Author's Note

Sorry for taking too long. My editor's having a hard time editing this chapter so I hire DGJabberwocky to be my co-editor. He's one of my readers, and he says he's a journalist.

And don't worry; Chapter 10 will be available soon.

Chapter 9

It is 3:00 in the afternoon, and school has ended for the day.

When the bell rings, a multitude of students exit the building, among them being Emily. She walks out of the crowd of people, carrying her book bag on her shoulder and a book tucked under her arm.

She spots a school bench not very far from her and makes a beeline for it. Upon reaching it, she sits down and places the book in her bag. She then smooths out any creases in the light blue skirt she’s wearing, as well as the pink shirt she has on.

Emily gets up and walks to the student drop-off. She looks both ways to make sure no cars are coming, until the coast is clear. The girl walks across the street towards a fence. Behind the fence, there are a few trees, which is why she particularly likes to walk by it.

“Always great to be next to the trees,” She says to herself, “And the nice thing about this school around here: it’s only a couple of blocks away from home.”

Suddenly, Emily's iPhone rings from inside one of her skirt pockets. She fishes it out and takes a look at the screen to see who’s calling her.

She answers, "Hello?"

"Hey, hey, Em. It's me, Mikey-man."

Emily chuckles at his sense of humor. "Hi, Mike. I'm on my way home."

"Great.” Mikey responds, “Listen. I won't be at home when--"

"'When you come home from school'. I know, I know."

"I'll be home at seven tonight."

"Okay, bye." She hangs up.

After she puts her phone in her pocket, she continues to move onwards towards home.

“It’s a good thing I have a key to the house in case it’s locked,” Emily says to herself.

Meanwhile, Starlight and the gang stop running as they notice the changelings have stopped chasing them, and they breathe heavily from all the running.

"I think we lost them." Starlight says, catching her breath.

Spike continues gasping for air until he looks around and notices something.

“Wait, where's Fluttershy?" He says

Starlight and the rest of the gang realize Fluttershy is missing.

"I thought she was right behind me." Applejack says.

"Well if she's not here then..." Rarity says.

"...Fluttershy must have been captured!" Starlight finishes for her. "Come on, we have to save her!"

They run in the opposite direction to find Fluttershy.

As Emily is halfway to her house, a squirrel emerges out of the fence beside her. He scurries until he’s in front of Emily.

Emily smiles at the critter while crouching. "Aww! Hey there, little guy."

As the squirrel turns to Emily, she opens her backpack and pulls out a tiny ziplock bag full of peanuts.

She pulls out a couple of peanuts. "Are you hungry?" She offers them to the squirrel cautiously without scaring the critter. "Here."

The squirrel slowly approaches her palm, and then grabs a peanut before munching it.

Emily giggles. "Cutie."

But suddenly, just before the squirrel can finish its meal, a scream comes from the forest on the other side of the fence. The scream was so loud it causes the critter to run away. It sounds like that of a girl.

Emily stands up while brushing the peanuts out of her hands. She realizes it sounds like someone is screaming in terror.

Someone's in trouble! She realizes in thought.

Quicker than anything, Emily runs to the fence, and climbs over it before jumping to the other side. She quickly and carefully approaches the source of the screaming.

Meanwhile, a pack of hungry coyotes continue getting closer and closer to Fluttershy, who looks on fearfully at the predators.

Finally, the coyotes surround Fluttershy and the bush, growling as they stare at her with their yellow eyes.

“Um, H-hello there.” Fluttershy greets nervously with fear.

They growl menacingly in response, baring their teeth at her too.

“Y-you all look hungry,” Fluttershy comments nervously, “My name is Fluttershy, and, I’m not so sure you want to eat me, because...ponies like me, uh, lack nutrients.”

But the coyotes continue to stare and growl at her hungrily, almost as if they’re either ignoring her pleas or don’t understand her.

“Oh, dear,” Fluttershy exclaims, “I can’t understand what you all are saying, and you all must not know what I’m saying either. I guess my ability to fly isn’t the only thing that’s gone too.”

As if to further answer her question, the coyotes continue what they’re doing, causing Fluttershy to gulp with fear.

“HEEEEEEELLLLLLPPPP!!!!” she screams.

During that time, Emily carefully moves through the trees to investigate on the matter, when suddenly...

“HEEEEEEELLLLLLPPPP!!!!”

She hears a scream not very far from where she’s standing.

Quicker than ever, she continues to approach the direction of the scream, cautiously without making noises. At one point though, she moves so quickly through the forest, she accidentally bumps her head to a tree branch. She rubs her forehead because of the impact.

“No, no, no! Please, please don’t eat me, I’m too chewy!” the same voice exclaims, closer than ever.

Now knowing she’s close, Emily comes out from the trees to see...coyotes, surrounding something inside of a thorn bush.

Someone must be stuck inside that thorn bush! She realizes. I’ve got to help her. But how?

With a plan set, she brings out her iPhone from her pocket. She searches for an app that she’s intent on using, all the while, hearing whoever is inside the thorn bush continually calling for help, and the coyotes growling and snarling at their prey.

Finally, she finds the app that she’s looking for: her animal sound effects app.

If I can just find the right animal sound to scare those coyotes away, then they’ll run away like a pack of scared pups. She plans in her head.

She quickly scrolls through the app for the right animal sound. Elephant, no. Wild hog, no. Buffalo, no. Hawk, no. AH-HAH!

She finds the right animal sound at last. Cougar! Perfect!

She turns the volume of her phone all the way to high, and aims her phone right to where the coyotes are. And with one press of the button...

...cougar sounds emanate.

The coyotes immediately pick up the sounds of a nearby mountain lion, their ears perked high. Then, with scared pup-like whines, they make a break for it and hurriedly sprint away because they know cougars will actually eat coyotes.

When the coyotes are gone, Emily turns off her app.

Now, the only sound Emily can hear is the whimpers of the girl in the thorn bush, who quite likely got scared by the cougar noises.

Without a moment of hesitation, Emily runs to where the voice is coming from, all the way to the other side of the bush.

When she comes to the other side, to her shock, she comes across...

...a four-foot tall yellow pony-like creature, with a pink mane and tail, looking back at her with fright. It also has a tattoo of three butterflies on its flank, and bird-like wings. It was also trying to break free from the thorny shrub hooked onto its body.

What is this? Emily curiously wonders, Is this some kind of new species?

She continues to approach the new creature, the latter suddenly struggling harder, likely because of fright.

"Hey, hey, it's okay. I'm not gonna hurt you." Emily says softly.

The creature closes its eyes like it’s going to die.

"I know you're scared, but I promise, I won’t hurt you." Emily carefully grabs the creature's head as it shakes again. "Hey! Hold still, you’re making it worse!”

Carefully, but also with force, she gets the creature out of the thorny bush.

The two of them collide onto the ground.

After a few seconds, Emily gets up.

The creature, however, even as it looks back at Emily, is unable to move because of its injuries from the bush.

"Oh, you poor thing." Emily carefully approaches the helpless creature.

Suddenly, the creature speaks in a soft girly voice as it closes its eyes again. "P-please, don't hurt me!"

Emily reels back upon hearing that, "Did you say something?"

The creature doesn’t respond.

"Come on. I'm not gonna hurt you. I just want to help you."

The creature glances shyly at Emily without eye contact.

Emily tries to greet the creature. "My name is Emily Ridley. What's your name?"

The creature pauses. "I'm...I-I'm Fluttershy." The creature says quietly, unable to speak out loud.

"Sorry, what was that?"

"I'm Fluttershy..." She tries to speak out loud, but Emily couldn't hear her.

"Can you speak to my ear?" Emily carefully draws closer without scaring the creature.

She holds out her ear.

The creature speaks softly to Emily's ear. "Fluttershy."

"Fluttershy, huh? That's a cute name."

The pony doesn't say anything.

Emily glances at Fluttershy's wounds. "Are you hurt?"

Fluttershy nods a little.

"What happened? Did some predator attack you?"

Fluttershy nods again.

"Don't worry. I'll take care of you."

Emily is about to grab her carefully, but Fluttershy shudders.

"Hey, it's okay. I'm an animal expert. I can help you heal."

"You're an animal expert?" Fluttershy asks.

"Uh-huh.”

For a moment, Fluttershy thinks everything over in her head. She has no idea if Emily is to be trusted, but...she seems so nice.

Ultimately, she decides to trust Emily.

"Okay." Fluttershy complies.

Nearby, the changelings are in the bushes, watching a young female bipedal mammalian creature, which is named as 'Emily Ridley', picking up Fluttershy like a little child.

“No offense. But you sure are heavy.” Emily says.

Then, she heads off with Fluttershy in her arms

As they disappear into the forest, the changelings emerge out of the bushes. "Great! Just great! What would have been our first prisoner, is now taken by a mere two-legged child.” The first changelings says.

“If her and those coyotes hadn’t gotten in the way, then we would have grabbed her for sure!” The second changeling exclaims.

“What do we do now?”

"Well, I guess we either go after those two, go back to tracking down the others, or keep on searching for that book!" The changeling leader says before sighing, “I wish Queen Chrysalis could be here."

"Well then, wish granted." A familiar voice says.

They turn around to see their reproductive female changeling, Queen Chrysalis, and nine more of her workers standing behind them. However, Chrysalis doesn't look too happy.

Starlight and the gang make it back nearby to where Fluttershy got stuck in the thorn bush. But then, they stop when they hear someone talking from the other side of the trees.

"Shhh..." Starlight shushes quietly.

They take a peek and they see Queen Chrysalis talking to the three pesky changelings, and they're nine more changeling workers behind their queen.

"Oh no! It's Queen Chrysalis." Pinkie whispers.

"How did she get here?" Rarity asks.

"Quiet!" Starlight hisses.

The three changelings bow to their mother. "My Queen, so good to see you!" The changeling pack leader says. "How did you get here?"

"Nevermind that. Did you find the book?"

"Pardon?"

Chrysalis moves her faces close to the changeling pack leader's face with a glare. "Did you find it?"

"Uh... no?" He smiles sheepishly.

Chrysalis growls. "Do you have any idea what you have done!?"

"Uh... what're you talking abo-"

Chrysalis interrupts him by grabbing the changeling leader's neck and slams him against the tree trunk. "The Creator was awakened by someone who is the descendant of my arch nemesis!"

"What is she talking about?" Pinkie whispers.

"Shhh!" Starlight shushes quietly.

The changeling's about to speak, but Chrysalis interrupts him.

"No excuses!" Chrysalis shouts. "Help me find that book, or I will eat you alive, got it?"

"Okay... we'll find the book!" The Changeling exhales while choking.

"And that ring too? Who has it?"

"T-Twilight Sparkle."

Starlight gasps. Twilight's in trouble!

Chrysalis grins as she drops the changeling. "Well, I guess the only one, who has her brother's wedding ruined and got abducted, will be my slave. I will get my hooves on that artifact and then take over Equestria and the rest of the planet..." She glances around the place and it looks like Earth is a perfect planet to take over. "...and also, Earth and the rest of the habitable worlds in the Milky Way!" She cackles hysterically.

The Mane 6 and Spike are confused about what Chrysalis is talking about, but Starlight gets an unexpected feeling about Chrysalis and her species.

Chrysalis sniffs the air. "I smell something."

Starlight's gang gets nervous.

She sniffs the ground where the footprints are headed towards her right into the forest. "This way."

She follows the sent into the trees while leading her twelve workers.

As the changelings are gone, Starlight and the gang emerges out of the bushes.

"Oh no! We have to go find Twilight, or else she'll be in trouble!" Spike exclaims.

Starlight glances at the footprint Chrysalis smelt, but those footprints were shoe-prints that come from the direction the changelings are going, the prints stopped where hoofprints and drag marks from the thorned brush.

"I don't think she's after Twilight, I think those are human footprints. And it looks like he or she might've found Fluttershy."

"How did you know, darling?" Rarity asks.

"Those hoofprints and drag marks from the thorned shrub belong to Fluttershy, and those footprints that look like shoe-prints are human footprints."

"So you're saying that a human found her?" Rainbow asks.

"And it looks like Chrysalis is following the trail by smelling." Starlight says. "Come on, guys. We've got to follow Chrysalis before she captures Fluttershy."

The gang follows the changelings' path.

"There's something I don't understand, why would Chrysalis want to conquer Earth and other planets besides our world?" Spike asks. "Who is Chrysalis's enemy? And who is The Creator?"

"Whatever she's planning, I don't like it." Starlight says. "We got to find Twilight and the book right after we rescue Fluttershy."

"Sounds like a plan."