//------------------------------// // Moral Conflict // Story: Misplaced // by Salem569 //------------------------------// Moral Conflict The birds chirped as the yellow mare placed food in their feeders, tilting her head to the side as her feathered wings flapped beside her. Her long flowing pink mane followed behind her gracefully as she flew toward her cottage. She looked around to all the animals before she headed inside, closing the door behind her. The wooden floors creaked as her hooves landed gently upon them, a white rabbit jumped up and sat with a baby's bib around it's neck and a fork and knife in his small paws. Fluttershy stepped over the small bunny, and bit down on the handle of her shades and pulled back to look out to the edge of the Everfree forest, where the moon had begun to rise over the trees. Angel stomped his foot down and kicked at Fluttershy's hind legs, causing the mare's belly to fall down onto the rabbit. "Oh no, Angel! A- are you alright?!" Fluttershy stood and turned, Angel pushed himself up with an agitated look before slapping his paw across Fluttershy's face. " ... I'm so sorry, Angel! I'll go and get your food now. " Fluttershy trotted into her small kitchen where she saw that all of the carrots had already been eaten, and their scraps were laying about on the ground. With a sigh, the mare bit down on a small dust pan and began to sweep the mess into it with her wings. A thumping was heard outside of the kitchen as Angel continued to pressure Fluttershy into hurrying his food. Fluttershy frowned as she looked toward the overflowing compost bin, paper and other incorrectly placed refuse had been shoved into the bin. Fluttershy sighed and opened her refrigerator and pulled out rich green lettuce and a tomato. Placing them both on a cutting board, she gripped a knife from the block with her teeth and diced the vegetables quickly before using her wing to push them into a small ceramic bowl which she gripped with her teeth. With a trot the mare stepped her living room to find Angel with crossed arms, she placed the bowl in front of him and he quickly began to eat. "Oh... not so fast, Angel! You'll choke if you eat that fast!" Fluttershy frowned as the rabbit made no actions toward listening to her. Instead of saying anything else she walked away and pushed her front door open slowly with a creak. Her wings extended and she pushed herself into the air toward the edge of her yard. The yellow mare flew passed the fence around her home and flew gently around the outside of the Everfree forest for a moment before a rustling bush in front of her caused her wings to snap closed and her to fall onto her face. She yelped and skooted away from the bush timidly. When the rustling stopped, the sound of hooves against the grass caught her attention and she looked up toward a small foal, not even half her own size staring up toward her... however, the foal's black coat and large green eyes seemed oddly familiar to her. Fluttershy's eyes snapped open and she gasped, letting out a fearful shriek. The small foal quickly frowned and jumped back into the small shrub, staring back out at the panicking mare, his little green eyes wide with the same fear. Fluttershy looked back down, hearing the other scream beside her own... her eyes narrowed, realizing that she was the scary monster in this situation. "W-wait! No no, I'm so sorry!.." Fluttershy rubbed tears from her eyes. "...y-you're safe here!.." she held her hoof out to the small foal. "...you don't have to hide from me." The small black foal settled down, stepping out of the small shrub slowly. His green eyes met the mare's bright blue eyes meeting his calmly. He lifted a jagged hoof up to the mare's, two small holes inside the very tip of his tiny hooves. Fluttershy smiled down at the small foal and spread her wings out to her sides. The small foal's back seemed to warp and jagged insect like wings rasied from it, spreading to each side before a burst of green flames rippled out from the foal's body. His hooves became whole, and the insect wings became ruffled black feathers. The small barely existing horn on his forehead melded down into his forehead and vanished and a white mane and tail appeared... one eye turned a bright blue, like the mare's before him. "A changeling... oh no. How will the girls react if they see this? Rainbow Dash might hurt the poor little thing!" Fluttershy frowned, but a small prance from the foal brought out a weak smile. "... of course, like this I guess they would never know." The small pegasus, with black coat and white mane zipped around fluttershy happily, mimicking the smile on her face. A gust of wind blew as the small foal reached a dizzying height and lost his balance in the air, beginning to fall to the ground. Fluttershy gasped and flew out before the small foal could hit the ground, catching him in her hooves. "Oh dear... barely able to fly." Fluttershy's eyes looked at the one green eye, barely looking like a pony's eye at all. She sighed, remembering how her own life in Cloudsdale had been. "...and can barely change either. I bet they left you out here because of that... that queen meanie!" Fluttershy flew down and looked at the foal. "...don't you worry, I'll take care of you if that mean old queen won't!" The yellow mare flew over her fence and kicked her door open with her back hooves while still hovering in the air. Angel stumbled over the bowl as he had finished the last of his food and began to choke before coughing up a leaf. Fluttershy set the small foal on a seat in the middle of her living room and landed in front of him. "Umm... do you have a name?" "..." the small foal stared blankly and smiled before holding his hoof out to flick Fluttershy's ear lightly and bat at it. Fluttershy raised an eyebrow at the odd foal and sighed. "I guess not..." she let the foal bat at her ear while she thought. Like a like bulb being flicked up, her eyes lit up. "... I'll call you, Chameleon!" Angel hopped up onto the short table behind Fluttershy and smacked the back of her head. "... too obvious?" the rabbit nodded. Fluttershy looked outside the window at the moon. "...we'll call him... Starchaser!" The foal yawned, and Fluttershy smiled at him. "My little Starchaser..." she pulled pulled herself onto the couch and sat behind the him, curling around him and letting him snuggle into her flowing pink mane. In moments the small foal fell asleep, Fluttershy smiled and rested her muzzle near Starchaser's and smiled. "...I'll take care of you." - - - - - - - - - - End of Chapter One This is the second attempt at an actual story, my other story seems to have hit a roadblock in my mind but I am honestly enjoying working on this one a lot more. Focusing on a Mane6 character and her interactions with a non-related (motioning to my other fic) original character that is not based on me at all. Starchaser: Yes he is a Changeling, and yes I know this is overused now. However I hope to bring a good quality fan-fic to the community. Starchaser's character was inspired by a conversation that my girlfriend had brought up only a few days ago about my OC (Salem) possibly being a changeling. Well... I didn't want to change that character, so instead I created Starchaser. Final note, please leave whatever constructive criticism or comments here so that I may improve in the future... thank you for reading! ^_^