A Newly Hooded Road to Walk

"Princess are you alright now?"

"Y-yes I'm fine thank you," replied Celestia standing from her chair which was place on the porch of the town hall, she lifted her head to show some fake strength for the guard, she didn't need to and she knew that, the guard would certainly understand, but is a reflex after a thousand years of leadership to show that no matter what she was strong enough to withstand. She shook her tears and any other signs of grieve from her body and addressed the guard before her, "what is needed of me?"

"Well ma'am, a number of things, we need some men to gather any evidence from around the town, someponies need to clean the hall,"

"Yes anypony will do, them over there, have four of them clean the hall, and the others scan the town for any clues."

"Ok, and you need to give your ball organizer a general idea of the funeral, nothing specific she said, other wise it would be too emotional to get anything done,"

"Oh, w-w-well I guess I can do that," said the princess timidly, looking at the ground in sorrow. The guard noticed that he wasn't helping her emotional state in any way, and could probably ask somepony else.

"Ma'am, I apologize, we do not need to do this right now if you do not wish to," said the guard feeling bad for the surprisingly innocent looking princess who was 6 inches taller than him at the least.

The princess jolted her head upright, "No, no I am just fine, we can carry on soldier,"

"Very well. you just have one thing left and that is ummm, oh, the arrest you ordered last night,"

"What arrest? I did no such thing," said the princess in surprise, she was so sleep deprived and exhausted that she must have forgotten.

"Yes you did princess, I wrote down the record as it happened, uhh lets see, yep right hear, the arrest of miss Fluttershy Carington ma'am."

"Oh no," celestia whispered, her heart sank as she remembered the order, as she yelled at Twilight, telling the guards that they had permission to kill the most innocent of all ponies, and an element of harmony at that. The princess began to walk down the steps from the town hall, "Did the guards I sent ever come back?"

"uh no ma'am, we found them dead in a corn field."

This rose celestia's suspicion of the mare, "how far from miss Carington's house were they found?"

"About two miles away."

This nocked the suspicion away immediately, there was no way fluttershy could have dragged three bodies of grown, built, and armored stallions 2 miles across ponyville, past all the dozens of guards patrolling the small town, and then out into a corn field, unnoticed. She came to the conclusion that they had probably gone to her house and she hid in the dark, being the small mare that she is, and the guards met the vigilante somewhere between here and there on their way back, she came to this knowing the location of the other two killed guards and time frame in which that happened, so they would have missed him on their way there. She noticed that all of this thinking was helping to take her mind off of the murder of her fiancé and was making her more at peace, but she felt worried that she had frightened the poor little mare out of her fur, and she had to apologize.

"guard, take fluttershy off of the wanted list, I was hysterical at the time and didn't know what I was saying," said the princess confidently and with a determined expression,

the stallion in front of celestia was surprised at her sudden burst of seriousness, "y-yes ma'am" he said giving her a salute as she walked down the street towards fluttershy's house.

...

Fluttershy could see the long shadows of two ponies approaching her house from the tree she had perched herself in for the rest of the previous night, she grew anxious as the ponies came closer until they walked right underneath, she recognized the two as her friends Rartiy and Twilight, who looked around nervously and moved quickly towards Fluttershy's cottage. Figuring that they worried for her safety, after Celestia blamed the first person she could think of while she grew angry with grief, Fluttershy looked through the tree's branches trying to see if anypony else was present on her dirt road, and once she declared it clear, she hovered to the ground behind her friends, who had passed the tree, and nervously greeted them hoping for a warm embrace.

"H-hello guys,"

"hmm? oh my dear fluttershy we were so worried about you, those guards never came back and we were worried that the murderer had gotten them and that they had killed you!" exclaimed rarity running over to her friend and hugging her, relieved she was safe and sound.

"yes we were so worried, you shouldn't have run off like that, Celestia was so heart broken that she sent..."

"yes I know," interrupted Fluttershy as politely as she could manage,

"how did you find out?" asked twilight curiously

"well, when the guards nocked on the door I didn't answer because they sounded aggravated, and I got scared so I went out the back door and hid in this tree," replied fluttershy pointing to the oak tree planted behind her, "Then they went into my house found nothing, and I heard them talking about Celestia wanting me arrested and other stuff," ended fluttershy, lying throughout her entire explanation.

"I am so sorry for putting you through that very frightening experience fluttershy," Fluttershy turned around to find the source of the solemn voice, and she found herself looking up to a white alicorn,

"Oh h-hi Princess, funny seeing you hear!" said twilight awkwardly poker-faced,

"Not really Twilight, I came to apologize to fluttershy here," said the princess, who then looked down to the frightened yellow pegasus, "Fluttershy, I am so very sorry for putting you into such danger, I was hysterical and angry and sad and my emotions took over me, I've cleared this whole thing up, and all I need now is you to forgive me, if you are able, if not I will understand," said the princess, a glint of disappointment of herself in her eye, and a worried look on her face, even though she was taller and more powerful than fluttershy in every way, she was at the mercy of the pink-manned mare now.

"Princess after everything you've been through, how could I not forgive you," smiled fluttershy in response.

...

He stood in the attic of the abandoned church, and it being so old he could see through to the peers and the entrance, where he could see a mare's shadow approaching gradually. It was sunday and he was about to prove his theory of the young mare to himself, and if he was correct she could fight along side him one day, and he wanted that, she reminded him so much of her, and he seemed to already know this yellow mare by heart, as if he knew her before. The pegasus was now in the door.

"H-h-hello!, um its uh me, fluttershy, t-the one that you saved!" softly shouted the mare from the entryway.