//------------------------------// // 10 // Story: Twilights Mane Passion // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// Fluttershy liked the potato salad, especially when it was made with mustard. She tried hard not to think about the ponies who were sharing their food with her, as she felt guilty enough after they invited her to their picnic out of the kindness of their hearts. The Pixie Pony that looked like a breezy was really adorable, it was kind of hard to think it was a pony made construct and was not actually alive. Barb on the other hoof was a real baby dragon, well not a baby in so far as much as her age was six and three fourths. Even if she was a little strange, Fluttershy adored her appearance. She was in some parts her mother’s daughter after all and… it really just occurred to Fluttershy to ask how Twilight came about having her daughter because Twilight didn’t look any older then she did. “So Fluttershy, what did you need help with and what’s your story?” Tress suddenly addressing her caused Fluttershy to turtle up a bit. Tress sighed at the sight of Fluttershy recoiling and taking the potato salad with her. “Oh I didn’t really need anything important…” Even as she said this Fluttershy watched as a bunch of squirrels run up to her holding berries and nuts. “I’m sorry but I don’t need your help today my friends. You can store those for later; really you don’t need to worry about making sure I eat today. I think I can take care of myself for a while. It’s you who needs all this food especially when things are about to get cold.” The squirrels were now giving Fluttershy a flat look that said she probably couldn’t take care of herself without their help. Seeing as she was eating with other ponies, the lead squirrel chattered to the others to go put up the food they initially scavenged for their kind pony friend. Then the lead squirrel hopped up onto Fluttershy’s face and started squeaking at her in an angry tone. “Of course not, I’ll be fine. These kind ponies have invited me to their picnic.” Fluttershy thought the lead squirrel of the group was being rather overprotective of her, but he was so cute when he was being angrily worried about her general safety. Barb, Twilight and Tress were taking this moment in stride, the three of them drinking the last of the honeyed cider in unison. Smart was also there wielding a tiny set of tanning mirrors and absorbing some premium sunlight, she was laying there on top of the blanket sitting in an equally tiny lawn chair. They really weren’t bothered by the mare who could talk to squirrels; Twilight and Tress silently surmised that it was part of her special talent. Barb was used to weird things happening around her and just thought it was neat that Fluttershy could talk to squirrels. “Well okay then, I’ll see you later when I’m doing much better for myself or I’m still stuck in my current situation. I’ll bring some macadamia nuts by in the future if I don’t come back immediately by the end of the day.” The squirrel hugged Fluttershy’s left hoof and then it scampered off. Turning to the others at the picnic, Fluttershy noted that they had continued on like nothing about the picnic had changed. Tress and Twilight were both giving her a rather flat stare when she joined them even as they continued to eat their sandwiches in silence. “Again, what’s the story? We can’t assist you if we don’t know what’s wrong. Though I can already kind of guess some of what’s wrong.” Twilight started with an earnest interest to hear about Fluttershy’s life. From what she saw Fluttershy was speaking with the squirrel as if she were one and that she could in general talk to animals. The theory was confirmed by a bird carrying a peach that flew up to Fluttershy and dropped it at her hooves and she gently said that she didn’t really need it and that the bird could keep it. Her special talent must have had nothing to do with the average pegasi pastimes and or focuses, which might explain why she was having some kind of trouble in life. “Better yet, why don’t you start from the beginning?” Fluttershy inhaled deeply, she had to eventually get this off her chest and she would eventually have to find some pony to assist her in some way anyway. She wouldn’t survive several months of freezing cold outside while her friends were asleep cozy in their homes. These ponies were offering to hear her out and she was having so much trouble asking for help. “Well it all started when I was really young… I’m not quite the best at flying and ponies used to bully me all the time about it in Flight School.” Fluttershy had begun her tale and as the name implies pegasi were all trained in flying almost exclusively. Math was related to flying, science was related to flying and even history was related to flying. “They were always calling me a pegasus who could hardly fly.” “I know how you feel, I’ve been there. Magic kindergarten will always leave its scars in me; I was bullied a lot when I was younger too.” Twilight was pulled into a hug by Tress and she felt the mare nuzzling the back of her neck, a blush sprung up on her face at her friends’ affectionate gesture before they separated. “What were the jeers? Were they something like... Fluttershy, Fluttershy, Fluttershy can hardly fly?” Fluttershy immediately broke down into tears causing both Twilight and Tress to gather her into a quick warm embrace until she was capable of handling her emotions. Twilight did send a small glare at Tress who looked rather apologetic. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to make you cry.” “No, don’t worry about it on my account. Though yes, that’s exactly what they sung and no one would ever come to my aid. Well that is until a friend of mine decided to stop the bullies from picking on me. Up to that point every day of my life had been kind of… not nice, except for my little filly days' where not being a good flyer wasn't a big problem. It wasn’t the only thing they made fun of me for. For example they made fun of my legs when I hit an early growth spurt and well I was quite awkward to watch walking around everywhere.” Looking at herself now, Fluttershy felt like she was slowly growing into her legs and her slightly larger wings. Twilight saw a mare that could have a future as a supermodel because she was pretty beautiful already, even now as the half starved teenaged mess that she was. Give Fluttershy a few years and she’d be beating stallions off of her with an exceptionally ugly stick… maybe also quite a few mares due in part to jealousy or because they swung that way. Twilight would make a mental note here to herself to do a study on her own preferences later on in her life, when she was ready to face something more then friendship. “It was on that day my friend, Rainbow Dash, came to my aid. My heart filled with hope and happiness that a pony was actually willing to protect me. It was also the day I discovered my special talent because she kind of sort of accidentally knocked me off the clouds and as I said I’m not exactly the best at flying. I eventually landed on a swarm of migrating butterflies after a long fall. I was lucky they were all so clustered together as they were, they were able to temporarily support my weight and slow my fall.” From the looks of it, Fluttershy didn’t look like she weighed a lot to begin with. So Twilight let it slide as the younger Fluttershy being light enough to be lifted by butterflies, strange things like that happened in Equestria all the time. “It was that day that my friend performed the legendary Sonic Rainboom! It was one of the most wondrous sights I’ve ever seen. It scared all the animals near where I landed on the ground and I found my special talent because of that. I had little trouble calming down all those animals she had frightened and my mark appeared. The next two years were the happiest in my life while she was around.” “Say, did this happen six or so years ago?” Twilight saw a surprised look in Fluttershy’s eyes. “Yes it did, so you saw it then? Did you get your cutie mark at the time too? My friend earned hers doing it.” Fluttershy’s wings fluttered outward slightly from the excitement of the memory. “Well it’s when I was hatching Barb here; I did see it or at least part of it. I was kind of in a magically induced haze at the time and my magic was surging out of control. That explosion helped me unlock whatever had been blocking up my magic and here she is today.” Barb snuggled into Twilights side and she threw a hoof around her daughter. Twilight moved her head down to nuzzle her daughters’ hair and then she poked the back of her daughters’ right ear with a light kiss causing her to giggle. “Mom, stop that, it tickles.” Barb said as she happily accepted the nuzzling with a flutter of her wings. “I’m taking it that the last four years of your life haven’t been as good either? And by what you say, did something happen to your friend, Rainbow was it? It sounds like she was a colorful pony.” Twilight was worried that her friend might have died from the somber way Fluttershy was acting. “Well she still is, colorful that is, she’s a big fan of the wonderbolts and really wants to join them one day. I think I may have been standing in the way of her dreams, she quickly forgot about me when Gilda showed up.” After a moment’s pause and no questions came, Fluttershy realized they were waiting for her to continue. “Gilda is an exchange student griffon that showed up in our lives at the age of ten, Rainbow slowly started hanging out with Gilda more because she could be competitive and can actually fly really well. I spent a year trying to spend some time with her and well… I found out Gilda was very territorial.” “You mean to say she fell in love with Rainbow and they both got together?” Twilight was just asking for clarification since Griffons and Ponies rarely mixed together. “It’s actually mostly one sided and still was the last time I saw her. Gilda is completely smitten with her and Rainbow is kind of… well she’s not the smartest mare in the world, but I don’t think she really stopped being my friend even when she drifted away from what we had. Cloudsdale's educational system isn’t the greatest it could be and it’s one of the reasons why I’m here in Canterlot. I know I’m never getting a job that involves flying, so I wondered why I should bother with continuing through all the remedial programs they keep putting me through.” Fluttershy looked at the nearby grass with a very vaguely frustrated look on her face. “You ran away from home!” Her shout having caused the poor shy mare to cringe, Twilight suddenly felt horrible for shouting out her sudden revelation. “Sorry, it’s just; you’ve been on your own for the past three years?” “Well it hasn’t been all that bad as you’re making it out to be; I’ve made a lot of animal friends and the Canterlot library is really helping me with the stuff I actually want to learn. So I might have had to sleep in a tree or two in the park and I don’t have any pony friends here, but I get by well enough. I’ve also been making sure to keep up with my education while I studied medicine, knowledge of animals and plenty of other things.” After a moment Fluttershy frowned and looked away from everyone. “I’ve been kind of homeless recently and I mostly survive on the kindness of other ponies and my pet sitting earnings. When I take bathes in other ponies’ houses I always feel bad about it afterwards, I never eat a clients food without permission as that would be stealing and I tend to spend a lot of my earnings on my animal friends since they might need it more.” “Those earnings recently ran out I’m guessing?” Insert the adorability of Fluttershy fumbling with her front hooves at Twilights question, Twilight really liked Fluttershy because who could hate a pony so cute like this one was? The shy mare looked up at them and nodded slightly. “Well you can stay with us, we’ve got plenty of room at my house since my brother moved out, Tress has already moved into the guest room and she’s practically made it her own and is a part of the family. Now come on, let’s pack up all these empty containers and see if my parents will let you stay with us.” Fluttershy looked positively shocked that these ponies were already willing to help her without wanting anything in return. She started tearing up in happiness and then she set about helping them clean up. Previously she was just going to ask Tress if she knew some pony that had a pet they needed help with. This was much better then she was expecting, hopefully she was about to be thrust into a warm comfy atmosphere. Walking into the house Twilight led her strange menagerie inside and then her father walked out of the kitchen and suddenly had a large frown across his face. “How could you do this to me my little sparkle? Why would my own daughter do something like this to me? Me of all ponies, just how could you!” Twilight’s father said angrily at the sight of Fluttershy in the room and he threw his hooves up in the air as he said this.