FOUR DAYS AFTER THE DEATH OF FLUTTERSHY

"Huh." said Twilight Sparkle, using her magic to push the door of Fluttershy's house shut. "She must be out looking for animals or something. Any ideas Spike?" she addressed this question to the adolescent dragon on her back.
"Maybe she was caught by a manticore or something!" he overenthused, jumping off Twilight and onto the grass outside the house.
"Spike don't be-"
"I'll save her!"
"And how will you find her?" she said loudly, speaking over the dragon.
"I'll fly up and spot her, then swoop down and rescue her! I'll be the hero of Ponyville!" he cried, then started taking a run.
"No, Spike wait-" she said too late.Spike had taken a running jump from the hill, and flexing a pair of tiny, stunted wings attempted to fly and merely ended up buring himself halfway into a rabbit warren when he crashed.Twilight levitated him out and inspected the burrow.
"Spike, Fluttershy will be furio- no. She'll be... annoyed." she said, remembering what Fluttershy was like. "Anyway, she won't like it. We can look for her later. After YOU" she said, grinning at the mud covered Spike "Get a bath."
"Aww,no!" moaned Spike.
"Well, you have no choice so you don't need to worry." Twilight said, levitating Spike along with her, being loath to have to coat herself in all the mud Spike would bring if she carried him.

"Well" said Twilight "She isn't in town, and she isn't where most of the animals are. Spike, help me out here!"
The dragon yawned and said "Can't we look for her in the morning?"
"We can't keep putting this off! Anyway, weren't you the one who wanted to rescue her?"
Spike suddenly turned his head away and said "Y-yeah."
"Um... Spike? Are you alright?"
"I'm fine!" he said with uncommon force.
"Fine, Fine..." the lavender unicorn said exasperatedly, completely missing his tone of voice in her annoyance. "Maybe Pinkie's seen her, she always seems to know where everyone is..."

Pinkie Pie was leaning on the counter of Sugar Cube corner with her eyes closed, thinking. She was hoping someone would buy what was left of the cupcakes from Rarity she still had, but not today. The story on that one was pretty good. Pinkie had told everyone that Rarity had gone off to "Follow her Dreams" and find the one she loved. She had noticed Spike sulking in the background, and remembered that the little dragon said he had a crush on Rarity. Hah. In her state right now, she was hoping nopony would come in while she was waiting for closing time. She was enjoying the solitude.

Ting

Pinkie Pie's eyes opened in annoyance and looked at the intruder. She saw Twilight and Spike and tried to force herself to relax. They would certainly notice something. Pinkie was feeling depressed and her hair had gone straight, as it always did when she was depressed.

"Hiya, Twi." she said, trying to sound cheery and hitching a grin on her face.
"Heya, Pinkie." Twilight said. She looked very preoccupied and gave Pinkie a worried look. "Have you seen Fluttershy anywhere?" Twilight said as she started going through the Bakery, searching and not giving Pinkie a second look. Pinkie felt a sudden wave of coldness. She had to battle to keep her grin and cheery voice up now, and she felt strangely near tears again.
"No, I haven't seen her all day, which is strange, because she normally buys something from here whenever she comes into town because she-" Pinkie said rapidly, hoping to fool Twilight with the inane chatter she expected.
"Pinkie, this is serious, I haven't seen her in days!" Twilight snapped.Then she sighed. "Look, do you have any idea where she is?"
Pinkie froze up suddenly as she heard a gravelly voice behind her say "How about Everfree? That chump would love to go hug all those monsters..." a hacking cough came from behind her, originating from a large pastry cupboard. Rocky, she could tell. She hoped he would be quiet so Twilight wouldn't hear him as she turned to Twilight and said what came to mind in her panic.
"Maybe she's in the Everfree forest! I means, maybe she felt sorry for the monsters and stuff..." she quickly said as she backed up against the cupboard to muffle the coughs Rocky was making.
Twilight's eyes widened. "You think so? Oh no... she could have. She actually could have done that. She can't charm every monster..."
Spike leaned over from Twilight's back and said "We have to go. She could be in trouble." The young dragon sounded uncommonly serious and looked very worried as he said this.
"Pinkie, can you come with us? We could use the help." Twilight said.
"Uh... yeah sure!" Pinkie said. Celestia's hooves, this could be a problem. She just hoped they wouldn't find anything. She hoped they would find some unfortunate pony's bones and assume it was Fluttershy. Oh, how she hoped...

Twilight wondered as she went through a pasture near Fluttershy's house on the way to the Everfree Forest. Pinkie had been acting very strange (For pinkie anyway), once Twilight had time to take a good look at her. It looked like she had finally managed to straighten her unruly hair, something Rarity often despaired of how she couldn't, before Rarity went off looking for love, and Pinkie had been pressed against a large cupboard and making hacking coughs in the back of her throat for some reason. Twilight wondered about this as she walked to Everfree.

EVERFREE
Pinkie disliked the Everfree Forest. A gloomy place, it always tended to make her tend towards sadness.
And now she had to enter the place searching for a corpse hidden in the place she just left.
This wasn't going to be good, and she hoped nothing would be discovered that could incriminate her. After all, few ponies understood her situation. Even Pinkie didn't fully understand it totally. But she knew that no good would come of it if she it was discovered how exactly she was making such delicious foodstuffs.
She was understandably in a very foul mood, and trying to hide it.

A flit of white and blue and a small grin.

Pinkie was worried. The Madame had followed her into the forest. She knew the ghostly ponies well, but... they could didn't seem to be able to be trusted. Rocky, talking so loudly earlier could have ruined everything. The Madame just seemed... wrong much too often, but had always supported her in what she did. The others were generally the same as Rocky sometimes, and they were never too nice talking about her friends. "Friend" she thought bitterly, as she remembered that only Twilight was left. Only The Madame had never been rude about her friends, but she treated them like dolls or puppets. Toys. Things to be used.

And so Pinkie worried.

Twilight worried too, but for the obvious reason she thought Fluttershy was missing. She didn't mind the forest. She had traversed it with her friends before, and went through fairly often when visiting Zecora.

"Pinkie?" she said.
"Yeah?"
"Which way are we going? Any ideas?"
Pinkie stood still for a moment, staring at a tree. The tree had a strange white stain of some sort on it.
"Maybe" Pinkie said quietly. This was strange in itself, as Twilight had only ever heard Pinkie talk in loud tones that attracted attention.
"Where then?"
"Fluttershy has never seen the Ursa Major before. Maybe she doesn't know there was a Major. You know her." Pinkie was acting... very, very strange. She seemed mocking and was much quieter than the Pinkie she normally knew. "She probably thought that it needed some care. A little... love." drawing out the final word strangely and gibing Twilight a strangely hungry look.
Twilight stared at her worriedly. The pink mare was being unquestionably strange, but no one had ever pointed out her oddities before and Pinkie was actually very scary when she looked at Twilight like that.
"You... could be right. Let's get on. I know where the cave is, and I've seen the Ursa Major before. Fluttershy... oh no. I hope you are wrong, Pinkie."

Pinkie was glaring at the figure that walked beside her.
"Well, my dear" whispered the white pony "We simply can't have someone so... inquzitive running around after you, can we?"
"She isn't up in the numbers now, why should we kill her?" Pinkie muttered quietly, so that Twilight would not overhear. The white pony was apparently even being ignored in this crucial moment for Twilight. Pinkie hoped their conversation would not be overheard, so both were whispering.
"Well, didn't you smash zat filly who came sniffing around into mulch? Zen tipped her out into the yellow flying one's fertilizers?"
"Fluttershy has... had a name"
"Humph. You are too attached to zese little ponies. They can be enjoyable in life, but zey are always best in death. In food."
"But Twilight won't be in food. That Ursa will eat her itself."
"But you never eat the ones zat aren't on the numbers you need to kill. Just let events unfold, and she will be gone. Bam!" Madame said cheerily. "No more trouble from ze lavender mare. And we can keep on doing what we do."
Pinkie knew better than to tell Madame to be quiet. That merely infuriated her.
"Well zen, you say nothing, so I think I have won. Ze Lavander mare shall die... my way"

Twilight looked into the cave with growing apprehension. She felt like just going in there would be the worst thing she could possibly do right now. Or ever. Or at least for the rest of her life, which wouldn't be hard to do after taking that decision.
"Pinkie, it'd be insane to just walk in there." she said.
"Well then don't." Pinkie replied, seemingly uncaring.
"But you suggested this! How can you suggest something then say to not do it? What if Fluttershy is in there?"
"Then go in." the pink mare said in dead tones. "Save Fluttershy. Be heroes."
"Pinkie, are you alright? You do know this is Fluttershy we are talking about? Your friend?" Spike said over Twilight's shoulder. Pinkie only turned her head away and looked out into the trees. Twilight sighed.
"This is the only plan we've got, so we had better just make the best of it. Maybe we can sneak in." she said. Twilight didn't bother telling Pinkie to be quiet. She was already being uncommonly quiet. "Spike, just run if it hears us."
"But I want to help!"
"And what will you do? That's a major in there, and Spike, you wouldn't even do anything against a Minor. Let's just go."

Twilight was sneaking behind a collection of stalagmites that had grown around the edges of the cave. She made a mental note to research how these where made later. Wait, what? She was trying to rescue her friend, trapped in a cave with a monster that, if it fell over, would likely crush most of Ponyville and then get up and smash the rest. She looked at the monster. She hadn't seen it this close up before, and she didn't entirely even now. She could see right through it. It was holding the Ursa Minor she recognised as being likely the one that had attacked Ponyville. After all, ponies would notice more than one monstrous, giant bear apparently made of stars.

She couldn't see any evidence of Fluttershy anywhere. But she had to hope.

Madame was waiting outside the cave, along with Pinkie. She disregarded Pinkie's anxious skulking and paced around proudly. The little pink mare had never realised that other ponies just never saw the Madame and her friends at all, or ever sensed them at all in any way.

She looked into the cave and saw Twilight, with her tiny dragon, skulking around the sides of the cave. She felt a pang of annoyance. This would be a waste if the lavender mare was never killed anyway. She had to do something.
"Pinkie."
"Keep your voice down!" Pinkie whispered.
"Why should I?"
"Because T- because the thing might find us, and then we will end up dead instead!" Madame heard the hesitation in her voice. She tried to remember to keep a closer eye on Pinkie from now on. She appeared to be in a very funny mood.
"Hah!" she said loudly. Pinkie's mouth twitched, as she tried to repress the urge to say what the Madame said. "We can run. Zat huge thing will not run fast through all those trees, and will not miss such tiny things as us. But ze Lavender mare iz in it's home, and the beast wll not like zat. We are safe." The Madame gave Pinkie a piercing look. She had just had an idea.
The Madame suddenly screamed at the top of her voice, which was uncommonly high and loud. Pinkie was not sneaking any more, but had clamped her hooves over her mouth. Eventually she screamed too. The Madame permitted herself a small grin. Pinkie never realised what power the Madame held over her sometimes.

There was a roar from the cave, and the sound of running hooves.

Twilight heard Pinkie scream outside. She wondered what had happened. But she couldn't spare much to this thought as the huge monster she had looked at earlier loomed over her. She stared at it for a while, then came to her senses and took to her hooves. She heard the thing roar, incredibly loud, behind her and kept running. She couldn't do what she had done to the hyrda in this cave. The Ursa would just turn around and she would be trapped. The stalagmites were being smashed by the enraged monster as it chased her.

Twilight hoped that Spike, who had jumped off her back at the roar, would be safe. There was no time to check.

Twilight ran out of the forest and into the trees.

The ponies had found themselves in a clearing near a small stream. Twilight was panicking. The Ursa had lost them in the trees, just as the Madame had said, but Spike was no where to be found.
"Where is Spike?!" Twilight said, panicking "We can't have left him in there! Could we?"
Pinkie only shrugged. The Madame was hiding in a nearby bush, so not to worry Pinkie. She didn't see why the lavender mare was so bothered. It was only a dragon, and a throughly irritating one at that. The Madame only thought it a loss that the lavender mare had not been crushed.
"We... what do we do now?"
Yet again, Pinkie only shrugged.
"Pinkie, please help me!"
Pinkie turned her head away without answering.
"Fine!" Twilight was shouting at her now, looking terrified "I'll go look for him!" Twilight ran out of the clearing and on the way back to the cave as she said this.
The Madame came out of the bush she had been hiding in and approached Pinkie.
"What is ze matter, Pinkie? We got rid of the dragon, now we have less to worry about."
Pinkie said nothing, just as she had towards Twilight.
"Pinkie. Answer me."
Nothing.
"Pinkie, I do not appreciate being ignored. Answer me!"
There. Pinkie flinched at this.
"Hah. Keep your thoughts zen." The Madame said as she trotted the way Twilight went. "I will see if the beast will finish her this time."

Spike was gripping to a stalactite on the ceiling of the cave. He had been for an hour. He was thankful he had grown such tough claws in the past year. He wasn't sure why he was doing this. He knew he wanted to save Fluttershy, but he was just an undergrown dragon. He looked at the monster that had just curled up at the back of the cave. He hadn't seen Fluttershy anywhere.

He saw the flash of lavender out of the corner of his eye. Twilight had come back? He didn't know if this was good or bad. He worried about Twilight and Fluttershy.

The stalactite he was gripping suddenly shook, and he could see his view of everything moving. Surely enough, Twilight was levitating him out. He felt a flash of anger. Didn't Twilight think he could help Fluttershy?

He let go of the floating rock a soon as he thought it was safe. He landed harder than he thought, taking a few bruises even through his tough scales.
Twilight was mouthing words at him: Come here. Be quiet.
Spike shook his head and dropped to all fours, trying to sneak deeper in. Twilight stayed at the entrance, and having quickly lost sight of him knew she couldn't drag him back with magic. He was determined not to be brought back without Fluttershy. He didn't think of the future.

He had sneaked quietly to the now sleeping Ursa. It was a true terror. The teeth of the thing were enormous.
Spike was thinking like a dragon, not an Ursa, and started looking around it to see if it would keep Fluttershy in a non-existent stash.

And then there was the sight of a huge red and yellow eye, a blast of pain and the feeling of movement.