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// Chapter 36: Review 
// Story: What is a Tatzlpony? 
// by Skylight77 
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Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash had navigated a great distance through the thick leaves and branches that these trees kept providing for them. It had been a couple hours since they left the clearing and there was still no sign of this garden. Only more and more trees. At least they weren’t navigating through thorns like last time.

However, THIS little predicament that they found themselves in wasn’t any better. Both of them were shivering at what they stumbled upon. A large horde of snakes directly in front and behind their path. Most of them were hissing and slightly slithering about. Some of them big, some of them small, some of them even decorating the branches like they were vines. Flying over them wasn’t an option because of that.

Luckily, they haven’t agitated them… yet. The big ones were asleep while the small ones were slithering around. If they got agitated, they could wake the big ones, waking them up for breakfast.

Both Rainbow and Fluttershy were huddled so close, practically sweating on each other. If they were gonna get out of here, they would have to navigate it very carefully. Fluttershy took a big gulp, then whispered to Rainbow.

“Follow my steps very carefully.” Rainbow nodded nervously to her. She took note of each snake’s position and their movement, seeking out the best possible path for them to take out of here. When she found it, she took the first step in the depths of the snakes.

The first crunch from that step was practically ear piercing. Fluttershy winced at it while Rainbow was darting her head back and forth, frantically looking at the different snakes. Seeing that none of them were agitated, Fluttershy silently sighed in relief and kept going.

Once Fluttershy got enough distance, it was Rainbow’s turn to make the first step. Rainbow had to roll her tail to her side as she made the first step. It made it harder for her to balance, but she had to do it, else it would drag on the ground and make contact with the snakes.

Fluttershy watched carefully as Rainbow entered the horde. The first few steps went smoothly. But once she made the fourth step, one of the snakes made contact with her right hind hoof. The moment it did, Rainbow’s eyes widened. But before she could scream, Fluttershy hurried and placed a hoof over Rainbow’s mouth while she herself was gritting her own teeth in fear. All that came from Rainbow’s voice was a muffled moan out of panic.

The snake continued slithering along Rainbow’s hoof, practically nuzzling against it. Of course, her hoof was shaking, but she tried so hard to keep it still. She swear she could feel the thing licking her hoof now, which, if not for Fluttershy’s hoof, she’d be whimpering really loudly to. Fluttershy could practically see the hair on Rainbow’s coat standing straight at that. Looks like even though Rainbow was turned into a tatzlpony, she still had such sensitive hooves.

Eventually, Fluttershy led Rainbow to pick her hoof up very slowly. She had to put a hoof to Rainbow’s chest to keep the hair on her coat from getting any sharper. When she managed to lift the hoof, the snake’s head followed slightly, until it was out of range. Thankfully, the snake was left unagitated.

Both of them went, ‘phew’, when Rainbow was able to set her hoof back down. Fluttershy looked back ahead of herself for them to continue on. But just before they could continue, Fluttershy nearly bumped her head against one of the snakes dangling from a branch, causing her to recoil too harshly and lose balance.

Fluttershy screamed internally as she desperately wobbled over the snakes, trying so hard not to step on them. Shortly, her balance couldn’t hold up and she started falling down. Squeezing her eyes and holding back a scream, she fell, waiting for her body to inevitably topple against one of the large snakes.

But somehow, her body had stopped falling, eyes quivering with sweat dripping down her face. When she peaked one eye open, she nearly screamed again when she saw that she was directly in the face of one of the giant sleeping snakes. Her eyes shrunk to pea-sizes from seeing just how close that was.

It was then that Fluttershy noticed that what caused her body to stop falling was Rainbow Dash, more specifically, her three tongues catching her body from the fall. She looked back to Rainbow Dash to notice she was bent forwards, standing only on her front hooves while her back hooves were in the air. Her wings were spread to help her balance while she was holding Fluttershy with her tongues. Fluttershy was nervous being wrapped around those things, but it was better than falling on those snakes.

With that little save, Rainbow helped Fluttershy right herself up until her hooves were balanced back on the ground, in between all those snakes. After that, they continued treading through. Rainbow kept her tongues against Fluttershy to better her balance. Fluttershy could navigate the path, but Rainbow had the better balance. Together, they were able to cross without anymore issues.

After managing to get away from those snakes, both Rainbow and Fluttershy slumped against a tree, sighing a huge wave of relief. Their hearts were still pounding from such an experience. Fluttershy was also relieved to be freed from those tongues. She still hadn’t gotten used to them wrapping around her like that.

Unfortunately, she and Rainbow barely had a reason to celebrate. She looked at what was up ahead in the forest. That garden was still nowhere to be found. Instead, all they found was a garden of snakes, and just more endless trees up ahead. It just wasn’t ending.

Fluttershy looked down with a frown, questioning again why they were trying to find this thing. She thought about the Alpine Flowers in her bag. That felt like reason enough, but unless she figured out how they would grow, then finding it would practically be meaningless.

And then there was the question of whether it even existed at all. Could they trust X after everything she and the others did? How would she get the flowers to grow? They had to have some sort of relation to the tatzlponies. What was their relation? To figure that out, she had to ask, what did she know about a tatzlpony so far?

With all these questions, Fluttershy sighed and concluded. “Rainbow… I think… we need to stop.” Hearing that made Rainbow’s head flip up. She looked to Fluttershy, wondering if she heard correctly. “I think we need to stop for now, and think this over.” Fluttershy turned to Rainbow to clarify. “What do we know about you, and what has happened to us so far?”

After that clarification, Rainbow understood what Fluttershy wanted. But they weren’t going to have it here. She stood up and walked away from the tree.

“Rainbow?” Fluttershy asked. Rainbow didn’t respond, but she stopped walking after she got some space. Closing her eyes, she lifted her head up into the air, taking a long whiff. She stayed like that for a good few seconds with her ears twitching a bit. She soon brought her head down and laid her ear against the floor.

Fluttershy was wondering what she was doing. Her tail was slithering along the ground, feeling it as if it was searching for something. It dug itself into the ground, twitching back and forth. Suddenly, Rainbow propped back up. She looked to a certain direction, then started running. Confused, Fluttershy quickly got up and followed after.

“Rainbow! Where are you going?” Fluttershy was a little worried. They weren’t going in the path that the garden was at all. And thanks to all the leaves, she couldn’t even see what was up ahead. Yet, Rainbow seemed to know.

After about a minute, Fluttershy lost sight of Rainbow Dash. But she could still hear her so she continued following the sounds. And then, the leaves cleared up. She and Rainbow stopped just before they entered the place Rainbow was leading.

Fluttershy gasped in awe as she stood by the entrance. A sight like this was absolutely beautiful after seeing nothing but thick trees for days. They walked inside as they took in the sights. Rainbow Dash had led them to a clearing with a clear spring in the center. While not as majestic as the first spring Rainbow showed, it certainly felt more majestic for the time.

“Now I understand,” Fluttershy said as she looked to Rainbow with a relieved smile. Rainbow was smiling back. This was why Rainbow took off so suddenly. She just wanted to find a more suitable place to stop and rest for a while.


___


Fluttershy dipped her lips into the spring, filling her mouth with large amounts of water to gulp down. Rainbow was doing the same, but cupping her tongues together to bring the water to her mouth. After taking their drink, they laid back on the mat they set up, releasing a huge sigh of pleasure. Water like that tasted golden when their hooves were aching from all the walking they’ve done. She was so thankful that Rainbow could find a place like this.

Of course, that only fed more to her guilty pleasure. The more things like this that went on, the more and more Fluttershy wanted Rainbow to stay like this. She was loving it, and it made her sad how much she was loving it. If this kept up, it would make it so much harder for her to accept the day Rainbow would have to turn back to normal.

The worst part was, Rainbow didn’t know. Rainbow didn’t know and she hated herself for that. She wanted her to know. So badly, she wanted to tell Rainbow how she felt. But she just couldn’t bring herself to tell her.

To escape that mindset, Fluttershy went back to what was important right now. She went to her bag and took out the journal that she found in that cabin quite a while ago, a journal that could close like a case to cover its pages, and had a broken note as its cover. After turning to Rainbow, she set the journal down, waited for Rainbow to turn to her, then started.

“Rainbow, I think we need to go over everything that has happened to us so far.” Rainbow blinked curiously and she moved closer. “There is so much that I want to know about you, and because of your toxin, so much I need to know if I’m going to help you. So before we go any further, we need to go over everything we discovered and everything we were told. Maybe we can find something out.”

Rainbow stared at her for a few seconds, probably thinking about the situation. At first, she thought it would be best to find that garden as soon as possible to protect Fluttershy from her toxin. But since they had those two Alpine Flowers in reserve, that probably was a good idea. So in the end, she nodded and lied on her stomach in a more comfortable position. Fluttershy would probably pick at her brain again.

“Okay, here we go.” Fluttershy took a deep breath before recalling the events that had transpired.


___


“It all started when you found me practicing a melody with my bird friends at my garden. Your very presence scared the poor critters. I was scared too, but only because I didn’t know who was out there. I found that it was you. And when you looked at me, your eyes pulsated like you could recognize me. And then… you swallowed me. I was passed out, and didn’t find you until the next day.”

“But… according to you, you were transformed into a tatzlpony one day before you found me on that first day, with your memory lost. So… I guess I’ll call that Day One. Day Two was when I discovered you, and Day Three was when I took you in. You had been a tatzlpony for three days before anypony could help you, all alone without your memory...”

“After getting to know you a little, I took you to Twilight to see if we could get you fixed. According to her, you were affected by transformation magic similar to the one she used when she turned all of us into breezies. She said that in order for that to work, you need a sample of the critter that you’re transforming them into. So all she had to do was cancel the spell’s effect, and you would be back to normal.”

“...I didn’t think about it at the time, but before Twilight casted the spell, she was looking at you for a really long time, not doing anything. It looked like she was thinking on something, and then pushed it away. Why? It makes me thing she may have had something to do with you turning into a tatzlpony. But… there’s no way she would’ve wished for all of this to happen to us. So if she didn’t want this, why couldn’t she tell us what was on her mind?”

Fluttershy paused her recollection, looking to Rainbow as she thought on that matter. Rainbow was just looking at her blankly, not able to answer that either. So on the back of the journal, Fluttershy decided to place a note of that question. ‘Why did Twilight stutter before performing the spell?’

“Continuing on. After she performed the spell, it looked like it worked. ‘Looked like’... until the next day. Day Four, After I took you home, I decided to stay with you to see if you were okay when you woke up. But you weren’t. Not only did you not have your memory restored, but you were changed back into a tatzlpony again. Do you remember anything happening that night?”

Rainbow shook her head to answer Fluttershy’s question. Fluttershy made a note of that.

“That day, I learned a little more about you. For one, you can have a big appetite. Really big.” She wrote that down. ”I haven’t been able to learn just how big yet. But… not only do you have a big appetite, you swallow ponies whole. That day, Scootaloo came to visit you, and you swallowed her just like you swallowed me. Before you did though, your eyes pulsated just like when you saw me.”

Fluttershy paused to look to Rainbow Dash. “But you didn’t do that when you saw Twilight. Why is that?” Almost immediately, she gasped as she thought of something. “Oh that’s right. You swallowed Angel at the time. I didn’t even know you had him with you, but you did. Hmm…” She put a hoof to her mouth as she pondered. “I think I’ll go back to that one later.”

“Anyway, so a tatzlpony not only has a big appetite, but they’re also able to swallow ponies the same size as them, and keep them trapped. But you meant no harm for Scootaloo. You ran away into the Everfree Forest, scared by me. When I found you, you had just survived a timberwolf attack, injured, and tired. I took you back to my cottage so that you could rest and heal, but was so worried about Scootaloo sleeping inside you.”

“She… did say that it was comfortable in there. Is it?” Fluttershy shuddered harshly. “No! Forget I asked. Um… Just thinking about that, I couldn’t sleep. If it hadn’t been for Angel giving me those sleeping pills, I probably would’ve been up all night, disturbing the little critters, even though Scootaloo was sure that she would be alright. She was. Day Five…”

Fluttershy took another pause when she mentioned that day. This pause was a lot longer than the others, amazement in her eyes.

“Oh my… A LOT has happened on Day Five…” She took another deep breath as she recalled this eventful day. “Day Five, you woke up and pulled Scootaloo out of your stomach with your tongues, and then cleaned her body from your saliva.” Fluttershy went back to the journal. “Tatzlponies… they… *gulp*... s-swallow ponies that they have a fond connection with. But in time, anypony swallowed would be released unharmed.”

Rainbow turned her head away from that. After what happened at the clearing, she wasn’t entirely sure about that. Fluttershy caught this and was able to partially tell why. So at the end, she wrote ‘unharmed’ with a question mark at the end.

Fluttershy put up a smile. “Scootaloo was unharmed though, and as energetic as ever. I felt that we were finally at a time where we could relax again. So I cooked a big breakfast for us all to celebrate over, and…” She couldn’t help but giggle and blush. “We made a really big mess over it. I wanted to see just how big your appetite was, but still couldn’t get that answer. Still… I was sooo happy!”

Rainbow couldn’t help but smile as well. She moved over to Fluttershy and nuzzled her side. Fluttershy accepted the gesture, but only for a moment. After she got to the next part, her frown returned.

“But... that wonderful moment was cut short. You asked me… if tatzlponies were bad or not.” Rainbow pulled back, frowning again. “You… tried to swallow me… as a demonstration. And I was…” Fluttershy shivered as her voice grew to a higher pitch. “S-Scared… That’s what tatzlponies do. They swallow other ponies. Does that make them bad? Mmm… I-I don’t know. But it makes me so-o scar-r-red.”

Rainbow lowered her head with her ears drooped. The way she looked up at Fluttershy with those pleading eyes, it ached at Fluttershy’s heart in more ways than one.

“You have gotten better at it though. You’re no longer swallowing anypony uncontrollably now. And if you can resist that urge, I’m sure other tatzlponies can too if they tried. But…” Her own ears drooped now. “That was when we started meeting... them. Scootaloo came back and said somepony in a cloak, shivering, gave her a letter to give to us. Hmm… From what we heard earlier, that must’ve been X. They wanted me to meet with Almond Clang. It said that they wanted to discuss something with me about my job as an animal caretaker. But they just wanted me out of my cottage so that they could capture you while you were alone. And… that almost happened. I wanted to leave you there so that I could take care of this. And they were planning to use their Twiitermite Zapper Device if you resisted. But that didn't happen, because you insisted on staying with me.”

Fluttershy looked at Rainbow quizzically. “Did you know that that was gonna happen?” Rainbow shook her head, making Fluttershy put a hoof under her chin. “Were you… worried about my safety then?” It took a moment for Rainbow to respond this time. While it was true that she was a little worried about her safety, that wasn’t the entire reason. So she shook her head once as a response. This left Fluttershy puzzled. When Rainbow refused to stay at her cottage, it wasn’t easy convincing her. She even had to evade Fluttershy from placing a leash on her collar that would get her to stay put. If it wasn’t for her safety, or knowing the danger that was about to happen, then why did she want to go with Fluttershy so badly?

Fluttershy’s eyes widened as she thought up an answer. With a sorry expression, she asked. “...You didn’t want to be alone... did you?” Rainbow’s shameful expression said it all. All she could do was curl her tail to her side, looking away with her ears drooped. That was all the answer Fluttershy needed. It sunk Fluttershy’s heart deeply. She was really sorry for her, for the tatzlponies. In the journal, she noted that tatzlponies were very lonely.

Most of the time, Fluttershy thought Rainbow’s actions were just the result of her losing her memory. But in fact, most of her actions were from her tatzlpony instincts as well.

“What happened to the tatzlponies…?” Fluttershy shivered at that question. “When we left my cottage, we were met with a pony named ‘Almond Clang’. He prefers just ‘Clang’. And he told us that he was hired to capture you, saying that tatzlponies were dangerous. We would later figure out the real reason why that is, the hard way.”

“We were barely able to make it out of that. We took him back to my cottage to question him, but he refused to reveal much at all. And most of the time, he tried putting the blame on me, which got you very angry. Hmm… We captured him, but he was the one manipulating me.”

“The only thing we really got him to reveal was that there was a new flower that was recently discovered, a flower that was very important to his client.” Fluttershy looked down to her bag. “The Alpine… the cure for the tatzlpony’s toxin.”

Fluttershy paused for a moment to hum. “You know… I didn’t notice until now, but that was about the time when I started feeling the effect. It started off with a really bad headache. I thought it was just because of all the noise and that bang on my head that Clang did to me. But my health only slowly got worse and worse from there.”

“And… it wasn’t until the next day, Day Six, where it got really bad. Six days… except… I wasn’t with you for all six days.” Fluttershy made a few notes on these days. “Day One, I wasn’t with you at all. Day Two, I was only with you for a few minutes. Day Three, I was with you almost the whole day. Day Four, I was with you for about half that day. And Day Five and Six… I was with you the whole day…”

“So… Day Two and Three makes about a whole day, Day Four makes that about a day and a half, Day Five makes about two and a half… Day Six, at the time it got bad, makes three…” Fluttershy looked at Rainbow, who was looking quizzically at her. She looked back to her notes, then at her bag. “That makes about three days… three full days of being around you… two before it starts to have an effect, and three before it gets bad. Since being cured, I was around you for one day so far, which means, by the night of the second day, which is tomorrow, I should take another one of those Alpine Flowers.”

Rainbow took a glance at the bag as well. If it really did take three days before her toxin took effect, and if they had two Alpine Flowers with them, then Fluttershy would be okay from her toxin for six days, minus one thanks to yesterday, making it five days. Which means, assuming they can’t find this garden, that gave them at least eight days to find out how these flowers grew. She hoped that would be enough time. Looking to Fluttershy, she nodded.

0	“You weren’t really around other ponies for that long, so they should still be okay for a while. X was with you for the longest time, but we left one of the flowers with her, so she should be fine.” Fluttershy turned away. “But… Scootaloo…” Rainbow lightly gasped when her name was brought. “She was around you for at least one full day. If she stays around you for another, it’ll start affecting her too, unless we give her one, which will shorten our time to five days before the toxin becomes a problem.”

Rainbow nodded again, understanding the situation. After finishing that note, Fluttershy went back to Day Five. “Speaking of Scootaloo, while we were trying to get answers from Clang, she and the other girls came and took him away to question him themselves. While they did that, I went with you to search for answers in… well… here.” She waved her hoof towards the trees. “You brought me to a clearing, much like this one, except it had some…” A smile came to her face as she put a hoof to her cheek. “It had some very delicious berries. Mmm… You know, when we get the chance, we should tell either Applejack or Pinkie Pie about those berries. With their baking skills, I’m sure they can use them as very wonderful ingredients. But we’ll wait for that another time.”

“Anyway… that clearing that you showed me, was the place you stayed at the first day you turned into a tatzlpony. With how you found that one, and how you found this clearing here, you seem a lot more in tune with the forest. Something to do with tatzlponies being lonely?”

Fluttershy paused, expecting Rainbow to make a response to that. But there was none, so she continued. “While we were in that clearing, we… well first, I tried again to see just how big your appetite was, using one of Pinkie Pie’s 'Party in a Box' gifts. And you ate everything... except for the small bit that I ate compared to you.”

Fluttershy paused for a moment as she glanced at her bag. She subconsciously moved a hoof to her stomach as she eyed Rainbow. But when Rainbow looked her in the eyes, she shook her head and went back on topic.

“A-After we ate, I started digging into your memories. Before you became a tatzlpony, you said you were delivering a letter here in the Everfree Forest. But when you delivered it, you became sleepy, and saw somepony walking to you and talking. The words they said…”

“’Embrace the lives of the lost. Today is forgotten, but tomorrow will discover. A new hope for them blossoms now. You will be its messenger… And you will be their new beginning.’”

“Those words…” Fluttershy went back to the journal. “It sounded like they wanted somepony to discover a tatzlpony, by turning you into one.” She labeled this as the ‘Spellcaster’ pony along with the short summary that described them.

“After that, you told me about what happened when you woke up. You were suffering, and somepony was panicking when they found you. From what you said, it was a mare unicorn. She said that you had to ‘clear your mind’ if you wanted the suffering to stop.”

Fluttershy gasped as she realized something. “You know… that might’ve been what caused your memory loss. Because later on, she said… ’It looks like the spell hasn’t taken full effect yet. Your memory will be unstable, but I need you to listen to these words.’ Although… she only spoke one word, but she seemed to tell you just as you were losing your memory.”

Fluttershy went back to the journal and labeled this pony as the ‘Rescuer’. “I think she was the one responsible for your memory loss. And the only reason she did it was to stop your suffering, whatever this ‘suffering’ was...” She paused and closed her eyes with a frown. “Whoever she was, she knew what a tatzlpony was. She was attacked by some sort of monster, a monster who was chasing you. And... she sacrificed herself to make sure you got away. But… she also did something… It sounded like she shot a spell at your mind, something that convinced you to leave her behind, to abandon her.”

Fluttershy looked firmly to Rainbow. “The Rainbow Dash that I know would never abandon somepony like that. The question is, ‘how?’ and more importantly, ‘why?’... All she had time to say was, ‘Your actions would only draw attention’. Did she think you couldn’t do anything to help?” She brought a hoof to her mouth as she rethought that. Her eyes raised in shock as she realized the answer. “The memory spell was taking effect on you. You… couldn’t have done anything.”

Rainbow Dash’s eyes grew shockingly as well. Something about those words panged at her heart. They were words that she didn’t want to believe, but they were so true. “You couldn’t have done anything, and she was the cause of that.” Those words were really panging at Rainbow’s heart. She thought about what would’ve happened if she had thought that way about Fluttershy, or Scootaloo.

Rainbow Dash layed her hooves in front of her as she stared blankly at the mat. Multiple times something like that had happened. After she had swallowed Scootaloo, she put her and herself in danger. But thanks to Scootaloo, she was reminded of the feeling of not wanting to let anypony down. If they were in trouble, letting them down was the last thing she wanted to do.

When she saw Fluttershy get attacked by Clang, she had to stop him no matter what, even if it meant doing something that would scare Fluttershy. When Fluttershy got infected, she did everything she could to get her out of danger, and bring her the cure that she needed, even if it meant having to leave her for her to be safe.

Pulling these acts had consequences she didn’t like, but if it meant protecting somepony she cared for, she would do it. It was just something about her, something from her past that she was remembering. That feeling rushed to her mind so fast and she cherished that feeling.

But for some reason, thinking about that incident with her rescuer, it wasn’t providing any feeling of guilt for her. Whenever she thought about the moments with Fluttershy or Scootaloo, it panged at her heart. This one just… didn’t. Why? Was it something that that rescuer did, or was it something about her that she was forgetting?

“Rainbow?” Fluttershy asked, but Rainbow didn’t respond. She just continued to stare at the mat in a trance. “Is something wrong?” There was still no response. It was as if Rainbow was so much in thought that an important memory was trying so hard to come back to her.

All of a sudden, Fluttershy’s stomach started growling. And unfortunately, the sound of that is what broke Rainbow out of her trance. She was now looking at Fluttershy with worried eyes. Those eyes were worried for Fluttershy’s health.

Fluttershy could only sigh with a frown. If that’s what broke Rainbow out of her trance, then she was gonna be too worried about Fluttershy to try and remember whatever it was she was trying to remember. It left Fluttershy staring at her bag. When was the last time they had eaten? She couldn’t tell anymore. But she was desperately hoping to wait until Rainbow specifically got hungry before they had eaten again. Looks like they were gonna have to eat now.

“Okay Rainbow,” Fluttershy started. “Let’s take a break to eat.” This left Rainbow with a smile. It was odd. Even though Rainbow had such a crazy appetite, she didn’t seem to grow hungry faster than Fluttershy did. Maybe it had something to do with that second hunger that she had? Or maybe it was the fact that she could fit so much in her stomach in the first place.

That thought could wait till later. For now, Fluttershy went to her bag and rummaged through the supplies that she brought. It felt so long ago since she prepared all this that she started forgetting what sort of things she actually brought with her. She had to dig all the way to the bottom of her supplies to grab the one she was looking for.

“Okay, Rainbow. This next one came from…” Fluttershy paused as she thought about this next bit of food. In addition to keeping them fed, she also wanted to bring certain kinds of food that would help Rainbow’s memory. But something about this one was unusually special. It made her give a giggly smile to Rainbow.

“Actually, this next one is a gift from you!” Rainbow blinked questioningly at that. Was that true? And then, Fluttershy pulled out a wrapped net that held the food she was talking about, making Rainbow blink two more times as she stared at it. For some reason, when she sniffed it, her eyes started to water.

“Onions!” Fluttershy answered, making Rainbow look to her. “One day when we were hanging out at a store… well… not just me and you, but all of our friends as well, you decided to buy me a gift. You remembered that onions were some of my favorite foods. When you gave them to me, I was so happy. These were the same ones that you got for me that day!”

After hearing all that, Rainbow just had to smile as that memory came rushing in. It wasn’t quite as memorable as all the other things that she was slowly remembering, but this was still nice. Maybe it was just one of those smaller things she casually forgot about even before her memory wipe. Although she couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something odd about those onions, it didn’t seem that big, so it didn’t bother her. But now, she started remembering quite a few moments from her fillyhood that involved Fluttershy with onions. She must’ve really loved them.

Rainbow opened her mouth and reached into the bag with her tongues, grabbing and pulling out one of the onions. When she set it down in front of her on the mat, she began smiling and tearing up as those past memories rushed in.

Fluttershy could see the desired effect and started removing the rest of the onions down to the mat. These onions were actually a lot bigger than regular onions. There were four in the bag, each one about as big as their heads, and there was a reason for that. That reason, she wasn’t telling Rainbow Dash, and wouldn’t be telling her even if she still had her memory.

While it was true that onions were one of her favorite foods, it wasn’t because of the taste. Instead, it was because of the effect they had. When she first discovered her love for animals, it didn’t take long before she started seeing the tragic tale that came with it. The Circle of Life for the animals.

Many animals that she took care of passed away as she raised them. Every time one of them did, she would cry. As a filly, she took a liking to these onions because every time she ate them, she would cry, without having to feel sad. There was nothing she could do for the animals and she knew that, but it still hurt her heart every time it happened. She didn’t want to talk about it either. So every time one of her animals met that fate, she would take an onion and eat it. Anytime Rainbow Dash, or anypony else who cared for her would ask what was wrong, she would tell them she was eating her favorite food, onions. It wasn’t healthy to do this for all her problems, so she only used onions as an excuse whenever it involved one of her animals’ tragic fates.

But the thing was, she had grown out of that sadness a long time ago. Sure, she would still feel sad whenever one of her animals met that fate, but she no longer felt the need to cry about it. As a result, she never felt the need to eat onions like that anymore. This bag of onions that Rainbow Dash bought for her, they were bought about twenty plus moons ago. When she took them home, she dug them into her back yard, where they could be water, fertilized, continue to grow bigger, and stay healthy. She wanted to save them for a special occasion, or an important one like this.

During their fillyhood, Rainbow constantly used her allowance to buy Fluttershy onions as a gift. With how often she was bullied, the onions would constantly brighten up her mood and show just how much Rainbow cared for her. Not only would Rainbow protect her from bullies, but Rainbow would also do what she could to brighten up her mood afterwards, even if it was something as simple as buying her an onion.

“If you start to tear up, that’s normal. That’s what these onions do. And sometimes, it’s a nice feeling to let out a few tears and cry.” Rainbow looked up to Fluttershy with her eyes already filled with tears. Fluttershy was starting to get them too. But they were both smiling. Smiling with tears. It really did feel good.

Rainbow decided to take the first bite into the onion in front of her. Biting into it brought even more tears to her eyes, but it tasted really good. Fluttershy smiled brighter at this and closed her eyes. She was happy to see Rainbow enjoying the onion. Happy, but sad that a moment like this wouldn’t last, depressed that thinking like this about Rainbow Dash was so wrong. When she took the first bite into her onion, she bursted out with her crying.

For the first time in a long while, she hid her sadness behind these onions, a very deep and regretful sadness that wished Rainbow wouldn’t have to turn back. She wanted Rainbow to stay as a tatzlpony so they could continue having moments like this. At the same time, she hated herself for thinking that way. If only she could tell Rainbow how she felt. But if she did, she would be taking advantage of Rainbow’s condition to influence her decision. And that would be wrong. So she had to hide it, hide it behind these onions.

Rainbow stopped eating for a moment as she noticed Fluttershy munching into her onion with a lot of moans. A lot of tears were dropping from her, but she was smiling. She really did love those onions.

The thing was, Rainbow didn’t know all those tears weren’t the result of the onions, but rather, Fluttershy’s own sad regret.