//------------------------------// // Day 0 // Story: Why Did Equestria Shrink? // by Monsieur-Flatterer //------------------------------// Day 0 Fluttershy gulped as she spread her wings. She lifted herself from the ground, and carefully flew so she could easily sit down on the back of a majestic creature. The yellow pegasus remained quiet as she stroked the silver fur of the beast. There she was, on the giant silver fox called Spera. Or at least, that was what she thought the fox called herself. Even though the being had never really talked to her, she just knew her name. The fox had been bringing her to unknown places. Beautiful places; she had grown keen to travelling with the canine. Of course, at first she didn’t trust Spera that much, but as they travelled, she had discovered she was a kindhearted creature. She just wanted to show Fluttershy everything out there. And the pegasus appreciated that greatly. But as they had traveled, these places always seemed to have a problem of their own. It was either with the inhabitants of said place, or the climate, or anything really. Fluttershy had become used to her journeys the magnificent beast now, still softly stroking the silver fur with her hooves. A pink blush covered her cheeks as a squeak escaped her. She held on to the fox tightly as it suddenly jumped up to a cloud. As Fluttershy looked back down, she could see Everfree forest get smaller and smaller as the canine leaped from cloud to cloud. Fluttershy gasped as the fox landed on the last and highest cloud, before leaping up to the moon. She blushed, expecting to see Luna, but it was deserted. Fluttershy held on tightly as the fox made one last jump, in to the nothingness of space. The vacuum of space made it so the fox went straight forward, without slowing down. However, Fluttershy was still able to breath. Still able to move, even. But as Fluttershy was, she was terrified, keeping herself close to the fox as her mane and tail waved as it was getting blown on by the wind. Fluttershy questioned this, they were in the nothingness of space; how did she get any wind in her mane? The mare closed her eyes and buried her face in the fox’s fur, terrified. But as she did, Spera seemed to spread a comforting aura to Fluttershy, as the mare lifted her head and opened her eyes to witness the beauty of space. Stars covered the skies and she smiled. She never knew anything about space, or which planets there were. She thought that was more of a thing for Twilight. She herself prefered animals more. Fluttershy turned her head, gazing back at Equestria as it became smaller and smaller as the fox flew. There was something touching about this. Something pretty. Equestria was shrinking to a small dot among the stars and it made Fluttershy wonder how small they really were. But as the yellow-coated pony looked ahead, she squeaked loudly as they approached a small, blue planet. It was much smaller than Equestria, she was sure of that, but she was surprised at the size of this planet’s atmosphere. As they entered it, it seemed to be much bigger than Equestria’s, even though the planet itself was much, much smaller. But what she also noticed was how heavy the gravity was here. She bared her teeth as she was pressed on to the fox harshly, who crashed down towards the ground, but yet managed to land softly. With all her power, she managed to straighten her hooves and sit up on Spera. Fluttershy looked up. This planet had many clouds. A lot, really! But when she looked down, she frowned as she saw many, many pegasi walking around. they looked sad, like something was missing in their life. However, they did not look up to Spera, as if seeing a giant silver fox was an everyday event on the tiny planet. Fluttershy gulped and looked back up. They were pegasi. Instead of being on the ground, shouldn’t they be living on the clouds, where they have much more room? They would be able to build cities bigger then Cloudsdale! They could build empires up there! Fluttershy sighed and looked at one of the pegasi. She gulped and gathered all her courage to talk to him, being the shy pony she was. “Uhm...excuse me sir...but...why aren’t you up there?” She asked quietly. The pegasus looked up to Fluttershy. It was a brown-coated stallion with a black mane. His blue eyes stared in to Fluttershy’s, but she wanted to avoid eye-contact. So her eyes wandered off to look at the stallion’s cutiemark. But, she couldn’t find one. And when she looked at the other pegasi, she realised that all these ponies were blankflanks. She wondered why, but she got the answer from the brown-coated pegasus. “We would love to, miss...” He said, his voice gentle and sweet. “but the gravity here is so heavy, we can’t fly! That’s why we’re all here, on the ground. And that’s why all of us are blank-flanks! We can’t fly!” He said. And the stallion demonstrated this by spreading his wings and flapping them as fast as he could, with all his strength. However, his hooves only lifted for a few feet, before he landed back. He was clearly exhausted already, and panted heavily and his tongue was lolling out of his mouth. “I really don’t know what it is...” he said sadly, sighing. Fluttershy frowned and lay back on the fox, giving her hooves a rest as she was having difficulty keeping herself up with them for some time now. She sighed and thought; she wanted to help these pegasi. Even though she wasn’t fond of flying herself, it didn’t mean others shouldn’t have the right to fly. She stroked Spera’s fur, sunken in her own thoughts as she tried to make up a way to release these poor pegasi from this planet’s gravity. But then she came up with something, smiling widely as an imaginary lightbulb sparked above her head. She shuffled forward on the silver canine and leaned down, whispering something in his air. Spera nodded and jumped up, from cloud to cloud. Even with a gravity this big, the fox seemed to be as light as a feather. When they were on the top cloud, Fluttershy took a big breath and promised herself to be a big girl. Only seconds later, the fox jumped off the cloud, stretched her body and dived down towards the tiny planet. Spera made sure she wouldn’t hurt any pegasi as soared through the air, her head colliding with the small planet. One would think that this would shatter the fox’s skull, but instead of that, Spera’s skull shattered the planet. The sphere broke in to about ten pieces, the now even smaller planets flying across the atmosphere, which stayed. Fluttershy smiled, this causing exactly what she expected. The gravity was now divided in between these tiny, individual planets. Spera landed on a cloud, not seeming hurt at all. Fluttershy petted the canine in contentment, very proud of her. She looked down, seeing the pegasi fly around freely, cheering out of pure joy as they did somersaults, corkscrews and barrel rolls. The mare squeaked loudly as the brown-coated stallion was suddenly next to her. “Thank you so much.” He said, grabbing her hoof and shaking it in appreciation. “You do not know how happy you made us. We are finally free!” The stallion cheered, shaking Fluttershy’s hoof frantically. “Also, if you’re wondering, my name is Volare.” Said Volare. “You are welcome to return any time you want. We will always be grateful to you.” He sad happily, releasing Fluttershy’s hoof finally and folding his wings, taking a dive with a blissful laugh. “Good job, Spera...” Fluttershy said softly, snuggling on the fox’s soft back. Spera smiled and bent her neck to lick Fluttershy softly. “On the next one, then?” She asked softly. Spera nodded and, with a mighty leap, escaped the planet’s gravity, wandering off in to space once again. The wind that shouldn’t exist blew through her mane again as she clung to the fox’s fur. She wondered what the next planet would bring her as she looked at the stars. But as they passed by Equestria, she frowned down to it. It was smaller then she remembered. much smaller. it scared her. Her eyes were focused on it as they passed by, and when she turned back to look ahead and sighed, she closed her eyes... ...And opened them again. She was lying in bed, and she let out a sigh. She tiredly rubbed her eye, and asked herself. Why did Equestria shrink? - “I know you probably don’t like this Fluttershy, but we really don’t know what to do anymore...” Twilight said. Fluttershy’s blue eyes looked at the hospital in front of them. A mental hospital. The pegasus looked back down to Twilight, her eyes clearly begging the unicorn to take her back home. Twilight noticed this and looked away, sniffling. She didn’t want to do this either, but Fluttershy was mentally broken apart. “I’m really sorry, Fluttershy... But you stopped talking completely, you never leave your house and when’s the last time you had a meal?” Twilight asked. Fluttershy’s stomach seemed to respond by grumbling and she frowned. A tear rolled down her cheek as she gazed at her friend, before looking at Rainbow Dash, who was standing next to Twilight. Rainbow’s eyes were swollen slightly and her cheeks moist, indicating she had been crying. “Look, Fluttershy. We’re all really, really worried about you. You don’t have to be afraid, these are nice ponies...they’re gonna to fix you up.” The cyan pegasus said, forcing a supportive smile on her lips. Fluttershy didn’t like that sentence. Dash was talking as if Fluttershy was broken. Then again, maybe she was? Twilight and her were the only ones that had come with Fluttershy, to drop her off at the hospital. The others wanted to come too, but they had decided that they didn’t want to make this look like too big of an event. And they decided that only Twilight and Rainbow would bring her. Fluttershy gazed at her friends and she sniffled, not realising that her eyes had started watering. Small tears made her cheeks wet as she bit her lip for a bit. She wanted to say something, but she didn’t know what. Something wouldn’t let her. She just stood there, looking at Rainbow and Twilight, and all that left her lips was a small sob. Twilight gulped, keeping in her tears, although struggling to do so. “Don’t worry, Fluttershy...” She said, her voice shaking slightly. She gulped and took a big breath; crying in front of Fluttershy would only turn her down even more. “We’ll visit you often...All of us. We’re doing this for your own good. You’re barely taking any care of yourself anymore. It’s best that you stay here, so these ponies can look after you. And your doctor, Doctor Terryn, will cure you...” She said, repeating herself slightly. She placed a hoof on Fluttershy’s, not being able to hold back her tears anymore. They left her eyes as a sob slipped past her lips. Fluttershy gazed into Twilight’s eyes. She wasn’t sure about this. She was so scared of who was going to be in the hospital. “Come on, lets meet up with your doctor...” Rainbow Dash said. Fluttershy sighed and nodded slightly, slowly trotting to the entrance of the hospital. Rainbow was to her left and Twilight to her right. They didn’t want to do this either, but they were so concerned about their friend. From what Twilight had heard about Doctor Terryn, there was no doubt he’d be able to help Fluttershy. Twilight pushed the large doors to the hospital open and gulped, gazing into the lobby. There were chairs placed around for waiting patient and at the back of the room was a counter with a nurse behind it. The three carefully stepped over the red carpet and Fluttershy took in her surroundings. The lobby seemed a bit on the dull side. There were motivational posters on the walls, but the walls were am off-white otherwise. The lobby could be exited on two sides, on the left was a long hallway with doors, with a staircase at the end, on the right was a steel door. Fluttershy presumed that that door lead to the patients’ wing. As the bunch approached the counter, most of their sobbing already having died down, Twilight spoke to the nurse. “Umm...We have an appointment with Doctor Terryn?” She said. Twilight recognized the nurse as nurse Redheart, but wasn’t she normally taking care of patients in the ponyville hospital? Or maybe she had gotten another job here. But it didn’t matter, as Redheart smiled to Twilight, before looking down at some papers. “Fluttershy?” She asked. Twilight sighed and nodded, looking back at the yellow mare. “Doctor Terryn is waiting for you. Through the hall here, second door to the left.” She said, pointing the long hallway leading to the staircase. Fluttershy held her breath for a second, making herself ready to meet this Doctor Terryn. She was scared, terrified. She just wanted to run out, but that would make her look even more ill. And Rainbow Dash would catch her in no time, anyway. The three followed Redheart’s directions and they were soon found looking at the door. There was a small sign on it with ‘Dr. Terryn’ on it. Fluttershy looked at Twilight, gesturing her to knock, she didn’t want to. Twilight sighed and knocked on the door. Fluttershy squeaked as a voice called out to come in. However, the voice didn’t seem too bad. This man sounded kind. Rainbow opened the door and sighed as Fluttershy slowly trotted in. The office wasn’t too big, containing only a bookcase, some filecases and a big, wooden desk with a light purple-coated unicorn behind it. His mane was short and stubby, being of brown-blonde color. Terryn looked up, lifting his square glasses slightly. To Fluttershy’s surprise, this man didn’t look old at all! She expected some doctor that looked like he was around 50, but Terryn looked like he was in his late 20’s. “You must be Fluttershy...” He said with a smile. “Please, do sit down the three of you, and tell me what, exactly, the problem is.” He kindly requested. Fluttershy was even more surprised, this man was indeed very kind! Fluttershy climbed on to one of the black chairs in front of the desk. Twilight and Dash also took a seat, Rainbow sitting on Fluttershy’s left side, and Twilight having taken place to Fluttershy’s right. Twilight had dropped the saddlebags she had been wearing down next to her. “Hello, Doctor Terryn...” Twilight started. “Umm...” Twilight didn’t really know how to bring this out. She cleared her mind, looked at her friend and cleared her throat. “Rainbow and I... and a lot of others, really, are really concerned about Fluttershy...” She started, her eyes looking back to Terryn’s, his brown eyes looking back in to Twilight’s as he listened. “Even though she’s always been the shy and quiet type...She’s recently gone to the point where she stopped talking...to anypony. Not even to her best friends. And it got even worse as she barely left her house...almost never, really. And I don’t know the last time she had a decent meal.” Twilight explained, having trouble swallowing her tears again. “And do you know what the cause could be?” Terryn asked Twilight. “Is there something that she’s said before she went quiet that might’ve been important? or has she been acting weirdly in any way?” The doctor asked Twilight. Twilight gazed at Terryn, sinking in her thoughts again. But Rainbow Dash answered in her place. “Well...” She started. “She’s been talking about dreams she’s been having... about traveling and helping people.” Rainbow said, gulping. “And she also asked me... Why Equestria Shrunk...” The pegasus added, before taking a breath to talk again. “That’s the last time she spoke to me... About four days ago...” Rainbow swiped a tear from her cheek, gulping. “Can you help her?” She asked Terryn, whose horn was glowing dark purple as his pen was writing things down. “I promise you, I will do my best.” He said. “First I will have to find the source of her problem. It may be the dreams she’s been having. I will try and get that source out of her head using simple therapy. Fluttershy will go back to her good old self, I know that. But I can’t tell you how long I will need. I see you’ve requested a room for her, because she’s barely taking care of herself anymore. That was a wise decision, nurse Redheart is already getting a room ready for her.” Terryn explained. “And if you’re wondering, visiting hours are from two pm until seven pm.” Terryn said, standing up. “Now, if you want to say goodbye, go ahead...” And with that, the three mares stood. Fluttershy had been staring at the floor blankly throughout the entire conversation. But Twilight lifted up her saddlebags, a purple shine around them as they opened. “We brought you some things...” Twilight said with a sad smile. The first object to float out of the bags was a framed picture of Twilight, Fluttershy, Rarity, Rainbow, Applejack and Pinkie in a big group hug. Fluttershy stared at it, before grabbing it with one hoof and holding it close to her, starting to sob ever so slightly. As she looked behind to Rainbow, she noticed that she was wiping her eyes. Although Fluttershy didn’t say anything, she moved to the cyan mare to hug her softly. Rainbow hugged back, almost clinging to Fluttershy as if she didn’t want to let her go. Obviously, Twilight couldn’t stay neutral with this, and tears soon leaked from her eyes too. “T-The next thing...” She muttered, her voices breaking, but she gulped and promised herself to be a decent girl. “...The next thing is something Rainbow brought...From when you were still a filly...” Twilight said, pulling a plushie out of her bag. The plushie was a small, cute fox with silver fur. Fluttershy pulled back from the hug to look at the plushie. Twilight smiled and lifted the fox over Fluttershy, placing it on her back as if it was riding her. Fluttershy stared at the plushie, as if she had seen it countless times before. But in truth, she had. There she was, Spera, on her back, instead of she being on Spera’s. “A-And last, but not least...” Twilight added, pulling out a blanket. “Rarity made this for you...” The unicorn pulled a blanket from her pack said, sniffling as more tears leaked from her eyes. She unfolded the blanket, revealing patches of the six cutiemarks of her and her friends, with Fluttershy’s being the central one. As Twilight covered Fluttershy with it, the unicorn hugged Fluttershy close, suddenly breaking out in sobbing. “We’ll all miss you Fluttershy...” She muttered, Rainbow Dash joining in on the hug. Even Terryn, who was standing by the door, had to wipe a tear away. He almost felt like a terrible person for breaking this moment. “Now, if you please, Fluttershy. I’ll show you to your room.” He said. Fluttershy pulled back, nodding a thank you to Rainbow and Twilight for all this beautiful stuff she was given. The yellow mare left the room, holding the picture in her mouth and letting the blanket rest on her, with Spera riding her back... ...and she left her friends behind, to get healthy again.