FiM Dying Embers-2 Ignorance is Bliss

It was an intensely sunny day. A bright pink pony with cyan colored eyes and dark pink cotton candy-like hair with a cutie mark of balloons on her flank named Pinkie Pie hopped happily to Fluttershy's cottage. She was humming the tune she always found strangely familiar, as if it were a friendly theme song of some sort.  She went to help the shy pegasus with the animals she took care of. There were a bunch of brand new bouncing baby bunnies to feed and Fluttershy needed somepony to help before the bunnies got rowdy. Fluttershy had asked Pinkie Pie after explaining she couldn't ask any of their other friends. She hadn't felt comfortable asking Applejack after the last time. Rarity, being the cleanliness obsessed pony she was, had politely declined so she wouldn't get dirty. Twilight was busy with her studies, as usual; while Fluttershy knew Rainbow Dash wasn't the best with animals. Pinkie had readily agreed, eager to help her friend. After a few more minutes of hopping through Ponyville she arrived at the edge of town to find Fluttershy outside in a bit of a panic.



"Oh dear. Oh my. Please don't be scared. It's alright." Fluttershy was saying to various spots in her garden.



At first Pinkie thought Fluttershy was trying to talk to logs and bushes, which was silly since logs and bushes can't talk…unless Fluttershy had found some magic talking plants that lived in her backyard. If that was the case, then how had they gotten there? They weren't there before. Pinkie Pie was sure she would have noticed those. Unless some garden gnomes had moved in - which made sense. They were magic and probably brought the talking plants with them for company. Not to mention they really liked gardens. So why didn't she tell Pinkie Pie? Unless she wanted to keep all the funny little bearded gnomes to herself.



Pinkie let out a HUGE gasp. "Fluttershy, how could you?!"

Fluttershy squeaked in surprise while half hiding behind her mane. She turned to see who it was. "Oh Pinkie, I didn't know you were here already. How could I what?"



"How could you keep all the funny little gnomie womies to yourself and not share them?" Pinkie Pie asked.



Pinkie's eyes were big and watery. Her lower lip quivered like Rarity.



"Um I was just trying to get the baby bunnies out to feed them but they just won't come out of their hiding places." Fluttershy sighed. "Even worse, almost all the animals I've been taking care of ran off late last night and I couldn't find them this morning." Fluttershy looked entirely defeated as she shuffled her hooves a bit while looking at the ground.



Pinkie Pie's face suddenly went from a grin that shouldn't have been able to fit on her face to a deadpan expression. "Hmmm…my pinkie sense says something strange is going on here." Then she pulled out an old style Sherclop Hooves hat, bubble pipe, and a magnifying glass seemingly from nowhere. She started out to town following a trail only she and her mighty magnifying class could see. "Pinkie Pie private eye is on the case!" Fluttershy decided that coaxing the bunnies wasn't going to happen and left her pet bunny Angel in charge. He saluted while munching a carrot like a cigar. Fluttershy quickly followed after Pinkie Pie in order to keep an eye on her and to see if something bad really was going on.


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After Fluttershy and the pink menace were gone Angel gave the all clear whistle. Three of the bunnies that were hiding came out of the bushes with one garden gnome behind them. One of the rabbits had a baseball cap on. Another had a mohawk between his ears. The last one simply had a very smug look about him. "Alright team, you know our mission. Get this garden gnome back to his house inside the Everfree Forest no matter what. You remember our deal right old timer?" Angel said.

"Of course. You get me back home and I give you and your team all the carrots you can eat." Said the gnome.



"Good." Angel spoke through a mouthful of carrot. "I love it when a plan comes together."

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Pinkie followed the invisible trail, sticking her snout closely to the dirt, to Applejack's farm. Applejack, seeing the two, got up from her resting spot against the barn to see her friends.

"Howdy partners!" she said enthusiastically with a big smile as she waved wildly.



"Hi Applejack." Both Fluttershy and Pinkie said in unison.



"So what are ya'll doin'?" asked Applejack. She raised an eyebrow at Pinkie Pie's costume. "And what's with the weird getup?"



"We're solving the case of the ninja gnomes!" shouted Pinkie as she waved her front hooves in the air to emphasize the point.



Fluttershy quietly spoke up "But um Pinkie, I thought that um, you know, that we were looking for the reason the animals were acting so scared."



"Oh yeah that too!" Pinkie said loudly as she jumped around Applejack like a very pink shark with pure liquid sugar instead of blood circling it's pray.



Applejack took a momentary pause. She put her hoof up to her chin in thought. "Ya know partners, some right strange stuff has been goin' on around the farm today too."


"Like what?" Pinkie asked as she somehow stopped in mid air during a jump then gently landed without a sound. She was suddenly in detective mode again.



"Well fer starters all the pigs, chickens, and sheep have been causin' a major ruckus since last night. Also that little statue of Celestia Granny Smith keeps in her room dun snapped in half." Applejack explained.



"Ooooh the plot thickens! Wait I think I know who's behind this! Follow me." Pinkie said excitedly. She waved her hoof to get them to follow.


Applejack and Fluttershy just gave each other a look that said "Not like we could stop her if we wanted to anyway" then proceeded to follow her.

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At the grassy area under Rainbow Dash's cloud house Pinkie Pie, Applejack, and Fluttershy arrived as Pinkie yelled at the top of her lungs.

"Raaaiiiinbooooow!!".

This promptly woke Rainbow Dash from her mid-day second nap. She flew down to see what her friend wanted. She had told Pinkie Pie before not to wake her up from her naps so it must be important.

"Ugh, what is it Pinkie?"

"I know what you did!"

"What do you mean?" asked Rainbow looking nervous and sweating.

"Don't play dumb Dashie. I know what you did. Now fess up." Pinkie said as her neck seemed to stretch ridiculously far. Her face was just inches from Rainbow's.

"Honestly I don't know what you me-"said Rainbow.

"Confess!" Pinkie pressured.

"What?" stammered Rainbow.

The others were now looking curiously to find out if Rainbow Dash had really scared all the animals and broke the Apple family's Princess Celestia statuette.



"I said confess!" went Pinkie.



Rainbow's eye began to twitch as her pupils were now shrinking to lavender dots.

"Ok I admit it! I'm the pony who dropped your toothbrush in the toilet and put it back without washing it last week!"

Pinkie Pie's entire body went white as she shrieked in horror. All investigations were forgotten as she licked the ground nearby to get the horrible unclean toothbrush remnants out of her mouth. She then proceeded to run around screaming with her forehooves waved in the air. All the while Rainbow was covering her face in shame. Applejack was the one laughing uncontrollably and Fluttershy was struck silent.

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Later, after Applejack could finally feel her sides, Pinkie had stopped freaking out (mostly), Rainbow had apologized a good 10 times, and Fluttershy had suggested they never speak of that instance again; the others agreed. They got back on the topic of what was causing the strange happenings at Applejack's farm and Fluttershy's cottage. They had decided that they would go see their friend Twilight Sparkle. She was regarded as the most intelligent pony in all of Ponyville after all. The two earth ponies and two pagasi trotted their way to the main thoroughfare where Twilight's library residence stood just a few streets away. Well to be accurate, it was more like they trotted, flew, hopped and slowly shuffled forward to Twilight's. Rainbow Dash began telling her friends that Cloudsdale was acting even weirder then Sweet Apple Acres and Fluttershy's animals.



"Well, how so RD?" asked Applejack.



"You guys wouldn't believe it! It was crazy!" exclaimed Rainbow Dash. She flew in front of the others waving her hooves around anxiously. "First the clouds around Cloudsdale started getting really cold. Like winter cold and all at once the rainbows turned gray and started dissolving faster then we could make them. Pinkie Pie, who had been listening as closely as both Applejack and Fluttershy, showed an expression of pure shock after that last sentence.

"No more rainbows! No way! They fixed it though, right Dashy?"



"I don't know." Dash said with a shrug. "Probably. Those rainbow brewing ponies are pretty good at that sorta thing since it's their job and all."



Applejack spoke up "If'n nothin' else I'm sure Twilight will know what's goin' on."



"And hopefully how to fix it" said Fluttershy. "Oh I hope the animals aren't too scared. Maybe I should go back and check on-" Her out loud train of thought was interrupted by a shrill eardrum shattering scream. Without realizing it the four equines had entered the busier part of town and were currently only a yard away from the Carousel Boutique. The lavish go-to place for everypony's fashion needs in Ponyville and apparently now the residence of a banshee.



"That sounded like Rarity," said Rainbow Dash.



"No. Really?" stated Applejack in a tone dripping with sarcasm as she stuck one of her hooves in her right ear to try and stop the ringing they now contained. The four of them hastily galloped into Rarity's house/shop to something they never in all their craziest imaginings thought they would see. The fashonista's normally clean and classy boutique was being completely overrun by a plague of rats and a somewhat smaller host of cockroaches and other bugs. Yes, plague was the perfect word for the rodents. They were NOT the normally cute white and gray mice ponies were most likely to see. These were huge, mangy, black, red eyed RATS. The insects were as repulsive as you'd expect. This was bad enough for poor Rarity whose lady like mannerisms could hardly stand the sight of such horrors, let alone enough of them to build a mini community in her living room. To make matters even more disasterous the rats and bugs were eating all of Rarity's fabric.



"Somepony save my beautiful boutique!" Rarity screamed from her perch atop a large shelf with her cat Opalescence hissing at the monstrosities below them.



With that said, the other four mares began to do their best to rid Rarity of these rotten rodents and roaches. Rainbow was the first to react as she flew quickly in a circle using her innate pegasus magic to control the air current. She formed a small tornado that swept up a fair portion of the pests out of the building. Applejack was using the lasso she always kept in her rawhide cowmare hat to capture several of the vermin with extreme accuracy. She then proceeded to toss the group she caught out the door where they soon scattered. Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy were scaring the remainder out the doorway. Pinkie used several whistles and noisemakers (all of which seemed impossibly to fit in her mouth with still enough space to use them). Fluttershy was using what the others simply called "the stare" to frighten the small creatures out of her friend's home. After those were gone Applejack bucked the front door shut with a resounding slam. "Good riddance to bad rubbish."



"Oh my Rarity, are you alright?" Fluttershy asked.



Rarity seemed markedly calmer now at least. She jumped down from her safe spot on top of the shelf. "Oh I'm doing much better now thanks to you girls. I just wish my fabrics didn't look like they just came out of a giant cookie cutter," she said with a sigh. The fabrics all had holes and chew marks, some of which were undeniably and unexplainably shaped just like rats. She used her horn as a focus to cast the simple levitation spell that every unicorn filly and foal learned in magic kindergarten. She summoned the very tiny amount of magic from within to hold up the tattered remains of her projects and levitated them to the nearby waste bin.





She would just have to start from scratch later.