Change Isn't Always Good, Part 1

“The first time I saw them, the sky was like soup – boiling and stirring” I recounted, “The Wonderbolts were tearing through sky at almost supersonic speed”, “I remember it like it was yesterday, I was sitting in the stands at Canterlot with my mother, Chocolate Berry and my father, Prism Strider, waiting for the Wonderbolts show. Now back when I was a young filly I had only ever heard about the Wonderbolts and never ever seen them, but that one fateful afternoon I knew it would be my destiny to become the greatest flyer in Equestria and join the ranks of the Wonderbolts”. “Yes we all know Rainbow Dash” replies the white unicorn pony Rarity as the group of ponies walk down the streets of Ponyville in the nice Summer Sun, “You have told us plenty of times befor…”, just as Rarity was about to finish her sentence, Pinkie Pie, the pink party pony jumped out from behind the Barrel in front of me, scaring me and the others in the process and said, “But she wasn’t talking to us, she was talking to the audience”, “Ummmmmmm, Pinkie Pie, what audience?”, replied the purple unicorn pony Twilight as we all abruptly stop. “The ones outside the screen silly” replied Pinkie Pie, “Ah Sugarcube, are ya’ sure you’re ok?” questioned the Orange earth pony Applejack, “Yes of course I’m ok, oh, but my muffins might not be, bye”, replied Pinkie Pie as she skipped off down the street. I suddenly realised that I would have to go soon, Awwww…but I don’t want to leave my friends. But I guess training is really important at the moment with the Wonderbolts coming to Ponyville soon. “You know what, I just thought of a great idea…Fluttershy, I dare you to stay one night in the Everfree Forest”, “The Everf-f-f-f-f-re Forest…?” replied the shy Yellow Pegasus pony Fluttershy, “On one condition, when The Wonderbolts make their next visit you must not try and show off”. “You know what, fine, so lets make this interesting…who ever Chickens out first, if one of us does, they have to….ummmmm...model for Rarity!”. “Rainbow Dash”, replied Rarity, “Are you saying that helping me out is BORING!!!”, “Well yeah, it needs to be about 20% cooler” I replied.

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“Ok Fluttershy, you have to spend an entire night in the Everfree Forest, remember, your sanity is at sake if you lose”, “Hey Rainbow, that’s not cool”, replied Rarity. I saw then that Fluttershy was so scared that she was even hesitating to go in, I then decided to win this bet the old fashioned way…scaring her myself. What can I do though?, I would have to sneak past the other ponies without being noticed and no-one can notice I’m gone, hmmmmmm, still…gotta win this bet. “Ok, here I go, see you Girls tomorrow…” said Fluttershy as she slowly walked into the Everfree Forest. Now everypony had always said that the Everfree Forest was a dark and scary place but I had never thought so. “Ok, bye Fluttershy, have…fun! Hehe…” I replied

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I slowly and stealthily flew across Ponyville. It was 11:00pm and everypony should have been asleep, well I assumed anyway. I flew towards the Everfree Forest in my quest to win my bet with Fluttershy. So far no-pony had noticed me, until I saw Twilight looking up at the sky admiring the stars. I quickly hid behind a cloud and hoped she hadn’t noticed me. Thankfully she hadn’t, as I tiptoed across the sky behind my cloud I slowly made it past Twilight and ran into one of Pinkie Pie’s late night parties. Lights were flashing everywhere and I thought I would be spotted if I moved, but then I realised the party was…moving…just moving around Ponyville slowly. I waited and made my final dash to the Everfree Forest and flew straight into a tree to hide. “Whew, that was close” I said as Pinkie Pie pushed through the leaves next to me and said, “What was close?”. I jumped out of the tree and flew away quickly as I saw Pinkie Pie slowly skipping away behind me as I flew away at supersonic speeds. I sped around Equestria; going in the biggest circle I possibly could as so to lose Pinkie Pie. As I finally stopped on the other side of the Everfree Forest I slowly looked around, no-pony in sight, then Pinkie Pie said from beneath me, “What you up to Rainbow Dash?” as I realised I was standing on top of her, I wondered why I felt so high up compared to normal. “Uh, I was looking for my, uh, watch, yeah my watch…”, “Since when did you have a watch” replied Pinkie Pie. “Ummmmmm…Since about 30 seconds ago…?”, Pinkie Pie stops, I think she may have figured out what I was doing, then she replied, “Ok, Rainbow Dash, have fun finding your watch, bye. That reminds me, I have to go find my Tuba, bye”.

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I was slowly and quietly sneaking around the Everfree Forest looking for Fluttershy. I needed to find her quickly and give her a good scare. I wonder where she could be, ah, she would probably be with the friendly animals of the Everfree Forest in Pony River Grove. I remember her taking me there once, that’s the most likely place she would be. I flew out of the trees, flying quickly and quietly until I was 100 metres from Pony River Grove. I moved silently through the trees and spotted Fluttershy, all curled up in a ball asleep. “Fluttershy…wooooooo…Fluttershy, I have come to haunt yooooooooou…” I said in a creepy ghost like voice. Fluttershy immediately woke up and started shaking like crazy. “What, w-w-w-what do you want form me?” Replied Fluttershy as she slowly crept away towards the exit to Pony River Grove. “I have come to haunt you, because you have come into my home, the EVERFREEEEEEE FOREST!” I again replied in an extremely creepy and ghostly sounding voice. All of a sudden Fluttershy stopped, she stopped shaking and said, “NO, I will not tolerate anyone who wants to be mean to me or my animal friends and, I tell you, whoever you are, that if I ever catch you here again…It’s on” Replied Fluttershy in a Loud voice with quite a superiority, as she ran into the Everfree Forest away from me. “Eh, she must just be really scared, better see if she chickened out…” I said to myself.

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I remember travelling around the Everfree Forest looking for Fluttershy to see if she had chickened out and left, the only place I didn’t check was the Heart of the Forest, because anypony who has gone there, has never returned. There is no way Fluttershy would ever go there she is too scared. I decided that she must have chickened out and so headed back to Ponyville.

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It was still early morning when I woke to a commotion coming from Ponyville. I wonder what all of the commotion is about. I wonder if it is Fluttershy returning from the Everfree Forest. I stood up and stretched my wings as I decided to go and see what was going on. I walked out to the balcony of my Cloudcastle and jumped, slowly gliding in big circles down to the ground. I landed on the ground and heard the voice of a new pony I had never heard before. It sounded quite authoritive and loud, however I couldn’t pick out Fluttershys’ Quiet and Shy voice even though I heard ponies talking to her and mentioning her name. I pushed my way through the crowd of ponies until I entered a large circle with my friends and Fluttershy. “Hey Girls, who’s the new pony in town?”, I said as Fluttershy stepped out of the circle and said to me, “See Rainbow Dash, I told you that I could do it” in the strange Authoritive voice I had heard before. “Uh Fluttershy, what’s happened to you?”. “I have decided to stand up for myself after something I experienced in the Everfree Forest”, “Fluttershy, you don’t need to change we like you how you were before. Girls can I please talk to you in private please, but Fluttershy, please stay here and talk to everyone if you wish, I just need to talk to the girls alone”. “Ok then Rainbow Dash”.

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“Girls, we need to change Fluttershy back, I don’t like the new Fluttershy”, “We all agree Rainbow Dash, we need to find a way to change her back and get her to the way she used to be. We have all decided to wait a few days and see what happens, does that sound like a good idea to you?”, “Yeah, Sounds good, we shall wait it out for a bit and see.”

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Over the next few days we monitored Fluttershys’ activity and personality. It showed no signs of changing anytime soon. We then decided it was time for drastic action. What we did next, we never thought we would ever have to do.

TO BE CONTINUED…