Fluttershy's Lesson

by FeroMcPigletron

Fluttershy's Lesson

"But why?" Sweetie Belle cried, tears streaming down her face.

"Quit your blubbering," Scootaloo said harshly. She herself was fighting off the tight feeling in her chest. She turned her head away as she stamped her hoof. "She was just a chicken."

"But we SAVED her!" Sweetie Bells usually delicate timbre cracked in her grief. "We were the Cutie Mark Creature Catchers! When she ran into the Everfree Forest, we helped bring her back from the cockatrice!" The little white pony wailed. "Why did she have to DIE!"

"It was just her time," Apple Boom said softly. She had lived long enough in the farm to know the facts of life. And death. She stared solemnly at her two dear friends. "It happens."

"Yes. Yes, it does,"

The three little ponies looked behind them as the quiet steps of a pink-haired mare broke into their small circle. The young fillies gave way as the pegasus turned her gaze to the fragile body held in their ring.

"Elizabeak," Fluttershy said.

"We wanted to borrow your songbird music sheets. Y'know, from when you taught birds to sing?" Scootaloo began. "We already had the electric guitars. We were going to be Cutie Mark Rock and Roll Tweeter Instructors."

"We didn't know where you were," Apple Bloom continued. "We knocked at your door and checked the backyard. We were passing by the chicken coop..."

"And we just found her! Just like that!" Sweetie Belle bawled again. "I thought she sleeping and Scootaloo wanted to spook her and make her run around and Apple Bloom said no and we argued and shouted and I thought we woke her by accident but she didn't move and she just laid there and she just... didn't... MOVE!"

Apple Bloom started forward to comfort the more fragile white pony but it was Scootaloo who spread her wing and drew Sweetie Belle to her shoulder for support. Fluttershy looked upon kindly as the Crusaders huddled close together as Sweetie Belle's sobs eventually quieted down to sniffs. The pegasus then turned to the still body of the hen and had it on her back.

"C'mon," Fluttershy said softly to the puzzled, wide eyes of the fillies. "Come with me."

Fluttershy started walking away quickly, not pausing to see if the little ponies were following her. The Crusaders exchanged puzzled glances at each other then ran alongside to the pegasus to keep up.

"Where..." Apple Bloom puffed. "Where are we going?"

"To the Everfree Forest," Fluttershy said.

"Huh?" Sweetie Belle said, surprised. "But it's dangerous there!"

"Not to Elizabeak, it isn't." Fluttershy replied, like it was an answer. "Not anymore."

***

It wasn't far. They had reached the edge of the darkened branches of the woods in short order. It's shadowed trees shrouded the inner paths but Fluttershy stepped forward without hesitation and disappeared from view.

"She's gone!" Apple Bloom exclaimed, peering within.

"What do we do?" Sweetie Belle quavered. "She told her to follow her but that's the Everfree Forest!"

"I'll tell you what we're going to do!" Scootaloo jumped and flew up to perch unsteadily over a nearby branch. "We're going in there and we're going to see what's what because... Well..."

"Because what?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"Well..."

"Because we're Cutie Mark Crusaders, that's what!" Apple Bloom finished. She stepped forward boldly.

"Yeah! We're not afraid!" Scootaloo shouted. She launched herself up. "We're the Cutie Mark Crusaders! We're not chicken!" She landed on the ground and dove into the darkness.

"Elizabeak was a chicken," Sweetie Belle sniffed as she trailed after through the gloom.

"No, she's not," Apple Bloom whispered as she too was swallowed up by the shadows. "Now she's just a body."

The three fillies maintained a silent course as they walked through the woods. It was the only way they could hear the heavier clip clopping of the older pegasus' hooves on the ground somewhere ahead of them. The brambles hindered their passage and they were forced to take side avenues and avoid low hanging branches.

Soon, the sound of hooves stopped. The Crusaders emerged from the bushes to find themselves in a small clearing. Fluttershy standing on a large, flat rock placed squarely at the center of the area. The body lay in the middle of the stone floor.

"Every living being has different life spans," Fluttershy whispered quietly as she looked , apparently not noticing the arrival of the fillies. "Some spend a long time alive in the sun, while for others, it can pass as briefly as a candle's flame going out."

The young ponies approached the rock and gasped when Fluttershy turned her gaze to them quickly. "But it is not the end. Life is a circle," She said. "It continues. It endures. It survives."

"A part of each living creature is immortal," Fluttershy stepped away from the body as she spoke. "No longer held by earthly trappings, it is released into the universe, to join the essence of everything itself. It is free to be a part of eternity. Forever free."

"Everfree."

The Crusaders didn't know which one of them spoke. The word might have come from her own mouth unknowingly. But they all stared at the body of the chicken that was once Elizabeak but now is just an empty, mortal shell.

Something changed in the air. Sounds were now filtering through the once still Everfree Forest. Noises were heard from far away but were slowing making their way towards their direction. The Crusaders were too surprised at the sudden change to be alarmed.

"C'mon," Flutteryshy said softly to the puzzled, wide eyes of the fillies. "Come with me. Quickly."

The three little ponies complied.

***

Fluttershy was tidying up in the chicken coop. The Cutie Mark Crusaders were outside, standing on one hoof to another, trembling and sorting through their experience.

"What..." Scootaloo was the first to talk. "What was happening back there? Were those other... were they going to...?"

"That's life," Fluttershy answered as she bustled within the coop. "That's how it continues. How they endure. How we survive."

"Through death?" Sweetie Belle said, more than little horrified to hear herself say it.

"We eat apples, don't we?" Fluttershy said gently as she stepped outside. "Do you think that counts as death for them?"

"Applejack would certainly like to think so," Apple Bloom smiled. She already had a sample of the lesson but hasn't gotten the full taste. “Trees are like babies to her.”

"'Every living being has different life spans'..." Sweetie Belle recalled aloud. She suddenly gasped. "But you have so many animal friends? With different life spans!"

"And you live so close to the Everfree Forest," Apple Bloom observed.

"Why's that import... oh no!" Scootaloo was turning to her friend when realization struck. "It's so you can bring the... offering to the... while it's FRESH?!?"

"I don't want to delay what has to be done," the pegasus smiled just a little sadly.

"But the chorus birds! And Angel Bunny!" Sweetie Belle gasped a second time then uttered in quick succession. "OpalescenceWinonaOwlowisciousGummySPIKE!"

Fluttershy nodded. A third gasp escaped Sweetie Belle lips.

"And us too, right?" Apple Bloom followed. "And for every pony in Ponyville? That's our fate?"

"Appetizers!" Scootaloo declared with relish. "We're walking appetizers once our candles go *whoosh*! Out like a light!" The little pegasus empathized her point why spreading her wings and making a small draft of wind.

"In matter of speaking, yes," Fluttershy conceded. She looked at the downhearted faces of the Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle then reached out to hold them close. She hugged them as tightly as she could. "But it doesn't matter if everypony's candle stays lit long into the night or burns out in a brief time.

"What only matters," Fluttershy smiled kindly. "...is how brightly you shine."

"So shine, Cutie Mark Crusaders," Fluttershy whispered under her breath as she sent the three young fillies home to their respective families. She watched the three little ponies gallop away, talking and planning excitedly on what they would do on their next cutie mark questing adventure. She stared until they disappear from sight then slowly went inside her own house.

"...shine as brightly as you can."