Fluttershy still had her eyes clamped shut when she felt a hoof touch her shoulder.

She flinched. "W- who is that?"

"Me, Twilight."

She opened her eyes and saw Twilight looking at her with concern.

"Where are we?" Fluttershy whispered, looking around. They were in a beautiful garden surrounded with hedges and stone walls. They found themselves on stairs and turned to see a grand castle, identical to the one they had been in.

"Oh!" The pegasus sighed with relief. "We just were transported outside!"

The mare grabbed the storybook ran to the door and Twilight gasped.

"No! No! Wait!" Twilight yelled, chasing after her friend who was already too far ahead to hear.

Fluttershy wondered where the tower was that the others must have been in then heard Twilight skid to a halt behind her.

Painting, the alicorn looked up.

Fluttershy gasped. "Twilight! Are you alright?!"

The mare started to run to her friend when she ran into somepony. The book landed beside the mare who tried to hide it but the pony had already snatched it up.

"This is crazy!" Goldilocks creid. She ran ahead, in front of the elders to her friends.

"You're telling me!" Rainbow laughed. She undid her hood and stretched her wings.

Goldilocks watched in wonder as the mare zipped into the air. She flew into the high trees that seemed to block out any hint of the sun.

She came back about ten minutes later.

"It's insane! Those trees have no end! They just keep going and going!"

"So, we're looking for… what's her name in our world?" Alice asked.

"Um…" Rainbow looked at her friends for support.

"Oh! I got it!" Pinkie cried. They looked at her. "The princess I promised to tell Pound and Pumpkin, she had the same red ribbon!"

"Who is she?" Goldilocks asked.

"Snow White!"

They were all silent for a moment.

"I guess parents just love color coordination." Goldi shrugged, nodding to her golden wig on her back.

Dorothy smiled. "You wouldn't think a farm filly like me would know where a big ol' fancy castle would be, but you'd be surprised. The question is, which one does this Snow White live in?"

Alice piped up. "Oh! Oh! Remember when we stumbled upon that castle a few weeks ago? Too bad we couldn't stay, that magic mirror sounded so magical!"

Goldilocks laughed. "Of course I remember. That queen was so… mad!"

"And vengeful," Dorothy snorted.

"And scary…." Alice shivered.

"You mean that queen knows you three?" Rarity asked.

"Duh! We're quite the troublemakers together." Goldi giggled.

"Oh, I hope she doesn't see us, or she'll have our heads!" Alice choked in fear.

The others looked at her. She shrugged. "I've already been chased by a queen, I don't need another one."

"Just what do you think you're doing?" Asked the orange pony with a yellow and red mane.

"I-I, um, I-" Fluttershy shook and stuttered.

"What have I said about reading?" The queen snarled.

Twilight stared behind Fluttershy, mouth wide open.

The queen frowned then looked at the still fallen pegasus. "Who is this?" She said with sugary sweetness.

Fluttershy bit her lip.

"Er, nopony!" Twilight laughed nervously.

"Huh?" Fluttershy gasped.

"Nopony at all, I must get going!" The alicorn cried.

The queen and imposter princess watched her chuckle and then run out of the castle.

Fluttershy looked mortified at Twilight who peeked back barley from the garden.

"Go with it!" Twilight mouthed.

Fluttershy slowly turned back.

"Now that that weirdo's gone, I thought I told you to clean the steps!" The queen hissed, revealing her true nature.

Fluttershy squealed in surprise. "I-I w-was… but-"

"Then where did this book come from?!"

Fluttershy looked at it then blushed. "Oh! Um… I actually need that-" She reached for the book in the queen's magic.

The queen gave a growl and the book fell to the ground. Fluttershy grabbed it quickly.

"Do you think you can still walk around here, acting like the spoiled little princess your father made you?"

Fluttershy bit her lip. "O-oh… no. I don't…"

"Well, get back to work, Snow White, I want those steps shining." The queen said.

"Yes, your majesty!" Fluttershy breathed, finally getting to go to the garden.

"You can't seriously be doing that." Twilight whispered, about a hour later.

Fluttershy gave a weak smile. "S-sure I can! We can't mess up the story. It's for the same reason you left, right?"

"Thank you, for understanding." The princess sighed.

Her friend continued to scrub.

"If you're Snow White, a huntspony will soon come to take you to the forest." Twilight said, looking at the story of the same name.

"Why?" Fluttershy asked. "Is he helping me escape?"

The alicorn shook her head. "Um… no, well, not really."

The door suddenly opened and they jumped.

Fluttershy frowned. "Z-Zephyr?"

Her brother looked back but he had a knife on his belt. "Your highness, you shouldn't know my name, but you must've heard of me?" He grinned.

Fluttershy rolled her eyes. "You're my-"

"It doesn't work that way!" Twilight hissed beside her. "He doesn't think you as his older sister, he knows you as Snow White, a princess, but never treated as one."

"Er," Fluttershy whispered. "Um, d-does the queen want to see me?"

The huntspony's upbeat attitude faded. "No. Not anymore, princess."

The mare frowned.

"I'm here to take you into the forest…."

Fluttershy twirled around the forest, it was beautiful! She then heard a squawk.

The pegasus didn't see the hunter gulp and take out his knife as she flew to the fallen bird.

The baby bird tweeted thankfully as she flew it into its nest. "Oh, you're welcome!"

She felt somepony behind her and turned.

Fluttershy squealed in terror and the Huntspony dropped the knife in surprise.

"Y-you… were… gonna kill me?!" Fluttershy whispered.

"Uh, yeah…" He sighed, ashamed.

"B-but…" The mare's eyes suddenly widened in anger. "How could you do that?! You're a good pony! How could you? I'm your… er, princess! You can't- why?!"

"Because the Queen wants you dead!" Her non brother yelled back. "You're the fairest, so she wants you dead! Did you think I had a choice?!"

Twilight bit her lip from watching in the bushes. Let's hope this doesn't change the story!

"Listen," The huntspony sighed, defeated. "y-you need to run, and never come back. Never ever, or she will find you."

"But you said-" Fluttershy gasped.

"I said, run!" The huntspony yelled.

The mare fell back, and slowly turned. "T-thank you!"

She ran into the woods.

"That was so scary!" Fluttershy trembled.

She and Twilight had ran through the dark forest, it was so frightening.

Fluttershy heard a tweet and turned to the animals that had apparently been following them.

"Hello, little friends! Whatever are you doing out here?" Fluttershy asked.

The birds suddenly grabbed her mane and pulled her along.

"Hey!" Twilight laughed as rabbits grabbed her tail.

"Oh, um, okay?" Fluttershy whispered. "Well, may I ask where we're going?"

They arrived at a very small and untidy cottage a few minutes later.

"Oh my!" Fluttershy gasped.

"Wow…" Twilight said, looking at the mess.

They turned to the animal chatter and Fluttershy nodded. "Oh, of course! We should clean it for the owners!"

"Um, Fluttershy," Twilight whispered. She remembered reading the story time and time again. Snow White had originally in the story ate from all the little ponies' bowls then fell asleep, which seemed to happen quite a lot in stories. If they messed it up… she shuddered in memory of The Story Keeper, what he had said if they weren't done in time, or if they messed up the story. Then again, they had prevented a death in a story… and nothing had happened… If she forced the story like last time… She didn't want Fluttershy to feel like she had to miss out on anything, but Twilight knew it had to come. But worse, they only had one day left….

"Snow White lived in a cottage with seven little ponies, so we're looking for that." Spike explained.

"Ya' gotta be kidding me." Dorothy growled. "Everypony lives in cottages here!"

Fluttershy and Twilight sighed in relief after they had cleaned the whole cottage.

"I hope they don't mind!" Fluttershy said. They suddenly heard hoofsteps.

"Hide!" Twilight hissed.

They ran up stairs and Twilight hid in the closet. Fluttershy tried to crawl under a bed but her dress got stuck. "Twilight!"

The alicorn gasped and ran to help when the door opened. The friends somersaulted under the bed.

They heard little footsteps. "Hey! Somepony cleaned up our house!"

Fluttershy glanced at Twilight with fear.

"What's this?" Asked another voice. They all sounded like… children?

Fluttershy wondered what they could be looking at then realized her mane was in her face. The red ribbon the world had made for her had held it back. It must've fallen out with their struggle!

"Somepony is definitely in our house." Said a filly.

Twilight looked at Fluttershy and they nodded at each other.

"T-that's my friend's."

Seven foals jumped at the mares crawling out from under a bed.

"W-who are you?" One that looked like Diamond Tiara gasped.

"I'm Twilight, and this is…" Twilight gently nudged Fluttershy.

"Oh! I'm… Snow White?"

"The princess?!" The foals asked.

Fluttershy nodded uncertainty. "Um, at the moment."

The foals were ones Twilight had seen at her library before.

They were Diamond Tiara, Silver Spoon, Featherweight, Pipsqueak, Snips, Snails, and Twist.

"What are you doing here? Don't you live in a big ol' castle?" Twist asked.

"I used to, but the queen wants me… gone."

"I knew that mare was absolutely wicked!" Pip creid.

"So, why come here?" Snips asked.

"Yeah, don't you know not to break in?" Snails wondered.

"I'm sorry, little ponies, but we have nowhere left to go!" Fluttershy explained.

"Oh! Oh! You can stay here!" Featherweight cried.

"Really?!" Fluttershy gasped.

"Yeah!" The children said together.

Twilight smiled. "Thank you."

Fluttershy walked up to her new little friends. "Can you give us a tour?"

"Er, you go ahead, Fl- Snow White. I have something to do outside, okay?" Twilight said.

The other gave a weak smile. "Oh, a-alright. Is everything alright?"

"Yeah."

Twilight looked at her reflection in the creek near the cottage. She gave a small whimper.

"Why did this happen?"

"You know exactly why it happened." Hissed a voice.

Twilight gasped and turned. Nopony there.

"Leave my friends alone! I was just-" Twilight exhaled. "I don't want this."

She threw the book in the lake and watched it float away. She sighed.

The mare expected them to be home any second. But it never came.

"Ouch!"

The group turned and saw Pinkie rub her head. "Aw, ow… something just hit my head!"

"Look! It's a book!" Dorthy cried.

"Maybe it's a spell book!" Alice gasped.

"Or a real book." They looked at Goldilocks. "Who am I kidding, that sounds stupid, it obviously has a pony trapped inside."

"Like a magic mirror?"

"Or a magic painting!"

"It's not magic!" They turned to Applejack.

"Oh, it's totally magic, AJ." Pinkie said.

"Well, not like their kind of magic." Starlight replied.

The friends walked up and opened the story book.

"It's Twilight's." Rarity said.

"Is that me?" Alice gasped, pointing to a picture of herself falling with various objects around her. "Does this book record time?!"

Rainbow Dash suddenly flipped the pages until she came upon the page she wanted.

Scanning it, she gasped. "Oh! This is what the castle looks like!"

The three fillies looked at it.

"Well, there you go! That's the exact same castle we were talking about! We can take you right to it!"

Fluttershy peeked outside. "Twilight?"

Twilight was sitting by the lake staring at her reflection. "What?"

"Um, it's been a hour… Are you sure you're alright?"

Twilight nodded.

"Well, the kids and I were going to eat lunch and dance a little bit, do you want to join us?"

Twilight shook her head.

"Twilight-"

"I'm fine!" The alicorn snapped.

Fluttershy flinched. "I-I'm sorry."

Twilight gave a sniff. "Me too."

"I'll just… leave you to it then?"

"I'd like that."

A little while later, Twilight had finally come back in.

"I can't let you all go out by yourselves!" Fluttershy protested.

"But we sell flowers for a living!" Pip creid.

"We always go out to pick them by ourselves!" Diamond whined.

"Well, now you have me taking care of you, and I say that the forest is no place for children alone."

"I can go with them."

Fluttershy turned with surprise. "Really?"

"Yeah! I think it'll be fun. We'll be back soon?" Twilight asked.

Fluttershy smiled softly. "Of course. And when you come back, there will be a surprise!"

"Here we-"

"Shh!"

Dorothy looked at Alice in surprise.

"That evil queen is gonna find us!"

"We can take her!" Goldi yelled. The others gaped in horror and she shoved her hoof over her mouth.

"You've done it now!" Alice shook.

The castle door opened and the three fillies ducked. The mares peeked out.

A hooded figure went out of the castle.

"It's not the queen." Applejack assured them. The fillies peek out at the figure and she took off the hood.

"You lied!" Alice squeaked, ducking.

"If a queen is going somewhere in that cloak, it must be a trick!" Rarity gaged.

"It is!" Spike whispered. "We have to follow her!"

"Oh come on!" Alice cried.

Fluttershy took out a fresh pie from the oven. She placed it out on the windowsill.

"I hope they like it!" She sighed, turning away. After picking up some more pie crust, she twirled back to the window and squealed in horror.

She dropped the crust and gulped. "I-I'm sorry!"

"Oh, no, dear, I shouldn't have frightened you…." Said the hooded figure at the window. "Please, I have traveled ever so far, may I come in?"

"Oh! Er, of course!" Fluttershy gasped. She opened the door and the mare came in.

Fluttershy saw she was carrying a basket with her magic. "May I take that for you? It looks heavy."

"Oh, you are ever so kind, dear."

The mare blushed. "Oh, that, er, thank you." She grabbed the basket and put it in the table. The hooded pony opened the basket and took out a perfect red apple that shone in the sun.

"How did we lose her?! Fluttershy's life's in danger!" Spike cried.

"We're sorry, we shouldn't have lagged behind!" Alice gasped.

"Guess we didn't wanna face her again…" Dorothy whispered.

"We're not going to face her, we're saving Fluttershy." Spike explained.

Fluttershy shook out of her trance. "Oh! Er, how long was I staring at that?"

"Only a few minutes." The hooded pony said.

The peguses blushed. "How rude of me-"

There was sudden urgent tweeting coming from the window and the mare turned to see birds rapidly trying to get her attention. "Huh?"

The queen gave a growl under her cloak and cast a spell.

Fluttershy rushed to the window and attempted to open it but it wouldn't budge.

"I… think it's stuck!" She panted, turning back at the queen. "I don't want to be a bother, but could you help me open it? I'm worried-"

"Worried?" Laughed the cloaked mare, grabbing her hoof.

Fluttershy looked down at the hoof and suddenly felt a pang of fear. "Er… yes?"

"My dear, kind girl, what is there to be worried about?" The other chuckled, pulling Fluttershy away from the window.

"My animal friends are scared about something…. a-and I'm pretty sure I should be scared of it too…" The mare whispered, lowering her head.

"Hm, try this."

Fluttershy looked up slowly and saw the apple in the other's hoof. The mare felt her brain flip flop and she wanted it… she needed it.

"I-I couldn't, it's yours…" She said, shaking and restraining herself from snatching it away.

"But apples are good for your health, my sweet, and this is a magic apple."

"M-magic? What do you-"

"One bite and you will be the bravest creature in the world…" The queen whispered, grabbing the girl's chin and showing the apple.

"B-bravest… creature in the world?" The other mare gasped.

"One bite is all it takes…"

Fluttershy slowly took the apple and stared at it, then glanced back at the witch. "I-I guess… one little bite wouldn't hurt…"

"It wouldn't." The other said, smirking in the shadows of her cloak.

Fluttershy lifted the apple to her mouth and sighed. She hoped her story ended happily…

The mare then took a bite of the apple. She immediately dropped it and grabbed her head. "Oh, I'm so… dizzy!"

"That's the point, my sweet, gullible princess!" Sunset cried, grabbing the mare's chin. "Tell me, did you really think you would escape me?! Did you really think changing the story could save you and your precious little friends?!"

"W-what?" Fluttershy gasped. The poor mare felt her eyelids grow heavy.

Sunset gave a gasp and covered her mouth. But then, she smirked. "It's not like you'll be awake to tell her."

"Oh…" Fluttershy collapsed to the floor, fast asleep.

"Pathetic little child." Sunset laughed, looking at her limp body.

The door suddenly burst open and her friends, along with Dorothy, Alice, and Goldilock raced in.

"It's poisoned!... Oh no, are we too late?!" Pinkie gasped.

Sunset frowned. "Who are you?"

Dorothy, Alice, and Goldilocks tried to hide behind them but the Queen saw them. "Well, well, if it isn't the little dwarfs that thought they could steal from m-"

"We're sorry!" Dorothy cried.

"We won't do it again!" Alice pleaded.

"And we're not dwarfs! We're normal little fillies!" Goldi retorted.

Her friends glared at her.

"That's good, for normal little fillies will have wonderful, innocent, and pure hearts to add to my collection."

"Aw, gross! That's disgusting!" Pinkie cried.

"Her head, her heart, Alice just needs another evil queen to steal her courage and we'll have another pattern to add to our lives!"

Alice glared at Dorothy. "I'm tryin' to lighten the mo-"

"Shut up!" The queen yelled.

She lunged at the fillies.

"We'll distract her! Save your friend and get out of here! We'll catch up!" Goldi shouted.

"You can't do it on your own!" Rarity gasped.

The Queen suddenly grabbed Alice's dress colar and lifted her in the air.

"Alice!" Her friends gasped.

"Not my head, er, heart! Please, let this be a dream!" She sobbed.

"This isn't a dream, and you'll never have have one again once I-"

Something suddenly hit her hard in the head. She whipped around to see the seven little foals glaring at her.

"Our friends!" Goldi cried.

"How many ponies know each other?!" Twilight gasped.

She then saw Fluttershy and ran to her.

The other foals charged at the queen and she let go of Alice in surprise.

Dorothy grabbed Alice's hoof and pulled her to the mares.

"We got this! See you guys soon!" Diamond cried.

The three fillies nodded in relief. "Thank you!" They sighed together.

The Queen was chased away by the seven wild children.

"There's got to be some way to bring her back!" Rarity said.

"True love's kiss!" Applejack gasped, pointing to the sentence in Snow White's story.

"Again?!" Rainbow Dash growled.

"Should I fall in a trap again?" They glanced at Alice. "It worked last time."

"No… I'm so sorry!" Twilight whispered. "This is all my fault! Because of me, you're all here! And I love you girls!" A tear rolled down her cheek and her friends gave a group hug, all hearts heavy.

Little did they know that Twilight's tear fell onto Fluttershy's lips. She gasped for air and sat up. "W-where… am I?"

"Fluttershy!" The ponies cried, hugging her.

Suddenly, Rainbow Dash and Spike vanished.

"Seriously?!" Fluttershy growled. Her friends looked at her in surprise and she blushed. "Sorry…"

"Guess we better start walking!" Pinkie summarized their thoughts.

"The Queen… do you think she'll follow us?" Alice asked.

"You can't change the stories, she can't either." Twilight explained.

"Oh!" Fluttershy cried. "I just remembered something."

A few minutes later, a prince made of many creatures was pulled in by the forest animals. "So, where's this beautiful madin? I don't see her…."

The seven foals ran back.

"Hey, where's Snow White?" Pip gasped.

"and Alice, Dorothy, and Goldi?" Silver Spoon cried.

"and their strange friends?" Snips added.

"Those little fillies have messed with the wrong Queen!" Sunset snarled. "and I'm going to capture them at the prince's ball tonight. You promise they'll be there? Why would little brats like them be at a ball?"

"Trust me, they'll be there, just fulfill your part and you can do whatever you wish with the girls, I need those meddlesome mares back." The Story Keeper hissed.