell...me...", Those words from Applejack were dripping with venom.

The mares in that room hadn't seen Applejack this angry since Apple Bloom was fillynapped by some trouble causing Pegasi, even Rainbow was starting to be more afraid of her than angry at her. Anything that would fillynap any child of the farmpony had a wrath waiting for her that would be bitter even after the end.

"I made a promise to MY friend that I won't go back on! No, She's OUR friend, you have to respect that at least! You can't go tying me up like a rodeo bull just because you're worried about something!"

"Ah don't care, ain't you supposed' t' be the loyal one? What happened t' that?" Exclaimed Applejack.

Rainbow glared at the farmpony. Applejack could swear she saw a red flame burning behind those rose irises. She backed down.

"I am being loyal!" Rainbow screamed, "And I'm sorry if you can't see that, but I made a promise to a friend, and I. WILL. KEEP. IT!"

The girls looked at each other and the front door opened, Spike wandered in carrying a lot of scrolls, "I'm back, I couldn't get as many scrolls as you wanted, but the rest should be in by Friday. Woah! What's goin' on here?"

The four who had been questioning Rainbow looked as guilty as a Pinkie after she ate the Cakes' entire supply of corn-cakes. Rarity and Twilight looked at Applejack, their faces changing to disgust. She got the hint and loosened the rope. Rainbow immediately seized the opportunity and flew out of the open door. Her speed was so great that the rushing of wind she left behind nearly pulled the door closed on the baby dragon's tail.

Twilight was the first to speak up, saying, "I'm certain that when Fluttershy is ready to tell us why she's wearing...armor...and kicking trees, she will."

[With a friend]

Flutter was comfortable lying on a cloud, she watched as the moon rose up. She could see Luna had chosen to raise the moon from over Ponyville tonight. As she watched the Alicorn perform her task she felt the cloud shift a little. Flutter looked over at Rainbow, "Hi, Dash."

"Can you BELIEVE it? They accused me, ME of not being loyal! Just because I was keeping my promise!"

Flutter looked surprised, "What? They did that?"

"Hmph!" Rainbow snorted in disbelief.

Flutter stood up and moved close to her, "It'll be alright. We'll find the real Fluttershy and everything will be alright. Until then we have to stand by our decisions."

"Don't tell me what I already know! I am standing by my decision!" Rainbow Dash had started verbally lashing out, not caring who got caught in the fire.

"Dash? Do you want me...to leave you alone for a little while?", She asked gently.

The cyan Pegasus looked at Flutter, as if she just realized she was sharing a cloud with the mechanical pony.

"RRgh... I didn't mean to take it out on you, they just drove me crazy with all that!"

"It's alright, I understand.", she thought for a moment, "Dash?"

"Yeah?"

"You've been doing so much for me, I want to thank you somehow.", She grinned, "Something more than just saying 'thank you'..."

"Yeah? Like what?" Dash said, she couldn't put her hoof on it, but something about the offer intrigued her.

"Well, maybe I could help you and Pinkie with a prank? Or help with the weather? Maybe something else?"

"Hmm," Rainbow Dash contorted her face as her wheels began to spin, "I did always want to try to get one over on Pinkie. It's kinda hard to pull a two-pony prank when your partner in crime is the pony you're tryin' to prank"

Flutter smiled, "That would be...awesome."

"Y'know, 'Shy isn't much of a prankster, I'd say that makes you about 20% cooler!"

"Thank you, Dash. I can't wait to figure out the prank!"

"Hay, yeah! This's gonna be a Dash and - ..." Rainbow stopped, realization creeping up on her, "Hey, what should we call you? I mean, you're not exactly 'Flutter-SHY' are you?"

Flutter thought for a moment, "You're right, uhm...", her mind ran wild with ideas but she found one she felt comfortable with, "FlutterGear? Does that sound good?"

Dash tapped a hoof to her chin, contemplating the name, "Flutter-gear ... FlutterGear. Yeah, I like it!"

With a lot of volume to her voice, Gear shouted, "Yay!"

Rainbow Dash blinked a couple of times, before she raised her own voice, "YEAH! Now that's what I'm talkin' about!"

[The night was young but these two little ponies were drained, they drifted off into a sleep next to each other, both with a little smile on their faces. The dreams they would have tonight would be entertaining to say the least, one dreaming of machines the other of winning. Which one dreams what? I'll let you figure that out. But first this little Sublet needs a "Heart-to-Heart" before the network opens once more...]

Part 03.1: In search of Fluttershy: Day 1

[Mechanist's Flutter Part 3.1]
[In search of Fluttershy]

[Exhausted little mare's I'll give them that much. Now if memory serves, as the little gear sleeps I should be able to poke in the shared dream she and her friend are having and... Ah, one of these dreams. Alright, I suppose a shift of color and...]
[Equestrian Heroes]

Crisis, an ancient tome of summoning has been stolen by an evil dragon. The tome was stolen from the Canterlot Museum where the Wonderbolts were unable to prevent the theft. With no time to send a Pegasus-drawn chariot to Ponyville and back, Celestia requested that the two fast fliers, Rainbow Dash and FlutterGear go to the mountain lair of this dragon and reclaim the tome before he could summon any beings that could devastate all of Equestria. FlutterGear and Rainbow Dash were both racing to the top of the mountain where the Black Dragon had hidden himself away. Gear was keeping up with the Rainbow maned speedster as they approached the cave entrance. Each pegasus left their unique trails in the air, a Rainbow trail and Silver trail. FlutterGear called out to Rainbow Dash, "Dash, I'll find a back entrance in."

"Got it, Gear!", Rainbow called back.

Gear pulled off to the side and looped around the mountain peak, finding a back entrance. It was a passage just wide enough for a pony but not a dragon, she entered it and approached the sound of the Dragon speaking strange words. She quickly emerged behind him as Dash came in the front entrance. The Dragon looked at her and roared, warning the approaching color trail to go away. -POW- Rainbow Dash had turned around and planted her hind legs into the snout of the Dragon, leaving some small hoof-shaped indentations. She dived down to avoid the wave of blue firebreath the Dragon let out. Gear came in from behind the Dragon and rammed into the back of his head, disorienting him. He tumbled around for a moment then gathered his wits, a look of horror forming as the two Pegasi trails spiralled around each other heading right for him. The impact was spectacular, a last second Sonic Rainboom combined with the Resonance from Gear's powercore turned the two into an Arrow of Light that phased right through the poor behemoth who hit the ground fading into unconsciousness. The two friends found the tome, opened to a page that would summon forth the wrath of a dragon god, they knew they had made it in time as all but the last 5 words were glowing with magic.

Later in the royal castle Gear and Dash both walked along the red carpet, Earth Ponies, Unicorns, and Pegasi all cheering as they approached Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. The two heroes kneeled and bowed their heads as the Princesses smiled widely acknowledging their bravery. The summoning tome had been recovered before any dragon magic could summon enormous beasts of power.

"Rise, heroes." Celestia requested

"The deeds thou'st done for our dominion shall be writ in the annals of our history.", Luna added, thankfully not using the Royal Canterlot Voice.

"However, your work is not yet done. The old castle where the Elements of Harmony were found has fallen under the spell of Arcana Stream."

A magic mirror levitated into the room showed the image of a dark colored unicorn with purple eyes and a deep blue mane.

"Her magicks from the forbidden tomes have made it difficult, nay, impossible for earth pony, unicorn, even Alicorn alike to traverse these curs-ed grounds."

"The spell is slowly spreading over the Everfree forest locking it into an eternal darkness."

"'Tis only a matter of time before thy villa of Ponyville falls to its influence."

Gear asked, "What can we do?"

Celestia nodded at Gear's question, "Only two things can break through her barriers, the magic of a rainbow Pegasus, and the power of your kind heart."

"We will be forever in your debt heroes, do not let us down."

Dash salutes, "You got it!"

Gear nods, "We'll stop her!"

The two take off and fly for straight for the Everfree forest. As the two heroes approached the border of the forest, they could see what the Princesses were talking about. There were patches of darkness that could be seen, slowly spreading wider. This didn't faze either of the heroes, they nodded at each other and began to find a way around the patches, getting seperated along the way. Gear's bravery couldn't falter, or so she thought. Passing through a patch of darkness she suddenly couldn't see, but could hear Dash shout out, "GEAR!"

[Meet the Gear]

Gear opened her eyes, expecting to see Arcana Stream but instead she was standing on the tip of the tail of the Black Dragon, he didn't have that vicious look like earlier, but seemed to be well within control of his temperment, how else would he position his tail just right to let him and the machination look at each other eye-to-eye.

He began to speak, "Do not worry, your colorful friend has drifted into her own dream by now."

Gear processed this civility, and the way he talked, "Discord?"

"Oh, no, little Gear. He's still trapped in that statue, I'm something else."

Gear looked at him curiously, "What do you mean?"

"I am simply a piece of a greater program, a little fragment of code that is performing quite well."

"Program? Code? What are those?", Gear asked.

"Since I'm on a schedule I'll simply say, what is in front of you....", The dragon sarcastically replied.

"Why are you in my dream?"

"Simply to let you know that you will be subconsciously accepting the administration of this simulation. Since the Father Program has ordered every fragment of himself to return."

"Administ- Oh like Mayor Mare?"

"Yes, why not...", the dragon placed his hand on his snout, "Put simply, you can change things in this world, though you won't completely understand why."

"That sounds kinda...cool?", Flutter smiled and squee'd.

"At least I didn't hand the pinto keys to your friend..."

"Pinto keys?"

"I don't have time to explain everything..."

"Could you real quick tell me what a 'Father Program' is? If you don't mind?"

"I know certain beings with their greedy interests are looking for the father program, so I can not even hint at the filename in use, or his functionality. Now, if you excuse me, the network has opened and I must be going."

"That's too bad, you seem like a nice dragon."

The Dragon lowers his tail while fighting a sarcastic comment that would have his Father Program tear him to pieces. He faded away and Gear found herself standing in the teal fog again. She looked around frantically, trying to find the exit. After a minute of looking, she saw something in the distance, "There you are."

She started galloping towards it, a determined look on her face more fitting for Dash than Fluttershy, getting closer and closer until she skidded to a stop. A surprised look on her face as she saw Dash standing there, wearing a cloak that and what looked like metal leggings. Dash eyed her and asked, "Who the Hay are you?"

Gear jumped awake, Rainbow Dash was asleep next to her. Most of what she saw in that Dream had quickly left her memory. She looked over Dash for a minute, even tapping her on the side to listen for any out of place sounds.

"Me...a wonderbolt? You shouldn'tve", Dash mumbled then rolled over.

Gear looked around, some other Pegasi were pushing some clouds in for a light shower. She flew up above the clouds and saw the Sun was barely starting to rise over the mountains, which gave her time to visit somepony before Dash woke up.

Applejack and Big Mac were up early today, they had apples to buck. They weren't alone fortunately, Red Delicious was able to come help since everything was far ahead of schedule at the farm he worked at. Big Mac was a little drained, he had to clean up an uprooted tree last night. Applejack on the otherhoof was a little pre-occupied about what happened in the library last night. The two were walking along the path from the farmhouse, surveying the orchard to see who got which part.

Applejack saw some trees that had been cleared of their apples then checks the fence, "Alrighty, this is where Red Delicious is workin'."

Big Mac looked at the trees, "Uhm...Nnnnope."

"Whad'ya mean?"

"Take a closer look, AJ. Those hoofprints ain't ours."

Applejack walked over to a tree, "What the hay?", She looked at the prints closely, "Can you really tell these hoofprints are somepony else's?"

"Nnnnope...", Big Mac pointed a hoof towards the sound of a tree getting hit hard.

She looked around the tree and watched as a few apples fell off of the tree Gear just hit, she was very relieved to see that the tree hadn't tilted over, or flew 50 yards.

Gear counted the apples that had fallen then checked the ground and the tree for damage.

"Fluttershy?", AJ asked, "What're you doin' out here?"

Gear looked at her, "Oh, I felt bad for uprooting Apple Bloom's practice tree yesterday, so I came to practice."

"On bigger trees? One of them leans towards ya and ya might as well say your prayers."

Gear grinned kinda nervously, "Like that one?", she pointed a hoof at a tree that fell over.

AJ hid her surprise, "Well, at least it missed you."

"Well, it didn't."

"Come again?"

"I had to crawl out from under it.", she said, shuffling a front hoof a little.

AJ started walking over to it, "I don't think it's right to joke about somethin' like thaAAaaa?", She was looking at the hole in the ground left behind from Gear's escape, certain her jaw hanging as far open as the hole was deep.

"I wasn't joking, Applejack.", Gear wandered over.

"This just ain't right, two days ago you couldn' even do anythin' near as physical as Bloom, now you can have trees fall on ya and trot away like 'twas nothin'! Is it because of that armor?"

"Applejack, I need to ask you and the others not to keep asking about my armor. It's just armor, you don't need to worry about it."

"What if it's got some kinda curse on it?"

"I know it doesn't, you need to trust me.", Gear held her hoof out.

AJ still felt guilty for tying up Rainbow Dash, and though something was off, to her this mare is still Fluttershy, "I don' like this, but it looks like I don't have a choice.", She shook hooves with Gear.

The morning shower started and Gear looked up, "Oh, I should get back to Rain...", she froze up a little, "The animals!"

Applejack watched Gear fly up and punch a hole through the cloud cover, "Well now, she couldn't do that before..."

FlutterGear managed to get to the cottage in time, and was able to follow the morning schedule without delay. Angel even tried to help out by dragging feed to some of the animals that fled the day before. Once all the animals in her care were fed she began to wonder about how today would go. Even she gave a little snicker asking aloud, "How long will it take everypony to make me run and hide with Dash?"

She remembered that Dash might be on that cloud still, "Oh, I should go see if she's awake yet. We still need to find where the real Fluttershy went."

Turning towards the door she suddenly tensed up, hairs on her mane raising, the world shifted to something different momentarily, she was now in darkness. She didn't know where she was, all she could hear were voices.

"This the one? Morris Kyles?", a smug voice asked.

"Yes this is him, your skills are very impressive Mr. Kyles. The new Soveriegn would like you to work in the robotics division of the UWO.", a calm voice offered.

A voice strikingly familiar to Gear responded, "I will not."

"Well now, that's a shame, y'know what we do to people that don't want to work for the new Soveriegn?", the smug voice said.

"What?"

"We... Remove them...", something metallic clicks.

"STAND DOWN...", the calm voice was sharp now.

"You never let me have any fun, Colz. Fine...", Another metallic click.

"I'm not going to be the tool of a man who poisoned the person who had brought the world together, just for his own greed for power."

An indicator in Gears vision appears and starts pulsing red reading, Powercore at Critical energy.

"Y'know, THAT'S IT!"

"Riley! DON'T!"

Gear snaps back to attention in her cottage as a loud bang echoes around the room, scaring the animals away. Her pupils had shrunk to the size of seeds, and she stood there trembling. Tears came to her eyes and her legs buckled underneath her, there was no denying it. She wanted to cry...no...

A familiar cloud had drifted along over the last two hours, its napping occupant with it. Dash is still asleep on her cloud, on her back waving her hooves in the air as she and Spitfire won the ultimate race in all of Equestria. Waking, she jumped onto her hooves completely surprised, it wasn't loud when she heard it but Gear's scream pierced right through her. Quickly she lept into the air and made a Sonic Rainboom as she headed straight for Fluttershy's Cottage. She landed on the ground, ready to help Gear but saw nothing, "Huh?"

She couldn't see a single animal around, but could hear somepony crying, "I'm comin'!"

Dash opened the door to the cottage and saw FlutterGear laying on her belly, crying.

Angel was trying to comfort her, but nothing he did seemed to help. He stroked her mane, hugged her hoof, and even tried to offer her a glass of water. Finally he gave up and, on noticing Rainbow Dash standing there gave her a pleading look for help.

Rainbow moved close, "Gear? What happened?"

Gear didn't respond, all she could hear was the loud bang echoing in her mind.

Letting her head hang low, Dash moved closer, "Did something happen?"

Angel looked at her, and nodded. He had seen Flutter break down before but not like this.

Behind Dash a classy voice asked, "Rainbow Dash? What happened here?"

Dash looked at Rarity, "What're you doin' here?"

"I was on my way over to see how Fluttershy was liking the accessories I made for her armor, when I heard this loud explosion followed by her scream."

"Uh... I kinda made a Sonic Rainboom getting over here."

"No darling, this explosion came before yours."

Gear seemed to finally get enough sense to scream, "MR. MORRIS!"

Both Dash and Rarity looked at her.

Dash asked, "That Morris Pony did this? Where is he?!"

"Rainbow Dash! Can't you see she's scared out of her wits? We need to calm her down before we start interrogating her!"

"And what d'you suggest we do?"

"There has to be something, a new dress?", Rarity was thinking as hard as she could, "No, that won't do..."

Angel mimed something and Rarity picked up on it quickly, "A Song! But what?"

"I don't know anything she'd want to hear", Rainbow was starting to get tense.

Rarity just began singing a lullaby as old as Celestia herself.

Hush now, quiet now
It's time to go to bed

Drift, drift, off to sleep
Exciting day behind you
Drift, drift, off to sleep
Let the joy of dreamland find you

The Sonic Rainboom from earlier rattled the entire library, knocking some books off of their shelves. Though, it wasn't the Rainboom that woke Twilight Sparkle today, there used to be books on the shelf right above her bed. She placed the books back on the shelf and let out a yawn. The events the night before had a profound effect on her, instead of climbing in bed with a few books at four in the morning, she climbed into bed and just fell asleep at a decent hour. Spike even noticed that she had gotten a good night's sleep, he handed her a light coffee that would give her the kick she needed for the day. The rain outside had lightened into a drizzle and everypony was out running errands before the planned storm tonight.

"Spike? What time is it?", Twilight asked.

"About a half-hour before noon.", Spike replied.

"Good. There's still time to run some errands."

"Might wanna make it---", Spike was interrupted by a belch of green flame.

"Huh?", Twilight caught a scroll with her magic.

She unfurled it, and began to quietly read:

To my loyal student Twilight Sparkle,

I hope you remembered that today both me and my sister be attending Ponyville's Welcoming of Monsoon.

Spike noticed Twilight's ear twitch, Uh oh...

We will arrive at five as we discussed and hope to see the Elements of Harmony in good spirits.

Celestia

Spike put on an Iron Helmet, Aaaand, here....we.....GO!

Twilight twitched again and began, "Guilty feelings or not, this was not the day to sleep in! Spike! We need to run our errands while we prepare for both of the Princesses arrival! I'll go get Fluttershy! Spike, go get Rarity and Pinkie! We've got to MOVE!"

Twilight nearly took the library door off of its hinges when she opened it with her magic and ran outside. Spike just shrugged his shoulders, "Here we go again."

Between Rarity's voice and the familiarity of a song that every filly knew by heart, Fluttergear had been brought out of her shock. When she noticed her friend calming down, Rainbow Dash lent her voice to the task, in spite of her not being much of a musical talent. Gear appreciated the gesture all the same.

"Thank you.", Gear dried the tears from her eyes.

"You're very welcome.", Rarity said

"Yeah, what happened?"

"Rainbow!", Rarity snapped.

Gear shook her head, "No...It's ok, it must have been some weird daydream."

"Never heard of a daydream being scary. Whatever it was, it must've been pretty awful to make you break down like that."

"It wasn't a trot in the park..."

Rarity raised a brow, "Trot in the park? What was it then?"

"Well... I was suddenly someplace dark, these voices including Mr. Morris...", She teared up a little, "They got into an argument and there was this loud explosion."

"Fluttershy, if this is too much for you, please say so..."

"No...I have to move through it... I think Mr. Morris is dead."

"And who is this 'Mr. Morris'?"

Gear looked at Dash, both knew that they either needed to tell Rarity the truth, or...

A rapidly approaching and freaked voice was getting louder with every zap, "FLUTTERSHY! WE NEED TO TALK!"

Twilight opened the cottage door, catching her breath, "Oh, good! You're home! Listen, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are coming to Ponyville at five!"

Rarity looked at Twilight, "Twilight, you can bother her with details later, she has just had an awful experience!"

"But..."

"There will be no argument. If there is anything you absolutely must to discuss with her, you may discuss it with me first."

"But..."

Rarity started to push Twilight along, "We can discuss this at the library!"

The cottage door closed gently, both Gear and Dash looked at each other and gave a sigh of relief. Dash moved closer, "You gonna be alright, Gear?"

"I will be, Dash."

"That was a pretty close call. I was afraid we'd have to tell Rarity."

"Me too."

"Remember how she nearly fainted when Twilight told her the Zecora's stripes were natural?"

Gear smiled a little, "Yeah."

"Imagine how long she would be out if she found out that isn't armor."

"Probably for a whole minute!", The two girls share a laugh.

Dash looked around for a moment, "Say... The Pegasi are movin' in some bigger clouds later, wanna help?"

Gear looked a little surprised, "You'll have to teach me real quick, but okay!"

There were numerous attempts to escape from her white coated friend, but each one failed. Rarity even quickly caught onto Twilight switching places with Big Mac with Smarty Pants in his mouth. Finally, Rarity locked the library door and got Twilight to settle down.

Rarity looked her fellow unicorn in the eyes, "Now, what do you need?"

"I need Fluttershy to do two things for Princesses arrival today.", Twilight started.

"And what would these two things be?"

"Well, she needs to get the birds ready to sing..."

"And?"

"...to take that armor off."

"She can't do that, darling."

"Why not?"

"It's stuck, probably so tight she can't undo any latches, well if there were any to begin with."

"Stuck? That's it? I might have a spell that can get it off"

"Now that's just plain RUDE, how would you like it if somepony trotted up and undressed you? Besides that, she wouldn't even let me talk her out of it."

"We can protect her.", Twilight pulled a book off of a shelf with her magic.

"No really, when she had me make the accessories for her armor, she insisted that I not remove a single piece."

"Really?"

"Not one."

"Ok, we still need to find a way to hide it. Celestia will be worried if she sees Fluttershy wearing it."

"She would understand if Fluttershy is afraid of something."

"How can you be so sure?"

Rarity points out the window, "Look up for yourself."

Twilight looked out the window and up. Gear was pushing a cloud and Dash was helping her.

"It looks to me like it's helping her feel safe," said Rarity.

"I guess so...", She saw Gear begin to chase a cloud that had escaped the grasp of a younger Pegasus, "I just think there's something else going on, and it just keeps bothering me."

The cakes were both out, Mrs. Cake was running errands and Mr. Cake was at the trader getting more supplies for a special order batch of oatmeal muffins. This left Pinkie Pie to run the store, not a lot of ponyfolk had stopped by, which gave her time to work in the kitchen. Spike opened the door and walked in, "Hello? Is--"

Pinkie poked her head out the doorway to the kitchen, "Hi, Spike!"

"Heh... Is everything--"

"Ready for the show tonight? It sure is!"

"Good. Huh? What's with your mane?", Spike pointed at Pinkie's mane, "Did you let Rarity style it?"

"Nope, I've been playing with a little trick I learned.", Her mane puffs from Rarity's curl to her usual poof, "Pretty neat trick, huh?"

"Yeah, can you do Twilight?", Spike asked.

Pinkie gets her mane to flatten out a little, then used her hooves to move it just right, "There, how's that?"

Spike laughed a little, "Pretty good."

"So all the sweets are ready for tonight, just need to work with Rarity and Fluttershy to put up all the decorations for the event tonight!"

"Great, I'll go tell Twilight. Oh! Did those cupcakes come in?"

"Your Sapphires? Yeah!"

Spike grinned, "I'll be back for them later, I need to get my allowance first."

"Okie-Dokie-Loki, I'll make sure they're ready."

When the last of the large clouds were pushed into position Dash and Gear both landed on the ground. Dash had been trying so hard to show off and do things really quick that she exhausted her wings. Gear looked up and saw that they did a good job, not a single gap in the clouds, perfect for the monsoon season to start up. There were some other Pegasi still high up talking with a coordinator, they would end up being a part of the announcement event later.

After they had rested a little Dash folded her wings closed, "Well, that's that."

Gear smiled at Dash, "Thanks for showing me how to do that."

"We've got the rest of the afternoon to do whatever we want. Any ideas?"

"Well, I was thinking we could keep searching for Fluttershy."

"Oh yeah, I got tied up when I came back from Cloudsdale... So, I'll go check Canterlot."

"I'll check the Everfree forest"

Dash paused, "You sure about that?"

"We've been in there more times than we can count, I think I'll be alright.", Gear grinned softly.

"Alright, I'll go with you."

"Huh?"

"Nopony should go in there alone, I'm going with you."

"Oh, Okay."

The two flew off heading straight for the Everfree forest. Pinkie looked up and saw them go by overhead, "Hey, Dashie, Flutter! Where ya goin'?"

Twilight wandered over to Pinkie as she jumped up waving her front hooves, "Hey!"

Twilight looked up and noticed the direction they were going, "Are they going where I think they're going?"

Applejack walked up to them, as Twilight asked, "Pinkie, are you pondering what I'm pondering?"

"I think so, Twilight. But how would we make an eatable Party Cannon?"

Twilight face-hoofed.

"Hey, there's that noise again."

A dark gray unicorn with a deep blue mane lays in the darkness that she is sustaining with her magic. Her purple eyes open at the sound of an approaching pony, with a calm voice she asked, "You came back early...why?"

A voice responds, "The false Fluttershy is explorin' the forest."

"Is she by herself?"

"Nope, she's with the Rainbow Pegasus."

"Curious. Do you know their reason?"

"They're lookin' for the real Fluttershy, should I scare 'em off?"

The unicorn shakes her head, "No, let them come. The shadows in my control will eject them. We are true in our nature, she cannot use her potential as we can."

"What if we've got the wrong idea?"

"Foolish talk..."

Gear and Dash made some good progress in searching the Everfree forest, but they hadn't found anything that would be out of the ordinary. The first goal they wanted to reach was to cover the forest all the way to Zecora's home. Within a couple of hours they had reached that waypoint and wondered if maybe she had seen something. They looked at each other for a moment, then nodded. Gear walked to the door and knocked on it, "Zecora?"

The door opened and the Zebra welcomed them, "Ah, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash this way roam, I bid thee welcome to this place I call home."

"Could we ask you a question?"

"Since I have finished my flask, feel free to ask."

Dash walked off to investigate something as Gear asked, "Have you seen anypony using secret places in the forest?"

"I seem to recall a troubled unicorn and her friend in the region, the two carrying somepony else to the castle of the old legion."

Gear's mind went back to the dreams, "Huh?"

She could hear the Red Dragon as she stared him down, I remember the old castle...

"Thank you, Zecora."

"Wait..."

"Hm?"

"The one I spoke of has an aura dark as night, be weary of her tricks and choose which path is right.", Zecora warned.

"We'll remember, Zecora."

Gear looked for her friend, "Dash?"

Zecora watched as Gear started to wander around, expecting Dash to surprise them. Things fell quiet enough the two could hear a small insect moving over a dry leaf. Zecora noticed something moving around Gear, "Watch Out!"

Gear fell into a shadow and Zecora ran over to try and help.

"I would rather you did not."

Zecora turned to the dark unicorn, "She who wields light's bane..."

"Join them...", The darkness swallowed Zecora, "This untamed forest will be mine."

System status: Recovery Complete

Gear woke up between Dash and Zecora on the edge of the forest. Dash was next to her still out, and Zecora had also started coming to. She looked up at the concerned looks of Twilight, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Spike, and both Princesses.

Twilight asked, "Are you guys alright?"

Gear stood up, "I'm fine."

Applejack followed, "What happened?"

Zecora got up, "We've been expelled by shadows, under control of one whom nopony knows."

Gear could still see some self-test data in her vision, she remembered seeing it when Twilight was teleporting her during last nights chase, "I feel alright, but what about Dash?"

Dash stirred, "Ugh... Ramming speed, nothing...", she pushed herself to her hooves, wincing in pain.

Applejack and Twilight closed in on Dash, "Rainbow Dash, what happened?" Twilight asked.

Dash straightened herself up, "Somepony in a cloak rammed into me", she flinched a little, "I think Billy and Hoops combined have less kick than that one."

Gear looks at Celestia as the last visual disappears from her sight.

"It sounds like you three had quite the encounter," said the princess, "perhaps you could explain what you experienced?"

Dash looked at Gear, Gear looked at Zecora then back at Celestia, "Well...we were looking through the Everfree forest..."

Dash picked up the story, "...Looking for anything outta the ordinary, when we arrived at Zecora's house..."

Zecora took her turn, "Where these two fillies came and knocked upon my door..."

Gear took a turn, "And we asked her if she saw anypony using secret places in the forest..."

Dash added another part of the story, "I see somepony move around, and go to 'ask' them, and..."

"...with magic of shadows, we fall through the forest floor.", Zecora added.

Gear finished, "Then we woke up here."

Celestia and Luna exchanged glances, both looking worried about what they heard.

Twilight thought, posing a question to herself, Shadow Magic? Who would use that?

"There's only a hoof-full of ponies in Equestria that have studied Shadow Magic, fewer have actually used it more than once.", Twilight thought aloud

Zecora looked at Luna and Twilight, "The lunar princess is not the one I saw before plummeting into a shadowy maw. A coat of dark grey, violet eyes, and a still blue mane is how I would describe the wielder of light's bane."

Gear thought carefully, she didn't really know anypony that matched that desc--. She recalled a fragment from the dream she had last night, It couldn't be... She was in a dream.... Gear turned to Zecora, "You said you saw the unicorn and a friend, carrying somepony else?"

Zecora nods.

"Were any of them wearing armor? Like me?"

Zecora thought carefully, "When I first saw them the mage's cloaked escort had hooves of various metals. The still one on her back also wore a cloak though seemed to attract cardinals."

Gear thought of the Dragon again, then about the dream from last night. Unwittingly her eyes widened as she realized that Fluttershy might be a prisoner of this unicorn.

Twilight noticed the look on Gear's face, "Why do you have that look?"

Gear looked at Twilight, "Something I heard?"

Dash looked into the forest noticing the cloaked pony standing beneath the shadows of the trees, "Hey! We have a score to settle!"

The cloaked pony replied, "Anytime you're ready, it's ON!", then spread her metal wings.

Gear moved in front of Dash as she nearly rocketted forward, "Don't... She's probably like me..."

Dash realized that Gear was right as the sound of individual blades of metal folding closed came from the pegasus that attacked her, "Then what do you suggest we do?"

AJ had been running through what just happened in her mind, "Is it just me, or was RD talkin' to RD?"

"Y'know I thought so too", Pinkie added.

Twilight walked up to them, "We can worry about that later, we need to figure out a strategy. Blindly charging in there is looking like the worst, so... First thing tomorrow, we need to meet at the libraary, all of us. Applejack, are you far enough with the orchard?"

"Ah'll need some help catchin' up with my part, but that can wait."

Pinkie nodded, "We'll do whatever it takes to help out!"

Dash, Gear, and Rarity walked over to them.

Gear spoke up, "We're meeting in the library, right?"

Twilight nodded, "First thing in the morning."

Gear nodded her head, "I'll be there"

Dash nodded, "Me, too."

Twilight smiled, "Let's get some rest."

Part 03.2: A New Goal

[Mechanist's Flutter Part 3.2]

The energy coursing through her cold metallic powercore was incapable of feeling emotion, yet Gear still cared for her friends as though she had a warm beating heart. Being with Dash made her forget about her mechanical nature, she felt like a true mare. She even forgot about her capabilities of strength and speed, and felt truly happy. After the princesses left last night Gear followed Dash who kept veering to the side while she flew. Gear knew that Dash was hurt from being attacked by that other armored, or maybe mechanical, pony. She decided it would be best to stay with her friend, just in case she was badly hurt. She cared for Dash almost as much as Fluttershy would, being careful to gently wrap the bandage around Dash's midsection and her left wing. From what she could figure, Dash took on the full force of a ramming attack, and by folding her wing closed against her side, she used it as a shield reducing the impact of the attack. Gear figured that Dash would be able to fly almost full force by morning.

Her prognosis was correct, the wing had recovered by the time Gear woke her up. It took a couple of tries but finally Dash groggily opened her eyes and let out a yawn, "Mornin', Gear."

Gear smiled, "Good morning, Dash."

"Hey, thanks for patchin' me up."

"You're welcome."

Gear unwrapped the bandages from around Dash's midsection, being careful not to pull them tighter on accident. As soon as the bandages were off Dash spread her wings, both were quick to open for her to stretch. Gear watched Dash's face carefully to look for any hidden twinges of pain. Either Dash had practice hiding her pain or there wasn't a sore thing on her.

"How do you feel?", Gear asked.

"As good as I'll ever be.", Dash lifted into the air and stretched again.

The sun was rising, rays of light shone through holes in the cloud cover. The two stepped out the front door to Dash's cloud home, then took to the air. They aimed to land at the library quickly, both flying at a high rate of speed. Gear looked down at the ground as she flew along but a mere glance at the Everfree forest brought her to a stop, a worried look on her face as she gazed on. It didn't take long for Dash to realize she had stopped, and went back to her.

"Hey Gear, what's...", Dash looked where Gear was looking.

The two were stunned, there were patches of darkness roaming around the forest.

Twilight woke up laying on the floor, she lifted her head and the book she'd fallen asleep in was stuck to her face. It fell off after a moment and she eyed the coffee that Spike gave her last night, "Spike? Did you give me decaf last night?"

Spike answered from the kitchen, "Ummm..."

"SPIKE!"

The little dragon walked in with some coffee, "You really don't think that well after being awake for two whole days."

"Fine, it's not like I can go back and-- "

"No, Twilight, no more time-travel experiments! You promised!"

"But, this time I could be sure it's only two days!"

"TWILIGHT!"

"Okay, you're right. I don't need to run from Pinkamena Rarity, the crazy fashionista again."

Spike handed the real coffee to Twilight, "Now you're thinking."

A knock came to the library door and Twilight downed her coffee in one big gulp, "That should be the others. Could you let them in?"

Spike opened the door and Applejack walked in, "Uh, Twi. We got a bit of a problem..."

"What?"

"Ah was headin' down th' path from th' farmhouse and saw that cloaked pony from last night."

"What did she do?"

"She uprooted half th' orchard."

"She did WHAT?"

"She proved it, too. Took to th' air and rammed three more trees clear outta the ground, includin' one of the Zap Apple trees. Twi, ah hope you got a plan, this's personal now."

Twilight saw Rarity wander in, somewhat off-balance, "Rarity? What happened?"

Instantly Rarity wraps her front legs around Twilight, "Oh, Twilight! It was the Worst. Possible. THING!"

She summoned her fainting couch and fell onto it. It looked like it had just barely survived the tag-team destructive efforts of the Cutie Mark Crusaders Chainsaw Jugglers, a swarm of Parasprites, and a troupe of Ballerina Buffalo.

Twilight asked, "Wow, It looks awful, but it's just a couch."

"Oh NO! This is only the beginning! That cloaked Ruffian appeared in the Boutique, spread her armored wings and... and...", Tears welled up in her eyes, "Started shredding and cutting every single design with rainbow colored blades! The Horror!"

"Rainbow colored blades?", Applejack asked.

"Yes! This is the greatest atrocity against Fashion to Date! There must be retribution! It. Is. ON!"

A gray flat-maned pony wandered in, Twilight looked at her, What's Inky doing here?

Pinkie shook the soot off of her, "That meanie cloaked pony broke the knobs and dials on all the ovens and stoves, and now all the cupcakes come out burnt, what kind of pony wants burnt cupcakes?"

Both Gear and Dash landed outside and wandered in. The other four mares looked at Dash.

"Uhm...Are we early?" Gear asked.

"RD, you wouldn't happen ta have some o'that armor like Fluttershy there, would ya?", AJ asked.

Dash gave her a curious look, "Why would I need armor?"

"You really don't wanna lie ta me today..."

Gear looked at AJ, "She doesn't have any armor, Applejack."

"Yeah, I'm the fastest Pegasus in all Equestria, I wouldn't be caught dead in any kind of armor, it'd slow me down."

Rainbow's voice kept going without her, "And don't get any ideas, nopony is taking credit for -MY- work!"

Applejack looked at her, "Cute trick..."

The window near Twilight's bed broke, the six ponies looked up and saw the cloaked pony standing on the higher ledge, "Like I said, -NOPONY- is taking -ANY- credit for -MY- work!"

Dash looked at the cloaked pony, "Why would I wanna destroy the things my friends like!"

"Oh this is great, they're tryin' to blame you. The elements of harmony need to be together for this, can't say they are right now."

"An' what do ya mean by that!"

The cloaked one gave a little snicker, "You tell me, idn't the purple one there supposed to be the obsessive one?", she changed her tone to mock the farmpony, "Ah wanna know why sweet li'l fluttashy is wearin' armah!", She broke out laughing.

"Why I oughta hogtie you!", AJ snapped.

"Oh, just me? Since you tied up Dashie over there for keeping her promise, maybe you oughta tie up the little party pony there. She saw something off about Fluttershy and promised not to tell."

Twilight looked at Pinkie, "Pinkie?"

"Not tellin'.", Pinkie shrugged, cupcake in hoof.

AJ managed to get a rope around the cloaked pony, "Yer comin' down here and were havin' a little talk!"

She pulled with all her might and the cloaked pony didn't budge, "What in tarnation!?"

The cloaked pony laughed, "Oh woe is me, I've been lassoed."

Two metal wings spread from the pony each with seven metal blades, each blade one color of the rainbow. The rope and the cloak fell free of the Pegasus, revealing her body to be similar to Gear. Dash looked at the Machination on the upper floor, with a look of disbelief on her face.

"You should see the awesome look on your face! Little Dashie is worried!"

Rarity couldn't believe her eyes either, "W-w-w-wait! -TWO- Rainbow Dash?!"

The mechanical Dash folded her wings and leaned forward, "Not Dash, Rainbow Blade."

Applejack looked at Rainbow Blade, "Yer wearing armor like Fluttershy?!"

"Armor? HAH! You're lookin' at my mechanical body, this is me! Just like your little 'Fluttershy' there."

Applejack looked at Gear, "Fluttershy?"

Gear backed down, "I..."

"Is that really you?"

Twilight and Rarity both closed in on Applejack, "That's our Fluttershy, Applejack. You see how different Rainbow Blade is from Rainbow Dash..."

Gear spoke up, "No Twilight, I'm not Fluttershy."

Blade noticed the sudden halt of Rarity, Twilight, and Applejack, "Well, looks like there's nothing left to do but tell you all that Arcana Stream is waiting for you. Don't keep her waiting!"

Rainbow Blade took off through a second window taking special care to destroy all of the books within her reach with a fly-by cut.

Gear was looking Applejack right in her eyes, afraid of what horrors awaited her for pretending to be Fluttershy. Pinkie walked between the tense stare and looked at Applejack, "Applejack, we should listen to her story..."

Applejack's voice roared out, "WHERE'S FLUTTERSHY?!"

Gear tried to talk, "I-I d-don't know!"

Twilight realized that Applejack was about to try and pin down the imposter Fluttershy, like she did those rogue pegasi that took Apple Bloom. Rarity, Spike, and Pinkie realized that they needed to act and act now. Twilight and Rarity grabbed onto Applejack with the combined efforts of both their physical strength and the pull of their magic, Pinkie quickly tied herself to her party cannon and tilted it on its side before grabbing on. Spike even grabbed on, everypony still couldn't hold back the farmer as she slowly advanced towards Gear, "Like Hay you don't!"

Dash snapped out of her little shock, "Wha?"

Twilight kept pulling with all her might, "Rainbow Dash! Help!"

Dash snapped to and realized what was going on, "Hey Applejack, simmer down!"

Dash stood beside Gear as Applejack kept coming closer, "You had to've been in on this! Where's Fluttershy!"

"What makes you think I know where she went? I've been flying all over looking for her with Gear!"

Twilight was starting to get tired, "And why didn't you tell us?"

Gear looked at Applejack square in the eyes, "I didn't want to worry anypony. I wanted to find her and bring her home..."

Applejack had stopped moving closer since her fury melted into a mix of anger and sadness, "You could've told us! We all could've searched together!"

Relaxing a little Rarity added, "Of course, Fluttershy is our friend, we would search throughout all Equestria to be certain that she is safe."

Twilight was glad to not be holding back an angry farmpony anymore, "As a matter of a fact, we need to start searching for the real Fluttershy, we'll need to split up and start searching all over Ponyville"

Gear thought for a moment, "Twilight, do you remember what Zecora said about who she saw?"

Twilight thought a moment, "The unicorn I'll assume is Arcana Stream, and two cloaked ponies."

"One she could see had Metal hooves."

Dash grumbled, "Rainbow -Blade- I bet..."

"The other one over her back was attracting cardinals. I haven't seen any of the cardinals at Fluttershy's cottage whenever I've been feeding the animals in her abscence."

The others thought for a moment, Dash snapped to it immediately, "Arcana Stream has her...doesn't she..."

Gear nods, "That would be my guess."

Rarity looks at Applejack then at Gear, "I assume that if Rainbow Dash's double has a different name, you would too?"

Gear nods and smiles, "I'm FlutterGear, call me Gear for short."

AJ was still suspicious, "Yer not leadin' us into a trap are ya?"

"I'm not working for anypony, I don't even know how I got here."

Twilight looked at AJ, "Applejack, we don't have any choice but to trust her, I mean if Rainbow Dash, our most loyal friend trusts her, why not us?"

"Yer right, Twi. Gear was it?"

Gear nods, "Yes"

"You were tryin' to make amends for uprootin' Apple Bloom's buckin' tree by helpin' buck apples. I realize now how simple and true a gesture that was, almost as kind as 'Shy. And, ah suppose that if RD can trust ya, so can I."

"Thank You, Applejack."

Applejack looks at Rainbow Dash, "Rainbow Dash, ah owe ya an apology for the other night, I was too busy wantin' to know the truth that ah tied up one of my best friends. Ah'm sorry, ah'm sorry ah tied you up, and ah'm sorry ah accused you of not bein' loyal... when ya were bein' loyal to a friend all along."

Dash crossed her front legs, "That's better."

Gear looked at her, "Dash..."

Dash scratched the back of her head, "I mean... Thanks Applejack."

Twilight grinned a moment, "Now that we have some idea of who you are, I think some questions have been answered. The only questions left are who this Arcana Stream unicorn is, where she is, and what she intends to do with Fluttershy."

Gear nodded, "I think she's in the Everfree forest, there's something all of you need to see..."

The ponies had crowded onto the balcony where Twilight had set up her Telescope. They could see that ponies all over Ponyville had climbed onto their roofs and were looking towards the Everfree Forest worried about what this could mean. Twilight carefully marked down the exact orientation of her telescope before using it to look into a patch of darkness. The patches of darkness had not spread or moved much since Gear and Dash saw them.

"Whaddya see, Twi?", Applejack asked.

Twilight began to carefully analyze what was going on inside this patch. The plantlife was visibly fading away as though they had turned to ash in the wind. Reducing the amount of zoom she watched as some of the fauna fled from the influence, all the while small blotches of black formed on their bodies. What really made her heart pause was the sight of two birds caught on a vine, a sparrow and a cardinal. The sparrow frantically flapped its wings trying to escape but quickly slowed down, then hung limp before dissolving like the plants. The cardinal was covered in the black growth but didn't stop trying to break free, it finally escaped as a completely different creature. She slowly turned to her friends, while her mind fought to ignore what she just witnessed. "It looks like all the animals in the forest are fleeing from the darkness, for a very good reason. The shadow magic that's roving the forest is dangerous."

"And just how dangerous is it?" Rarity asked.

"Looking into one of these patches I just saw two birds. I really can't decide which of the two were worse off."

Gear looked at Twilight curiously, "What do you mean?"

Twilight described what she saw, "There were two birds caught on a vine, the darkness absorbed one, and transformed the other one. Knowing those patches could do either of those things to us, we would need somepony above us watching for shifts in the dark areas."

Dash Spread her wings, "I'll--"

A voice from above interrupted her, "There you are."

Dash recognized it immediately, and looked up to see Spitfire with some other members of the Wonderbolts. Spitfire landed on the balcony and approached Dash, "Some of the others are saying that you broke into the museum back in Canterlot."

"What? I haven't been to Canterlot since Hearth's Warming Eve."

Twilight thought and asked, "When was this?"

Spitfire looked at her, "About an hour and a half ago."

Twilight ran some calculations in her head, "Even for Rainbow Dash it would take about an hour to get to Canterlot, and another to return to Ponyville. Though she's been with us for the last 20 minutes."

Gear looked at Spitfire, "And the rest of the time I've been with her."

Spitfire had taken a look at Gear's body, "I kinda tought so, she'd need more time to ditch that armor kinda like yours."

Dash crossed her front legs, "Oh great, Rainbow Blade."

Pinkie just ran through everything that Rainbow Blade had done just this morning, "Great we've got a second Rainbow making Dashie look like a villian, and there's still time for breakfast."

Spitfire looked at Dash, "Rainbow Blade, one of your fans?"

Dash crossed her front legs, "Even if she were I'd want to put a stop to her."

Spitfire looked at the three other Wonderbolts that had accompanied her, "You go on ahead and head back to base, I'll want to talk with Rainbow Dash."

Soarin looked at her, "One of us has to stay with you."

She grinned, "Since you've been around here, why don't you stick around."

Soarin nodded at her then looked at the two others, "Go on, report to base."

The other two flew off and Spitfire took a closer look at Dash, "I know that wasn't you, you don't have wings like Rainbow Blade. That'd be impossible for any normal Pegasus to have."

Dash looked at her curiously, "What'dya mean?"

"The blades of her wings seperated, when she made her escape from the Museum she used them to injure some of the wonderbolts that were guarding that tome."

Gear twitched, "Tome?"

Twilight's pupils shrank in horror, "Would you happen to know which tome was stolen? Something penned by Starswirl the Bearded?"

"That's the one."

Gear shuddered, "It couldn't be..."

Spitfire, Dash, and the others looked at Gear, Applejack asked, "D'ya know somethin' we don't, Gear?"

"I had this dream the other night, me and Dash defeated a Black Dragon that stole the Tome of Summoning. After we got it back Celestia and Luna sent us to stop Arcana Stream..."

Dash's eyes widened, "Wait! You had the same dream?!"

Gear nodded, "I flew through a patch of darkness like those and something happened before I woke up."

Dash thought back as hard as she could, she really didn't keep track of any dreams that didn't involve her becoming a Wonderbolt, "Wait... You vanished and I ran into her, beat her and... that's it."

Gear realized that the dragon used magic to activate the spell within the tome, maybe Arcana Stream couldn't since she wouldn't have as much magic.

Soarin got a surprised look on his face, and Pinkie noticed it, "Hey, what's with that look?"

Spitfire looked where Soarin was looking, "What in..."

The others looked and saw a column of energy rising from the old castle. Little arcs of dark energy reached out and moved towards Ponyville, two of them heading for the ponies on the balcony.

Twilight put up a barrier and the arcs dispersed, however several others had combed over the town hitting and draining the Unicorns that were either watching or minding their own business. Gear looked towards Canterlot as several arcs were dissipated against a golden magic barrier. One after another the local unicorns fell over moaning from the shock.

Applejack commented, "What in all Equestria was that?!"

Twilight thought for a moment, "If memory serves...Spike! Find that book on magic redirection!"

Spike opened the hatch to the Balcony holding a book, "This one?"

Twilight looked at the page he had opened it to and compared it to what happened, "A mass Drain spell, it breaks a unicorns connection to the magic reserves temporarily, transferring them to the caster. It affects every unicorn in the target region, unicorns of... all types..."

Pinkie and Rarity both siezed up.

Pinkie jumped and shouted, "PUMPKIN!"

Rarity jumped at the same time, "Sweetie Belle!"

The two were gone in an instant and Twilight looked at the others, "We've gotta see how many have been affected!"

With that the remaining six ponies left.

Rainbow Blade watched as Arcana Stream was absorbing the mana she needed, with this absorption she had borrowed the knowledge of the other unicorns and went into what she would call an overdrive. Her horn glowed a deep purple as the pages of the tome tore free from their binding and levitated in front of her, she began to read in her mind and slowly the words on the pages started to glow. Rainbow Blade wandered out of the room, and to the lower levels of the ruin.

The torches in the dungeon turned blue from the immense amount of mana that was being focused, calmly Rainbow Blade wandered to an unlit cell, "It's not worth trying it, I know you're in there."

Nothing responded.

"It's me... Blade..."

Some hooves shuffled on the stone floor.

"I'm not here to do that either. She's started the ritual, and your friends are about to work their way here."

Finally a voice replied, "W-will...will she be...with them?"

"Yeah..."

Final Section: To Bring the End

[Final Section]

An hour had passed since the arcs of energy hit every pony in Ponyville, and the eight ponies had gathered at the edge of the Everfree Forest. Pinkie had dried some tears, and her mane was flat and frayed, matching her determined look. Poor little Pumpkin Cake got drained, too. Rarity was actually considering whether or not to just charge into the Forest, nopony hurts Sweetie Belle! Applejack was fed up with Arcana Stream. All the nearby hospitals were overflowing with injured unicorns and any spare hospital tents were filled with unicorns tended by doctors too. The hospital was short staffed for something this big, even more so with unicorn doctors among the injured. Gear even felt hostile towards the summoner, Ditzy was crying so hard about Dinky that her eyes straightened. Twilight was able to keep the others from just charging in by repeating, "I've seen this before, a Unicorn drained of its magic reserves will need a few days to recover from the shock of the drain."

She had reminded them of this for the fourteenth time when they finally started to pay attention, "Now. I discussed the tactic we need to use with Spitfire and Soarin. They'll fly around above the forest and will warn us if any of the dark patches are moving towards us, and vice-versa. We can't risk the chance that being exposed to the darkness will either corrupt us or... kill us. Alright... Are we all ready?"

Pinkie shouted, "LET'S GO GET HER!"

Twilight nodded at the Wonderbolts and they took to the air.

The rest entered the forest and began to try and follow the path they knew would take them to the old castle once more. The forest was dark and musty as it always was, but the addition of the decayed plantlife made the mares a little nervous. They were walking on the tainted soil and amongst the remains of lost wildlife, caused by the roaming darkness. Twilight looked at Gear and nodded, "Go ahead Fluttergear."

Gear adjusted her senses, and heard the all clear from Soarin, "We're good, I'll say something if we're in danger."

"Alright, make sure you say it loud enough."

Gear nodded, "I will!"

They had made their way a fair distance into forest when they came across a familiar tree. It was hollow and void of life, Twilight gasped, "Zecora's home! It's been ruined."

Applejack looked, "Ah guess it was a good thing Apple Bloom invited her ta stay with us."

"I just hope she takes this well."

Gear nodded, "As long as we can offer her help, she will."

The mares proceeded deeper into the forest. Eventually the frustration they felt began to be replaced with the fear of what she could be possibly be doing. Twilight even began to wonder what had happened to some of the larger creatures, what kind of twisted forms they may have been given by the darkness. Her heart was racing as they approached the pass where the Manticore was living.

Gear paused and shouted, "Stop!"

The others stopped and they could see that they were nearly in the path of some roaming darkness. It went by slowly lifting the dissolving plants out of the ground. Even some little insects disappeared into little drifting particles, with her senses heightened Gear could have sworn that one little butterfly was screaming in anguish as it dissolved. Twilight saw Gear shudder, "Fluttergear? Are you alright?"

Gear nodded, "W-we need to keep moving when this moves past us..."

The flames on the torches were lashing out at the insects in the area, Rainbow Blade had actually kept count of how many times those deep red flames consumed something. This marked that the summoning was nearly a quarter done, behind her calm facade was starting to become worried about what would come and wreak havoc.

"Hey, I'm going to see what's going on up there, I'll be back."

Up the stairs and to the old royal hall, she had to evade almost everything. Fire tried to consume her, electricity futilely hit her grounded body, and the stone walls seemed to want to make her a Blade-sandwhich. Looking up she noticed that a rift was beginning to form in the sky, the distorted roars and snarls of the beast waiting to cross over echoed above the castle ruin. She kept her thoughts inside her mind, If you wanna get to her, you gotta get through me!.

The dark patch had moved out of the way of the determined ponies. They began to move forward when Twilight paused and noticed something familiar, she couldn't quite place a hoof on what exactly it was until Gear looked at it.

Gear turned her head away, "The poor thing..."

Twilight realized that a part of it looked like a large scorpion tail, and it was attached to some familiar body. She couldn't look at it too long either, the horrified look on the Manticore's face told her everything that happened to it.

The old castle came into sight on the other side of the passage, all eight of the travelers saw the rift opening wider slowly with every passing minute. They had a clear path to the castle no roaming patches to avoid, Applejack stood firmly, "Alright! This is gonna end with my hooves in her face!"

Twilight and Dash looked over the desolate wasteland that was once a creepy yet beautiful forest. Rarity even gasped in horror when she noticed something in the dried riverbed, a long body that once had a fabulous mustache orange on one side, purple on the other. Dash looked up at Spitfire and Soarin, and they landed close by.

Spitfire was astonished at the sight, "I knew magic could be destructive, but I didn't think it could be this devastating."

Soarin looked at them, "This could be too dangerous for all of you."

Dash tried to grin smuggly but had to stifle a shudder, "We've fought worse."

Rainbow Blade landed near Dash saying, "It's going to get worse..."

"Huh? Hey!"

"Hey, I'm giving you a heads up."

Applejack glared at Rainbow Blade, "An' why should we listen to you..."

"Not you, the two Wonderbolts, the skies aren't going to be friendly, just remember a bit of light can go a long way."

Rainbow Blade took off leaving Spitfire and Soarin to think over her hint. Twilight figured it out as she saw large black creatures flying their way, "Incoming!"

A wave of corrupted creatures swarmed over them and flew by, Twilight recognized the corrupted form of the bird she saw escape from that vine earlier. Soarin took to the air, Spitfire turned to the rest, "We'll take care of them."

Dash spread her wings, "Lemme help!"

Spitfire shook her head, "No... You need to stay with your friends, we'll try to keep them off of you!"

"But!"

"GO! That's an order!", Spitfire took off to join Soarin.

Dash swallowed her pride, "You got it!"

The six ponies started running for the castle.

[Login succeeded...]

At the royal castle in Canterlot, both Luna and Celestia were watching the rift, Luna's concern was far more visible than her sister's. All she could do was look back and forth between the rift and her sister. Finally she couldn't contain her worry, "Sister! Dous't thou intend to allow the calling of this beast?!"

Celestia remained silent, she would be absolutely motionless if it weren't for her flowing mane.

"We cannot sit idly by and let this happen!"

"Luna..."

She looked at Celestia intently.

"If we leave she will gain what magic she needs to complete the summon."

"You lie! She hath drawn the majicka from unicorns all over Equestria!"

"I know. They will not be enough."

"And thou wouldst let them suffer?! I've enough of this! The powers at work here art more vile than my other!", Luna stormed to the Balcony and spread her wings.

"Wait!"

Luna turned her head, "For what sister? For her to overdraw from the unprotected unicorns?"

"You don't need to do this... not again..."

"I must... Screams in the night from all over our dominion shall not be silenced by death, the silence must come from their recovery..."

Luna took to the air flying for the rift before speeding up with teleports. All Celestia could do was watch, she intended to let Arcana Stream overdraw her own magic, but Luna was right. This unicorn had proven that she had no care for the well-being of other ponies, simply by casting that spell to begin with. In desperation for the extra magic she would need to summon this entity, she would overdraw from the unprotected unicorns causing immense harm to them. Soon, her prized student would be in the summoners reach. As this thought went through her mind, her mane and tail changed from their usual flowing pastels of color, and took a fiery color.

[Hm?]

Spitfire and Soarin had their fair share of troubles, they managed to distract the corrupted creatures enough that the six mares on the ground were running clear for the castle ruins. Spitfire lured a creature into a smoke trail as Soarin brought another into it. Acrobatics and trick flying was working well to begin with, but the creatures seemed to be adjusting their tactics. The creatures were actually imitating them, and the two Wonderbolts found themselves doing some of their tricks with these creatures, leading into variations that would break the trick and send a creature crashing into the ground where it would screech and dissolve. Dash actually wished she stayed behind to watch them kick some flank but she was needed with her friends.

Gear was keeping a good pace, she was as determined to put an end to this as Applejack. This actually impressed the farmpony, "Gear can really keep up ta speed!"

Twilight kept her sight forward, "If what I read was right. She should have nearly unlimited stamina, though I don't know if it really applies to her."

Gear looked at her, "What book would say that?"

"Just because I'm always reading doesn't mean I'm always studying, Spike found a fun little Science Fiction book called 'Roboticist's Butterscotch', it's not bad."

Gear grinned, "Sounds like fun."

They arrived at the bridge just outside the castle, once again it was out. Dash looked at it, "I'll be right back."

She found the rope of the bridge and tied it to that rock again. She turned around expecting the others to cross, when she looked up and saw that Gear had gotten Applejack to tie a rope to her, allowing her to carry the others over the ravine, "I figured this would be quicker."

Dash snapped out of her surprise, Gear was a machine after all, "eeeeYeah, forgot about that."

As the ponies let go and landed on the ground the rift in the sky opened wider and once more the arcs of dark power spread out, only to be blocked by the brilliant gold glow of a barrier.

They turned around and both Celestia and Luna stood there. Celestia still had her fiery color, and the small bits of singed ground suggested that the Solar Princess had used an old ability to catch up with her sister. Twilight was actually scared, the last time she saw Celestia looking like that is in an old drawing from a history book where she fought against a monster of legend. As her colors returned Celestia cleared her throat, "Go. There isn't much time!"

[...]

The ponies ran inside the castle and worked their way to the throne room. There they found Arcana Stream lifted in the air focusing on the summoning as the number of pages around her slowly vanished once read. Rainbow Blade stood between them and the summoner looking up at the towering mana stream, she was honestly worried, but hid it as she turned to look at the six mares.

She grinned, "Well, looks like you all made it here pretty quick. The summoning's about half done, so I just hafta to keep you guys busy a bit longer than I thought."

Twilight looked at Applejack, "Applejack, Pinkie, FlutterGear and Rainbow Dash keep her busy. Rarity come with me!"

The different ponies nodded in agreement, Applejack reared up, "Alrighty! Time ta wrangle!"

Rainbow Dash flew forward with all her might, ramming her weight into Rainbow Blade who didn't budge an inch and simply laughed, "Really...You think that that would work?"

Dash flew to the side in time for Applejack to buck a couple of bits of stone at Rainbow Blade.

As she dodged the incoming stone Twilight and Rarity both ran to stop the summoning.

Thinking quickly back to a spell that backfired due to a missing page Twilight formulated the best action, "Rarity, we need to try and pull some of those pages free from her magic."

Both the Unicorns began to try and pull a page free each, Arcana Stream doesn't seem to take notice. Instead she seemed fine with it as her shadow magic reached out and repulsed the two clear across the room.

Pinkie noticed the two incoming unicorns and pulled a large pillow out of nowhere for them to land on.

Twilight got on her hooves, "Great... She can multitask a summon and two repel spells."

Rarity dusted herself off, "If you're impressed, I'm absolutely terrified!"

Applejack dodged a flying slash attack from Rainbow Blade, "Gonna hafta do better than that!"

Rainbow Blade dodged an attack from Dash, "Check again, 'Sugarcube'!"

Applejack's mane poofed to pieces resembling Dash's, "That does it!"

Gear flew up, "Stop bullying them!"

Gear planted her hooves into Blade's side, the sound of metal meeting metal filled the room for a moment and Rainbow Blade was sent into a momentary spin, "Whoa! That's what I'm talkin' about!"

"Stop being so mean!"

Rainbow Blade laughed, "Look at you, you've got a mean look when you say that, that's completely not like her."

"What?"

Rainbow Blade quickly rammed Gear from a standstill, "Think fast! Too Slow!"

Dash planted her front hooves into Rainbow Blade's back, "That's. MY. LINE!"

Twilight tried drawing some more pages away from Arcana Stream, "Rarity, a little help."

Rarity realized she had no tools at her discretion, "Oh, of course... Whatever would you have me do?"

Twilight ducked under a stream of shadow magic, "Just grab a page!"

Applejack kicked up a medium sized rock, "Why not just do THIS!"

As the rock came down she bucked it clear for the summoner.

This action caught her attention as she halted the rock mid-air while muttering, "You do not!"

The rock went through the wall leaving a large hole one would expect from an explosive catapult round, "Consider that a warning..."

Gear went after Rainbow Blade again, "We've got to stop her!"

"Nah", Rainbow Blade quickly separated her blades to serve as an airbrake, as Gear went by the wingblades caught onto her left wing covering Rarity had made, cutting it loose. Gear stopped, "HEY!", then built up her speed chasing Rainbow Blade again, "That was a gift!"

Gear rammed her and with as much strength as she could. Looping up into the air with a grip on her opponent she rammed those wingblades into the ground followed by their owner, "You said that I have a mean look, not like her. Who are you talking about."

Rainbow blade grinned, "Look in a mirror."

She kicked Gear off of her and lifted into the air before Applejack had a chance to try and pin her down.

Dash tried to get in the way of Rainbow Blade and ended up having to dodge a five bladed stab, "YEEEE!"

Gear launched up and planted her front hooves into Rainbow Blade, then a quick mid-air turn let her plant her back hooves as a follow up attack. As Rainbow Blade adjusted her balance, Gear grabbed her and put the entire force of her flight unit into trying to plant her opponent into the ground again. She realized that the momentum she was trying to build up was being fought against by a flight unit in Rainbow Blade, "I've got her! Stop Arcana Stream!"

She could see the others start moving to stop the summoner, except for Dash who flew up to help.

"Dash, Fluttershy is here!"

Dash's eyes widened, "Really?"

Rainbow Blade sighed, "Yeah, check the dungeon, and make it quick. I've gotta bring the fight back down."

"How do I know this isn't some trap..."

Rainbow Blade sighed, "Because she's afraid."

Rainbow Blade let her flight unit stop, surprising Gear, a spin in the air and Gear found herself on the ground. Dash took the chance to go for any downward staircase she could.

[This entity is not in the original design...]

Dash was quick and glad she was, she evaded the elements that were desperate for something to lash out at, only her tail was a little singed from a close call with a torch. She found her way to the dungeon cells by following the cuts in the stone walls. She called out, "Fluttershy?"

Nothing responded.

"Fluttershy, are you down here?"

A muffled voice sounded, "...That's... not funny, Rainbow Blade..."

"Fluttershy!", Dash ran for where she heard the voice and looked into a dark cell, "Are you in there?!"

"...Rainbow?", Fluttershy walked up to the bars, "...Is that...really you?"

"Yeah! Lemme open this up.", Dash fought with the lockbar for a moment and the rusty old thing snapped to pieces and creaked open.

Fluttershy ran forward and hugged her friend, "I'm so happy to see you!"

Dash was happy to see her friend, and could honestly understand just how hard Luna hugged her that Nightmare Night, "Come on Shy, the others are here, we're trying to stop Arcana Stream."

Fluttershy paused, and squeaked.

"We've gotta go help them, they're in danger."

Fluttershy let go and nodded, "Let's go help them."

[Something is affecting the stability of the simulation]

Pinkie was knocked for a loop, a ball of confetti traveling around mach 3 hurts. Rarity was ducking behind the remains of a pillar, Applejack had even been knocked around by her own hat. Twilight was trying to protect herself and Rarity from a long stream of drain spells, but her own mana reserve had started to fade, taking her strength with it. Gear was fighting to keep Rainbow Blade from breaking Twilight's barrier, by forcing her to keep her distance.

Arcana Stream had slowed her reading rate to the slowest the summoning spell would allow. Her mana reserves were starting to run low, her horn glowing and distributing magic between the summon and sending debris and spells at the mares who were trying to distract her.

Twilight collapsed and Rarity did her best to hold the barrier. Applejack was starting to get tired, she looked up at Celestia's golden barrier certain she heard something. The barrier shattered and Arcana Stream received a large surge of mana, "Yes! I will finish the ritual."

The speed that she read the summoning increased to a faster rate than before. This beast wanted out of its cage, and the princesses acted quickly try to divert the energy from the summoning. Twilight got her second wind as Dash and Fluttershy came out of the dungeon, "Fluttershy!"

The last page drifted away from Arcana Stream, she smiled malevolently as the rift in the sky opened wide enough that an enormous white dragon came through and spread its six wings, the ground shook as it landed. It growled as it glared at the princesses, then roared loudly before attacking them.

Arcana Stream laughed and looked at the mares, "The time has come to purge this world. Osiric end this world, let the machines take over!"

Twilight focused on a spell, "Don't count it! All we need to do is knock you out and that dragon will go away!"

Gear landed next to Fluttershy looking up to try and spot Rainbow Blade. Twilight released her spell, summoning the elements onto their respective ponies. They lined up ready to call on the combined spell, as Gear noticed a quickly falling object.

"WATCH OUT!", Gear jumped into the air to intercept it, and ended up redirecting a very hard tackle that was intended for Twilight. Dash got hit hard by Rainbow Blade, the impact knocking her clear into a weak pillar. The pillar collapsed, and the others turned to see what happened to their friend. Dash floated away rather beat up surrounded by a deep purple glow. Twilight and Rarity both tried to break Arcana Stream's grip, but were both greeted by black bolts of energy that only knocked them down and coated their elements with darkness. Gear was horrified, the one true friend who stuck with her throughout her time here was hurt badly.

Arcana Stream smiled, "I think this one should serve as an example."

Dash was placed on the ground in front of her, "You all rely on an emotionally based relationships. Such a weakness."

She raised a hoof and planted it into Dash's side, Dash immediately flinched and gave a scream.

"HEY!", Applejack leaped forward and hit a barrier, her element being coated in darkness, "What the?!"

Arcana Stream planted her hoof into Dash again, another scream. Gear dashed forward intent on stopping the assault, instead she is halted. Dark energy seeped into her and her flight unit fried sending a feedback through her system making her scream.

Pinkie tried to free Gear, "I gotcha Gear!"

Momentarily Pinkie flew into Twilight, and the summoner pried another scream from her example. This scream was louder as a snap came from her wing.

"This is an example of how the machines are better than all of you.", she raised her hoof one last time as an illusion dispersed revealing her mechanical body to the mares, "We are stronger!"

Dash clenched her eyes closed in anticipation of another impact, instead she heard a loud clank.

Rainbow Blade had positioned herself between the hoof and the intended target. The attacker looked at her escort, "What is this?"

Rainbow Blade's voice was filled with the outrage that not even a chided Fluttershy could muster, "What are you doing?!"

"Removing this flaw."

Dash coughed, "i...don't..."

"Like Hay you don't!", Blade snapped, "Nopony is going to pound this pegasus into nothing!"

Gear tried to reach out to her friend, "Dash..."

The last image she saw before everything faded to black was her friend reaching out to her as Rainbow Blade started to fight against Arcana Stream. Memories of her visit flashed through her mind as she found herself falling again. There was no teal fog as her vision was filled with status displays that were all flashing warnings before fading away.

"DAAAAASH!"

[Crashdump analysis]
The simulation encountered a lovely little critical error when the entity God.Dragon.Osiric was improperly summoned through something called "Tome.Summon0912". There was record of three remote entities logging in courtesy of an admin program called 102ra.kuy.e.exe around 0315 hours on September 4th 2030.

First entity: From Network node Lon.eng.res.kyles with alias of "Flutterbot"
Second entity: From Network node Ngski.jpn.Bsns.Ymgchi with alias of "RBlade"
Third entity: From Network node Frelance.59421 with alias of "ArcStr"

Records of withdrawal show that entities "Flutterbot", "RBladeD", "ArcStr" were returned to their original nodes.

Please contact the administrator of the "HC_Deltek" network for details on restarting the simulation. And tell them I took care of my applets work...

Your friendly badmouthing AI, Embers.exe (Log Entry Registered July 2nd, 2054)