The Youth in the Garden

by The Descendant


Chapter 4

Chapter 4



For Fluttershy, there were no easy answers.

The proper authorities had come, had claimed the youth, his weapon, and the accoutrements. Within a few hours all that remained to mark the passing of the boy from her garden were the squashed plants, the broken stalks, and a prevailing sense of unease and concern that floated through the pegasus.

Her friends did all that they could for her, each coming to be with her, hoping to get her to talk about her experience. Yet, in truth, there was little that she could tell them. She could tell her friends no more than she had told the officers, biologists, and cryptozoologists who had come to her little cottage.

She had tried to be polite. She had served tea, had brought them cakes and tried her hardest to answer each question.

But, by the second day, she found herself becoming assertive again… she began sending them away. She began sending the gawkers and “experts” back out of her little home.

Who would answer her questions? Who would put her mind at ease? Who would listen to Fluttershy?

Twilight Sparkle had listened.

Twilight and Spike sat up late that second night, had sat up until Luna’s moon hung high in the sky, carefully crafting the letter. By dawn’s first light a very tired dragon sent it off to the one they hoped could most help their friend.


Fluttershy sat up in the bed, staring at nothing, just letting her eyes settle on the distant wall.

“Oh, Angel,” she said, cuddling the rabbit close to her for the third morning in a row. “Why…”

Even as she sat there, staring at the same vacant spot on the wall, the knocking began. She listened anxiously, hoping that it was one of her friends. But it was not…

They’d all been using “Shave and a Haircut” just to let her know it was them.

This was not one of them.

She felt herself becoming angry. At first she tried to ignore it, simply creased her face and hoped that whatever pony had come around would simply tire after a time and leave her alone.

No, no… the knocking continued.

“G-go away!” she called out from her bed as she covered her head, her ears, and her rabbit with the pillows.

Still, the knocking continued, sounding out at perfect intervals. Anger crossed Fluttershy’s face, and she felt that part of her that seldom held dominion claiming her.

She flew down the stairs, winging her way to the door even as she prepared The Stare. “I don’t want to tell you anything else! I don’t want… oh!”

As she had opened the door Fluttershy found herself staring up into perhaps the only pony in Equestria who would not be moved by her stare.

“Oh! Oh, I am sorry Fluttershy, dear. Twilight said that you were only answering to ‘Shave and a Haircut’… I forgot! Please, do forgive me.”

“Yes, yes… t-that’s how, how my friends… were letting me know, that-that they were here,” Fluttershy stuttered, her usual demeanor returning. “W-would you, ummm, like to join me for breakfast, princess?”

“That sounds lovely,” answered Celestia, smiling down over her little pony.


They sat at the little table, the same one Fluttershy had huddled beneath as the phantoms had flit across her yard and the youth had appeared in her garden.

The conversation centered on her bird and animals, and Fluttershy beamed as her little companions gathered close to the princess. Celestia, it seemed, enjoyed hearing their songs and seeing their antics.

“Philomena sends her regards,” the princess remembered as she took another sip of her tea.

“Oh! T-that’s truly nice of her! Is Peewee training well beneath her? I bet he’s growing quickly,” Fluttershy added.

“Assuredly. I hardly think that Spike will recognize him when they return!” the princess spoke. Around them the animals and birds dozed, pruned, sang, or ate their fill. Still, one animal could not be ignored…

… the elephant. The proverbial elephant in the room sat heavily around the half-emptied jars of jam and the uneaten bits of muffins and toast.

Princess Celestia placed her cup of tea back down upon the table. She tilted her head, cleared her throat, and let a gentle gaze settle over Fluttershy. The pegasus sensed what was about to come. Angel jumped up into her lap, knowing that his presence would be welcomed. As the pegasus wrapped her forelegs around him she prepared herself for the conversation that was about to begin.

“We… I made sure his body was treated with the utmost respect. He was under guard the whole trip. Nopony was allowed to gawk or stare, I promise you that.”

“T-thank you,” Fluttershy whispered.

“Fluttershy,” the princess spoke in an earnest tone, reaching across the table to gather the smaller pony’s hoof into her own, “I want you to know that there was nothing else you could have done for him, for the boy, the youth who came to you in your garden. Even my magic might not have been enough to save him, had I known…”

Fluttershy forced a smile, looked up to her sovereign, and then back down at her bunny. Angel snuggled closer to his mistress, put his head to her barrel and let her stroke him as she sat quietly.

Finally, after long moments, the pegasus broke her silence.

“Princess?” she asked, her voice squeaking, “Who hurt him? Who put the ball in him, the one that… k-killed him?”

The princess looked across the garden, imagined the youth laying there, bleeding out and in such pain. It was such a beautiful spot, and some small part of her felt great sadness that it had been the scene of such heart-wrenching agony, and that her child her before her had been made to witness such things.

“Well, dear, to the best of our knowledge, one of his own kind…”

The princess swallowed before continuing.

“Yes, one of his own kind. And, wars being what they are, it was perhaps one not any older than himself. That seems to be the great flaw of their kind, you see. It appears that they still do not see that they are all the same…”

Fluttershy began to shake her head, slowly at first, and then in long shakes, and tears began again.

“I-I can’t believe, believe it! That, that anyone like the boy could do it… but, but I know it’s true! He was a soldier too! I saw his uniform, saw his weapon! But, but even though he was a soldier, he thought I was an angel! He thought I was an angel! H-how could any type of being who believes in angels fight… k-k-kill their own kind?”

Fluttershy’s eyes settled back on Celestia.

“He… h-he called for his mommy! He loved her! The others like him, they had to love theirs too… but how can they k-kill each other? How can any boy k-kill someone just like themselves?”

Celestia put her other hoof on Fluttershy’s foreleg, ran it up and down. As she scooped her hoof into her own she let her words fall over her child.

“They are not so different than the ponies were, long ago, before they came back over the mountain… before Luna and I called them out of the caves, back at the time of the first Hearth’s Warming,” she said softly, “back when the races still believed themselves so different from one another.”

Fluttershy eyes streamed as they looked deep into those of her sovereign.

“The race of the boy, they are not of our world, but they are so like us,” the alicorn spoke, “they just need to find their grace.

Fluttershy’s mind tried to understand the words. Instead, an important question claimed her again, the one pressing question that begged to be answered.

“Princess, please,” she asked, “why did he come here, why did he find his way to my garden… just to die? Why did he have to die here, so far from his home, from his mother, from everything he knew?”

The princess studied the pegasus. She smiled at her once again, stroked her foreleg.

“It was his fate to die, my dear, as sad is that is to think upon,” she spoke, “and we can only hope that for whatever reason he picked up that weapon, and wore his uniform, that it was a cause that he believed was just and good… just as we hope that those who took his life believed.”

Fluttershy blinked, trying to understand the words.

“As for why here, all I can say is that, because you are you… because you are kindness, and that you were just as fated to show him what kindness you could,” she said. “Your element, kindness, compassion, burns bright in you, and that was what he needed… needed to see an angel, see an angel so that he could pass in peace. But, as for why here, in your garden, in my kingdom, in Equestria, there is another reason. That happened so that he would be remembered.”

Fluttershy blinked, pondered. If… if she was fated to give him what little comfort she could, she should also be able to remember him. Yes, yes… whatever else, she could do that.

“Can you do that, Fluttershy?” Celestia asked, “Can you honor him? Can you remember him?”

“Yes,” Fluttershy breathed, “Yes, yes of course.”

Celestia smiled to her child. Her expression reflected her belief that the little pony would do just that. As cyan eyes reached up to her, softening, Celestia had a thought. Yes, there was a way to help her pony begin to heal from her ordeal, let her find some peace.

“Fluttershy?” the princess asked, “If-if I could arrange, to… to have his body brought back to you, would you bury him? Would that help you find some, well, closure?”

Fluttershy blinked again.

“His weapon, and the elements that go with it, they must remain in Canterlot,” the princess said, tilting her head back and forth, “but the uniform, his effects… these, could come back to you, if you wish…”

Fluttershy let Angel drop to the earth, and as the rabbit watched Fluttershy trotted to the far side of the table. There she fell into the chest of her sovereign, and as Celestia wrapped her tight in an embrace it was only one thing that Fluttershy could do, and there was only one thing she could say…

“Thank you.”



The next day dawned with a chill, a bracing chill that drove the fact that autumn was upon them through the ponies and dragon that gathered in the garden.

The ponies stood around a cleared patch of the garden, one where the plants had been cleared away, and before them a fine lacquered box stood over a pit dug into the black earth.

On a hillside not far away a few stones marked the places where animals that had touched Fluttershy’s life were laid to rest. Dear little friends, companions who, in their time, had been as important in her daily life as Angel was now… those were the ones buried there, where she could come and remember.

Her friends had asked why she chose the garden for this burial, why here instead of that distant hill? In the end, she had said, here is where his blood had already been shed. He was already a part of this garden, and here, she thought, he should stay. The boy from somewhere beyond, the youth in the garden where she could always remember his voice lifting and naming her as an angel.

The ponies all looked on Fluttershy as she draped the canteen and haversack, each meticulously cleaned, over Spike’s shoulder. She spoke to him in gentle tones as she and Rarity adjusted the straps and tacked them with a few safety pins so that they would not drag on the ground.

“I-I didn’t think it right to, right to let them just go… I-I thought that they might still, still be useful. I thought that you might like them,” she said, as she stepped back to examine the dragon whelp.

Spike looked down across himself, and then back up to the pegasus. He leaned forward, gathering her in a hug. “Thank you, Fluttershy. Thank you so much.”

Spike released her, and as Fluttershy walked towards the box Rarity came with her. “T-thank you for cleaning the uniform, f-for sewing the buttons back on,” the pegasus said to her dear friend, “I-I would have done it m-myself but, but I…”

“You are most welcome, Darling,” Rarity said, laying her head to that of Fluttershy, “You were… occupied.”

Fluttershy took a deep breath, and alone among the gathered ponies she stepped forward and looked within the box.

The youth looked like a proper soldier. Cleaned of dirt and blood, and in a freshly sewn and spotless uniform, he looked so much better. He looked so much more serene than before.

He still looked far too young.

As the detachment of Royal Guardsponies looked on she lifted Angel so that he could offer a product of the garden to the still form, put them among the cold, still hands that gripped the odd little hat that sat upon the youth’s chest. As the rabbit deposited the peppermint there Fluttershy kissed him and then laid him back upon the black earth.

Angel hopped once, and then turned to better hear her words.

“Please, p-please, forgive me,” she whispered, “but… b-but I kept the locket. I-I kept it because maybe, maybe someday… maybe, just maybe someday I’ll see her. That way… that way, if I keep the locket, I can tell if it’s her… and I can keep my promise. I want to keep my promise… both of them. I-I hope you understand…”

The pegasus lifted a lock of the youth’s hair, and let the fair colored strands settle back beyond his ear. With one last glance over him she nodded to the sergeant, and soon the face of the youth was gently covered by silk.

“Nightfall” began to drift in from a distant soldier, the trumpet carrying on the chilly air. As the sound of it reverberated around the cottage the guardsponies lowered the box into the black earth.

All of her friends leaned close to her, almost jostling her uncomfortably as they reached for more hooves than she could offer. As she watched Fluttershy could only hope that the spirit of the youth had flown to wherever it could be happy. She begged, pleaded that he was free, that perhaps he was with his mother, and with his god.

She hoped, hoped, hoped that on whatever beautiful world had sustained the youth, and among the amazing race that had birthed him, raised him, and killed him, that there was no more strife. She hoped that it had disappeared in the smoke of whatever conflict had taken his life. She hoped, earnestly, powerfully, that among them there was no more reason for death, pain, and weapons…

… that there were no more wars.



End.