Fluttershy's Nature Show

It is unclear at first if the camera is working, as the screen seems to be a staticky white image. "Are you sure this is the right place?!" comes Twilight's voice, but despite the fact that her tone and inflection denote shouting, she can barely be heard over the white noise. "I can barely see anything!"

"I'm positive!" comes Fluttershy's response. "We're definitely in the right place, but I have my doubts as to whether or not we'll see them coming in this weather!"

"Perhaps we should wait it out!" called Twilight. "Find a place to stop for the evening and start again when the weather softens up!"

The screen is still a staticky white image thrumming with white noise, which may indicate that something's wrong with the reel.

"Fluttershy!"

"Okay! Let's take refuge in that cave!"

A minute or so later, the screen clears up, and the white noise quiets down. The screen clearing up coincides directly with Twilight's hand running across it. After the lens finds its new focus, the camera shows a stony cave with a large pile of snow at the entrance. The cave isn't particularly big, but it is out of the roaring wind of the blizzard outside.

Fluttershy is wearing a puffy pair of pants and snow boots, as well as a thick winter coat. Her hair is clinging together, as if it were a bunch of icicles. It even clinks when they knock against each other. As she takes off her scarf, it's clear what parts of her face were suffering from exposure by the shift in colour.

"The weather wasn't supposed to change," she said, finding a rock to sit on. She takes off her gloves to find that some frostbite has set in, turning her fingers a light blue. She pushes them together and starts breathing on them to warm them. "It was supposed to be a bright, sunny day until sunset."

"Those hands look dreadful," comments Twilight. "Are you going to be alright?"

"I'll be okay," answers Fluttershy, though she doesn't seem too sure. "I dressed for cold, but not blizzard conditions."

As Twilight's hands come into the corners of the frame, They have almost no damage. She had thicker gloves, though. She reaches into her pack and tosses a little orange packet to her. "Heat your hands up slowly with this," she says, picking up the camera. "Remind me again what kind of creature we're looking for?"

"An aralez," says Fluttershy, careful about how she warms herself. "They look like big dogs with wings, and they have special powers. They only exist on this mountain, and nowhere else."

Twilight moves the camera onto a tripod and starts pulling out the camping stove she'd brought with them in case they needed to stay overnight. It wasn't quite night, but it was a good time to pull it out, as a hot meal would be a very good idea in a blizzard. "What do they eat?"

"I actually don't know," answers Fluttershy. "I haven't ever seen one eat before, so that'll be new information for us both if we can find out. It's not as though this mountain has any foliage that you can't find on the next, but the aralezner won't go over there for some reason. I can't guess as to why."

"Maybe aralezes eat meat?" suggests Twilight.

Fluttershy shakes her head. "With the exception of aralezner, all of the surrounding mountains have the same array and concentration of both flora and fauna."

Twilight turns around. "You keep saying aralezner, and earlier, you said aralez."

"Aralezner is the plural form," Fluttershy informs.

"I didn't know that."

Fluttershy shrugs. "Their existence isn't common knowledge, so it's totally reasonable for you to be missing information. But that's why we're doing this, right? To spread knowledge and information?"

Twilight smiles and nods as she lights the stove. The camera continues to roll as the fire builds up a bit to a more stable state, then moves slightly when Twilight bumps into it grabbing the food out of her bag for cooking. "So tell me more about the aralezner," she says, starting to work on dinner. "What do you know about them?"

"I've seen two of them," answers Fluttershy, looking down at her hands with growing discomfort. "They're magnificent to see and super friendly, if a bit protective of their territory. I don't even know what their magical power is supposed to do, but..." She trails off as she looks at her hands again. "I'm really scared now, Twilight."

Twilight, now content to let dinner cook, walks over and sits down next to Fluttershy, taking her hand. The frostbite is really starting to set in, and Fluttershy can't stop shaking, whether from the cold, fear, or a combination of both. "You really need to warm up, Fluttershy," Twilight urges, bringing over a blanket. "Come, sit closer to the fire before you suffer nerve damage and lose all feeling in your fingers."

Wrapped in a blanket with tears welling in her eyes, Fluttershy extends her arms out toward the stove. She's whimpering something that the mic can't pick up, but it's fairly easy to guess. Her hands don't improve by the time dinner is cooked, indicating that there may be permanent damage to them.

By the time they finish eating, the mood has soured, and the conversation has stopped. The wind is howling outside at the cave entrance. Twilight's camping stove is still going, illuminating the area and keeping their location relatively warm, though a lot of the heat is escaping out of the cave mouth. Wordlessly, they roll out their sleeping bags, very well insulated, and curl up for the night with Fluttershy crying herself to sleep. Twilight settles down shortly after, forgetting to turn the camera off, but is shown to hang two trail cameras on the cave walls before she retires for the night, set to record if they catch any sign of motion.

A few hours after they fall asleep, the storm dies out, then the fire in the stove shortly after that. The sky has cleared up, and the full moon blasts a column of blue light into the cave, illuminating the mares' sleeping bags.

Just then, Fluttershy rolls over. The zipper in her sleeping bag pulls apart, venting her pocket of warm air, and exposing herself to the cold air filling the cave. To make matters even worse, a dark shadow approaches the cave entrance just as the camera runs out of film.