Later that day, outside Fluttershy’s cottage…
Germanica and Fluttershy had said nothing on their way to the cottage. Things were no different once they had arrived, either. Fluttershy could only look at her guest in wonder. How did she do it? That wind, it must have been what pushed that bush aside. But how did she do it? The weather wasn’t changed in any way.
With Fluttershy opening the door, the two ponies walked inside the cottage. Germanica was quick to take a seat near the door. “Please, Fluttershy, leave the door open.” She insisted. Germanica wasn’t entirely comfortable with where she found herself; it had been years since she last went inside a building. She felt an open door meant she wouldn’t be cut off from the outside.
Fluttershy was concerned by Germanica’s quietness. Despite the fact they had been in each other’s company for a good hour or so now, she had no idea of where Germanica might be from. All she knew was that Germanica spent much of the last few years in the Everfree Forest, and that she claimed to have some sort of “connection” to the place. She couldn’t have been born there. That would be ridiculous. But she says she was there since she was only six. I have to wonder what happened to her parents.
Fluttershy went to offer her guest some food. Upon this gesture she asked “Where are you from? I don’t mean the Everfree Forest, but before that.” Germanica did not reply to this, rather she just stared straight through Fluttershy’s eyes, as if there was nopony in front of her at all. “Germanica?” The unicorn still replied with nothing more than a blank face. Fluttershy took a moment to think about how she could encourage her guest to talk more openly. Perhaps I should tell her why I live down here and not in Cloudsdale. Perhaps this will let her know I’m not just being nosy.
“Germanica, if I tell you about how I found myself here rather than Cloudsdale, would you talk about yourself then? I just don’t want to sound nosy, that’s all.” Germanica pulled a slight smile at this, and finally began to speak about the topic at hoof. “Fluttershy, you mean to say that you will let a total stranger all about yourself just to make them feel comfortable?” Fluttershy nodded her head. “Well then, I guess you already have proven yourself to be a half-decent soul. I was starting to think you were a little different anyway. Not once have you yet mentioned my blank flank.” Upon these words, Fluttershy saw the empty space on her flank for the first time. “I… I didn’t notice.” She said nervously, hoping Germanica wouldn’t be disappointed by the fact that it had caused no reaction from her at all. The unicorn looked into the turquoise eyes of her pegasus host with a softness that spoke only of relief, not disappointment. “You mean, when we first met a while ago you didn’t look for a cutie mark to see what I might be like?” Germanica said, a gentle smile forming between some cheeks. Despite this though, tears started rolling from those brown eyes of hers.
“Germanica, why are you crying? I didn’t upset you, did I?” Germanica sobbed a few tears away before telling Fluttershy “No. No, you didn’t upset me. Somepony else did. Years ago. Heck, I don’t even know why I still get upset by it. Most would think it was harmless.” Fluttershy tried to comfort her guest. “Who upset you? How did they?” The unicorn sighed. “When I was four, I found myself in Manehatten, living in an orphanage. I had just lost my mother. I was told I would be fine. That’s what the carers said. But I wasn’t. All I ever wanted was to get back home, where I could gallop freely in the plants. Instead I was stuck with just a vase of some flowers so badly cared for they died within weeks of me arriving.”
Fluttershy was shocked and confused. How does she get from a Manehatten orphanage to the Everfree Forest at such a young age? Surely if she left the campus it wouldn’t take long for its staff to find and return her again. And what does her blank flank have to do with this that it reminds her of that time? “Germanica, I had no idea. I’m sorry to have put your memories through this. If I could have known…” Germanica silenced her host with a touch of the hoof to Fluttershy’s shoulder. “Don’t apologize. You are not at fault. How could you be? You’ve lived here most of your life after all, that much I can tell from the trees. And you certainly haven’t been to Manehatten at a time I was there, that’s for sure.”
“Anyway, when I arrived there I was met by an assortment of young fillies and colts. They all must have had some sort of misfortune befall them, but they seemed happy. I hoped I might feel the same eventually.” Fluttershy was desperate to ask many things in one go, but out of her kindness restricted herself to one question. “Hoped? You mean you were never happy there?” Germanica couldn’t reply to this, but her silence was answer enough.
“I’d rather not talk about my time there, Fluttershy.” The unicorn let out a long sigh. “But I suppose you are wondering how I got from here to Everfree. If you don’t mind, I’ll jump forwards to that part.” Fluttershy agreed. “Well, I had been living at the orphanage for a couple of years. It happened on my sixth birthday. The day I ran, never to stop.” Fluttershy interrupted her guest to ask “What do you mean you never stopped running?” Germanica chuckled. “Well, you found me living the nomadic life, didn’t you? That means I don’t stop travelling, period.”
Fluttershy had yet another question she felt the need to ask. “So if you ran away, how did you learn about your magic?” Germanica was pushed into a silence by this. It took a few moments before she could only reply with “We’ll talk about that another time perhaps.” The unicorn returned to her previous topic, escaping the orphanage. “Fluttershy, please, no more questions for now. I’d like to tell how it became possible for you to find me where you did.”
“I was supposed to meet all the foals in the lounge for a celebration. We did that for everyponies birthday. I really didn’t want to though. Some of those foals… No, that doesn’t matter. Basically, I saw an opportunity. Everypony was in the lounge. That meant the rest of the building was empty. Simply put, I legged it while there was nopony to get in my way.” Fluttershy broke in here to ask Germanica “I’m sorry; I know you didn’t want any more questions. But I must ask why did you do that? Surely you would want to be somewhere safe. Let’s face it, that orphanage would have been one of the safest places in the city.” Germanica smiled. “Exactly, it was safe. The problem I have with that kind of environment is that it always means that its residents are cut off from nature. As I do now, I only wanted to be surrounded by plants and wilderness at that age. The city of Manehatten couldn’t provide that. It was woodland, but an artificial one. I needed the real thing.”
“So that’s why you like the Everfree Forest so much, because it’s the biggest untamed wilderness in Equestria?” Fluttershy questioned. “Yes. It suited me. I only wanted to be able to live like any animal, without a care in the world. That’s how the creatures in that forest want to live, so that’s how I know how to stay safe around them. I left them alone to their own business. When you here of somepony getting hurt by one of them, it’s only because they ignored the signs and strayed too far into their territory.”
Fluttershy took a moment to reflect her experiences with some of the bigger creatures she had along with her friends. Perhaps if we had looked out for signs when we travelled through the forest we would have met less scary monsters. “That makes sense. Please though Germanica; tell me how you, as a six year old foal, made it through the city and into the wilderness.” Germanica took a moment to refresh herself. She wasn’t used to speaking for such extended periods as this. “Well I didn’t know how to navigate the place very well. There was too much structure for my liking. I’ve always been attracted to things which have no pattern. I decided to simply roam the streets, hoping I might find the edge of that place and a way out with it. While doing this, I was shocked by the way this apparent civilized society lived. I saw so many arguments there. I saw families being evicted from their homes. I saw ponies in utter desperation for work just so they could eat that night. I could only ask myself how all this was possible. This misery was something that would never happen in the wilderness.”
Fluttershy grew concerned for her guest. This mare has seen so much in such a short life. I wonder how she knew the forest and wilderness was better for her before she lived there, but I won’t ask that now. I wouldn’t want to put her through any more bad memories. Fluttershy went to give Germanica a comforting hug, but was gently pushed aside by a spell cast the unicorn. “You don’t have to feel sorry for me Fluttershy. I’m fine now.” Fluttershy went on to apologize for asking about Germanica’s backstory, insisting she had no intention to cause any upset. “It’s OK, Fluttershy. You weren’t to know. You still don’t know the half of it anyway.”
“So what did you do after a while in the streets of the city?” Germanica sighed again. “Well, after seeing all the conflict, all the misery, I just couldn’t bear to be around anypony for much longer. Not after seeing what our kind can do to each other. I eventually found a road out of the city when it had gotten dark. I simply walked out of that place. Since then, I’ve seldom being to any permanent settlements bigger than a single house; I’ve certainly never visited a major city again. I just lived in the wild areas of Equestria, roaming here, there and everywhere.”
Fluttershy stopped the conversation here, insisting that Germanica now ate something to replenish her strength. It was then that something started knocking a wall outside the house, out of sight of the open door and the windows. “Who could that be?” Fluttershy said. The pegasus went outside the house, calling for the mysterious visitor to appear. Feeling uneasy about meeting another stranger, Germanica put herself below a window, putting just enough of one of her eyes to be able to catch a glimpse of what Fluttershy was up to. It was then that she saw a dark cloaked figure in the shape of a rather tall pony appear from around the corner of the cottage. Fluttershy soon enough greeted the strange visitor with a single word.
“Zecora.”