Equestria had been a land of peace and tranquility for many centuries and the ponies that lived there had grown prosperous over that period. Of course with prosperity came the problems that were associated with it including crime and violence. It started of small but over time ponies started to become too cramped in major cities leading to them lashing out at each other. This even happened between ponies of the same tribes and at times they were even worse to their own tribe.
That situation is what led to one shy pegasus named Fluttershy to distance herself from other ponies and run away from her home of Cloudsdale. After the years of bullying and teasing she went through she eventually was forced to move away so that she could live her life peacefully. She chose Ponyville for many reasons, mostly for the fact that it was relatively small so she wouldn't have to deal with many others as well as the proximity of multiple forests which would allow her to pursue her passions of helping animals.
It was only after she bought the home on the edge of one of these forests for a cheap price that she learned why the cost was so low. The Everfree Forest was one of the most dangerous places in Equestria but for a pegasus living in the clouds it wasn't something that was common knowledge for them. For Fluttershy it was both a great worry for her as well as a great relief as she wouldn't have many ponies bothering her but she also had to worry about the dangers of the place.
For the first year she completely avoided the place, but when nothing happened during that time she started to brave the very edges of it for her animal friends. That day she had been following her pet baby bunny, Angel, as he ran off into the forest for some reason leaving her to quietly call for him as she searched. “Angel! Angel! Where are you little one. Mommy's coming to take you home now so please come out of the dark, scary forest.”
When a rustling sound came from a huge bush to her side causing her to let out a shriek as she latched onto a branch above herself. The rustling sound happened again, along with another odd sound, but when nothing appeared the yellow pegasus slowly climbed down from the tree. “Angel? Is that you? Come to mommy dearie.”
When no bunny appeared she slowly creeped up towards the bush but stopped when the rustling started again along with a new sound. “Miaoww.”
On hearing the sound Fluttershy's ears perked up in interest as she started to move forward again. “Oh dear, what is a cute little kitty doing out here all on your lonesome? Here kitty, kitty. Here... Oh my...”
Fluttershy's eyes widened in shock as she came nose to something with the creature in the bush. Her eyes traveled from down low up to what she assumed was it's face and let out a single word before fainting. “Meep!”
She later awoke to to something shaking her hoof roughly an awoke to find herself back in front of her home with her pet Angel trying to wake her up. “Oh Angel, I had such the strangest dream. I was following you out into the Everfree when I ran into the strangest cat I had ever seen. It looked like it had some strange chitin and... and...” She paused as the bunny was waving its arms at something behind her and she slowly turned her head to spot the great beast from before.
With a cute shriek of panic she dove behind the tiny bunny and covered her head with her hooves. As she was shivering in fear she felt Angle poke at her muzzle, getting her attention before waving his arms around again. After listening for a few moments she let out a gasp. “Oh my, you say that she was only trying to help and helped bring me home?”
Rising to her hooves, Fluttershy slowly advanced on the creature before gently rubbing the top of, what she assumed, its nose. The large creature started to purr in her grip causing the pegasus to smile sweetly. “Oh, aren't you just the sweetest thing. Where did you come from though? I've never seen anything like you before.”
With a sad sound the creature shook it's head before letting out a sad “Mrrroww.”
“Oh my, you mean you got separated from your friends and haven't been able to find them? You poor thing. If you want you can stay with me until they find you again, if you want I mean.” After a few moments of though the creature made what the pegasus thought was a nodding motion causing her to smile gleefully at the thought of being able to spend time with such a rare creature.
~~~~~~~
Fluttershy ran her hooves over the creature as she washed off all the dirt that had accumulated on it for who knows how long. “Poor thing, you must have been alone a long time to have gotten so dirty. Well don't worry, I'll get you back to your old self in no time.” The green beast purred as the pegasus ran her hooves over her hide, removing the layers of built up dirt. As she did this, Fluttershy examined the creature as she had never seen anything like it before.
She thought that the creature's hide was some form of chitin but she had never seen anything like it before and it seemed almost metallic. If she didn't hear it speaking she would have never even known it was alive, especially with the lack of warmth it gave off. Still, her heart would not have allowed her to ignore the creature once she had found out how friendly it was and she put her all into taking care of it.
As she cleared out an especially caked on bit of dirt she found something that made her gasp in shock. “Oh my, why would anypony do this to another creature?” She traced her hoof along the scratches that she had found on its carapace. “Mee.. kay...?” The creature turned turned it's head towards Fluttershy and gave off a happy sound. “Is that your name? Mihke?” It nodded at her and the pegasus looked thoughtful for a moment before she continued cleaning. “That's rather pretty, but I still want to know why somepony would carve into another creature's body. She eventually found more markings but they seemed more as if they were meant to be there so she said nothing on finding them though she had no idea what they meant.
Fluttershy's ears perked up as she heard something approaching and looked over to find Angel had climbed up next to her and was bumping his paw on the shell of the strange creature. The mare looked on curiously as her pet climbed up to the top of the creature before vanishing. “Angel? Where did you go?”
Giving the area she was cleaning a final wipe down she gently took to the air to search for the white rabbit. Spotting a dark opening on the top of the creature's body she flew over and peered inside of the beast, quickly spotting her young pet. As her eyes adjusted to the darkness she let out a gasp at what she saw inside the belly of the beast. “Just what are you, Mihke?”
The creature's response was something she should have expected due to it's feline heart. “Meow?”
~~~~~~~
Over the years Fluttershy took care of Mihke for when her friends returned but nopony ever showed up. She was happy to take care of the creature but there were times when she found it to be rather trying. “Mihke! Bad kitty! No chasing the chickens around!”
Fluttershy chased after Mihke trying to get her to stop the playful creature just to fly right past it as it stopped and spun around in full retreat. “Winona! Quit chasing Mihke, wait stop! Not the chicken coop!” *CRASH!*
“Angel! Please help me!” The bunny in question was busy rolling around laughing at the chaos around the cottage home but eventually rose to help his master. With his help Fluttershy was able to coral all the animals as Angel relaxed atop the green beast.
~~~~~~~
Fluttershy had been able to keep Mihke a secret over the years but not without many close calls. Luckily she had been able find a netting connected to Mihke that acted like a portable push that helped hide her when she wasn't moving around, though some ponies grew suspicious of it when they saw it like one Twilight Sparkle when she first met her. As she followed off after the unicorn she made subtle gestures to the creature to go and hide back at her home.
Mihke followed her directions and stayed there waiting for her and dozed off when night fell. She awoke when six mares, including Fluttershy, showed up at the entrance to the Everfree Forest and entered. Lightly nudging Angel bunny, who had been sleeping atop her, she indicated the direction the mares were going. Angel looked off after his master and nodded up to the green beast before climbing up further atop her and the two followed after while keeping their distance.
They watched as the mares passed challenge after challenge while having to make detours to be able to keep up with them. Eventually they caught up with them at the Castle of the Two Sisters and watched as they faced off against Nightmare Moon. When the six mares started charging up a big attack to finish off the alicorn, Nightmare Moon lit up her horn before blasting Twilight out of the air and into a wall causing the others to gasp and the power around them to fade. Soon four other forms were sent flying around the room leaving only Fluttershy as the dark mare advanced on her.
Mihke let out a growl as she looked towards a sloped pile of trees by the edge of the gorge and started driving towards it.
vvvvvvv
Fluttershy stared in horror is the dreaded Nightmare Moon advanced on her as her new friends tried to drag themselves up from where they had been thrown. Her ears twitched as a familiar sound came to her, but she was to focused on the mare above her to focus on what it was. “Pitiful! Is this the best that our sister has to send against us? How for she has fallen over the centuries! Now it is time for you all to die!”
Nightmare Moon lifted her horn to deliver the final blow to the mare in front of her but she saw movement out of the corner of her eye. Turning her head to the side her eyes widened as her vision was filled with a giant green shape before it slammed into her sending her flying across the room.
The six other mares in the room stared in shock at where the dark alicorn had been sent flying before turning back toward the dust enshrouded form. At first they couldn't see anything but slowly a long green object stuck out through the dust that had 'L7 105mm' stamped on the side of it. Soon the entire form was revealed revealing the shape of a Type 74 tank but what happened next caused all but Fluttershy to face-plant into the ground. “Mrrrowww!”
None of them were prepared to hear the sound of a cat come from such a strange creature but they were even more surprised by Fluttershy's reaction. “Mihke! Angel! What are you two doing here? I told you to wait for me back at home.”
They boggled at seeing Fluttershy not only not fleeing in terror at the strange beast but also knowing it. They disregarded the bunny atop the creature, though Rainbow Dash shuddered at seeing the little demon, but before they could speak to Fluttershy the pile of rubble where Nightmare Moon was thrown shifted. “How dare you? HOW DARE YOU DO THIS TO US!? WE AER THE NIGHT! WE ARE THE DARKNESS! WE ARE NIGHTMARE M-GACK!”
With the sound of thunder Mihke turned towards the monologuing alicorn and fired a round from its main cannon. Nightmare Moon's speech was caught off in a burst of flame as she was struck in the face by a HEP round. When the smoke cleared the mare was staggering around in a daze as if drunk while coughing. “Is- Is that all you have?”
She was once more engulfed in flames, and then again as Mihke fired two more times in rapid succession. When she was visible again she was flat on the ground as she weakly raised a hoof that looked as if the colors were fading from. “W-w-we are the night, you can not s-s-stop us.”
With a glare, Angel grabbed a helmet out of the hatch and slammed it on his head before jumping up to the machine gun and aimed it at the alicorn. Nightmare Moon's form was once again obscured by a hail of bullets and dust as the mare actually let out a shriek of panic. When they could see her again the alicorn was waving a white piece of cloth in her now blue hoof. “We yield, we yield! No more, please!”
She started whimpering as another hail of bullets same flying her way and Fluttershy decided that things were going too far. “Angel! Mihke! Enough, that's too much!”
Moving over to the downed form, Fluttershy gently lifted her head onto her lap as she sat down next to her. “Are you all right? I'm so sorry about them but they can be rather protective of me.”
The alicorn just whimpered as she hid her head from the two creatures that were glaring at her over the shoulder of the pegasus. Fluttershy started to treat her wounds while most of the other mares were just staring in shock at what had happened. Pinkie had taken this moment of distraction to bounce up to Mihke and started painting the word 'Friendship' on the barrel of her cannon.
This was the situation that Celestia walked in on after being freed from her imprisonment allowing her to once again raise the sun. “What just happened here?”