"TWILIGHT!!!" Spike screamed, rushing ahead of the crowd of gathered ponies to see his beloved sister fall from the sky. All eyes were on her as she plummeted, and horror gripped them as she saw that her destination was the Great Forest. Panic swept the ponies all around and murmurs were abound, but for Spike, his only feeling now, the only thing capable of superseding his worry for Twilight, was anger. He spun around, eyes narrowing at the recently-arrived royal procession, and he barged past many of his neighbors to get closer to them. "What in Helheim were you thinking?! What's wrong with you?!"

Princess Fluttershy, naturally, took a step back, with Rarity placing her hoof upon her shoulder for comfort. As for their soldiers, they immediately put themselves between them and the approaching Spike, with the eldest stallion stepping forward to bar his path personally. "Stay where you are, dragon! This was no fault of the princesses!"

Spike pointed to him angrily. "You shot down my sister!"

"I have no idea what she was doing up there," the stallion continued. "But we had no idea this would happen."

"I don't care!" Spike responded. "Are you going to help her or not?!"

"Our duties are the protection of the princesses. Not to go into unknown territory to save some eccentric inventor."

Snorting, Spike again turned, stomping away before speaking back to them one last time. "Fae take you then!" With a great leap, the young dragon jumped all the way over the crowd of Ponyvillians, landing on all fours before charging, heading straight for the forest, no doubt to go after his sister himself.

Instantly, Rainbow flew to follow him. "Hey! Wait up! If anypony is gonna be an awesome, heroic rescuer, it's gonna be me!"

Pinkie, seeing her fellow pegasi go after him, squealed with delight. "Ooh! A super-special rescue mission in the dark and spooky woods? Count me in!"

Seeing all of her friends go off like that, Applejack gave herself a facehoof. "Oh fer the love of..." She groaned. "Ugh! Hold up, y'all!"

All watched as the three mares and dragon sped off together, heading for one of the most dangerous places in their land on this joint venture. As for the royal guards, they began to re-surround the carriage and the princesses, with the leading stallion speaking to them in his most professional tone. "Ma'am. I do apologise for this turn of events, but I believe it is time for us to make haste and depart."

Fluttershy, who had clearly been shaken by the whole debacle, looked to him with stunned disbelief. "You...you mean...we just leave that poor mare there?"

The stallion sighed. "As I said, we're here for your protection, not the protection of this Twilight person. Our priority now must be to see you safely back to the capital and to the Queen. It is unfortunate what happened to her, but our duty is clear."

Rarity, who was certainly as uncomfortable with that declaration as her sister was, nevertheless looked to Fluttershy with softness. "Sister, I realise this is difficult, but perhaps leaving is the best thing we can do right now. Whatever hope we might have had for this being a morale-boosting visit is clearly over now."

Fluttershy stayed silent for a time, first looking to her sister, then again to the ponies of Ponyville. All of them were chatting over what happened, and in that moment Fluttershy looked up, to the forest where Twilight had fallen. And it was here that something happened in her. Some urge or instinct that she had never felt in herself before. A feeling of what was needed and what was right. With her knees still as wobbly as they had been during her earlier speech, she turned to her eldest guard, and spoke with all the firmness she could muster. "Captain...we are going to help her."

The stallion, as well as everypony within earshot, seemed taken aback by that. "My...my lady?"

Raising a hoof, Fluttershy pointed to the forest. "Whether intentional or not, this incident has been caused by us and our actions, and as such we have a responsibility to make it right. That mare is in trouble. A citizen of our kingdom, and we must do all in our power to bring her home safely."

The Captain glanced to the forest. "Princess...we know nothing of that place, or what's in it. For all we know that mare didn't even survive the fall."

"Maybe not," Fluttershy conceded. "But what do you want ponies to think of us? That we harm our own and leave without a word? That we care not for the lives of every mare, stallion and foal within our borders? That we royals think our own safety more important than theirs? I say no. We will stay, we will save that mare if she still lives and we will show the ponies of Ponyville that when mistakes are made, our house will do what is right!"

Rarity, for her part, couldn't believe what she was hearing. True, she had definitely hoped that her pep talk from the prior carriage ride would have helped her elder sibling, but to see this level of confidence, this authority, was truly a thing unknown to her. But as the moments passed, as she continued to see Fluttershy stand her ground on the matter, her surprised expression became a smile, and pride filled her chest. Here, she thought, was truly a queen in the making, and so her eyes turned to the still-unsure stallion. "Captain, putting aside all of my sister's points, do you really want to be the one to tell our mother that your soldiers potentially caused grievous harm to one of her subjects without cause?"

If Fluttershy's words hadn't convinced the Captain, that prospect certainly pushed him over the edge. Looking again to the forest, the older stallion cleared his throat, then looked to his troops. "Alright then, guards of the royal family! You heard your princess! We have a mare to save! I want you all to spread out in standard search and rescue formation and stay in contact with your fellows at all times!"

A collective salute was seen from the other soldiers, and while Rarity was satisfied with this, Fluttershy clearly had more to say, as she took a single step forward. "And as heir to the throne, I say now that I, Princess Fluttershy, shall lead the rescue personally!"

Of course, a declaration such as that caused all to look to her with utter shock, none more so than Rarity, who saw instantly that Fluttershy had taken on a look of regret concerning this new announcement. So, slowly, she stepped closer to her, keeping her voice to a whisper, at least at first. "Um...sister, dear? Pardon me for asking, but...WHAT?!?!"

Author's Note

And there, I think I will leave the story as it is. While I did initially want to do a whole show's worth of story for this AU version of FiM, I think I'm more satisfied having it end here. Have it be sort of a part one to a show's two-part opener, giving an introduction to all of our main cast while giving them a cause to come together for, in this case rescuing Twilight. A banding together that would precede the "to be continued" before the credits. Apologies if this is a disappointment to those who've been reading it, but it's where I'm comfortable leaving off