What a big mistake.
Pinkie Pie had destroyed the Apple Family's chicken coop by bouncing around zestfully like she usually would. Applejack wasn't impressed.
"Pinkie, why the hay you gotta be so destructive!?", she yelled at her friend.
"Oh don't worry, just walk with me", Pinkie Pie replied in a reassuring way. She walked out of the barn. Applejack followed her.
"Now wait just a minute!", Applejack demanded.
"Now we walk back in", Pinkie Pie said gleefully. Applejack was amazed. The chicken coop was fixed again. Everything was back to normal, as if Pinkie Pie hadn't crashed into it.
"How in the…?"
"I dunno, but it's pretty useful", Pinkie Pie answered before Applejack could even finish.
"If only my apple trees could work that way", Applejack chuckled.
Without warning, Twilight came into the coop with an urgent message.
"Girls come quick! Fluttershy's having a meltdown!", she hastily told them before heading off again. This was something unusual. Fluttershy was usually such a sweet pony, what could've set off so bad that she could have what Twilight of all ponies described as a "meltdown". Pinkie Pie followed her, but Applejack stayed behind, after all, she'd just found out something interesting about her family's chicken coop.
Just then, Granny Smith came in.
"What was all that ruckus about?", she asked her granddaughter.
"Oh Granny Smith, y'all won't believe this", Applejack said excitedly. She then began bucking, hitting and tearing at every shelf in sight, and even did some damage to the walls. Chickens flew everywhere, and all Granny Smith could do was scream in terror, and at one point, duck under various debris that almost flew and hit her in the face.
"What is the meaning of this!?", she asked enraged, while Applejack still seemed rather cheerful, which only made Granny Smith more scared.
"Now come outside", and Applejack rushed out out of the coop and Granny Smith following behind with a lot of difficulty, and then painfully turned around as Applejack dashed back into the coop, but nothing had changed. Applejack stared wide-eyed at just how much destruction she had caused, and then looked down at Granny Smith's grumpy pout before blushing and giggling nervously. Next thing she knew, she was tossed out of the coop headfirst. She didn't even know Granny Smith had it in her, but it turns out she did.
Sometime later, after a pretty hefty run all the way from Sweet Apple Acres to Fluttershy's cottage, Twilight and Pinkie Pie found Fluttershy sitting on the grass crying into her mane and Rainbow Dash holding a green bucket of water trying to get Fluttershy to drink it. Pinkie's attitude had already gone from happy to concerned over hearing about Fluttershy's supposed meltdown, but this image right there of one of her friends so down almost made her stomach churn. She trotted over to the pegasus and even got a glimpse of one of her eyes.
"She doesn't want to talk about it", Rainbow Dash said.
"Hey", Pinkie Pie whispered calmly to her yellow friend as she sobbed, "Hey it's alright. I'm here for you"
"She also doesn't want to talk in general", Rainbow Dash added.
"Well then could you tell me what happened?", Pinkie Pie asked, only to hear Fluttershy's sobbing get a bit louder.
"…in private?"
"Certainly", Rainbow Dash replied, and they both walked to the back of Fluttershy's cottage to continue the conversation. Just before that, Rainbow Dash handed Twilight the bucket of water that Fluttershy should've been drinking out of. Instead, she simply cried and wimpered the occasional "it's my fault".
"What happened? I've never seen Fluttershy this distressed", Pinkie Pie asked Rainbow Dash, "well, expect for the time she got traumatised by Iron Will's training, and the time we forced her to climb up a mountain to tame a big, scary dragon, and the time Gilda roared at her, and the-", she could've gone on forever about all the times Fluttershy had had her buttons pushed too hard, but Rainbow Dash had to explain Fluttershy's current predicament to her.
"Well you see, Twilight and I had gone over to introduce her to a new sport I'd discovered called "Cloud Bowling", the name is self-explanatory, and Fluttershy was really tired, I'm talking it looked like she had been up all night, but then she accidentally stepped on one of her mice's tails and…she acted like she'd never done this before. She began screaming and bawling over how she was a bad caregiver and that she's useless at her job. I tried to cool her down, which was harder than it sounds, while Twilight went over to get you, Applejack and Rarity. Speaking of which, where are they?".
"I don't know about Rarity, but Applejack had to stay at her farm or something", she then called out to Twilight, "Hey Twilight, where's Rarity?".
"Oh, I haven't gone to see her yet, but I'm pretty sure she would never want to see Fluttershy like this", Twilight called out, "No offense Fluttershy", she turned her attention back to Fluttershy.
"None taken", Fluttershy replied. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie went back to the front side of the cottage to see Twilight feeding Fluttershy the water by levitating a bit out of the bucket at a time with magic and then placing it in Fluttershy's mouth. "I can do this by myself now", she continued and then put her head into the bucket to drink out of it like a dog.
Pinkie Pie was a little turned off by this as she was one of the few ponies in Ponyville to drink out of cups, especially because of all the party cups she had stashed, but she didn't really feel like criticising Fluttershy at this point. What had happened to her right then and there would've been small to any other pony, but it was truly disastrous for her. She had just harmed an animal, the very reason that she continues to exist and develop to this day. Pinkie Pie compared it in her mind to if she somehow destroyed a party and disappointed every single one of the guests. That sorta thing was just too painful to think about.
Fluttershy lifted her head out of the bucket. "I think I'll go for a walk", she said and started to head off.
"Good idea", Twilight told her, "you definitely need to get some sunshine on you".
Fluttershy headed off aimlessly towards the town, not even knowing where she was going to go as long as she went from point A to point B and back to point A again. No point Ds, point Ms or point Js, just going somewhere and then back. Meanwhile, Pinkie Pie was following her silently, but she wasn't sure if Fluttershy noticed or not. Fluttershy well and truly noticed after years of experience with Pinkie Pie, but it didn't let it bother her. Nevertheless, Pinkie Pie continuously hid behind various things- a tree, a lamppost, a rubbish bin; most of them seemed relatively implausible, but Pinkie Pie had the ability to hide behind various things, no matter how small they were compared to her.
Around that same time, Snips and Snails were walking with a note given to them by Silver Spoon that read:
"Dear morons,
tell the yellow one to buzz off into the forest for us.
By Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon"
They had been walking all around Ponyville trying to find out who they meant by "the yellow one".
"I'm sure they're talking about Apple Bloom", Snips said, "I've seen them talk with each other a lot".
"Nah, I think they're talking about a new pony in town called "The Yellow One"", Snails argued. This was the back-and-forth exchange that they'd had for the past 10 minutes. They were about to give up until they saw Fluttershy walking on her own, though they didn't notice Pinkie Pie hiding behind a small bush nearby. They ran up to her, finally relieved to see a yellow pony.
"Excuse me, are you "The Yellow One"?", Snails asked her.
"Uh…yes", Fluttershy answered, assuming they meant "the yellow one" of the Mane 6.
"Well, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon say you should go into the forest", Snips told her.
"I'm sure it's a compliment", Snails added with a goofy grin, trying to make the best out of it.
Fluttershy had had some bad experiences with the Everfree Forest in the past, though she knew of this one zebra called Zecora who lived there, so as long as she was around that area, she'd be okay.
"Um, okay. Should I head over there now or later?", Fluttershy asked them.
"I'm guessing as soon as possible", Snips replied.
"Okay then, see you soon", Fluttershy said and then walked off. She knew that she was disregarding her previous plan of just walking from point A to point B, but somepony told her specifically to walk to point C, even if she knew little about who these Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon ponies were. Of course, Pinkie Pie on the other hoof, didn't like the sound of this one bit. Once a while back, Fluttershy had come out with a deepened voice? What if Fluttershy came out this time with an unbearably squeaky voice…like her own!? Or worse, a voice so low that nopony could hear her anymore? When Fluttershy was out of earshot, Pinkie Pie went up to the two preadolescent ponies and interrogated them.
"What was that for!?", she asked them angrily. They weren't sure how to respond to a stranger.
"Uh…Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon told us to do it", Snips answered cowering.
"Who?", she asked. Suddenly, all three of them heard a voice coming from a little further in town and getting closer.
"Ugh, there you two are! You realise Apple Bloom works at a farm?", it was Diamond Tiara, with Silver Spoon not too far behind.
"I told you to write Apple Bloom on that note", Diamond Tiara told Silver Spoon.
"What exactly do you think you fillies think you're doing?", Pinkie Pie turned her attention to Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, "Telling Fluttershy to go away like that?"
"You told us to tell the yellow one to buzz off!"
"Blame Silver Spoon, she wrote the stupid letter!"
"Hey, they were dumb enough to follow through with it!"
"Oh, so we're the dumb ones now!"
By this point, Pinkie Pie had found herself in the middle of a 4-way argument between foals! She didn't like it when foals weren't getting along, especially when she had nothing to do with it, and she was surely one to lose her cool in an argument where everpony was talking over one another and saying nasty things and you just can't think straight and everypony around you starts staring even though you're not doing anything and it's not a nice kind of stare either-
"PLEASE STOP FIGHTING!", she finally let out, having gotten too frustrated to handle it anymore, and then ran off crying to see where Fluttershy was at, presumably the Everfree Forest.
"Sheesh, what a foal", Diamond Tiara commented on Pinkie Pie's spontaneous outburst.
Pinkie Pie went along the path and got herself completely lost without meaning to. She didn't know where she was going, she was just following hoofsteps at this point. Eventually, she did see a yellow and pink figure walking ahead of her and tried to catch up with it, again without being caught.
"Oh hi there, Pinkie Pie", Fluttershy turned back and said to Pinkie Pie.
"Oh hey, Fluttershy", Pinkie Pie replied.
"What happened to you?", Fluttershy asked, only now noticing Pinkie Pie's bloodshot eyes, signifying that she'd just been crying.
"Oh, I'd just been in the middle of a fight with some foals", Pinkie Pie replied. Fluttershy knew that Pinkie Pie had the mindset of a little filly, having her mental development stinted by the Sonic Rainboom and all, so she did have to treat Pinkie Pie much younger than she was in these sorts of situations.
"Oh Pinkie Pie, that sounds terrible", Fluttershy said, "Luckily I'm here for you".
"Aww, thanks Fluttershy", she replied and proceeded to hug her friend.
"But uh, can you be here for me as well?", Fluttershy asked.
"Why?"
"Because I'm scared"
It was at this moment that they both realised they were deep within the Everfree Forest. Branches loomed over them like fingers of giant hands ready to reach out at them. No matter what time of day it was, the sky was ominously dark and gritty. Weeds and other sorts of dangerous plants grew; anomalies of evolution that needed no water or Sun to survive. If they were ponies, they would be the nastiest ponies imaginable.
"Ah, stop narrating! You're only making it worse", Pinkie Pie yelled and held her head.
"Well, we should go back the way we came", Fluttershy said, trying to calm her friend down, while obviously keeping little of her cool herself.
"Well where is that!?", Pinkie Pie asked her. They found that their hoofsteps were now missing, now matter which direction they were standing. Fluttershy then noticed an opening, only blocked by a few weeds that looked easy to push out of the way. Best case scenario, it could lead to Zecora's hut!
"Hey Pinkie Pie, look", Fluttershy walked over to it, with Pinkie Pie following behind. They entered this new plane to find it wide and mostly barren, but it smelt strongly of lime, but sweeter. In fact, it was overwhelming. Their heads were swimming in it as they quickly collapsed to the ground. Although, they didn't completely pass out. They still had their eyes slightly opened and could see the world around them, but they didn't register it most of the time. They couldn't really think straight under the aroma, so their minds drifted off until they started sleeping.
