The sun rose over Ponyville, bringing light to a peaceful and quiet morning in the rural pony town. In a cloud house above the east side of town, a certain cyan pegasus rolled out of bed and walked out onto her patio, stretching her wings and letting the sun warm each and every feather. Rainbow Dash grinned and looked out upon the town as it slowly woke from it's slumber.
Rainbow Dash closed her eyes and listened to the whistling wind, the chirping of the birds.... No, wait. Scratch that last one. The wind blowed, but the birds were silent.
Rainbow Dash found that odd. The birds are always chirping in the morning, especially on a Spring morning like this one.
Maybe Fluttershy will know. Rainbow Dash stretched her wings once more and took off towards the shy pegasus's cottage.
Rainbow Dash alighted onto the cottage's front step. Oddly, the animals here were quiet as well. Rainbow Dash pressed her muzzle up against the window. The cottage was dark.
She slowly backed up and opened the door. She called out into the gloom. "Hello? Shy? It's me, Rainbow Dash."
Silence.
Dash gulped. "Um... I'm coming in now."
Still nothing. This would normally be the time when a certain white bunny would throw a carrot at her or something. The lack of said carrot throwing made Rainbow all the more unnerved.
Rainbow Dash slowly groped around the walls with her front hooves until she felt something that gave her relief. A light switch. After flicking the switch and casting out the gloom, Dash finally got a sense of the disarray the cottage was in. Feed sacks were torn and spilt out on the floor, a couple vases were broken, and a picture frame was smashed.
After checking the kitchen, basement, and living room, only to find the same destruction, lack of animals and butter-colored pegasi, Rainbow Dash flicked a switch near the stairwell and ascended to the second floor. After checking both Fluttershy's bedroom and the guest bedroom, she finally opened the door to the bathroom.
It was fine. No damage whatsoever. Rainbow Dash looked around.
She stopped and asked herself What's wrong with this picture?
Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy knew each other inside and out. If there was a single thing out of place, she would find it. Starting near the bathtub. Rainbow found some lavender and jasmine candles, Fluttershy's favorite when taking a bath, recently lit.
Okay, so she was taking a bath. That's a start.
Moving over to the bathtub, in it were tiny drops of condensation lining it's walls, confirming her bath theory.
Okay, Dash, what does Fluttershy always do after her bath?
Rainbow Dash turns to the mirror, a hair brush sitting on it's edge.
.... She brushes her mane, Rainbow thought with a smile at her own deduction.
Rainbow Dash looks over the sink, taking note that the steam had long since evaporated, showing that the bath was not taken anytime this morning. Rainbow Dash looked in the mirror, and she saw that the window was open. She turned around to close the window..... to see it is already shut. She looked back to the window's reflection in the mirror, to see that the window is open..
Okay, how in Celestia's name does that work? Rainbow Dash walked downstairs and flew out the door, towards the library.
Maybe Twilight would know the answer.
A/N: Sorry for having such short chapters. I've been busy with other things. The next chapter will follow Angel Bunny and reveal what happened the night before Rainbow Dash started looking.
FWOOOSH!
ZOOOOOOOM!
"Yay!"
Fluttershy cheered as loud as her meek voice would let her as her multicolored friend soared across the sky, practicing her tricks as the sun slowly set off in the distance. The pair were at the group's favorite hill on the outskirts of town, perfectly positioned to watch the setting sun, or, as they had done before with all six friends present, a picnic under the stars. Here was where Pinkie made her joke about the punch being 'spiked' as a metoer shower raged on overhead.
The same sky was now controlled by the polychromatic mare as she dived, flipped, and corkscrewed through the air, ending with a three-point landing next to Fluttershy, who responded with a small round of applause.
"I love the new tricks, Rainbow Dash. You did great!"
Rainbow Dash grinned and boldly stated "Those? Those were just small stuff. I got a super-humongously awesome trick to try tomorrow!"
Fluttershy nodded and smiled. "So, I'll see you here tomorrow then?"
Rainbow Dash took off into the air and stated "Count on it!" before flying off towards her cloud house, leaving Fluttershy to a quiet trot back home.
The sun had almost completely disappeared below the horizon as Fluttershy opened the door to her cottage. After feeding her animals (including a very cranky white rabbit), she proceeded upstairs and entered her bathroom, where she lit her favorite lavender and jasmine candles, then took a long, relaxing bath, letting the hot water unwind the tension in her muscles. The whole room filled with steam as she relaxed in the water's caress.
Upon exiting the shower, Fluttershy proceeded to the mirror to untangle some of her soggy mane. She grabbed a brush from the table beside the mirror and wiped the mirror clean of fog with her towel. As she brushed and hummed to herself, she looked over her mane for any more knots, before setting the brush back down. As she looked back at the mirror, she noticed something peering around the doorframe in the hallway. She examined it closely. She would have dissmissed it for one of her animals, but none of her animals have red eyes, or so many sharp teeth....
Bracing herself, Fluttershy spun around to see.... Nothing. No one. She sighed, and turned back to the mirror.
There it was. Right behind her.
She screamed. She turned around. Nothing.
She turned back to the mirror.
The monster grabbed her.
Angel Bunny ran upstairs, looking to see if his caretaker was hurt. He saw nopony. He ran back downstairs, all the way out the door and into town. Fluttershy was gone.
If only he looked at the mirror. He would see Fluttershy being dragged out the window.
