AN: Here we are at chapter 3.
In response to The J.A.M. a.k.a. Numbuh l about why Fluttershy didn't just fly to Cloudsdale like in the episode Sonic Rainboom, honestly, there are a few different reasons:
To start, I honestly could have written it with Fluttershy flying along and reached much the same conclusion in chapter 2 with the way the clouds seem to have some sort of sentience in this universe (I can honestly imagine a 1950's style PSA about distracted flying for this sort of circumstance).
But I didn't as I was following the episode cannon. If you rewatch the episode in question, we see Fluttershy arrive at the balloon Cherry Berry is at, pay her money and have the following conversation (this is all at approximately minute 8 if you use Netflix):
Twilight Sparkle: "Where are you going?!"
Fluttershy: "Oh, I'm moving back to Cloudsdale..."
You also see other instances of Fluttershy using transportation instead of flying, such as during Wonderbolts Acadamy where she flies in with the rest of her friends to meet Rainbow and having to later even be rescued from falling.
Or times where she is not a confident flier, like in Hurricane Fluttershy or Dragonshy where she freezes her wings when stressed.
So while I could argue a "CREATIVE LISCENSE" at this point in time, I think I'll save that for a later chapter...oh, and I don't own My Little Pony...
Enjoy the next chapter!
Chapter 3: The Forest
"So," Twilight continued, voice cracking in grief, "I cast the spell. I mean, how can you expect me to fix a spell if I have no idea how it works?"
"Well," Applejack drawled, pausing to collect her thoughts, "I can see why you'd want to see what a spell does. But wasn't that a bit dangerous, Sugarcube?"
"I-I didn't think it would be so bad!" Twilight practically begged as tears threatened to pour down her face, "Princess Celestia has sent me spells to practice in the past! And they were never like this!"
"Relax, Darling," Rarity cooed, "I'm sure Applejack was just trying to understand. Right?"
At Rarity's accusing glance, Applejack immediately backed up, "Hey now! I wasn't trying to say y'all did this all on purpose! You know all that magic stuff is all above my head."
Twilight sighed as she looked around the worried faces in her treehouse, "I know AJ. I'm just so worried. What should we do?"
"Well, we could always contact Princess Celestia," Rarity provided.
"I mean if Celestia is willin' to give you this spell, she must have had some backup plans. You know. In case of emergency!" Applejack provided.
"Yeah! The Princess is always ready to help!" Pinkie Pie put in with a large grin on her face.
"I-I don't know guys," Twilight sighed, "I mean, won't she be angry at me for letting this get out of control? She could send me away. I made such a huge mess, she might not even want me to stay in Ponyville anymore. She will want me to return to Canterlot! I won't be allowed to leave the castle! I-"
"WOAH! Slow down there Twilight!" Rainbow jumped forward, "Don't you think you are overreacting?"
"Celestia has never done anything like that before to you," Rarity said with frown on her face.
"It's not your fault, Twilight," Pinkie Pie added, "Or, at least, not totally. You may have cast some unknown spell, causing all of us and the ponies in Ponyville to have their memories rewritten. And made us all miserable, causing Flutter-"
"What she's trying to say, Sugarcube," Applejack interrupted, putting a hoof over Pinkie's mouth, "Is that you didn't do this on purpose. You weren't trying to hurt us. And Celestia would understand that!"
"Yes," Rarity provided, "She of all ponies would understand how magic can sometimes be unstable, and learning new spells can sometimes be, uh, disastrous if not handled properly."
"Are you sure?" Twilight asked tentatively.
"Positive," Rainbow smiled, "Now that that's settled, what should we do about Fluttershy?"
"I don't know," Twilight sighed, looking at the floor, "We don't even know where she is right now."
Twilight stared sadly at the floor for a minute, before her resolve hardened. With a new determination in her eyes, she stood up.
"Spike," she called, getting the small dragon's attention, "I'm going to need you to help me with writing a letter for Celestia."
Turning, she looked at Rainbow Dash who hovered above the group, "Rainbow, I need you to travel over to Cloudsdale. We need to see if Fluttershy did arrive there. Perhaps you should check over in any other cities in the area, like Canterlot. You know, just to be safe. I know Cherry Berry was saying otherwise about the balloon making it over to Cloudsdale, but there is always a chance."
"On it! I'll be back before you can even finish that letter!" With a smirk on her face, Rainbow left the house, flying at high speeds off to the cloud city.
"Applejack," Twilight continued, "I need you to look into getting us some supplies. We may need to go after Fluttershy, and if she did head off in the direction of the Everfree Forest..."
"Say no more, Sugarcube!" Applejack smirked, "Pinkie, come along. I may need your help carrying some of these things."
"Yay! Rescue mission!" Pinkie hopped along out the door with Applejack.
"I suppose that just leaves me," Rarity provided, turning back to Twilight after watching her friends go, "What would you like me to do?"
"Provide moral support, I suppose," Twilight smiled nervously, "Plus, I could always use another research assistant."
"Well, of course," Rarity smiled sadly. Truthfully the thought of digging through the dusty books was not her idea of a good time, but if it helped her friends, she would brave dirty hoofs and the risk of papercuts.
Fluttershy slowly awoke.
At first it was calming to be swinging lazily back and forth. The slow movements were so relaxing that they almost lulled her back to sleep. But a sense of dread that kept welling up in her gut kept her from ever quite achieving it.
Slowly opening her eyes, she felt herself freeze at the upside-down world that hung before her. Dark forests with trees that looked like they were threatening to grab at her, thorny bushes that sought to devour the earth, and the distant sound of growls and howls all greeted her.
Where was she? How did she get here?
And slowly the events from the day came back to her. The attempts at laughter, the rejection, her fleeing from Ponyville; it made Fluttershy just want to cry. Closing her eyes tightly, she took a deep breath to calm her nerves before opening them again.
Looking up she saw that she was being held up by the remaining ropes from the balloon. Even higher up the tree some of the thicker ropes wrapped around a large tree branch, hanging her over the forest floor. A portion of them wrapped around her left wing, keeping it propped up in an awkward position. The rest of the ropes hugged her into an almost cocoon of rope and twine, except for the few loose ones that dangled down below.
Trying to move, she let out a gasp of pain, making her look at her other wing. Her right wing hung limply, almost looking like it was reaching for the earth in desperation. Fluttershy felt the tears begin to form up in her eyes at the sight. It was as if her brain needed a jump-start, for after looking at the injury the vast amounts of pain began filling her senses.
I can't do this, Fluttershy thought to herself as tears began to fall freely, I don't know where I am, or what I am doing! Nopony would be caught all alone in this forest. Nopony knows where you went!
As she felt herself slowly descend into panic, all she could think was, How do I get out of this! I'm not strong enough!
But you have to be strong, a stronger voice argued.
But how?! She thought in despair.
By doing whatever you have to, the voice argued back, Come on, Fluttershy! Pull yourself together! You can cry when you get out of this!
"Al-alright," Fluttershy sniffled to herself, "I just need to get d-down from here."
Letting tears drip down her face as she slowly twisted over, she looked at the situation she was in once more. One wing stuck up above her in ropes, another dangling below her, caught in-between the ropes, and her body and limbs wrapped up snugly with the remaining ropes. Moving carefully, Fluttershy pulled one hind leg out of a loop they were caught in, followed by the other leg that she had to fight to release a little more. With a sigh of relief, soon the small pegasus had all her limbs at least unstuck from the mess.
Looking above Fluttershy took a deep breath as she went for her next challenge, her left wing. As she began to lightly wiggle her wing, she winced slightly. Though she didn't think it was as injured as the right, it was strained and bruised and would need time to fully heal. Pulling her front hooves forward to hold ropes in place or to help pull out of the way, Fluttershy slowly, very slowly, worked her wing free from the tangles.
Taking a peek at her left wing, she decided it was probably best to just wait. Any attempts thus far at even moving it resulted in pain, let alone trying to fully release it from the ropes, not that it was really so caught that, she couldn't release it. It was simply easier to have all her body parts in one location as she made her way out.
With her final limb left where it was, the pegasus took a deep breath she glanced down at the forest floor to analyze her options. Simply jumping down would not be the best choice, especially with a broken wing and other possible injuries on her body. As it was her body hung over an empty expanse, with the closest branches for trees being about double her body length in either direction. She could jump to them, but she ran the risk of falling. There was one option that she could think of.
Gritting her teeth, Fluttershy slowly began to sit up straight, the branch above groaning as the ropes pulled tight around her rear as her weight was redistributed. With her body now in a sitting position, she attempted to swing the ropes back and forth. Her body screamed in protest with each move, making her cry out more than once due to the pain, but with her options limited she pushed on.
Soon the ropes pulled her back and forth between the trees above. As she got within about a mare's length away from her target, she heard a sound that made her stomach drop. Freezing, she looked up at where the tree branch had given out a loud crack and was now groaning in protest at her movements. The branch that had been holding her safely through the night was now giving out due to the strain of her movements.
Heart pounding in fear, Fluttershy found herself pushing herself with a renewed vigor. Pains were momentarily ignored as she fought against the gravity that would inevitably pull that branch down.
Go, Fluttershy, she kept saying to herself, Just keep swinging. There is no ground. The tree is fine. Just keep swinging. Go. Don't stop. Go!
With a yelp, Fluttershy reached forward for the nearby branch, and hugged it for dear life before everything seemed to happen all at once. As she held the branch, the ropes made to continues their motion, pulling against her body and against the branch above. Yet this seemed to be the final straw for the branch above, as a loud snap echoed across the woods. The large supporting branch broke and fell down to the earth, giving Fluttershy a few moments of relief where the ropes loosened around her form before they returned with a new intensity. Fluttershy yelled in pain as the ropes ate into her flesh, threatening to pull her down with the falling branch. With a struggled kick of her legs some of the remaining ropes fell free, but one of the lines of rope had already looped itself around her right leg was now caught in a knot as its freed kin wrapped themselves around it. With the looped rope stuck in place and the weight of a whole tree branch and the ropes themselves pulling against her, the pegasus could no longer keep her grip upon her new sturdy branch and found herself falling.
Fluttershy screamed as the earth quickly came up to meet her. The sudden shock of hitting the ground pushed all of the breath from her lungs, dazing her and keeping her from moving. After a minute of laying there, she finally gathered enough strength to move again.
Her head felt like it had been knocked around like a bell, leaving her slightly dizzy and hurting even more. But otherwise it looked like she had no injuries that weren't already there. A few portions of her fur were ruffled and stung to try and righten, more than likely rubbed raw by the ropes. Yet all together nothing that was serious enough to keep her from standing.
Tentatively she rolled over to stand up, finding that she had thankfully landed on what was perhaps the only bush with no thorns within miles. Looking above her she saw the remains of the balloon hang up above the treetops, blocking the sun from forest floor. Perhaps somepony would find it if they ever bothered to look for it. Maybe Cherry Berry would come after her looking for a replacement, but she doubted it. That pony seemed to be ecstatic that she was leaving. She could almost hear Cherry Berry laughing in glee that she had finally left.
With a shake of her head to knock loose the bitter sounds, Fluttershy finally looked around the clearing noting the branch that had been holding her up when she first awoke The large rope wrapped branch lay along the ground, covering a good portion of the little clearing she had found herself in. The ropes lay scattered everywhere, looking a lot like the time Pinkie Pie had spilled spaghetti on the floor of...
The thought of her friend made her freeze. She never really took a chance to say goodbye. Fluttershy had feared that if she did, they would reject her like the other ponies in Ponyville had. And even if they didn't, she didn't think she could stand saying goodbye forever or the constant looks of disgust that all the other ponyfolk had been giving her.
No, running away had been the right choice. She could always contact them later, when she finally got to...well, wherever it was she was heading now. Cloudsdale would not do. She was too well known there. And the same with Canterlot. Or most of Equestria now that she thought about it. Being a part of the group that had wielded the elements of harmony had its advantages and disadvantages now that she thought about it.
Perhaps somewhere else? Someplace new. Where nopony knew her face! And she would make them laugh and she could throw a party and-
Fluttershy paused mid-thought. Why would she need to do that? It was like a portion of her needed to make others laugh. But it never felt right. Almost like something was forcing her to do it. Strange, but it was her destiny, right?
Even as she thought about it, she swore she could hear uproarious laughter. Freezing in place Fluttershy glanced around, trying to spot where the laughter was coming from, only to find nothing in the clearing with her. Was she hearing things now too? Feeling herself shrink a bit, all she could think about now was how she wasn't just the pony with the wrong destiny, but she was the crazy pony with the wrong destiny!
Shaking off the sound, she looked back at the ropes. Slowly moving over, finding her legs didn't want to cooperate fully resulting in a slight limp across the ground, her wing bounced along her side, sending pain flaring across her body as she walked.
First things first, she thought, Fix my wing, then I can find a way out. It can't be too hard, right? The Everfree Forest can't go on that long.
Shifting through the mess, Fluttershy found some smaller pieces of rope that she could use to tie her wing to her body. While she didn't have any great skills at first aid, she could at least make sure it did not drag along the ground or get caught on anything, thereby making the injury worse.
Her head screamed at her and her body shook in pain as she slowly tied up her wing to her body. Right now she wanted nothing more than to go back to sleep, but staying in this one spot was not the best plan of action. Moving to a safer position would be good. And maybe after she was able to get a drink and find out where she was, she could finally find a safe spot to lay down for a nap.