“This is the stupidest thing EVER!”
Twilight winced a bit as the class of students around her talked and gossiped. The teacher had stepped out for a moment after the morning announcements, leaving behind a worksheet for them that no one else seemed to be bothering with. Twilight turned in her seat to look back at Indigo Zap, the girl crunching up her worksheet angrily.
“It’s volunteer hours Indigo,” Sugarcoat said from the seat next to the sporty girl. “You knew we needed to do so many a semester to graduate. You did the necessary hours last semester and the one before that. What made you think this semester would be any different?”
“Why do we have to volunteer so much?! This is gonna cut into my sports!” Indigo grumbled, holding her head in her hands angrily. “Why do we have to do this to graduate?! Isn’t this a form of punishment for criminals?! Is this a prison now?!”
“Of course not,” Sugarcoat said simply. “If it were we’d be better funded by the state instead of mainly being funded by our collective tuitions.”
True to form it was getting close to the due date for their yearly volunteer hour quotas. Unlike many school, Crystal Prep demanded fifteen hours a year, rather than the usual forty by graduation. The extra hours made the students look good on college admissions, and demanding the yearly hours kept students on track, even if some of them didn’t like it.
There was a week left before the hours were due. Thankfully Twilight had most of them done. (Thank you sorting canned goods for the food bank!) However, Twilight still had five hours to do this year, and she had forgotten all about it until now.
Spike had chewed up her day planner…
Darn him and his cute little face! He managed to go unpunished every time he ripped something up. Next time she scolded him, she’d need to wear a blindfold.
Well, there was nothing she could do about the hours right now. Maybe after school she could concoct a plan to finish them off. Turning back in her seat Twilight decided to try and focus on her worksheet for the moment.
“Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!”
Twilight scowled, attempting to tune Indigo out. Sadly it wasn’t working. It never did with Indigo.
“How am I supposed to get anything done if I’m volunteering!” Indigo moaned, putting her head down on her desk. “I’m the captain of the soccer team for god sake! We have a game this weekend, I can’t waste time with this!”
“You had a YEAR Indigo,” Sugarcoat said. “What did you do last year?”
“Helped my mom with a mail charity she works for, I licked stamps for a week. Ech!” Indigo said. “Can’t this year though, she had to stop volunteering when she broke her arm from our family ski trip.”
“Well I’m sure something will come up. After all, if it doesn't you're screwed,” Sugarcoat shrugged.
“Thank you, Sugarcoat,” Indigo muttered into her desk.
“No problem.”
After class, Twilight sat back in her dorm. Lemon sat beside her, chewing on her pencil nervously.
“So what's the difference between conductors and insulators on an atomic level?” Twilight asked, watching Lemon fidget beside her. Lemon’s eyes darted around, squinting as she tried to remember. She began to bite her nails as more time passed, leg bouncing a bit.
Twilight tried to hide sigh, she had never tried to tutor anyone before. This was a new experience for the both of them and sadly Lemon had a lot more trouble retaining information than Twilight did. She was slightly worried she may have overloaded the musically gifted girl, as Twilight basically went over about four chapters before she noted Lemon’s perplexed look.
“Ummm…” Lemon started, frowning a bit. “Conductors have weak nuclei bonds? Insulators got strong ones?” Lemon looked back with a wince, uncertain of her answer.
“Yes!” Twilight said excitedly. “That’s right!”
“Oh sweet!” Lemon smiled. “At least I got one right!”
Twilight forced a smile, yes she had gotten one question right, out of the twelve she had asked her… However progress was progress. They still had a few days before Lemon had to leave on her recital and it was a step in the right direction.
“Well, hows about you name some conductors and insulators?” Twilight asked, leaning in a bit.
“Uh, metals like gold and copper are conductors… And plastic is an insulator.” Lemon said confidently. “That's just common sense though.”
“To some,” Twilight chuckled. “Not everyone.” She stretched a bit, rolling her shoulders. “Now what is Ohm’s law?”
“Ooooo….” Lemon frowned again. “Ohm’s law is… Watts equal Volts times Amps?”
Twilight’s shoulders slumped, a bit disappointed but not upset. “No that’s the Power formula. Remember? The Power formula spells Pie?” Twilight pointed to one of their papers. “P= Power or watts. I = Intensity of Current or amps and E = Electro-motive Force or volts.”
“Shouldn’t it be WAV?” Lemon asked, confused.
“If that helps you remember better then sure,” Twilight shrugged. “Just remember PIE in case it shows up as a question.”
Lemon groaned a bit, putting her head into her knees where she sat. “Ahhh, I’m never gonna get this.”
“Of course you will. The rest of your classmates can do it. So can you!” Twilight insisted. “It’s very basic Electricity.”
“Great, I can’t even understand the basics…” Lemon sighed, looking back at her.
“You got some of it,” Twilight said quickly. “You know the difference between Volts and Amps and Ohms.”
“I guess so,” Lemon said, looking uncertain again. “Why do we need to learn this?”
“It’s important. A lot of humans go into electrical or magical workplaces,” Twilight explained.
“Magical? What do magic and electricity have in common?” Lemon frowned.
“They work slightly similarly. Power transportation, conduction, and stuff like that. If you understand electricity then it can help you understand magic,” Twilight explained.
“So why do humans go into the magic field so much if we don’t have any?” Lemon asked.
“Well you know the two types of magical energy right?” Twilight said.
“Yeah, basic first grade stuff. There's dark magic and light magic,” Lemon sighed.
“Well, magic comes from a being’s soul. The type of magic depends on race. Some, like vampires, make dark and some, like fairies, make light. Almost all beings have a magic producing soul, even if it only helps with small things. For example, helping creatures fly when they should be scientifically too heavy, or for natural transformation,” Twilight explained, slipping back into a lecture mode. “Humans are one of the few beings to have a neutral soul. While we produce no magic of our own, we can manipulate both dark and light magic without hurting ourselves. If a vampire tried to touch something laced with light magic, like holy water, then they would get hurt. Same vice versa. This is handy for humans as we can work with either magic in the field or in study, such as the magic power plant on the outer city limits.”
“So wait… they can turn magic into electricity? Hows that work?” Lemon frowned.
“Beings with souls that make magic radiate it, especially if they are powerful enough. It can be collected and turned into pure magical energy, which is very dangerous in that state, and can be used to make electricity. Similar to a nuclear plant, the magic burns enough energy to boil water and make steam, turning a turbine and making electricity,” Twilight explained. “By combining a small amount of both magics in a controlled area under water basin, it causes a release of energy that heats the water to a boil, but if a large amount of pure dark or pure light magic ever made contact with each other, the results would be catastrophic.”
“So it explodes? That boils the… then it just… magic...electricity…” Lemon blinked before she screwed her face up, confused. She thought for a moment before she groaned and stood up. “Look, thanks for your help tonight Twilight but my dad wants me to practice violin for this weekend to. Is it okay if we call it a night?”
“Sure. We can pick up again tomorrow,” Twilight agreed, watching the girl start to walk back to her room dejectedly.
“Thanks Twi, I owe you,” Lemon said before shutting the door. A few minutes later a very complicated violin song started up, muffled by the walls. From what Twilight could hear it sounded lovely, though it was a bit soured by how much she knew Lemon hated playing. Leaning back and listening to the music Twilight sighed, pulling her laptop from the side table and putting it on her lap. She signed into the chat her friends were having.
‘Twilight!’ Sunset typed, noticing her addition first. ‘Hey!’
‘Hey guys. Whats going on?’ Twilight asked, not being able to see the past conversation.
‘Not much.’ Rainbow responded. ‘Pinkie was grounded off the internet so she won’t be on for a while.’
‘Oh yes, her parents are being rather strict about it. Maud picks her up after school to take her home to work. Seems she got herself into a lot of trouble.’ Rarity typed, her font was some fancy looking cursive.
‘I haven’t seen hide nor hair of her.’ Applejack added. ‘So we haven’t even got to ask what happened.’
Twilight blinked. ‘I think I know. She was on a family outing in the woodlands around my school and decided to stop in and see me.’
‘So she just walked into a human private school...’ Rainbow said. ‘Where no monster could go without starting a mass panic?
‘What have I started?’ Sunset typed next.
‘Well that mystery is solved.’ Rarity added. ‘Goodness knows what my parents would do if I trespassed into human territory without permission. It would put my family into a tight corner, that's for sure.’
‘Well other than that, what's new with you Twi?’ Sunset asked.
‘Nothing much.’ Twilight leaned back in her seat quietly. ‘Tutoring a classmate after school for the week. I’m not sure if I’m making a connection with her and the subject though… I may have overloaded her.’
‘You ever try visual aide?’ Applejack chimed in. ‘That's what we do when we’re studying. Really helps Rainbow.’
‘I don’t need that much help.’ Rainbow responded only two seconds after the farmer.
‘Who founded Canterlot city?’ Applejack wrote back.
‘How should I know?’
‘We’ve been learning it all week.’ Applejack typed. ‘It was on today’s test.’
‘WE hAD A tEST?!?!’
Oh boy… Twilight winced a little and shook her head as all the other girls in the chat started to chime in at once in response to the athlete.
‘Imdeadimdeadimdead!’ Rainbow typed desperately.
‘Now see what happens when you nap in class?’ Applejack wrote.
‘My species is nocturnal! Its not my fault!’ Rainbow wrote back.
‘I don’t think that will work twice Rainbow.’ Sunset entered.
‘Anywho…’ Rarity typed. ‘Moving along from Rainbow’s spiraling academic life, I would also back the visual learning method darling…’
‘I can try it. Nothing to lose.’ Twilight agreed, already working out some diagrams in her head. ‘Now I just need to remember to complete my community service hours.’
‘Aren’t those due at the end of high school?’ Rarity asked
‘My school likes its students to do a certain number a year. I need five hours before the end of next week.’ Twilight began to think about how she could fill the hours.
‘My family heads down the orphanarium every week to do stuff.’ Sunset responded. ‘My mom loves kids and we read to them and stuff. Sometimes we take a week or two off, but it’s mostly because someone new there gets worried we’re going to steal one of the kids off to drain them of blood. Its stupid, but I guess I can see why that would be a concern… with them being orphan children and us being vampires and junk. Can’t be too careful.’
‘I help out at the flight camp sometimes.’ Rainbow added, seeming calmer. ‘Reminds me of when I learned to fly, its great!’
‘Yes, I collect clothes for the homeless or downtrodden. I also make suits and donate them to the shelters for people to wear at job interviews.’ Rarity typed. ‘ I do blankets as well. I’d offer you to join me Twilight, but I’m afraid that I just recently dropped off a bunch of things and they like me to space it out, for organization and distribution. Not to mention I can drop off a bigger load when I wait longer.’
‘I’d offer to, but flight camp is in the summer.’ Rainbow wrote. ‘Plus you can’t fly. That’s a deal breaker…’
‘The orphanarium actually has less kids than usual, so they don’t need anymore help right now.’ Sunset typed. ‘But I’m sure something will come up.’
‘Hopefully.’ Twilight responded, adjusting herself on her seat. She wasn’t sure what she’d do, but if she didn’t make it in time they may push back her due date, if only as a last resort. Twilight let her eyes drift down lower on the page.
Fluttershy is typing.
Fluttershy? She was on this chat group? She hadn’t written anything since Twilight had come in. Twilight watched as Fluttershy is typing disappeared without adding anything. Then started again. Then it was gone again. Starte-gone… St- Gone.
Twilight wasn’t the only one who notice. ‘Fluttershy? What are you doing? Post whatever you wanna say.’ Rainbow typed. There was a solid thirty seconds of written silence in the chat before Fluttershy started to type again.
‘Sorry.’
Ok.
“Fluttershy come on!’ Rainbow entered, seeming eritated.
‘We won’t bite darling. Do you have an idea for Twilight?’ Rarity added a bit more kindly.
Fluttershy is ty-
Fluttershy i-
Flu-
‘Fluttershy it isn’t going to be a bad idea.’ Sunset wrote.
‘Cue Pinkie to write something odd and hilarious here.’ Rainbow typed. ‘If she wasn’t grounded.’
‘Well…’ Fluttershy finally put something up and it seemed like she had the steam to keep going. ‘I was going to suggest that-’
She stopped, seemed to collect herself, then kept going.
‘-That maybe she could join me at the animal shelter?’ Fluttershy wrote. ‘The East Canterlot Shelter is always looking for volunteers.’
Animal shelter. Well she did like animals and if she could do five hours this weekend then it could work. However in the few seconds Twilight had taken to think it over was long enough for Fluttershy to start back-peddling rapidly.
‘You don’t have to. I just thought it was a good ideabutifyoudon’twanttothenthat’soktoo.’
Twilight tried to jump in before she could post more. “No, that seems like a good idea. What time should I show up?”
Fluttershy is-
Flutters-
“She goes there at nine on Saturdays. Be there then.” Rainbow sent up simply. “She can work there all day on Saturdays almost, and with most of us grounded something tells me she will.”
Twilight waited to see if the fairy would disagree with her friend but she said nothing. Twilight frowned. “Is that ok with you Fluttershy?”
“Yes, it’s fine. That day is good… Sorry..”
“If you're sure. I mean, if you don’t need the help on Saturday I can do it later on.” Twilight typed.
“Oh no! The shelter is always looking for helpers. They’d be glad to have you Twilight. I’ll pick you up at nine o’clock.” Fluttershy replied.
“Alright, I’ll be out in front of Everfree Estates at nine.” Twilight smiled as she leaned back in her seat. Glad to have squared that away.
“Wear something fire retardant.” Fluttershy added.
Fire retardant?!
Tutoring with Lemon carried on for the rest of the week. She got better… at least better than she had been. Twilight wasn’t sure if she had a future in electrical work, but she knew the basics, so it was a start. When Friday came Twilight bid her student goodbye for the weekend, hoping the girl would find time to study.
On Saturday morning she got up, showered, and headed off after informing her parents she was doing some community service. After a quick walk to the gates she stepped out to find Fluttershy waiting in her car, a soft yellow punch buggy, parked at the side of the road. The fairy caught sight of her, looking like a deer caught in the headlights. When Twilight opened the car door the quiet girl seemed to come out of her stupor and smile softly.
“Hi Fluttershy,” Twilight smiled and put on her seatbelt.
“H-hello,” Fluttershy responded, the car starting under her hands.
“Thanks for helping me get my final volunteer hours, Fluttershy,” Twilight said. “I really appreciate it.”
“Well the shelter appreciates you helping out. Not many come down to volunteer anymore… It's on the edge of town and a bit of a walk,” Fluttershy admitted. “That’s why I saved up for this.” She shyly patted the steering wheel.
“Oh, can’t you fly with your wings? That would seem faster than walking… right?” Twilight asked, pointing to the glittering wings poking out of Flittershy’s back. The human girl blinked in confusion when she noted that they were phasing right through the seat behind her.
“Well, flying is actually a little more strenuous than walking. It's like a jog. I know it must seem silly to creatures without wings, but when you’ve had them since birth, flying is just exercise after a while,” Fluttershy explained softly. “Rainbow flies everywhere but she like to keep fit. Plus, hers are made for longer trips, mine are more for hovering and expelling excess energy.” Fluttershy kept her eyes on the road but lifted a hand to wave it through the top of one wing, it phased through like nothing was there. “It’s not really wings anyway but magic being naturally released out of my back. We fairies make a lot of it. It just looks… like...wing…” Fluttershy clammed up, blushing suddenly. “Oh my… sorry I started to ramble…”
“No, no! It’s interesting,” Twilight said quickly. “I don’t know much about monsters or how they live. I’m very interested in what you have to say.”
Fluttershy blinked her eyes before blushing softly. “Well ahm… There's not too much else to know about fairy folk… I already told you we have many cousins. It’s an umbrella term used to describe human-like creatures who possess light magic. That's why witches aren’t considered fairy folk, they’re dark magic. Plus they look just like regular humans, fairy folk usually have something different like wings or being far smaller.”
“What about fairy circles?” Twilight asked, excited to have the opportunity to ask questions.
Fluttershy made a small snorted laughed, “Oh that’s fungi growing underground, that sprout a tangle of tube like threads which spread out horizontally in all directions making a circle around the main spore. Nothing to do with fairies. “ She hummed as she pulled into a parking lot beside a large building. The sign near the building read ‘Canterlot Animal Recovery East’. “I suppose Fairy circle is just a cute name,” She stated as she put the car in a spot to park.
“Oh,” Twilight said, a little embarrassed.
“N-not that it's not a good questions! I was just as confused when I first heard about them!” Fluttershy said nervously. “I asked my grandma about them when I was younger, she knows all about plants and stuff, she’s who told me about what they really were.”
“I’ll have to meet her some time, she sounds nice,” Twilight smiled.
Fluttershy paused getting out of the car to make a small scowl for a moment.
“Uh, Fluttershy?” Twilight started.
However Fluttershy returned to her normal self and looked at Twilight in surprise before coughing into her hand. “Oh sorry! Just thinking!” She stood out of the car and Twilight saw her looking grumpy again. “Yes... she’ll love you…”
Before Twilight could question it Fluttershy smiled down at her once more and motioned to follow her into the building. They came to the front and slipped into a small waiting area. It had adoption instructions on the walls with pricing and a large wall of pamphlets. In the corner was a counter, manned by a secretary with her back to them as she looked through a filing cabinet. Fluttershy floated up to the counter with a smile.
“Morning Ofelia!” Fluttershy said softly.
“Oh Fluttershy!” She turned and had thick bangs covering the upper part of her face. “So good to see you back!”
“Yes, and I brought my friend Twilight to volunteer today!” The fairy said, looking to Twilight for a moment. “We just need our volunteer tags and I can help her get started!”
“Hold on, let me take a look at you,” Ofelia said, putting down her papers and lifting up her free hands.
Eyes. She had eyes. In the palm of her hands.
Twilight was frozen but the woman smiled back at her. “Oh so nice to meet you! We’re always happy to have more hands around here.”
“Uh, yes. T-thank you!” Twilight said.
“Oh I forgot! Twilight’s from Everfree Estates! She’s never met a Tenome before.” Fluttershy said.
“Ah,” Ofelia said, still smiling at them. “Well I’m sure I look a little odd.”
“No! I mean, not at all,” Twilight insisted, wincing at her slightly insulting behaviour.
“Don’t worry. The eyes on the hand thing is something a lot of people, human or monster, take a little time to get used to. There’s not alot of Yokai around here,” Ofelia said easily. “Most of us are in the far East, where my grandparents came from.”
“Well, I’m very happy to meet you-” Twilight started too reach out a hand before she could think about it. She stood frozen, her hand stuck out to receive a handshake as Ofelia looked down at it.
Oh god.
Yet the yokai smiled again and took the hand to shake it. Twilight couldn’t really feel the eye so it was most likely closed, still she tried not to squeeze too hard in the handshake.
“Well, let me give you two your volunteer tags!” Ofelia smiled and pulled some from under the counter. “Here we go! Just write your names with the dry erase marker and go through that door, not that I need to tell you, eh Fluttershy?”
Fluttershy chuckled as she plucked a marker from a cup on the counter, writing her name on her tag. Twilight followed her lead and did the same on her own. After returning the markers and clipping the tags on they both went for the door, Ofelia waving them off.
“Have a good day!” She shouted just before the door shut.
“She’s very nice,” Twilight said, still feeling a little embarrassed by her sloppy interactions.
“She’s been volunteering here and manning the front desk for almost fifteen years. She loves animals!” Fluttershy explained.
“Then why is she always behind the desk? Is it hard with her eyes?” Twilight asked.
“Oh no! Her eyes are quite durable. It’s because she’s allergic to most pets with fur,” Fluttershy shivered. “Oh, I’d hate to have that.”
As they walked farther down the hall Twilight could make out the muffled sounds of animals barking and whining. Looking around she noted that many of the doors to the pens were larger than usual.
“We’re starting off here,” Fluttershy stated, opening an average sized-door. It lead to a kennel and Twilight could already make out a few dogs scattered around inside the closest ones. “Hello everyone! We’re here to clean up and fill your bowls.” Fluttershy smiled at the cacophony of noises the animals greeted them with and opened a cupboard filled with cleaning equipment. “We just sweep and mop. Then we collect the bowls to clean them and then fill them back up. You wanna start with Lucky over there and do that side of the room?”
Twilight looked over at the scruffy green Terrier who was pressed against the chainlink, nub-like tail wagging. “Sure!” She took the offered supplies over and went into the cage managing to keep the little dog inside as he started to jump around her excitedly. “Hello there little guy!”
The dog barked back at her, sniffing at her shoes. Twilight easily cleaned the space, even if Lucky insisted on being underfoot the whole time. She made sure to get under the pet bed and took the bowls with her after she left. Looking over her shoulder she noted that Fluttershy was closing the door on her second cage.
Well she was much more acquainted with this work than Twilight was. She moved to the next cage, taking the supplies with her and opening the door-
“Hiissss!”
“Gah!” Twilight leaped back as the giant rat like animal that stood waiting for her at the door made a noise. It was big, bigger than Lucky, and covered in wiry brown fur with a thick hairless tail. The animal slipped out of its pen and started to sniff around. “Uh oh!”
“It’s alright Twilight,” Fluttershy said, joining her, “Buttercup is a sweet lil’ girl. She won’t bite.”
“Ok, but what is she?” Twilight asked, trying to persuade the animal back into her cage with the mop. Buttercup merely started to nibble on the wood like it was a treat.
“She’s a R.O.U.S.” Fluttershy explained.
“A Rous?” Twilight looked up, confused.
“No no. R.O.U.S. Rodent of Unusual Size. They’re a relative of the Capybara, but they come in a more complex array of looks. Buttercup here looks more rat like, while some are a mix of a few different rodents. We had one that looked a mix of a squirrel and a mole a few weeks ago. He got adopted though.”
That surprised Twilight. She knew of a few animal species humans didn’t interact with, but none like this. Things like unicorns or Foo Dogs weren’t kept by humans for a variety of reasons. Their size, their dangerous abilities or even a general monster like looks tended to make humans wary of certain pets. Others were not kept by humans historically because they were only kept by monster owners; they were too expensive or too regal back in the day to be a human’s pet. Now humans could own whatever pet they wished, but in Everfree Estates they had strict guidelines for everything. Many humans saw unusual animals as dangerous, even if they were harmless, so they had a firm cats and dogs only rule.
“It’s actually quite interesting!” Fluttershy smiled and pet Buttercup on the back. “They were only discovered one hundred years ago. Many didn’t think they existed, that they were just Capybara seen from far away. They hail from a very dangerous swampland so not many would venture out so close.”
“Really-” Twilight jumped when something snapped, she looked down to find that Buttercup had just finished gnawing through the mop’s neck. Wood splinters were all over the floor.
“Oh dear, we’d better get another mop!” Fluttershy stated and glided back to the cupboard gracefully. “Just give the rest of the mop handle to her, she uses wood to keep her teeth short.”
Twilight eyed the rat uncertainty, it was large enough that she could probably sit on its back and ride it around, if it were strong enough. However she could see the big brown eyes looking from her to the stick excitedly. She tossed it into the cage and Buttercup scrambled after it.
“I’ll clean Buttercup’s cage Twilight. She’s acting a little moody today,” Fluttershy said as she returned, mop in hand. “She’s never done this with cleaning supplies before.”
“If you're sure?” Twilight asked before the fairy nodded and ushered her to the next cage. Inside this one was another dog, a lab mix. It was a good thirty minutes of cleaning and while the kennels mostly held dogs in this room, there were a few odd animals that made it more interesting. There was a Foo Dog in here, a large lion like animal with a wide jaw of hooked teeth and huge clawed paws, laying on his large bed as Twilight cleaned, watching her with dull disinterest. Then there was a Chamrosh, which Twilight had to read the papers on the cage to find out. It was an animal with a dog’s body but the head and wings of a bird, as though a nightingale and a Saluki dog had a baby together. It had hopped around the cage as she cleaned, at one point flying off the upper walls in excitement and singing wildly.
In the final cage was a Qilin, a strange looking green serpent like animal with a thick mane of red hair. It had a luxurious looking tail and the head of a dragon with a red beard and long thick whiskers. On its head was a single deerlike antler. It came up to her hip and looked sturdy and inflexible. He proved this by waddling around the cage slowly. She checked the paper on his cage. “Ok Baobei, lets get this cage cleaned up for you,” she said, starting to sweep it out. Baobei watched her do so, moving around the pen out of her way and sniffing her intently. The pet was seemingly litter trained as it was a quick clean and she soon found herself mopping up.
“Hello.”
Twilight paused, looking out in the hall. Only Fluttershy was out there, putting the cleaning supplies away in a closet. The voice that spoke, however, definitely wasn’t hers.
“H-Hello.” The voice came again and Twilight found herself looking down at her side. Baobei was looking up at her. He cocked his head before his mouth moved. “Hello.”
“Oh my god!” Twilight gasped, eyes wide. She stepped back a little as the creature looked up at her quizzically.
“Everything ok Twilight?” Fluttershy asked as she came over to take the bowls from the cage to wash them.
“It- He!- This is talking!” Twilight pointed down at the animal frantically. She couldn’t help but wonder if this was how Lemon Zest had felt a week ago.
“Oh yes, Qilin do that,” Fluttershy said fondly.
“Is it- Is it intelligent?” Twilight asked, shocked and wondering how a creature like that could be kept as a pet.
“Well all animals are in different ways, but Qilins aren’t as smart as people,” Fluttershy explained, she scratched Baobei behind the ear, the creature churring cutely under her hand. “They can only understand simple commands and repeat words back. They’re like parrots, but to be fair, parrots have a better understanding of what the words mean… Qilin just echo.”
“Shit,” Baobei said in his high pitched voice. “Shit Hello!”
Twilight tried to not show she was laughing. Fluttershy just looked unimpressed. “Oh I don’t understand why some people would teach such a sweet thing dirty words. It’s making it very hard to adopt him out.”
“Well I’m sure he’ll get adopted one day. He’s very interesting to look at,” Twilight said, patting the creature on the back. It turned to her and snuffled around her hand with its snout.
“He is very handsome,” Fluttershy smiled and stroked his mane.
“Hello!” Baobei barked between the petting.
They finished cleaning the bowls and refilled them for the animals after that. Leaving the room to the sounds of happy chewing the two went down the hall through a hallway with large windows.
“I never knew how many different types of pets there were,” Twilight smiled. “Everfree tends to have a short list of animals we can keep. So I didn’t know what kinds were kept other than cats and dogs.”
“Well it also depends on the owner and where they live too,” Fluttershy said. “Like those who often have fire around their homes, like fire nymphs and magma people, tend to have fire breathing pets. They already live in a neighbourhood that's pretty well fireproof and they like the warmth.” She pointed out towards a building through the window, surrounded by fencing. “That’s where we keep the larger, hoofed animals. We have some Unicorns and a Hippogriff out there right now. They’re tended to by special handlers. They need lots of space to graze and run, so city living isn’t good for them.”
“Like horses,” Twilight said. “That makes sense.”
“There are some Hellhounds and Orthros in that room. That’s the cat room there. Then that's the puppy/baby room, it's so cute! We have some Orthros puppies in there and they’re still trying to work out control between their heads,” Fluttershy explained as she floated on. “I would have given you the tour first, but that room back there is specifically mine to take care of in the morning and afternoons, so I needed to give them breakfast first.”
“I understand, Spike can be pretty grumpy if I don’t feed him first thing in the morning,” Twilight started with a laugh.
“Oh, that’s right! Your lil puppy!” Fluttershy looked excited. “Do you have any pictures?”
Twilight pulled out her phone. “Only every second picture on this thing is of him,” She said and started to flip through a few, the fairy leaning over her shoulder to look. “Here he is begging for table scraps and this one he was just caught chewing on my mom’s slippers.”
“Aww, so rascally!” Fluttershy giggled.
“Yep, he’s my little troublemaker,” Twilight agreed as she showed the next picture of Spike, running after a squirrel at the park. “Oh, I have a really old one in here I’ve kept.” She took a minute to flip to some of the earliest pictures on her phone. “Here it is! This is when we first brought him home!” The picture was one of her holding a young puppy Spike back when she was ten, when he was so small he could fit in her hands.
“Aww!” Fluttershy cooed at the picture but to Twilight it brought back memories. Spike was brought home shortly after her brother left. She didn’t have any friends back then other than her family and when he left she had become a little downtrodden… Still, Spike had helped fill the hole in their life, even if it was just a little.
“So do you have any pet Fluttershy?” Twilight asked, putting her phone away.
“Oh yes!” Fluttershy said excitedly, looking for her own phone now. “I foster so many for the shelter, but I have one all for myself. My cute lil bunny, Angel.” Twilight looked down at the picture, trying to hold her smile. In the picture was Fluttershy, smiling and happy, but in her arms was a rabbit that looked grumpy. It had its arms crossed, a very dark scowl painted on its face. Twilight swallowed, what kind of rabbit looked like that?! She looked back to Fluttershy, realizing the girl expected a response.
“He’s so cute,” Twilight said, and it was somewhat true, the tiny grump was cute in his own way. She just hoped her voice could play along.
It seemed to as Fluttershy smiled. “Thank you! He’s a big part of my life at home. My parents are often working right now and my brother’s a little…” She paused, looking thoughtful before she sighed. “Annoying.”
“You have an older brother too?” Twilight asked.
“Younger actually,” Fluttershy moaned. “I have no idea what runs through his head, other than that he think he’s a ladies man. It's actually the opposite.” She and Twilight shared a giggle.
“That bad huh?”
“You don’t know the half of it,” Fluttershy shook her head. “ Zephyr Breeze is a story all his own…” She leaned against the window. “You have a brother?”
“Yeah… I haven’t seen him for a while though,” Twilight frowned.
“Oh no, why is that?” Fluttershy asked, looking concerned.
Twilight paused, biting her lip to think. “He… my parents and Grandma had a disagreement with him.”
“That’s horrible,” Fluttershy said in a comforting tone. “I’m sure you’ll meet again someday though.”
“I hope so. He and I were close,” Twilight admitted glumly. He was pretty much her only friend before Spike had come along.
She looked to Fluttershy quietly, studying the girl. She didn’t know anything about the fairy beside her other than she liked animals, but here she was, having an open conversation… There was something about Fluttershy that conveyed that she could be trusted. Maybe it was her kind, calm demeanor. Maybe it was their similar social struggles…
Her sight drifted past Fluttershy’s form, out the window. She noted a far off building on the premises that piqued her interest. It was dark and windowless, surrounded by barbed wire fencing. “Fluttershy, what's that?”
The fairy looked out where she was pointing. “That's the Contraband building,” She said, looking back at her friend. “Illegal animals that are seized for a multitude of reasons go there before being shipped away. They’re not supposed to be pets in this country, they’re dangerous, that kinda stuff.” She sighed sadly. “Not their fault though, the poor little things.”
“What kinds of animals are in there?” Twilight asked.
“Right now? I’m not sure, I’m not allowed in there. I have heard of some Nifflers coming through. They’re small little mole creatures that like shiny things. However, due to that quality, criminals have trained they to steel gold and jewels,” Fluttershy frowned. “Then, last year, someone was transporting baby Sandworms illegally over the borders. They grow very large and can eat people, so they’re a no no.” She paused, tapping her chin. “Then, when I first started, there was that story about an old blind Nagini who bought a pet from the back of a van, turns out it was a Basilisk. They only found out when she hired a Home Care Helper, killed the poor man with one look.”
“Oh my god,” Twilight gasped, shocked.
“Well that's why we have rules like this,” Fluttershy shrugged sadly. “Some animals are just too dangerous.” She looked up at a clock on the wall, jolting when she noted how long they had been talking. “Goodness! We need to get to the inferno room! Time to clean up more cages.”
“Inferno room?” Twilight asked as they walked to a red door. It had a glass window in it and a fire hazard warning sign next to it.
“Fire breathing animals. We got some dragons and phenoxies.” Fluttershy explained, she paused to look Twilight up and down. “Oh, I forgot to check. Are your clothes fireproof?”
“I tried to find some,” Twilight said sheepishly. She had found some clothes in her wardrobe that were fire-ish proof. Other than that…
“Well it helps, but we have some extra talismans here,” Fluttershy said, taking a necklace off the hanger by the door. She slipped one over her head and gave one to Twilight. “They’re hexed so fire has a harder time staying lit. It isn’t always enough, but it’s better than nothing.” She smiled as Twilight put the object over her head. It was a chain linked necklace with some kind of gemstone on the end, strange symbols etched in the surface.
Fluttershy pushed the door open with a great amount of effort. The moment the seal cracked a sweltering heat rushed out, making Twilight almost stumble back. Fluttershy ushered her in and the human looked around as Fluttershy closed the door once more.
It was very, very, very, very, very ,ver- erhm. Very warm. Not to mention humid. Twilight tried to keep her breath and watched as Fluttershy opened a nearby cage. She reached in and pulled out a very large green lizard looking beast, with bug eyes and horns. A row of spikes going down its back. “This little guy came in a few days ago. He’s very well fed and loves being held, so it’s safe to say he has an owner. Likely just got out of his yard somehow.”
Twilight came closer, eyes wide. “I thought dragons were sapient,” Twilight said, puffing a little.
“Well some are, others are like our friend here. It’s like humans and monkeys or werewolves and dogs,” Fluttershy explained. The dragon in her arms shot its tongue out, licking its own eye. “This kind of dragon is called a Terror, though that name doesn't suit them. You want to hold him?”
“Well uh…” Twilight started uncertainty, looking down at it. The large reptile stared back at her with an uneven gaze. Swallowing slightly the human reached out her arms and allowed Fluttershy to transfer it to her hold.
He was heavier than she expected. He croaked and held onto her with his claws a little, shuffling in her arms until he was comfortable. He felt very warm and the weight of him in her arms was nice.
“He doesn't wriggle like Spike does,” Twilight said, smiling up at the fairy before her.
“Terrors are a very energetic dragon compared to their larger cousins. They have to be handled a lot as hatchlings to be this content in someone’s arms,” Fluttershy explained. “Besides, I think he likes you.”
Twilight looked down to see the Terror had nuzzled his big head into the crook of her arm and shut his eyes. She smiled at the sighed. “Awww.”
Then the dragon jerked his head up and sneezed.
Fire flew down her side in a frenzy of embers and Twilight yelped. She handed the dragon over to Fluttershy at lighting speed before attempting to bat out the tiny flames holding to her clothes.
“Oh are you alright?!” Fluttershy asked, worried.
"F-fine, just—" huff "—just startled—" huff "—just startled m-me," Twilight coughed.Thankfully the necklace did its job and the embers didn’t last long on her clothes. They snuffed out after less than ten seconds and Twilight was left puffing and out of breath. She rummaged around in her bag, pulling out her inhaler.
“Are you sure?” Fluttershy frowned, floating closer.
“Y-yes.” -cough- “Just the humidity in here mixed with the sudden panic,” Twilight wheezed. “Just give me a second.” She took a hit from it after shaking it thoroughly.
“Is it too much in here?” Fluttershy questioned, looking around. “I could handle it by myself.”
“No, no. I can help,” Twilight managed to say finally, standing up straight. “It’s fine, let’s get started.”
Fluttershy still looked uncertain. The Terror stared off into space with a cloudy gaze.
It took a while to clean the cages of ash and soot, wash the bowls, then put everyone back into their place. Partially because Twilight was a little nervous around the animals. They both needed special gloves to handle the phoenixes. A fire fox pup had pulled on Twilight’s shoelaces and nearly caught her whole foot on fire. Then a cage at the far end of the room held a bright white and blue dog like creature that zipped around the cage faster than she could follow with her eye. Fluttershy called it a Raijū and said its body was made of lighting. They both agreed to let Fluttershy handle that one alone.
“I’m not much help am I?” Twilight asked as they exited the Inferno room. Fluttershy turned to her after the door was sealed.
“Of course you are. I’ll admit the inferno room took longer than normal, but the first kennel takes me much longer to do myself,” Fluttershy said. “Besides…” She looked sheepishly to the floor. “It’s nice to have someone my age around here to help me.”
“Hopefully you're not too far behind schedule.”
“Nonsense, I’m actually a little ahead,” Fluttershy smiled. “Next we need to take the pets from the first room out for a play. Each of them get a half hour.”
“How do we keep the Chamrosh from flying away?” Twilight asked.
“Oh you mean Sweetums? We have a pen that's fully enclosed. No way she’s getting out,” Fluttershy smiled. “They’re more interested in playing fetch than anything else though.”
“Fluttershy!”
A door banged open a ways down the hall, a lizard woman stood poised in the doorway, panting. “Fluttershy I need your help for a mom- ahhh!” She yelped when a large animal pushed her over and pinned her to the ground. Thankfully it didn’t seem to mean any harm. However Twilight did note that it was a little odd looking. The dog had four heads. Two were taking turns licking at the woman’s face as the third was looking around, grumpy and snorting. The last head was barking like crazy in a deep voice.
“Boys!” Fluttershy said sternly. All the heads snapped up to look at her. “Stop that! Eeny, Meeny, Miny, and Moe, you are all in serious trouble, misters!” Three of the heads wilted and started to crawl back into the room. The last one, the grumpy one, glared at Fluttershy but allowed his brothers to lead him back into the kennel, but not before grabbing the woman by her pant leg and dragging her with them. The woman yelped, more surprised than worried, until she conked her head on the door frame.
“Taryn!” Fluttershy frowned, fluttering towards the door. “Twilight, you stay there! The boys can be a little rowdy. I’ll handle this!”
“Uh, ok!” Twilight called after her, watching the large door close. The girl looked around the hallway quietly, now she had a moment alone to reflect. So far the day had been going well. Fluttershy had turned out to be a wealth of knowledge on animals and she was more than happy to share, so long as she knew you well enough. She was really nice and seemed just as socially awkward as Twilight herself at times.
It was comforting to know that she wasn’t alone in that regard.
The back door pushed open as Ofelia step out wearily. She was flipping through a thick ringed pile of papers, written in small print. Twilight immediately perked up.
She knew a computer’s systems control manual when she saw one.
Ofelia looked frustrated and was trying to hold the book in one hand and read with the other. “Darn things,” She muttered softly, the eye in her palm fluttering. It then started to water a little, going pink. “Gah!”
“Are you ok?” Twilight asked, coming closer.
“Yes, ugh… Just my allergies acting up. I never usually come back here, but the computer is fussing up on me. They got a new system at the beginning of the week. It’s supposed to be easier to run the rescue, but I’m just flummoxed by it. I was trying to file a new batch of kittens in the adoption website and, well, just come look.” She lead Twilight back into the front room, to the computer behind the desk. On the screen were a smattering of windows with different functions. “I pressed one button and it all went to heck… excuse my french. I was hoping to grab Taryn or Dr. Fauna, our resident vet, but I don’t even know if they have a better grasp of the computer than me.”
“Let me see the manual,” Twilight said, taking the heavy papers with a grunt. She started to look through it, starting at the index. Ofelia, meanwhile, put a few eye drops in her palms and rubbed them together. “Ok, I think I see what happened. You pressed this to open a new window, but you accidentally selected all and opened everything.”
“Oh darn it.” She leaned over Twilight’s shoulder. “Then why can’t I escape?”
“You locked the selection, so everytime you click it opens more. You just need to de-select command and open your task manager.” Twilight spun around to Ofelia. “Then it should work.”
“Well I can try that.” She reached around the girl, left clicking the mouse to bring down the option bar, safely stopping anymore windows from popping up. “Then… I just…”
“Use the search bar,” Twilight said.
“Got it. Then.. oh here we go. Exit all.” Ofelia smiled when the desktop reappeared. “Oh perfect! I was worried I’d have to restart the whole thing!” The yokai took her seat again. “Now I can just put that up online and-uh oh.”
“Uh oh?” Twilight echoed, leaning over the woman’s shoulder again.
“It logged me out!” She frowned, turning her body back to Twilight. “I haven’t had to log into the website in five years! I dunno the password. I used to have it written down, but then we moved buildings and got a new email domain and… oh boy.”
Twilight hummed softly before looking at the computer, thinking. “I could try.”
“Try what?” She asked.
“Well, I take a lot of computer classes in school. Plus I just love reading about them so I have a pretty good grasp on it. I could try and hack in, if you want,” Twilight offered.
“Well I suppose so. I can’t think of much else,” Ofelia said, standing up to let Twilight take a swing. As soon as she sat down she tried to focus in on what she was doing. A little coding here, download a bootable password reset disk…
“Oh there you are!” They both looked up as Fluttershy came over to them, looking relieved. “I was worried you had wandered off and gotten lost.”
“Sorry for worrying you Fluttershy, but your friend here is a huge help!” Ofelia smiled. “She’s hacking our systems because I may have accidentally forgotten the password.”
“I didn’t know you were good with computers Twilight,” Fluttershy said, surprised.
“I can hack almost anything, not that I usually need to,” Twilight admitted sheepishly. “Or want to.” She leaned back over the computer, smiling a few clicks later… “Done!”
“Look at that!” Ofelia said, holding her hands up to see the screen. “We’re back in!”
“The password was puppylove<3. You’ll need to reset it,” Twilight said, standing back up to hand the chair back.
“I never would have gotten this done so quickly! Thank you Twilight,” Ofelia said and sat back down. “Now I just need to put those kittens up… Say, we need some names for them. What do you two think?”
“Really?! We can name some of them?” Twilight asked, excited.
“They have to be odd names though,” Fluttershy told her. “They catch the attention of potential adopters.”
“Hows about Flip-Flop? It’s almost summer,” Twilight said with a smile.
“That’s cute! The orange tom is getting that one!” Ofelia stated quickly.
“Sandy is nice for that cream one,” Fluttershy offered.
“Say, let's just do summer names for the bunch of them!” Ofelia said, she filed in a few name slots with Seashell and Splash.
Before any more name suggestions could be offered, the front door opened. Twilight looked up and paled when two fiery monsters entered the building. At first she was worried the entire rescue would go up in flames, but it seemed that the creatures could control their blaze and walked up to the front desk. There was a man and a very young girl, likely three or four. Now that she could see them closely Twilight could tell that they were actually made of magma, not fire, though the girl’s long flaming hair could say otherwise. The child looked very distraught and the man squeezed her hand.
“Excuse us, but we’re looking for a lost pet,” the man said quickly.
“Can you describe the pet for us?” Ofelia asked.
“Well he’s a Terror dragon. He’s very friendly and-”
“His name is Scaley!” The little girl piped up, interrupting her father. “He likes to sleep in the fireplace and he’s green like the dragons in story books and he’s cute!”
“Honey, calm down,” The man said softly. “Sorry, my daughter is very concerned. He should have a chip. Registered to the Ahi family.” He showed his driver’s license as he spoke.
“I’ll check the computer,” Ofelia said, typing into the system. She looked around for a minute before smiling. “Came in a few days ago. He’s in the back.”
“I’ll grab him,” Fluttershy said quickly, fluttering back to the Inferno room.
“Hear that, they found Scaley here!” The father said with a grin. The little girl looked up at him, her body starting to glow a bit brighter and the temperature in the room raised a little.
When Fluttershy returned she set the dragon down. He shuffled around a bit before pausing. Sniffing the air he scuttled around the counter quickly and the girl caught sight of him. “Scaley!” She squealed. The dragon ran over to her and she was quick to scoop him up. “Where did you go!? We were lookin’ fer you!”
The dragon said nothing but Twilight flinched when it breathed a large flame out of its mouth, right in the girl’s face! The child merely blinked before laughing, her hair growing a bit bigger for a few seconds. “I missed you too!” She squeezed the dragon in a hug, but Scaley just nuzzled down in the hot magma contently. It was a rather cute scene.
“Thanks very much!” The man said, picking up both his daughter and pet at once. “We appreciate it.”
“No problem. You folks have a nice day,” Ofelia said as they left out the door.
Fluttershy sighed happily at Twilight’s side. She leaned over to her human friend. “This is why I do this.”
“It is very rewarding,” Twilight agreed. She followed Fluttershy back to the kennels and waved to Ofelia as she went. They were going back to get some of the animals out to play and Fluttershy was explaining what order they went in when something banged in the cat room. They both looked at each other and went for the door.
Going inside they could see no one inside but the cats. Some of the cages held normal cats, while some were more mystical in nature, like a cat that was made out of stars. In a large cage was a Manticore, who was napping lazily. Twilight noted that a food bowl was thrown out of a big cage in the back. She walked over and picked it up carefully, looking into the cage that had held it.
“GAH!”
“Hey,” The human-cat person was hunched over in the cage in front of her. His clothes were kinda messy and he was holding his head. “Don’t uh, don’t yell like that. Kay?”
“Gah-!? Nahhh-? Huh?” Twilight blinked.
“Oh not again!” Fluttershy groaned as she flew in.
“Again?!” Twilight blinked.
Fluttershy sighed and looked in the cage in disdain. “Hello Mr. Capper.”
“Fluttershy, please, Mr. Capper is my father,” The cat said, wincing and holding his head harder. “Call me Mr. Capper Jr. We know each other well enough.”
“Huh?!” Twilight gocked.
Fluttershy looked at her helplessly but sighed. “Mr Capper… Jr. here is a were-cat. He goes to Canterlot City University. Sometimes when the weekend parties get too… wild. The shapeshifting students get mistaken for strays and are brought in.”
Twilight stared at her, slack jawed before looking back down at the cage. Fluttershy frowned and glared down as well. “He’s been in a couple of times.”
The were-cat looked up at them. “Yh, so Flutters, what happened to the the food that makes its own gravy? Breakfast was terrible today.”
Fluttershy rolled her eyes. “I’m getting a security guard. Don’t move.”
“Couldn't if I wanted to,” He shrugged.
“It’s like seeing my brother in five years… give or take,” She muttered and flew out of the room.
“Hey, pretty human girl.”
Twilight turned, blushing a little at his words. The cat man held out an empty silver bowl. “Mind getting me some more water? I swear service in this place has gone down hill. I’ll need to edit my Yelp review.”
Twilight slowly took the bowl.
The day went by rather quickly after that. A guard came and escorted Mr. Capper… Jr. out, then everything went as usual. Or as usual as Twilight could find this day. A Foo Dog bowled her over during play time, a miniature Chimera nearly took her finger and Twilight was pretty sure a kitsune fox had engaged her in a silent conversation.
All in all, it was one of the best days ever!
She was definitely interested in coming back to help out. When she mentioned it to Fluttershy the girl made the biggest smile she had seen on the fairy all day. When it was time to leave Twilight did so feeling a bit depressed. She had wanted to stay longer, but Fluttershy was needed at home that afternoon. Besides, Twilight’s mom was expecting her. After getting her paperwork filled out by Ofelia, validating her hours, Fluttershy started to drive her home.
“It was so nice of you to come in today Twilight. It was wonderful to have the company and the help,” Fluttershy smiled as she headed back towards Everfree Estates. “The animals really responded to you.”
“Like I said, I wouldn’t mind helping out again sometime,” Twilight said.
“My family is running a big adoptathon later in the year. Maybe you could come down.”
“If I don’t have any prior engagements then that sounds good.”
The car slowly rolled to a stop just outside Everfree Estates. It was still early afternoon and Twilight could see some bustling just inside the gates as people went about their normal day.
“Is it nice in there?” Fluttershy asked, interested.
“Well, everything is pretty much the same looking and not much happens. So it’s nice. Boring, but nice,” Twilight explained. “Though the homeowners association can be a little overbearing.”
Fluttershy looked thoughtful. “Do you like it?”
Twilight blinked in surprise. “Well, it’s ok, like I said.” She frowned in concern. “Why do you ask?”
Fluttershy paused, looking flustered, but still tried to respond. “I-uh- don’t want you to think I’m prying but… when I picked you up you seemed so happy to go out, and now you just looked hesitant to go back in.”
Twilight looked back at Everfree. Before she had met Sunset and the other girls, the large stone walls had made her feel safe. When she had first ventured out of them she had been so nervous, afraid of anything bad happening to her. Now... Now they felt restrictive in a way.
Had she grown so much in such a small amount of time? It had been only a few weeks since she had dragged Sunset into her house.
“I think I just had a nice day with you, I’m just sorry it’s over so soon,” Twilight said, looking back to the fairy.
Fluttershy blinked, surprised. It quickly morphed into a sheepish expression. “Well maybe we can all hang out again after the others aren’t being grounded.”
“That sounds fun.” Twilight smiled and opened the car door. She stepped out and waved to Fluttershy before shutting it. Fluttershy waved back then drove off down the road. The human watched her go, looking back at Everfree Estates after her car disappeared.
Maybe she was getting tired of this place...