"This...is so silly," Twilight remarked, even with a happy smile on her face.
"Come on, Twilight!" Spike encouraged. "It'll be fun!"
A sigh from the unicorn. "I know, it's just...it's been a really long time since I did this. I haven't played a game like this since Shiny and me were foals."
Spike waved her off. "Oh, it'll be fine! It's like riding a bike. You never forget."
"Should I take this moment to remind you that you've technically never actually ridden a bike before?" Twilight pointed out slyly.
"No, no you should not," Spike countered.
Giggling, Twilight got back to what she was doing before, namely covering her eyes with her hooves and taking a deep breath, all while facing a large tree planted near the centre of town. "Okay then, here goes. One...two...three...four...five...six...seven...eight...nine...ten!" She lowered her hooves, her smile wider than before, and she turned, glancing around herself. "Ready or not, here I come!" she declared. But of course, there was nopony here. It was a slow day, and aside from a few passers-by, most of whom she hadn't learned the names of yet, there were none to see. Spike and her looked around in every direction, but could find no sign of their targets, so they looked to one another, smiling mischievously. "Read to play, Spike?"
The little dragon chuckled. "Please, I was born ready!"
Twilight giggled again, then started to happily trot forward, her eyes going to everything she could see. Houses, hedges, signs, anything that a pony could conceivably conceal themselves behind. So far, there was nothing. No tail poking out from behind the corner of a house, no hoof just slightly in-view from under a bush, nothing. A moment or two like this passed before Twilight stopped, giving Spike a chance to hop off her back. "Let's see...where would mares like our friends hide from us?"
Spike scratched his head, pondering that very question, and his eyes slowly drifted to the left, causing him to smirk slightly. "Oh, I think I know where one of them might hide."
Twilight was, at least at first, confused what he was talking about, but all became clear when she realised that he was looking at an ornately-cut hedge in front of a nearby home. A hedge that had been suspiciously cut into the shape of a certain timid pegasus they both knew. Giving each other a knowing look, the two walked over to the not-at-all-subtle hiding spot. "Gee, I wonder where that friend of mine could be?" Twilight said loudly, sarcasm dripping from her every word. "Out of all the places around me, I guess she could be anywhere!" Then, after a few second of silence, she grinned, then leapt behind the hedge. "Gotcha!" But her sense of victory was soon replaced with one of confusion. "Wha...Pinkie?!"
The pink mare squealed happily. "Heehee, you though it was sweet Fluttershy, but it was really me, Pinkie Pie!" She winked to her bookish friend. "Bet you didn't see that one coming!"
Twilight blinked slowly, then looked down to Spike briefly, who gave her a quick shrug, before again looking to Pinkie. "Pinkie...the point of the game is to hide, not to make the seeker surprised that it was you that they found."
Pinkie paused, her smile still there on her face, but eventually looking surprised. "Oooooooooh! That sounds way more fun than what I tried to do! Can we go again?"
Twilight, in spite of the silliness of her colleague, placed a hoof on her shoulder. "Later. We still need to find the others." Seeing Pinkie open her mouth, Twilight silenced her by putting her hoof on it. "But I need to find them myself, okay? No help." Pinkie nodded, still clearly looking like she wanted to blurt out every answer she had. But then, in a manner so typical of Pinkie that Twilight had learned not to question it, she zipped her lips up with a literal zip, giving a salute to her. Twilight shook her head to this, then started walking along the street again, with Spike and Pinkie close behind her. Her eyes drifted from left to right as she mused on her remaining friends. "Now then...where would a pony like Rainbow Dash go to hide?"
Spike folded his arms as he too considered that. "Hmmm...confident, likes begin the centre of attention...can't really imagine her being big on hiding. You know, high-flier and all that?"
To that, Twilight halted, a knowing look returning to her. She glanced upwards, to all the white and fluffy clouds dotting the skies. "A high-flier indeed, Spike." With her horn igniting, she began to manipulate the aforementioned clouds, moving them out of the way, one by one, until finally, the got the one she wanted. "Aha!" Twilight declared victoriously. "Found you!"
Sure enough, Rainbow was there, but rather than be disappointed that she was found, or put-off that she'd technically lost a game, she actually cackled happily before zipping down to the ground to join the rest of her friends. "Not bad, Twilight. Figured you'd take at least an hour to find me up there."
Twilight smiled, then looked down to Spike, patting him on the head. "Well, I had some help." Her lifelong companion blushed to the praise, but said nothing as Twilight carried on, with the other three in-tow. "Okay...two down, three to go." Instead of trotting at a casual pace, as she had done before, Twilight actually began to get a gallop on, with the others doing their best to keep up. On and on she ran, until she finally arrived at Sweet Apple Acres, looking more than a little excited. "If I know AJ, there's nowhere she'd rather be than here."
Spike actually looked worried now. "But...the Orchard's a big place, so how are we gonna find her?"
Twilight acknowledged his concern with a quick nod, and after thinking long and hard on that, she weighed her options. She could indeed search every nook and cranny of this place, from the tops of every apple tree to the haystack in the barn, but that would likely take all day. Instead, after some time of just standing still and thinking, Twilight looked back to her assistant. "I think expediency is the name of the game, Spike." She watched as Spike and her other two friends gave each other confused looks, then turned back to look at the Orchard as a whole. Taking a deep breath, she called out at the top of her lungs. "ORANGES ARE JUST AS GOOD AS APPLES!!!"
Barely had a few seconds had gone by before she and the others heard their response. "What y'all say?!"
Looking like a winner, Twilight pointed in the direction of the voice. "There she is!" All of them galloped together, heading towards one of the larger apple trees, and they stopped at its base and looked up, Twilight in particular looking fairly happy with her choice. "It's over, Applejack, we know you're up there."
With the sound of a long sigh being heard from the tree, all watched as the young farmer slowly descended down the trunk, landing right beside Twilight and taking a moment to brush off a few stray leaves that had been caught up in her fur. "Mah Ma always said mah love o' apples would get me in trouble one day, but ah never believed her."
Twilight giggled again, then started walking out, now with four companions instead of three. "Alrighty then, two more to go."
Spike, rushing ahead so he was walking directly beside her, looked up to her. "I bet Rarity's hiding in a big pile of clothes in her Boutique. Or maybe in one of her closets." He paused, then continued. "Her many, many, many closets."
Twilight smiled to him, giving another pat on his head. "That'd be my first choice too. But Rarity's a sly one. Doubtless she'll go for something less obvious. Something...unexpected." She stopped, tapping the end of her chin, then looked over her shoulder to the latest of their little group. "Applejack? Where do you buy your hats?"
Taking on a look of pride, Applejack took off her trademark headware and looked down to it fondly. "Why, ah get em all from Stinky Bottom's Discount Hat Emporium! Best hat store in all of Equestria!" Then she frowned slightly. "Oh...oh."
Twilight gave a firm nod. "Yep, got it in one, my friend." She turned, walking straight towards the target in question, with all others behind her. It took some searching, but eventually they found the store they were looking for, which had a massive selection of hat-stalls all out in front, with every variety of cheap-but-practical hat you could imagine. But, it wasn't for their wares that Twilight was here, and as she entered, with the door giving off a little bell, she glanced around. "Let's see now..." She noted the owner, who gave her a friendly wave, which she returned before getting back to her search. After a while, she noted a pair of bright white hooves sticking out from under the curtain that separated the front of the store to the storeroom out back. Smirking, she merrily walked past the owner and straight to the curtain, pulling it back. "Good afternoon, Rarity."
The fashionista actually looked pleased to see her friend, giving her a quick hug. "Oh, Twilight! Thank you so much for finding me! I swear, I couldn't stand another minute in this place!" Then she cleared her throat, putting on a more polite tone as she addressed the owner. "Um, no offence." Seeing the owner just give a nonchalant shrug, Rarity looked back to Twilight. "So, who's left?"
Twilight gestured to the rest of the group. "Just Fluttershy now."
Spike chuckled. "That's easy. She'll be with her animals, right?"
Twilight started to leave, as did everypony else. "We'll certainly see." And see they did, as they all went to the residencies of every animal that they knew of, and everywhere they could remember hearing Fluttershy talk about before. From the bird-laden trees on the outskirts of town all the way to the edges of the Everfree Forest and even the frog-inhabited swamp. But no matter where they looked, they could find no sign of her, leading to some concern on Twilight's part. "Um...we did tell her we were playing this game, right? She's not just out of town visiting relatives?"
Spike shrugged. "Yeah, we told her. She agreed to play just like everypony else."
Twilight looked to all her other friends, each of whom gave her similar shrugs, before scratching the side of her head. "She's not with her animals, and she's not in any other place we've looked. She's not even at her cottage."
Spike shook his head. "Nope. Checked out the place myself. Completely empty." He grimaced. "Aside from that annoying rabbit she likes so much of course."
Twilight sighed. "Girls...I think I'll just have to concede defeat on this one."
Rainbow cackled with amusement. "Wow, beaten by Fluttershy. That's gotta sting."
Twilight cast her a frown, then turned away, taking a few steps forward before calling out. "Fluttershy? It's me! I concede the game! You can come out now!"
"Okay then," a meek-sounding voice said to her.
Instantly, Twilight jumped in place, then spun around quickly to see the smiling, if slightly embarrassed-looking face of Fluttershy right next to her. The others too were startled to see their animal-loving friend right next to them unexpectedly like this, but it was only Twilight who said anything about it. "Wha...where were you?!"
Fluttershy blushed slightly. "Oh, um...I've been with you the whole time."
Twilight blinked. "...Pardon?"
Fluttershy nodded again. "Oh yes. I was right next to you through the whole game. You just never noticed me until I spoke up."
After another blink, Twilight looked to her friends, all of whom seemed just as perplexed as she was, before again looking to Fluttershy. "But...how?!"
Fluttershy smiled wider to her. "Easy...after spending so much of my life trying to avoid being noticed...I'm very good at not being noticed if I don't want to be."
Here, Twilight broke out of her state of shock and looked understandably incredulous. "Fluttershy, I know you're not exactly the most outgoing friend I have, but there's no way you can...Fluttershy?" Before she'd even finished, Twilight noticed that her friend had, once more, suddenly gone out of view, with everypony scrambling to look around for her. "Fluttershy?" Twilight repeated.
"Yes, Twilight?" the tender voice answered again. All eyes yet again looked on with surprise at Fluttershy, who now appeared at the back of the group, smiling. "So...I guess I win then?"
After staring at her in silence for a time, Twilight looked down to Spike, who just shrugged to the whole matter. "Oh yeah, she's good alright."
