A Perplexing Pet Predicament

Warm morning sun filtered through the circular shutters, the ring of light slowly inching across the rustic floor.

The room was normally filled with life but today it was a shade of its regular self. A deathly silence permeated the home.

A gentle breeze found its way past the doorway that had been left ajar, flowing through the cottage; rustling leaves on the natural wood furniture and causing some majestic pink strands of hair to sway ever so slightly, but it was enough.

Terror, as the wispy tip of her mane tickled the newly awoken pony’s nose that was the only emotion dominating her mind, a wail pierced the still air.

The pure horror caused her to launch herself upwards at an almost supernatural pace. But those emotions were quickly replaced however, by the sight of the rapidly approaching ceiling.

**********

“Fluttershy?”

A familiar voice filled her ears as she stirred from her insentience. Eyes flickering open they were greeted by cyan blue.
“Rainbow Dash… what are you doing here?...”

Cut off by the sharp pain in her nose she recoiled with a squeal.

“I let myself in after you didn’t answer the door, seeing as it was open n’ all, what happened?”

Struggling to her hooves with one covering her nose Fluttershy assessed the situation. “I’m not too sure…” But her priorities shifted quickly however, once she noticed the two of them are alone.

“Where is everypony?”

Noticing the confused tilt of Rainbow’s head she elaborated.

“All of my little animal friends, they can’t all still be sleeping. What time is it?”

“It’s about midday” Rainbow Dash stated, observing all of the little empty homes filling every corner of Fluttershy’s cottage.

“They’ve probably gone to help clean somepony’s house or something but you can worry about that later, we’ve got a problem in Ponyville only you can help with.”

Taken aback Fluttershy instantly assumed the worst.

“Oh dear! What’s wrong? Is it bad? What can I do to help!?” She asked in the most urgent voice she could muster.

Surprisingly Rainbow’s response was one of embarrassment rather than urgency as she turned her head and lifted some of her multi-coloured mane to reveal four scratch marks over one eye.

“It’s Opal, something spooked her this morning and she climbed to the top of the carousel boutique. I tried getting her down but that cat had more fight in her than I thought.” She replaced the mane over her damaged eye and a faint red glow appeared on her face.

“I… I hope she’s ok, but…” Fluttershy paused, unsure of what happened to all of her fluffy housemates.

“Angel never forgets to wake me up in the morning, where could he be?” She started drifting around the cottage peering into each tiny home in an attempt to locate any of her companions, but as the number of vacant homes increased she started to become distressed.

A glimmer of light by the doorway then caught her eye, floating over to inspect the object she recognised what it was, Angel’s pocket watch. Distraught at the discovery fear overcame her and she rushed through the door in search of her beloved friend, leaving a rather bemused pegasus hovering in her front room.

**********

The crowd around the boutique had grown to half-a-dozen.

“Where are Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, they should be here by now.” Twilight Sparkle muttered to herself whilst looking on hopelessly at the immovable and slightly demented feline.

Feeling that a plan B was in order Twilight consulted the small group. “Does anyone have any ideas on how we can get her down safely?”

After a short while one voice broke the silence.

“Erm, we could get a” but the sudden sense of clarity was quickly interrupted by Twilight.

“No, Derpy we’ve already told you there aren’t any ladders large enough. Even if we did have one, that still doesn’t fix the problem of how we would bring her down without her or anypony else getting hurt; you saw what happened with Rainbow. Any other ideas?”

A pony sitting at the back of the group then spoke up.

“Maybe we could make a giant hand on the end of a stick and…” the voice quickly subsided however as a navy blue and pink haired mare standing nearby could be seen glaring furiously at her.

The subsequent awkward silence was interrupted by Twilight clearing her throat.

“Okay… as I see there are no more ideas, plan B looks to be in order. I have to lower her down with magic.”

A slight grimace appeared on Rarity’s face at the suggestion. “If you do try darling, please be careful not to mess up her fur, or hurt her.”

“I don’t see why you’re worrying so much; I use this spell all the time. She’ll be fine.” Twilight readied herself and with a spark her horn began to glow. A purple aura surrounded Opal and an invisible force began attempting to pry her from the pole atop the boutique.

The cat however, didn’t budge and continued clutching to the pole.

The strain on Twilight’s abilities was obvious as she continued the magical assault on the cat. “This isn’t right… I’m putting all of my strength behind this simple spell… why won’t she let go!?” she uttered through gritted teeth.

Finally she couldn’t keep the spell intact and flopped onto the ground exhausted; Opal seemed to be utterly unscathed by the spell and continued to grip tightly to the pole with an outright vacant look on her face.

The worried crowd rushed to Twilight’s aid, their mind-set solely on her welfare. After briefly checking on the exhausted pony, Rarity couldn’t help but glance away from Twilight to witness the status of her beloved pet, but Opal was no longer there.

**********

This was normally one of the more entertaining tasks, flying across the sky with the wind gushing through her mane.

But with her failure to bring Fluttershy back to town all Rainbow Dash could think of was how in Equestria they were going to get that cat down from the building safely, considering the only pony with the ability to entirely empathise with animals just flew off.

After a minute of watching the extensive apple orchard below her whiz by, her mind wandered to thoughts of payback for the injury the cat had given her. Scenarios flashed through her head involving small rain clouds and lightning giving her stern face a slight grin.

She could see it now, the boutique on the far side of town. But there was something strange ahead, a small blue glow rapidly approaching.

As Rainbow Dash paused and hovered in the air to try and get a better look at the unidentified flying object, what came into focus dumbfounded her.

It was the cat.

Suspended in the air by what looked like a blue ball, Opal hovered past the stunned Pegasus. Questions flooded into her mind about such a bizarre spectacle and she decided to follow the floating feline.

Confused by this type of magic Rainbow kept her distance whilst attempting to grab the animal’s attention, it wasn’t long however until she recognised her efforts were fruitless. The cat’s deadpan face gazing into the distance showed that there was no recognition; it was time to take action.

She swooped into grab the cat from its prison but was met by a solid object, her hooves clanging against the bizarre material.

Taken by surprise it took some time to regain her composure. “I think I’ll just stick to following…” she thought whilst rubbing her sore hoof.

After a short while she noticed that the scenery was slowly changing below them, apple trees were giving way to open plains and in the distance, the edge of the Everfree forest.

“Please, for the love of Luna don’t fly in there…” she thought to herself, but as the cat slowly started gliding into the trees she realised that it was useless to wish for such good luck today.

Staying close behind the blue orb she pursued it into the forest, becoming engulfed in the sinister darkness of the woods.

**********

A splitting headache welcomed Twilight back into the conscious world, sitting up with one hoof massaging her temple.
She drowsily trotted to the edge of her bedroom to see Spike fast asleep in his basket.

“I wonder how long I was out for.” She wondered to herself as she slowly descended the stairs into the library; she then proceeded to the kitchen to pour a drink before heading back to bed.

“Hi Owlowiscious.” She said passing the study, listening out for his “who” she paused in the doorway before turning around to check his perch, but it was empty.

“He must be out hunting.” Twilight thought whilst she closed the window next to the perch, but as she went to lock it what could be seen outside flabbergasted her.

A seemingly endless line of blue orbs formed a convoy crossed the sky, all hovering south towards the Everfree forest.

It took her a moment to comprehend what she was seeing, it didn’t take long however for her to recognise the spectacle.

Rushing over to the slumbering Spike she attempted to wake him up “Number one assistant” she whispered urgently to him. “I need your help finding a book.”

It was no use, the dragon remained asleep.

“Again with the plan B…” she grunted to herself.

Using her magic she lifted the basket up and tipped the snoozing dragon out onto the floor.

After hearing a groan of consciousness she continued “Spike I need you to find the book titled “An intuitive guide to incantations, its important!”

Still flat on his face Spike lifted an arm off the ground, pointing it at a bookshelf before it landed with a slap next to him as he nodded off again.

“Thanks Spike” Twilight whispered, making sure not to wake the baby dragon a second time.

Sure enough the book was right where he pointed and Twilight started searching through it immediately.

“Arcane charms… Enchant: power torrent… aha! Found it! Good thing I decided to read all of this and not just the part on banishing the Ursa.”

On a page covered with illustrations of the same spheres currently hovering above Ponyville the title read “Arcane Domains: Convenient prisons for the feeble of mind.”

Skimming the text seemed to create more questions than it answered for her, “Who would bother making them?” Twilight strained her mind thinking of who would have the power and motivation to send these orbs to Ponyville, but to no avail.

“I guess I could follow the orbs to see where they go…” she thought to herself. But as soon as she started mentally elaborating the idea flashbacks of being turned to stone by the Cockatrice haunted her, she never visited Zecora’s home in the forest alone anymore.

“I… I guess tomorrow would be a good time to find out what is happening.” She whispered to herself whilst backing away from the book. “It would be foolish to travel in the forest at this time anyway…”

Climbing back upstairs she couldn’t help but feel curiosity tugging at her, but fear proved to be a stronger force and she continued to bed.

Scooting under the bedcovers she attempted to get back to sleep. “I will tell everypony else about it in the morning… yeah…” were the last thoughts she that went through her mind before closing her eyes in an attempt to get back to sleep.

A sudden realisation then dawned on her. Opal disappearing after her attempted rescue? Owlowiscious not being on his perch at night for the first time since the two met? And now prisons designed for small animals?!

Breaking out of her lethargic haze she leaped out of bed and charged outside into the dark streets to get a better look at the luminescent orbs, and surely enough she could see they were occupied.

“Oh this is bad… really bad.”

**********

It wasn’t the first time she had ventured into the forest alone, but that didn’t make it any less disturbing. Motivated by the need to find her friends Fluttershy continued tentatively making her way through the maze of trees.

An eerie layer of mist covered the ground; spindly branches creaked in the chilling breeze whilst a variety of unknown creatures called out from the darkness. It was enough to make anypony’s coat stand on end.

Keeping her head down and using her mane as a makeshift shield against the outside world she carried on her trek.

The idea of rushing back home to find help crossed her mind frequently; it is never a good idea to travel in these woods by yourself, but she was lost. Hoping she would be able to see the town if she had a better view she flew above the treetops to attempt to obtain some bearings.

All she could see however were trees. The top of the forest spread out in all directions with anything beyond that obscured by fog, it was at that point Fluttershy started regretting blindly flying off into the forest as fast as she could in order to try and find Angel and the others.

She then noticed a faint azure glow through the haze, and almost like a moth to a flame she started drifting towards it. In the few occasions she had traversed the forest she never seen anything like this.

As she drifted closer to the ground the surroundings started to become more familiar. After passing a wide river and a grove of twisted trees she recognised where she was heading.

Surely enough she reached the edge of a large crevice with a hastily repaired bridge crossing the misty depths.

The mist was not as thick as the last time she was here, allowing her to clearly see the ruins where Princess Luna was redeemed and the fact that they were engulfed in the luminosity she witnessed from the sky.

Her curiosity was quickly waning at the sight of this unknown force. The trembling pony began slowly withdrawing.

“Erm… maybe I should come back another time with the girls…” she thought to herself.

“Maybe Twilight will have some idea of wha”- Cut off by the most alarming sensation, she was suddenly rear-ended by what felt like a giant floating marble. Frozen still with pure horror the orb effortlessly nudged her over and she landed with a thud on the ground.

Rainbow Dash popped her head out from the undergrowth and scanned the surrounding area.

“I could have sworn that stupid orb went this way…” she mumbled to herself.

It was then she saw a rather static Fluttershy lying on the ground. With a gasp she rushed out to help.

“Fluttershy! Are you alright!?” Landing in front of the statue-like pony she was greeted with a disturbing sight.

Fluttershy’s face was a mask of sheer terror. Gazing upon the ugly spectacle Rainbow was unsure of how to make sure she was okay.

After a few moments of planning she decided to do what any other rational pony would do and she poked her friend with a hoof.

As if she were an unexploded bomb Fluttershy let forth a harrowing cry that echoed through the nearby forest. The unforeseen detonation startled Rainbow and she was launched backwards onto her back. Both ponies now lay on the floor struggling to catch their breath.

“You… you really have to stop… doing that…” Rainbow Dash managed to utter through staggered breaths.

After a short while the two managed to regain their composition.

“Sorry...” Fluttershy apologised, clearly embarrassed. “I came here looking for Angel and my friends… but ended up at these ruins instead.”

Rainbow looked over at the glowing structure. “Hey I recognise that place, let’s go investigate. I bet 20 bits that those ruins have something to do with the orbs.”

The notion was exactly what Fluttershy was dreading Rainbow would say. But before she could object the cyan Pegasus was already flying towards the remnants of the destroyed building. Sheepishly, Fluttershy followed.

**********

The two arrived at the main gate of the ruins, at first glance the pair couldn’t spot anything extraordinary looking about the area from the last time they visited the structure other than the buzz of magic in the air that indicated something was afoot.

Rainbow gently pushed against one of the large wooden doors leading into the ruins, it opened with a creaking that caused both of their manes to stand on end.

Poking her head in to inspect the grand room beyond Rainbow gave the all clear and the two pegasi hesitantly crossed the threshold.

The hall seemed far more intimidating than the last time they ventured here; being in no rush they had plenty of time to inspect their surroundings.

The tattered remnants of navy blue flags hung from the ceiling and above the vacant windows. Gloomy shadows engulfed the corners of the room, receding only from the areas close to the moonlight.

Rainbow flew to the middle of the room. “Nope, nothing nasty in here.” Turning around expecting to see Fluttershy accompanying her, she instead saw the shuddering pink and yellow pony crawling slowly along the floor. She crossed her arms, waiting impatiently for her friend to reach her.

A loud rustling then broke the silence; whipping around to see where it came from Rainbow was met by a pair of glowing blue eyes. Startled, she darted back to Fluttershy, who was now cowering behind a wall of pink hair.

After a brief stand-off the blue eyed creature hopped into Rainbow’s sight from the darkness. “… Angel?” at the mention of his name a pair of eyes appeared through Fluttershy’s mane. It didn’t take long for her to rush to her newly discovered friend, locking Angel in a tight hug.

“I missed you so much! I didn’t know what I was going to do without you! I…” After realising the bunny wasn’t hugging her back it befell her that something wasn't right. Holding Angel at Hooves length she was met by a blank expression from the rabbit. “Angel, what’s wrong?”

Without warning he leaped from Fluttershy’s grasp and sprinted towards an open door on the opposite side of the hall. This her floating empty-handed in a state of shock. Rainbow Dash however didn’t hesitate to pursue the fleeing cottontail.

Bursting through the doorway she followed Angel down a stone spiral staircase. “How is that damn rabbit so fast!?” she shouted to herself.

Without warning the rabbit leapt through another doorway and sprinted down an extensive passage. Close on its tail Rainbow pursued it around the corner only to slam on her air brakes when she witnessed what was at the end of the corridor.

“Well that’s interesting.” Azure light from the entrance at the end of the passageway flooded the room. “Hey! Fluttershy! You better come and see this!” she yelled up the stairway.

After a brief wait the top of Flutter’s head poked into sight. “W… wh… what’s that?” she inquired, her voice laced with fear.

“I chased your silly rabbit down here and he ran into that room.” She gestured to the glowing archway. Rainbow landed for the first time since the two met up and they both tentatively trotted towards the aura, upon reaching the doorway they both poked their heads around the corner to investigate what the room held.

Angel was in the centre of the large room, its walls adorned with shelves housing thousands of books of all shapes and sizes. What drew the pair’s attention however, was the figure standing before Fluttershy’s once faithful companion.

A silhouetted figure of a hooded pony was facing away from them, tendrils of magic emanating from it. It appeared to be listening to a string of squeaks from Angel, then nodded and swung around to meet the gaze of the two eavesdropping mares.

Not a single sound was exchanged, the bright white eyes of the unknown pony piercing through them and before the two pegasi could react they were set upon by a horde of fluffy animals and dragged away from the archive.

“GET OFF ME YOU DUMB ANIMALS!” Rainbow Dash tried her best to break free from her tiny abductors but to no avail.

“Stop Rainbow, you might hurt the poor things.” On the contrary Fluttershy almost enjoyed being swept away by the gathering of animals.

“Are you mad! These stupid things are dragging us off to Celestia knows where and you’re telling me to let them!? No chance!” As she continued to struggle against her captors the creatures halted and a familiar toothless alligator plodded up to them.

“Oh gummy am I glad to see you!” Fluttershy’s face turned into a beaming smile, but cutting this delight short the reptile slapped a couple of chloroform soaked rags onto their faces and the pair quickly lost consciousness.