Fluttershy opened her eyes and smiled. She could hear the bluebirds singing outside her window. The little family had moved in just last summer, but already the second nest of chicks were cheeping away out there.
Sunlight filtered in through the gauzy green curtains, and Fluttershy hopped out of bed to fling them open. Outside, the sky was a beautiful clear blue.
It was a perfect day.
She glanced around, looking for Angel, but he was nowhere to be seen. It was unusual for him to be up first, and even more so for his basket to be gone. But maybe he had just dragged it off in search of a sunnier napping spot. It was okay. She was sure he'd be back soon.
With a light heart, Fluttershy descended to the kitchen and hauled her usual basket of vegetables out of the pantry. The two choicest carrots were reserved to for Angel, of course. But there were dozens of variations for everycreature else. Mushrooms for the wolves, of course — full of protein. Baobab leaves for the giraffes, grain for the birds, fresh hay for the goats and sweet grasses for the baby elephant. Every animal in Fluttershy’s shelter was fed exactly what it needed.
Leaving Angel’s bowl filled to the brim, Fluttershy hastily delivered the other meals, with a quick but affectionate pat for each recipient.
“I’m sorry that I can’t stay with you longer this morning, everyone. I’m not teaching at the school today, but I promised Rarity I’d be over first thing. You understand, don’t you?” Gently, she ruffled the ears of the sheep she spoke to.
It bleated loudly and took a bite of hay.
Fluttershy giggled. “Well, that’s not very polite, is it, Mr Lambkin?” She straightened and raised her voice so that they could all hear. “Now, everyone — make sure you listen to Angel…once he comes back, I mean. He’s in charge. And Discord, too, of course. Though…maybe don’t listen too much to Discord.” Last time that had happened Fluttershy had been left with a stampede that had destroyed her chicken coop.
With one last fond pat, she took her leave of her animal charges and trotted down the little lane that led towards town. She passed the school without stopping, but waved briefly at Sandbar and Yona, who were picnicking on the lawn by the lake.
She was panting a little from her exertions by the time she reached Rarity’s, just before ten in the morning. Twilight would be proud — she was exactly on time.
The bell jangled noisily as Fluttershy pushed open the door to the Carousel Boutique. “Rarity, are you he—?”
“Of course I’m here, darling!” Rearing out of a vast pile of silk and sequins, Rarity emerged, three needles levitating concurrently around her as they flashed in and out of the fabric. “Where else would I be?”
“Oh, my.” Fluttershy blinked, looking at Rarity’s whirling needles as they tore in and out of the fabric, three seams coming together at once. “But Rarity, why are you working?”
Rarity laughed. “Creativity doesn’t rest on the weekends, Fluttershy!”
“I don’t mean that,” Fluttershy said reproachfully. “I know how inspiration can strike you at the funniest times. But…” she hesitated. “It’s not just a weekend.”
“Isn’t it?” For the first time, Rarity’s needles slowed and she looked up at her friend.
“No. Today is spa day.”
At Fluttershy’s tone of quiet complaint, Rarity’s sewing finally halted, and she sheathed her needles in the nearest pincushion. “Oh! I had…well, darling, it had completely slipped my mind.”
“Oh.” Fluttershy visibly deflated. All her preparation with the animals had been for naught. “Well, I suppose I can come back another day.”
“Nonsense!” Rarity cried, clambering out from her mound of silk. “Spa day is sacred, darling. I’d never miss it.”
Beaming with pleasure, Fluttershy waited for her friend to gather her things, and then the two mares headed back into town.
“Besides,” said Rarity conversationally, as though nothing had interrupted her previous train of thought, “We Ponyville gals need to stick together. With Rainbow and Applejack gallivanting around the world and Twilight off in Canterlot all the time, we homebirds need to stick even closer together. Perhaps we should invite Pinkie to join us?”
At the thought of Pinkie Pie in the quiet, peaceful sanctuary of the spa, singing and dancing and perhaps even throwing an impromptu party, Fluttershy winced. It must have shown on her face, because Rarity answered her own question.
“No, you’re probably right. Best to just…stick to the plan, I think.”
Fluttershy’s thoughts wandered back to her friends, travelling across Equestria on their honeymoon, and smiled fondly as she thought of her own honeymoon, all those years ago. Those blissful three weeks in the chaos dimension, just the two of them — and Angel, naturally. Waffles every day for breakfast, each one singing a different song, and romantic gondola rides for two across the nebulae. It had been paradise.
“What is that gooey expression?” Rarity asked, her tone one of gentle teasing.
Colouring a little, Fluttershy coughed to hide her embarrassment. “Oh — I was just thinking of Rainbow and Applejack. It must be so romantic, to be starting out as newlyweds, side by side. Just like Discord and I were.”
Rarity’s eyes widened, and she looked around them quickly before relaxing. “Oh dear; I have to say I really thought he’d appear then. And not that I don’t love dear Discord,” she amended hastily. “But if Pinkie in the spa would have been bad, just imagine poor Discord in there.”
Fluttershy’s brow furrowed. Rarity was right; Discord did almost invariably appear when she called his name. She tried again a couple of times, in case he wanted to say a quick hello, but he still did not materialise. Fluttershy shrugged it off — her husband, bless him, often woke at odd hours and wandered off. He must be working on something in his own dimension. Perhaps he and Angel Bunny were even spending a little time together. At the thought of her two favourite people bonding, Fluttershy’s smile widened and she trotted a little more briskly.
“Slow down a little, darling!” Rarity panted from behind her. “I’ve been up since four, you know. A creative streak can be a real…whew…burden.”
Obediently, Fluttershy slowed her pace, and Rarity came back alongside her.
“Besides,” the unicorn added, “At least you have somepony, even if he does teleport in at the most inopportune moments. All I have is poor Sweetie, and I think she snuck out again last night. She wasn’t in her room this morning.”
“Oh, Rarity.” Fluttershy’s big blue eyes welled with compassion. “I didn’t realise you were feeling lonely. Maybe I could help you—”
“—No, no.” Rarity waved a hoof. “I’m not lonely. I have my work. And my sister, though teenagers are a nightmare. It’s just…sometimes you daydream. You know how it is.”
Sympathetically, Fluttershy nodded.
“Maybe we can go to Pinkie’s this afternoon?” she suggested instead, as a way to change the topic. “And maybe we can all go to Canterlot tomorrow and surprise Twilight. She might have half an hour spare in her schedule at some point.”
“That’s a lovely idea,” Rarity said appreciatively.
The two settled into a comfortable silence as they approached the spa door. Fluttershy was already anticipating the cooling waters of the baths closing over her suddenly aching limbs. And by the time she got home, Angel and Discord would surely have returned from their little adventure, with lots of stories of their misdeeds to share with her. She was smiling just thinking about it.
The sound of birdsong floated in through Fluttershy’s window, and she blinked sleepily, her face melting into a smile as she slowly sat up. Rays of sunlight were already playing across the green rug on her rich red floorboards. Fluttershy turned to Discord, ready to shake him awake — but strangely, his spot on the bed was empty. She patted the hollow in the mattress where he should have been, and lifted the pillow to make sure he hadn’t accidentally shrunk in the night again, but there was no sight of him. She couldn’t even smell him on the sheets.
The chicks outside chirruped again in answer to their parents’ song, and Fluttershy hurried over to the window to bid them good morning. Discord was probably already downstairs cooking.
“Angel!” she called, peering down at the adorable little nest. “Come and see the birdies, Angel!”
There was no answering patter of feet, and his basket was not in its usual spot, but that wasn’t so odd. He’d probably gone to raid the vegetable patch while she was still asleep. Her mischievous little friend knew exactly how to get his way, bless his little fluffy tail.
Fluttershy smiled up at the clear cerulean sky, and sang a few notes to answer the little flitting birds.
It was a perfect day.
After she had fed the animals in her sanctuary, Fluttershy headed into town, sparing a quick wave for Sandbar and Yona. They made such a sweet couple. She was already looking forward to seeing them on Monday. Yona in particular was making amazing progress in class. She was so sweet that Kindness lessons seemed to come naturally to her.
Just as she was nearing Rarity’s house, a pale yellow blur came tearing out of an alleyway, nearly bowling Fluttershy over. As she scrambled back to her hooves, she saw a frazzled looking Bon Bon, twisting frantically from left to right.
“Sorry,” she said absently, hardly sparing a glance for the pony she had downed. “I’m looking for Lyra. Have you seen her?”
Mutely, Fluttershy shook her head.
“She wasn’t in bed with me this morning, but I know she was next to me last night.” Bon Bon sounded close to tears. “And Lyra’s so lazy, she’s never up before me. And even if she was, she’d never leave without telling me where she was going.” She sniffed hard. “I’m worried there’s something really wrong.” Then she was off again, her hooves echoing down the next alley she took, her shouts almost shaking the windows. “Lyra! Lyra!"
Biting her lip in worry as her eyes followed the distressed mare, Fluttershy slowly resumed her walk. Surely nothing could be that wrong. Discord went missing all the time, but it was just part of who he was. Bon Bon was probably getting worked up over nothing.
As Rarity and Fluttershy walked to the spa, their flanks almost touching, Fluttershy listened sympathetically to Rarity’s trials.
“She never comes home for the night anymore! She goes to all these parties, with colts and hard cider and Celestia only knows what else. I’m telling you, it’s enough to drive a pony to despair—”
Rarity’s rising voice was cut off abruptly at the sight of Mayor Mare, who limped slowly across the town square towards them. Fluttershy gasped in horror as she saw the Mayor’s face. A huge, livid scar crossed the brown pony’s face from muzzle to eartip. Rarity’s strangled squeak of surprise showed she saw the same thing.
“Mayor!” Rarity cried, dashing towards her. “Are you alright? We must get you to Nurse Redheart right away!”
Dazedly, Mayor Mare raised a hoof to her face. “Oh…this?” She shrugged weakly and attempted a smile, though the scar twisted her mouth terribly. “It’s nothing…I think. It’s the strangest thing. I just…can’t seem to remember what happened.”
Her brow furrowed with concern, Fluttershy leaned close to the Mayor’s face, and her eyes widened again as she took it in. The scar seemed almost fully healed. The skin was angry and red, but there was no blood, not even a scab. This scar must be months old, but that simply couldn’t be right. Fluttershy had seen the mayor herself just two days ago.
“I…it looks so painful, Mayor,” she whispered. “Maybe it was some sort of magical attack?”
Nervously, Mayor Mare laughed. “A magical attack? Come now, Fluttershy, who would want to attack me?”
Fluttershy bit her lip again before her face suddenly cleared. “I know!”
Both of the others turned to her.
“Even if it is magical, Discord can fix you right up.” She raised her voice and called for him. “Discord, honey?”
There was no answer. No confetti, no custard. Not even a rubber duck. How strange. Still, perhaps he was busy. The regular session of ogres and oubliettes wasn’t until Tuesday, but perhaps he was somewhere else. Possibly even with Angel — wouldn’t that be a lovely surprise? Her two best boys, getting along.
“Let’s get to you the nurse,” she said instead, shaking off the slight feeling of unease. “She’ll know what to do.”
Later, after a long day of holding the mayor’s hoof as the mystified doctors prodded and poked at her face, Fluttershy headed back to home to look for Angel and Discord. All of her other animals were there, but there was still no Angel Bunny. And no draconequus. Oh well. They were both big, strong members of their respective species. She was sure they would be back in the morning.
There was a smile on Fluttershy’s face when she awoke. The bluebirds were singing, and the new hatchlings were cheeping for all they were worth. She was so lucky that they had chosen to nest beneath her window.
The sky was blue and bright, and Fluttershy craned her neck out of the window to see if Discord was in the garden. He must have taken Angel Bunny for a walk. She should hurry down to join them.
It was a perfect day.
Rarity was in a state of great distress by the time Fluttershy reached her. Sweetie Belle was nowhere to be found. Rarity had apparently been up since five hunting for her, and had checked both Apple Bloom and Scootaloo’s houses. Neither had seen her.
“Maybe she’s at Pinkie’s?” Fluttershy suggested, the spa trip already forgotten. “They’ve been doing awfully well with those baking lessons.”
But Sugar Cube Corner was empty, apart from a slightly confused Mr Cake, who asked them if they had seen his wife.
By the time Bon Bon tore past them, screaming for Lyra, Fluttershy was seriously concerned. Discord, Angel, Sweetie Belle, Pinkie, and apparently plenty of other ponies. Something wasn’t right in Ponyville today, despite the crystalline sky and the perfect green leaves.
But a long day of searching availed nothing, and without Spike in residence there was no way to let Twilight know. Fluttershy eventually returned to her empty house, muddied and low in spirits, determined to catch the first train to Canterlot in the morning to secure Twilight’s aid.
Twilight would know what to do. Fluttershy clung to that thought, as she drifted off into an uneasy repose.
Fluttershy awoke to the sound of birdsong. She rolled over in bed, reaching for Angel in his basket, but she found neither basket nor bunny. How strange! She called for Discord, to see if he had seen Angel. There was no answer.
Something was wrong.
The feeling was faint, but persistent. Creatures were missing who should not be missing.
Quickly, Fluttershy cantered into town, searching for her friends. But Pinkie was nowhere to be found, and Rarity was awash with tears of frustration at her wayward sister. Those tears melted into an expression of cold fear when Fluttershy shared her worries.
Twilight was not in town, of course, and Rainbow and Applejack were still on their honeymoon. Two elements of harmony instead of six did not feel sufficient, but it would have to do.
More ponies joined the hunt, looking for missing partners or foals. Some had scars that should not have been there, and Nurse Redheart sported an entire prosthetic leg that had not been there the day before. Looking at the silver, whirring limb made Fluttershy feel ill, so she had to stop looking.
“Angel!” she called, as the search party ventured into the Everfree. “Discord! Can you hear me?”
“Lyra!” screamed a distraught Bon Bon from beside her. “Lyra, where are you?”
That night, Fluttershy tried her last resort. She went to the drawer to get the little key Discord had left her, the one shaped like his face, that would open the portal to his dimension. But there was nothing in the drawer.
Fluttershy did not sleep a wink.
Something was wrong. Birds were singing, and the weather looked perfect, but Fluttershy could not shake that nagging feeling. Where was Angel Bunny? Where was Discord?
There was something about this situation that was familiar.
She slid out of bed and hurried downstairs. The animals needed feeding. That much she could do, even if she did feel a little out of sorts.
“Discord!” She called again, digging in the cupboard for the pelican feed. “Are you there, honey?”
There was no answer. That felt familiar too.
She hunted everywhere, and after she was done persuading the wolves to eat their mushrooms, she returned back to the house, eyes tight with fear. She was worried enough that she tried to find Discord’s key, the one shaped like him pulling a grotesque face, but the drawer was empty.
Fluttershy galloped up the road towards town. She needed her friends for this.
Fluttershy woke up in a cold sweat. The bluebirds were singing the same as they always did, but something was terribly wrong. She needed to find Angel. She needed to find her friends. Where was everypony?
Her hoof on her chest, she tried to calm herself. Rationally, she knew that everything must be fine, but there was still a terrible fear. Like a toad squatting on her lungs, shortening her breath.
She barely looked at her animals as she tossed them their food. “I’m sorry, everypony, but I just can’t today!”
Her passage into Ponyville was at a thundering gallop, past sobbing townsponies hunting for their families.
But Rarity could offer no comfort other than a brittle laugh and a pancake. “I would be lying if I didn't say I had felt a little similar this morning. Somehow I can't quite remember what I did yesterday. Can you?”
Fluttershy could not.
“Sweetie’s bed was empty this morning, along with half the town, it seems.”
“Discord too.”
Rarity pushed back her chair. “Let’s round up the others.”
Pinkie was nowhere to be found. The course of action was clear. “We need to go see Twilight in Canterlot.”
The two mares headed for the train station at a sprint, but to their dismay they found that it was fenced off. The signs declared that the line was shut for maintenance.
Fluttershy stomped her hoof. “Fine. Then we walk.”
Rarity’s eyes bulged. “Are you crazy? That’s a three day trek even for a fit pony. Which I am not.”
With a glare, Fluttershy quelled her. “Something is wrong. Can’t you sense it? Where is everypony? There is no logical explanation for this. We’re under attack — I think it might even be another changeling invasion, maybe from a new hive.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Rarity snapped back at her. “If it were changelings, everypony would be here. Only it wouldn’t be them.
Fluttershy’s retort was cut off by a shrill cry.
“Lyra! Lyra, please! Where are you?” Bon Bon galloped past them, searching for her errant wife. Increasingly distressed, her voice climbed higher as she sped away from them.
The others exchanged a glance, and simultaneously broke into a canter. Fluttershy’s eyes narrowed in determination. “It won’t take us three days. We’ll do it in one.”
They were steaming down the road towards the distant mountain when they suddenly stopped short. Blocking the road before them was a pink shield, buzzing with magic. Cautiously, Rarity prodded it. It fizzed and spat sparks. “Bizarre. It looks almost like shining Armour's. But the magical signature isn’t his.”
“Then who?” Fluttershy demanded, feeling herself verging on the border of hysteria. “Who’s signature?”
“It’s familiar…I just can’t quite place it.”
“I just don’t understand!” Fluttershy stomped her hoof in frustration. “Who would trap us here?”
Rarity smiled grimly. “Somepony who will not succeed.” Her horn flashed, and suddenly a small blue dome was sputtering into life over the two of them.
Fluttershy gasped. “Rarity, you can shield?”
Her eyes narrowed with focus, Rarity gave her a short nod. “You don’t spend twenty years as Princess Twilight’s best friend without picking up a few things.”
Clustering close together beneath the little blue shield, the two friends advanced on the vast pink shield. Now that they were close enough to see it clearly, its shape soared above them into the sky. The world beyond the shield was only dimly visible now, Canterlot a mere suggestion, wobbling and wavering with the fluctuations of the pink dome. Almost like it was an illusion or a mirage itself.
Rarity’s shield hissed as it made contact with the larger, and Rarity herself flinched, her expression pained. Fluttershy pressed close, wrapping both wings around her friend to help her.
“You can do it, Rarity.”
Slowly, Rarity forced them forward, one hoofstep at a time. “For Sweetie Belle.” Her shield quivered and shook, raining down hot sparks on Fluttershy’s back, but she kept her yelps of pain inside and tried to protect Rarity from the worst of it.
The pink dome was thick, and it was like entering a tunnel. The blue shield was not halfway in before there was a great flash of pink magic and a thunderous pop! Fluttershy and Rarity were hurled backwards, hoof over muzzle, to land on their rears back on the Ponyville side of the spell.
Trembling, they looked up at the originator of the teleportation spell that had displaced the air and thrown them. The enormous purple alicorn looking down at them with that dark expression was a sight startling enough to make them both yelp and cling closer to one another.
The stranger was as tall as Celestia, with the same lavender fur as Twilight and a long, luxurious mane dappled with stars.
Beside Fluttershy, Rarity shuddered. “Twilight?” she whispered. “Is that why the magic felt so familiar?”
Twilight? Fluttershy gaped up at the stranger. That couldn’t be her. Apart from a few coincidences of colouration, it looked nothing like the the soft little alicorn that Fluttershy knew so well. Twilight was her own height, no taller. And Twilight’s mane didn’t flow with raw magic. Only the senior alicorns had hair like that. And Twilight…the Twilight that Fluttershy knew would never look at her like that. With disdain. Like she and Rarity were something that had crawled off the bottom of her hoof.
“You just keep figuring it out, don't you?” spat not-Twilight, in a voice that sounded horribly like Twilight’s. “The books suggest a time loop spell should be easy when conditions are right. And the conditions are right. I made sure of it.” The tall stranger that seemed less and less like the Twilight with every word that left her mouth ran a hoof through her mane in just the same way that Fluttershy’s friend once had.
“Twilight, what happened to you?” Rarity was aghast.
Though she was still trembling, Fluttershy finally found her own voice. “We saw you, last week — or was it two weeks ago? — at the palace. You looked normal. How could you…grow so much?”
Twilight seemed hardly to have heard them. “And I made everything just how you like it. I’ve given you the perfect day. Forever. Why are you never satisfied?”
Trying again, her voice shaking, Rarity tried to touch her. “Twilight, what's happened to you? You're so tall. You look like Celestia, almost.”
Twilight brushed her hoof off and kept talking, in that same lecturing tone she had used so often before. “As if I didn't have enough...trouble setting this up for you. Getting everypony in place. Healing them all up. And now you’ve ruined it. Again. It takes so long to completely wipe everypony when you go off-loop like this.”
But Rarity was impossible to intimidate. “Twilight, can you please explain to me why your magical signature has changed so much that I could hardly tell it was you? And why it’s all over this thing that’s trapped us all in Ponyville?”
“I'm running the whole kingdom now, you know,” Twilight scowled. “I just don't have time for things like this anymore. Every time you set the alarms off it throws off a whole day’s scheduling.”
“Twilight, please!” Fluttershy jumped between the two of them, diverting their mutual glares. Twilight’s freakish growth spurt could wait. The missing ponies could not. “Listen. We think the changelings have come back. We can’t find Discord, or Sweetie Belle, or Pinkie.” Her voice caught in her throat. “Even Angel Bunny is gone.”
Her old friend ignored her completely, sweeping past them both to look back towards Ponyville. “I suppose I’d better make a start. I’ll have to scrub the lot of you. Back to base.”
The tremulous hope that had built in Fluttershy’s heart crumbled to ashes. Scrub them? What was Twilight talking about?
“Twilight, please,” Rarity begged, fear visible in her every motion. “Tell us the truth. Where is everypony? Where is Sweetie?
The alicorn didn’t even look back. “Gone, Rarity. gone for good.”
Rarity staggered, but Twilight went on unceasingly.
“Honestly, I think it's ungrateful of you both. I find a way to keep you all with me. Forever, just like we always wanted. You all get to stay young, I get to come and visit whenever I want.” She turned back to them, her mouth pulling down at the corners, and a terribly dead look in her eyes. “But you all just keep...messing it up. Muddying the waters. As if the debacle with Applejack and Rainbow wasn't enough. And then Pinkie, too.” Her voice became petulant. “You two are all I have left. And now you're getting off script, too.” Her eyes flashed. “Don't you want to stay with me?”
Fluttershy exchanged a single look with Rarity, horror on both their faces. None of this made any sense. Perhaps it was changelings, despite the missing ponies. Was this Twilight-pretender just Chrysalis, unfrozen and back for vengeance?
But Fluttershy trusted Rarity’s judgement, and Rarity had sensed Twilight’s signature on the giant shield.
Something was very wrong.
“Twilight, darling, listen,” Rarity tried to get the conversation back on track. "Of course we love you and want to stay with you. But we need to find the others. Half of Ponyville is gone!”
Twilight stiffened. “No it's not! The town is perfect. My historians captured every particular with the utmost accuracy.”
“Not the town.” Fluttershy’s voice was a whisper. “The ponies. The creatures.” My creatures, she added internally. My little family.
Though the sun still shone brightly, Twilight’s face was shadowed, her eyes hooded. "It wasn’t easy, you know. Rounding them all up. Simple enough at the beginning, when I first got started. I got the outliers first, the ones who had moved away. Then I started inviting everypony else to tea, one at a time. You were the first, Rarity. But by the time I got to Rainbow and Applejack, they were…” Her words tailed off.
“What?” Rarity demanded. “What did you do to Applejack and Rainbow Dash? What did you do to me? Why can’t I remember?”
“They were…suspicious,” Twilight said at last. “They were ready for me. They had taken some…extreme measures that I hadn’t anticipated.”
“What did you do to them?” Fluttershy echoed Rarity’s question.
Twilight shrugged. “They did it to themselves. I wanted to save them from time, but they…opted out. It hurt, but it only sped up the rest of my plan.” She pointed a hoof at Fluttershy, her tone becoming one of accusation. “You were the real difficulty, Fluttershy.”
The yellow pegasus stumbled backwards a little in shock at the weight of that magic-laden gaze. It was at once so familiar, and so alien. This was Twilight, sure enough. But not the Twilight Fluttershy had loved.
“I had to strike quickly once Applejack and Rainbow were gone. I bought the guard and came to Ponyville. Some ponies were easy to secure, and some…made it troublesome.” She sighed, and for a second she looked so despondent that every instinct in Fluttershy’s shaking body urged her to go and comfort her friend. “I saved everypony I could. healed them up as best I could after I was done. But then by the time I got to your house…well, Discord was angry.”
An icy chill of fear, cold enough to freeze the blood in her veins, coursed through Fluttershy. Her lips were numb, but she forced them to move, to shape the words. “Where is my husband, Twilight?”
Airily, Twilight waved a hoof. “Does it really matter?”
Fluttershy’s muscles clenched, and she stared at Twilight as hard as she could. She thudded one hoof into the ground hard enough to hurt. “Tell me where Discord is, Twilight!”
“I turned him to stone,” Twilight shrugged. “Then I used that handy little key of yours and tossed him back where he came from. I’d like to see even him get out of that. No way in or out, so long as he’s stone.”
Like paper, Fluttershy folded in on herself. Gone. Discord was gone. Forever. She would never see the creature she loved most in all the world ever again.
“So you’re telling us…” Rarity’s voice was very slow, filled with pain of her own. “That everypony who is missing; Sweetie Belle, Discord, Applejack, Rainbow, even that sweet little bunny rabbit — you killed them? All of them?”
Fluttershy knew that she should have been truly frightened by now, but she felt…nothing. Just emptiness. Her family, snuffed out like candleflames. Gone.
“Not all of them.” Twilight shook her head vehemently. “My guard were — but that’s not important. What is important,” she surged towards them, wings spread eagerly, “is that I saved everypony else. You and most of the other residents of Ponyville. We can be friends forever, now.”
“And Pinkie Pie?” Rarity sounded almost as drained of emotion, of everything, as Fluttershy felt. “Where is Pinkie?”
Sheepishly, Twilight shuffled her hooves. “Well, that one’s complicated. She was here, to start with. But you know Pinkie. She just kept...escaping, I guess. Over and over.” She ran a hoof through her hair once more, and it flowed onward, the motion unbroken. “There’s a city outside the dome now, you know. New Ponyville. Doesn't look great to have a desiccated pony stumbling out every week and trying to throw parties for people and get them to save her friends from the 'bad bubble’.”
She looked down at them and spread her wings in supplication, asking them to understand. But all Fluttershy could understand was that everything she loved had been ripped away from her, all in one fell swoop. Her husband, her friends, her town, even her little Angel. All stolen.
“Not to mention constantly having to round her up before the last of the time stop wears off and all those centuries catch up with her.” Twilight’s words were coming faster now as she sought to justify herself. “I had to have a whole government department devoted to it! And if there’s one thing that’s just too difficult to explain to the taxpayer, it has got to be the Bureau for Pinkie Pie Containment.”
Suddenly, Rarity raised a hoof. The abrupt motion was enough to stop Twilight’s endless revelation of horrors, but Fluttershy could see that the delicate white hoof was trembling.
“Twilight what nonsense are you talking?” Rarity pleaded. “Imprisoning us? Killing the others? Please, tell me this is a joke. A dream. A torture invented for us by some Tantabus or monster. Nothing about this makes any sense.”
Twilight looked away. “You always say that.”
Rarity’s hoof fell, and she pressed it to her mouth to stifle a scream. Pulled at last from her inertia, Fluttershy dragged herself to her friend’s side and hugged her as tightly as she could.
“In the end,” murmured Twilight, “I had to let her go.”
She took a ragged breath and looked at the others, as if for comfort, and Fluttershy flared her wings in a futile threat display. The monster in Twilight Sparkle’s skin would not be deterred by anything a little pegasus could do.
Twilight’s gaze moved away from them, back towards the town. “She was just too good at breaking out. She got a few miles once. Made it two or three hours before my team could get to her. I had joined the hunt myself by that time, of course. But…I was too late. She was just dust by the time I arrived. Ashes, with a little party hat on the top.”
Rarity began to retch, and the remnants of the pancake breakfast they had shared spattered the road.
Gazing up at the shell of her friend, Fluttershy’s heart felt like it might stop beating. “Are you telling us Pinkie is dead too?”
At the sound of her voice, Twilight’s face hardened. “I need to make some alterations. That much is clear.”
Scrambling to her hooves to shield Rarity with her own body, Fluttershy snarled up at the approaching alicorn. “You can’t be serious, Twilight. Whatever you’ve done needs to stop. Let us go.”
Twilight shook her head. “I’m afraid that I need you.” She offered a weak smile. “You’re my friends. Last week when the minotaurs were threatening war, it was you who gave me the advice that soothed them. And Rarity sewed the dress for my quadruple platinum jubilee just a couple of months ago.”
“We’re not your friends!” spat Fluttershy. “You killed my husband! You killed her sister! You killed our real friends!”
Sighing and shaking her head a little, Twilight’s smile became teary. “I…I forgive you for those cruel words, Fluttershy. I know you don’t mean them. And you’ll forgive me, too. With time.”
“I won’t!” Fluttershy sobbed, hot tears suddenly spilling down her cheeks. “I’ll never forget what you’ve done! I’ll never help you again!”
Twilight reached out a tender hoof, almost like she wanted to touch her friend’s mane, and Fluttershy smacked it away with all her strength. The alicorn took in a sharp breath, and her gentle expression morphed suddenly into anger. She slammed her hoof back onto the ground, hard enough to split the dirt beneath her feet, and advanced one sharp step after another. Fluttershy cringed away, back into Rarity’s arms, before this onslaught.
“You will help me,” Twilight raged, every word a command. “You are my closest advisors! My only friends! You will do as I ask. You love me.”
“We hate you!” The voice that screamed was not Fluttershy’s. Rarity was back on her feet, the little shield flickering back into life. She turned her head to fire rapid instructions at Fluttershy. “Hold tight to me — I’ve never managed to teleport but it’s worth a shot — anything is—”
“—Enough!” Twilight boomed in a voice louder than Luna’s had ever been. Her horn flashed, and then the two mares hung suspended in her terrible purple magic, struggling and fighting to no avail. Twilight took a deep breath to calm herself. “I always hope it will be different. That you’ll find out, and understand. Maybe even forgive me.” Her eyes narrowed. “But no matter. There’s always next time. Let’s give this another shot.”
The magic flared brighter, brighter, until Fluttershy was lost in the blinding white, and then everything was gone.
The bluebirds were singing outside Fluttershy’s window, and she was smiling when she opened her eyes. The sun streamed in through the window, and Fluttershy giggled softly to herself at the sound of little snores coming from the basket beside the bed. She leaned down to pat Albert, and he snuffled his little hedgehog nose and leaned into the caress. His spikes were prickly, and they scared most ponies off. But Fluttershy knew better. Albert was a sweetheart. Beneath his spikes he was soft and fluffy, with an underbelly as soft as a bunny's tail.
Fluttershy’s gentle hoof slowed over Albert's spines as the hazy image of a white bunny swam unbidden into her mind’s eye. He was glaring at her, stern and more than a little angry, his big foot tapping impatiently. She had to...get his breakfast ready? Carrots. Automatically, Fluttershy rose, and she was halfway down the stairs before she stopped, shaking her head. What was she doing? There was no bunny. The only breakfast Albert needed was to be let out into the garden to dig for his own earthworms in the vegetable patch. Fluttershy had nowhere to be in a hurry.
“Fluttershy, sweetheart,” a voice called from the bed she had just left, still husky with sleep. “Where’d you go? Come back to bed.”
Fluttershy went back to bed and snuggled in beside her wife. Bon Bon rolled over and nuzzled her, hooking a sleepy foreleg over Fluttershy’s barrel. The embrace was warm and soft, though when Fluttershy shut her eyes and leaned into it she somehow expected to feel scales and leathery wings instead of the soft hooves that held her. She shook it off and focused on the snuggle. She must still be half-asleep.
Smiling with contentment, she let herself drift away again.
Maybe later, when they were both more awake, she'd go see Rarity. Her favourite fashion designer would probably have been up for hours, sewing away in her workshop. How she had managed all these years with just her mouth, Fluttershy would never know. Earth pony seamstresses were not common; certainly embroidery with one’s tongue was not something Fluttershy would like to do. But Rarity thrived on her work, and that was all that really mattered.
Spa day would have to wait until after Fluttershy fed her animals at the sanctuary, of course. But it would be lovely to catch up with Rarity, and have a little relaxation and luxury. The seaweed wrap would work wonders for the migraines poor Rarity had always suffered so terribly with.
And tomorrow when the rest of the girls were back from the friendship mission the cutie mark map had dispatched them on, they would all get together. Pinkie had probably planned a party!
It was going to be a perfect day.
