Rainbow Dash, wings spread wide on the sheets, lays panting with Applejack beneath her.  The pale orange pony seems to the pegasus like she just ran a marathon from the sounds of her heavy breathing.  With her head laying gently against the mare's chest, Rainbow can hear her rapidly beating heart as well as the rush of air each time she inhales.  Somehow she's reminded of ocean waves; the pegasus had always wanted to go for a walk on the beach, though never really had the chance to do so.  She instinctively wraps her forelegs tightly around her partner's waist, holding her as close as she can and closing her eyes, trying to lose herself in the afterglow of that wonderful moment.

"Wull butter mah butt and call me a biscuit...  I reckon it don't get much better than that..."  Applejack manages to force out through deep, slow breaths.  She closes her eyes and rests her foreleg over the bridge of her nose, trying to apply just a little pressure to her forehead and help calm her body.

The cyan pegasus can't help but laugh at the expression.  She tilts her chin up and looks over the mare's form and straight at her head.  She can't see her eyes due to the position, and so decides to move her hooves out from under AJ, pulling her whole body up along Applejack's front, grinding every square inch until the two are face to face.  "Maybe I'll just have to start using that as a nickname then hmm?"

"Ah horseapples...  I shoulda' seen that one comin'."

Rainbow presses her lips softly to Applejack's, smiling as she pulls away and looks through half-closed eyes down at her marefriend.  "Yeah you should have... Biscuit."

Applejack rolls her eyes and smirks at the pegasus who has now taken the opportunity to pin her forelegs to the bed.  "I suppose there are worse nicknames out there, right Rainbow Crash?"

"Pfft, that's nothin'.  I've had so many worse ones in Flight School...  They'd make a pony as innocent as you blush redder than your brother's coat."

"No offense, Dashie, but you don't exactly seem like the type of pony to worry about maintaining a warm and fuzzy reputation...  You strike me more as the 'bad filly' that everypony wishes they could be with...  The kind that treats inappropriate nicknames like accolades."

"Bad Filly huh?  Whatever gives you that idea?"

"Oh I dunno...  The showboating, the whole... 'I'm better than y'all' attitude.  The fact that you have a troubled past... It's all very quintessentially 'bad filly' if ah do say so mahself."

"Does that mean you like 'bad fillies'?"

"No, but I like you.  Doesn't matter what you are...  I'll always like you for who you are; ya done grown on me, Rainbow."

"Well I'm glad for that.  You're the only pony I've ever seriously worried about askin' out before..."

"Hah, well I dunno if I should be honored or insulted..."

"Hey now I'm usually pretty chill with that sorta thing!"

"Oh ah'm sure.  Though you didn't seem too apprehensive about showing me the pot of gold at the end of your rainbow."

The pegasus, not expecting that kind of response from the mild-mannered mare, blushes intensely and is left completely speechless.

"Hah, gotcha'."  

"I s'pose I shoulda' seen that one comin'."

"S'pose you shoulda'."  Applejack finishes her slight mockery of the pegasus with another kiss, to which the pegasus gladly returns every ounce of passion.

Fluttershy calmly steps over to the bookcase where Numbers had beckoned her.  She glances over to a clock once, and then, presumably a few seconds later, she glances a second time.  The time changes by about three hours and fourteen minutes during that one quick look.  

"W-what are you g-g-going to show me?"  Fluttershy can pick up on the unusual entities' body language (at least that's what she thinks she should call it) that something isn't going to be exactly comfortable in these next few moments.

"We're in your home for a reason Co-pilot.  You know that old saying 'home is where the heart is'?  Well... this is kinda why 'they' say that.  Your heart and your mind are very similar things, in a meta... metaph--"

"Metaphorical sense."  Numbers interrupts and finishes the slightly inarticulate earth pony's sentence for her.

"Yeah... that.  Things that you've repressed and hidden, things that you don't want to see anymore get stored here, they don't just go away.  We have to act off of your past experiences and behaviors to really shape you as a pony, so we get most of them to look at."  Courage pulls a book out of the bookcase, much to Numbers's chagrin, and lays it down on top of the shelf as she finishes her sentence.

"What book is that one?"  The unicorn asks, glaring at the earth pony over a set of slimmed glasses.

When did she get those glasses?  Fluttershy asks herself through thought.

"I've always had these, I just don't always wear them."  The unicorn speaks to Fluttershy in a smug tone of voice; she read her mind.  "I know everything you're thinking, as does 'Courage' over there.  We're the ones that help you think you know."

"This is just a latent memory of springtime, Numbers.  Don't worry your nerdy little head."

Fluttershy steps over to the earth pony version of herself and looks down at the book.  Between the pages she can make out words that seem to have no sensible order whatsoever.  Regardless of this fact, Fluttershy manages to form the words into a perfect picture within her mind.  She's in a field, smelling flowers with Angel and watching birds fly overhead.  She looks up and tries to count them but isn't quite able, nor is she able to really make out where she is.  The pony blinks a few times and snaps back out of the trance, though in this place the line between real and unreal seems to have been blurred to the point that the entire area is gray.

"As you can see,"  Numbers says while magically adjusting her glasses, "some parts of the image were missing or incomplete.  You didn't commit those birds to memory so you don't remember how many were there, you just know that the birds were there.  Memories come in numerous forms; that was just a simple memory from a few weeks back.  More complex memories, such as the muscle memory involved in how to fly straight for instance, are stored a little further back in your mind, but the one we're looking for is a repressed memory... much more difficult to access."

"W-where is that?"   Fluttershy expects them to have the answers even if she doesn't.

"Well...  It's buried."  Courage plops down on the floor and inspects her hooves to make sure they're still manicured, as if she cares.

"You repressed them for a reason, Fluttershy.  They're painful, potent memories that caused you years of heartache.  Unfortunately getting over those years of heartache is one of the major steps you need to take before we can find out where your ideal self has been taken."

"W-why can't we just go look for her?  Isn't there some obvious place that she'd be?"

"Where do you think she'd be?"  Courage stands up again and smirks at the frightened pegasus.  Fluttershy is trying her best to get used to the changing world, but simply can't handle all of it without driving herself into bad habits of fearful reaction.  She chews gently on her hooves and flits her eyes back and forth, trying to take in as much of her surroundings as possible: a futile attempt.  Each time she looks at something it seems different when she returns to it.  Moreover, she can't even seem to sit in the same position before coming to realize that she's fallen into a different one.

"I... I don't know..."

"Well there's the problem.  We don't know either Co-pilot.  And it's not like this place is small... ohhh ho ho ho, no.  This is one big, expansive noodle you got here.  Plus we can't just up and leave your psyche without causing some other problems.  If numbers left then I'd have full control of your mind, and you know what that's like."

Fluttershy feels her eyes widen and her stomach sink at the very thought of such a concept.

"I regret to inform you that if Courage left then I would have full control of your mind and, being one who can admit my faults, you'd most likely be absolutely unable to get anything done.  You'd constantly try to evaluate every single situation and decision and become more obsessive than anypony in the world.  You'd probably spend days deciding whether or not the quilt on your bed was straight."

"And if we both left... well... your psyche would go unattended and you'd basically be unable to filter your raw emotion and thought through a balanced sense of reasoning and experiential emotion control.  You'd probably slip into a coma from the overload and starve to death if nopony found you.  That or some of your animals would just gnaw at your unconscious body until there wasn't anything but bones left."

"A bit gruesome don't you think, Courage?"

"What?  That's how I roll, ladies."

Fluttershy and Numbers exchange a half confused and half disapproving look with each other.  

"So... then... do you two know where this memory is buried?"

"Well... we know the general region.  You have to be the one to find it... and read it.  If we were to read it there wouldn't be any kind of revelation, we could just help you act.  If you're the one remembering the event then you can actually do something else with it, especially with our help augmenting that effort."  

"D-do I have to..."

"I'm afraid ya do, sugar-wings.  You lost something in your mind, and when that happens it's only a matter of time before you start losing other things.  Think about it like doing some spring cleaning."  Courage places her hooves uncomfortably on Fluttershy's shoulder as she finishes this statement, giving her a slightly unwelcome massage.

"W-wait... isn't this just a dream?  Can't I just wake up and forget about you two?"

"That's a little selfish don't you think, Co-pilot?"

"Either way, the answer is no.  Courage pulled you down here by force and is keeping you by force."  Numbers removes her glasses and cleans them with a cloth that seems to have come out of absolutely nowhere.

"See this little baby?"  Courage holds up an antique clock identical to the one that Fluttershy keeps above the mantle in her bedroom.  "This is what Numbers likes to call your cir... cer... circa--"

"Circadian Clock."  Numbers interjects and smiles as smugly as she can muster; muzzle in the air and all.

"Yeah... that... anyway it controls, more or less, your sleep cycle based on time.  I'm keeping this and I'm making it so that the passage of time is very, very slow for you.  You'll stay asleep as long as we need you in here finding Supershy."

"Sorry about that, Fluttershy, but she insisted and there's really not much I can do to fight her when she's got her mind set on something... so to speak.  That's never been my job, I'm just here to balance out whatever she does decide to do with logic."

"This is my mind!"  Fluttershy starts to quiver and tear up a little bit, feeling as if she's been falsely imprisoned.  "Why are you doing this to me?"

"Well... frankly, we're you and you want this.  You may not know it yet, but you truly do want this.  You've always felt like something's been wrong with you since she went missing, but you've never known why.  We're just helping you understand why, and hopefully helping you actually get on your way to fixing it."

"Get a hold of yourself, Co-pilot."  Courage takes a slightly different approach than Numbers, trying to push Fluttershy with tough love instead of reasoning.  "You're nopony to complain to us about unfair treatment.  You're the one who locked her away anyhow, so you should be the one to get her back.  She wants to come back, and you want her to be back so that you can live your life happily again.  You put up a nice facade, but inside you're hollow.  You're hollow and you know why, but you're too damn scared to do anything about it."

"Fluttershy...  She's right, maybe not being as kind as you're used to, but her logic stands up to scrutiny..."

"I-if you're the only ones in my head helping me decide... how come I can't d-d-do this?"  Fluttershy shakes and shrinks toward the ground, feeling a single tear exit her left eye and drag its way down the soft coat on her cheek.  

"Because the one who would give you the confidence to do it isn't here.  You've got the understanding and you've got the drive, you just don't have the ambition.  It's pathetic really.  You're afraid of yourself.  You're afraid of your own mind."  Courage punctuates these points by pressing her hooves to different portions of her own body as she stresses the syllables.  "This is the one thing you truly have control of in your whole little existence, and you're too scared to touch it."

"That's enough, I think you've made your point."  Numbers places her hoof on Courage's shoulder to try and get her to ease up on the poor mare.

"But she's still --"

"I said that's enough."  The unicorn gives the earth pony an angry stare, sending Courage right back into her place.

"Alright... you win... For now."

"Good.  Fluttershy just think about this for a second:  You want to be happy right?"

"R-right..."  Fluttershy responds to the slightly less confrontational one.  Even though Courage's speech did evoke the spark of passion in her heart.

"Being happy means having peace of mind... right?"

"Ri-ight..."  She sniffles and sobs, trying her best to calm down.  She sits up straight and does her best to clean her face off with the back of her foreleg.

"In order to have peace of mind, your mind has to be whole.  Agreed?"

"Mhm..."  Her statements still trail off with an unsure tinge, but she seriously thinks about everything that the logical unicorn is saying.

"So if you want to be happy you have to go get that missing piece of yourself.  Sounds logical doesn't it?"

"I guess... I guess it does..."  

"Twilight loves you, you know."  Courage sits in a rocking chair that Fluttershy assumes has been there the whole time, though she can't recall its existence.  "She loves everything about you, and you know it.  You know it because I know it."

"What's your point?"

"Well...  She'll love you no matter what.  But she gets totally peeved off by disorder and disorganization.  She may be interested now but what about later on?  It'll start to annoy her, I guarantee you.  Trust me, I know annoyance, and I know dislike...  She won't be happy with you if you're not happy with yourself."

"Now... Will you let us show you to the archives?"  Numbers extends a hoof to help Fluttershy get up off of the floor.  The timid pegasus takes it with her own hoof and stands, flapping her wings to shake off the ethereal 'dust'.  "Good... Come with us."

The trio begin walking at a slow trot back toward the bookshelves, passing by row upon row of furniture on the way there.  Fluttershy realizes that the entire world around her has been changing along with her perception of it.  When she stepped inside the door everything was disorganized and muddled.  Things were missing, everything was out of place, and even the two ponies of her consciousness were having trouble getting along.  Not to mention the fact that there wasn't even matter outside the home itself.  Now that she's had some time to adjust however, things all seem to be where they should be, if not still a little windswept.  The ponies arrive at a door in the center of the far wall where her fireplace used to be, one that wasn't there before but seems to fit very, very naturally.  

"Here we are.  Just through this door and we'll be in a section of your mind devoted to long-term memory."

Fluttershy glances to each of the ponies who only return her gaze.  Only after Numbers nods her head toward the doorway does Fluttershy reach her hoof out and turn the knob.  As the heavy wooden door opens up, she realizes just where she is: Twilight's library.  

"Ahh, good choice there Co-pilot."  Courage speaks up and glances around.  The bookshelves are much higher and more numerous than Twilight's actual library, but the whole place just resonates that same feel of natural, organized beauty.

"Interesting...  Your idea of a knowledge base revolves around Twilight's own literary archives.  I dare say you're brighter than you let on, Fluttershy."

The pegasus blushes a little and stares in awe at the apparent miles and miles of bookshelves, each one containing memories long past, so she guesses.  "So where do we go?"

"Well, stop and think for a second.  What do you avoid most in all of Equestria if you can help it?"

"Uhm...  Attention?"

"Hah!  Close,"  Courage says with a chuckle, "but how many animals do you ritualistically say goodnight to and individually tuck in?  You explode if your little furry buddies don't love-up to you all the time... need I remind you of the Grand Galloping Gala incident?"

"Okay, okay... You've made your point... uhm... heights, then?"

"Now you're thinkin'!  So try and imagine the highest place you've ever been."

"Cloudsdale."

"Uhm... Highest and most afraid."

"That doesn't exactly narrow it down..."  Fluttershy says with a small blush in her cheeks, looking away from the snickering earth pony.

Numbers stands next to the pair and rolls her eyes with a soft smile.  She places her hoof on Fluttershy's shoulder to get her attention, and then points it off into the distance.  

"Does that look at all familiar?"  She's referring to an almost exact scale copy of the mountain that Fluttershy climbed with her friends to 'remove' the dragon from Equestria some months back.  Fluttershy squeaks in her usual manner and shrinks away.  Its existence inside the library doesn't seem out of place, despite its massive size.  It seems as if the wood of the walls is actually the sky: something to be seen but not really there in the quintessential sense.  Almost as if the whole hollowed out tree were built around this very mountain and meant to contain it.

"Do we really have to go back up there?"  

"M'afraid so..."  Courage shrugs and starts walking toward the colossal, steep mountainside.

"Yes, we really do, that's where you put this memory.  Well... it wasn't always that way, but that's the place you'd never go again since that encounter, so that's where it is now."  Numbers seems oddly unfazed by the fact that this mountain is actually in front of her.

"Remind me again why I need this memory to find my ideal self?"

"Think of it like when you lose something practical in your waking world.  You usually have to retrace your steps to find it again, or at least think about where you could have possibly left it.  Well this isn't much different; you have to find out what caused you to lock her up in the first place before you can get any notion of where you might have locked her up, and subsequently get her back, understand?"

"I... think so."

"Rhetorical question dear.  I know everything you're thinking.  And if it's any consolation there's nothing to be afraid of: this is all under your control."

"You two slackers gonna move your plots or what?"  Courage calls down off of a ledge about a fifth of the way up the mountain; of course she'd trudge on ahead.

"We'll be right beside you, Fluttershy.  Go on, don't be afraid."

Fluttershy takes a very deep breath through her nose, eyes closed shut, and takes a step forward.  She feels her hoof encounter stone, which of course prompts her to open her eyes once more.  She glances around and sees that she's on the same ledge that Courage had gone ahead to, with Numbers standing right behind her.  

"Just a few more steps, Fluttershy.  You can do it."

The canary pegasus looks up to the summit of the mountain.  No smoke this time, but it's certainly not a welcoming sight.  She gulps and sighs, taking one more shaky step, eyes closed shut with her mind concentrating as hard as it possibly can on success.

"You can do anything if you just believe in yourself."