The Hurricane-Pt 11: A Necessary Evil
Pre-Notes: Whew, so here's what I've had cooking up since before Memorial Day...hopefully I didn't write Fluttershy too terribly out of character here because this gave me an opportunity to explore something I've always wondered about her and how she felt about a certain subject in regards to her animals...SO, buckle up kids, cuz here comes the longest frickin chapter I think I've ever written for anything!
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August 29th, Morning
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“Wake up, sleepy-filly,” a kind voice softly interrupted Twilight Sparkle’s slumber. She’d been dreaming about a myriad of things, most prominent of which was sifting through the information piled up in her mind over two decades of learning to locate just where in Equestria she’d seen that spell she’d used to repair Volare’s wing.
“Wake up, Twilight,” a gentle nudge accompanied the voice now, and the unicorn groaned in response before rolling over to face the owner of the voice: a smiling Princess Cadance.
“Urgh, it’s too early,” the normally early-rising unicorn protested as she threw her mane over her eyes to block the sun radiating in from the nearby window.
“Come on, Twilight,” Cadance nudged her with her nose. “Sunshine, sunshine…”
“Mmmm…ladybugs awake,” Twilight murmured from behind her mane, a small hint of a smile peeking through the strands of violet hair at the memory of her former foal-sitter’s rhyme.
“Clap your hooves,” Cadance punctuated each word with a tap of her from hooves against Twilight’s.
“And give a little shake,” the two mares finished the rhyme in unison before Twilight’s face rose from her pillow, her grin interrupted by a massive yawn.
“Heh, ‘scuse me. What time is it?” she asked, squinting at the rising sun filling the window.
“It’s just after eight,” Cadance replied. “I figured you’d be up by now, so I”-
“Eight?!” Twilight gasped and rolled her legs out from under the blankets before standing and stretching. “I’m late! I’ve got so much to do today!” The librarian rushed for the front room, passing her brother on the way there.
“Whoa, slow down, Twiley,” Shining Armor cocked an eyebrow in amusement. “What’s shifted you from snoring to galloping all of a sudden?”
“Slept in! Got a lot to do today! Urgh, where’re my saddlebags?! All my research from Volare on humans is in there!!” Twilight replied in staccato fashion as she ran back to the guest bedroom where she’d been sleeping, passing by Cadance again before diving under the bed to search for her bags. The Royal couple shared a small chuckle before Shining cleared his throat.
“Ahem, sis?”
“If it’s a story that’s going to slow me down even further, I’ll have to hear it later, big brother,” Twilight called from under the bed, painfully bumping her horn as she crawled back out again. “Ow, nope, not under there…”
“Twiley?”
“Not now, Shining!” Twilight growled lightly as she galloped past them again, searching the front room before throwing her front hooves into the air. “Argh, where’d those bags go!?” She turned back, her mane frazzled and her eyes a bit too dilated to see Cadance hovering her bags in mid-air with a small smile.
“Where? How?!”
“They were hanging on the hook on the back of your bedroom door,” Cadance explained as she passed the bags over to a considerably calmer Twilight.
“T-thank you,” the unicorn shook her head and sighed. “Sorry, when things aren’t organized, I get a little worked up.”
“I’d hate to see a lot worked up, in that case,” Shining Armor chuckled and gave his sister a gentle hug. “Twiley, I know you’re a bit of a workaholic, but aren’t you technically on vacation?”
“Well, sorta, yeah…”
“So why don’t you tell us what you have planned for this “vacation” that’s got you so worked up, hmm?” Cadance asked. “Besides, it’ll give you time to wake up, have some breakfast and…well, heehee…”
“What?” Twilight cocked her head.
“You always did have horrible bed-mane, Twilight,” Cadance barely managed to stifle her giggles behind a hoof as Twilight blushed and blew a curl of violet mane-hair out of her eyes.
“Well, I suppose I could do with some breakfast,” the unicorn smiled as she realized she’d nearly rushed out the door looking like this; in Canterlot no less! Rarity would have killed her…
But thinking of Rarity made her think of certain other ponies; one yellow-maned blue one in particular. Hmm, I hope Volare’s having a less-stressful morning than I am…
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Unfortunately, that was not the case…
Volare found himself currently locked in the most dangerous staring contest he’d ever participated in, for his opponent facing him not an inch away was a hungry and aggressive young female osprey named Shae. He’d been told not to blink or look away from the large bird of prey as it stared him down in a battle of wills…but what about beyond that?!
“F-Fluttershy…how long does this usually go on for?” He asked as gently as he possibly could, all the while staring right back at the burning yellow orbs sitting above Shae’s sharp beak.
Fluttershy found her voice after a moment and spoke up. “I-it all depends…” she replied, doing a bad job of hiding her uncertainty. “Seconds…minutes?”
“Oh, great,” the blue Pegasus returned his full attention to Shae. She seemed to almost have a sneer on her face as she glared at him, challenging him…taunting him… Now, Volare was never one to be terribly nasty if he could help it, but when presented with a challenge…well…the fact that he didn’t always think about the consequences of his actions when he did whatever it took to win was loudly reflected in his crippled wing. Even so, like most any creature, when backed into a corner like this, the instinct of fight or flight took over…and Volare had never been the kind of person to run away if he thought he could win…his training in the Navy only further reinforced those values. And at the rate things were going here, it was only a matter of time before a drop of sweat dripped into his eye, forcing him to blink…and then he was fairly certain he’d lose more than just a simple staring contest.
Time to force the issue a bit.
Without warning, and in a move that made Fluttershy’s legs go weak in sudden terror, Volare butted his muzzle right up against Shae’s beak. The bird jerked backwards for an instant, but before she could recover, the Pegasus narrowed his eyes in a predatory leer, bared his teeth, and growled deep in his throat.
You wanna piece of me, you crazy damn bird? Well come on!!!
If one were to say that a bird of prey could never express more than fierce pride in its face, that theory would have been sorely tested this day as Shae recoiled even further from the Pegasus in front of her, the Pegasus she thought she’d been frightening this entire time. Instead, his narrowed eyes seemed to be blazing slits of volcanic blue, burning right back into Shae’s own golden eyes…which finally blinked and turned downwards as she turned her feathered head away, no longer wishing to challenge such a creature.
The first thing that Volare realized was that Shae had turned her head away. The second thing he noticed was that his face was still intact, and a whistling noise was making its way through the roar of blood and adrenaline rushing through his head, accompanied by a rather loud WHUMP sound. It took him a moment to realize that the whistling was Fluttershy letting out a long, loud gasp of relief from behind her hooves. The WHUMP was Iron Will falling flat on his flank in shock. High above them, Rainbow Dash let out her own breath she'd been holding, albeit hers was through a fierce grin of pride for Volare's ballsy effort.
“Oh…my…goodness, Volare,” the yellow Pegasus hesitated before trotting to his side and nuzzling his neck comfortingly. “A-are you ok?” She looked up at him to confirm what she’d just seen…but no, his eyes-his face, they were back to normal now.
“Y-yeah, I think so,” he nodded before he realized just how crazy his actions had just been, and he felt his legs wobble slightly. Luckily, Fluttershy caught him before he lost his balance, and she held him there for a moment so he could regain his bearings. “W-what just happened?” He asked for confirmation from Fluttershy.
“It was…that was,” she searched for the right words, but was having trouble getting that image of his snarling face out of her mind; just how quickly he’d gone from staring certain harm in the face, to literally staring down said harm…it had almost looked evil…almost like-
“That was amazing,” Iron Will breathed. Fluttershy and Volare turned to see the minotaur getting to his hooves and dusting himself off, his composure regained. “The way you just…it was like a switch clicked over or something, and you became a different pony entirely when your back was against the wall! Heh, could have used that in my old lessons too, I’ll bet…”
“Wow,” Volare said aloud. “I-I hope I didn’t scare Shae too badly.” But his worries were abated as Shae turned back to him at the sound of her name and gave his mane a soft peck and a chewk as if to say that she was just fine.
“No, no, that’s just how certain animals behave when meeting new creatures,” Fluttershy explained. “She just needs to be know who’s boss, that’s all,” she gently ran a hoof along the back of the osprey’s head. The bird of prey, who only moments ago seemed ready to rip Volare’s face off, responded to the caress by nuzzling the side of her face against Fluttershy’s hoof, chirring softly to herself. “And that would be you for now,” she added.
“Oh, sweet,” Volare couldn’t help but puff out his chest a little bit. He’d just stared that bird down! Who’s the man now, woooo!
“So I take it she’s not gonna try that again, I hope?” the blue Pegasus asked, eying the bird suspiciously, a look Shae returned with a wary glance of her own.
“Well, she shouldn’t,” Fluttershy mused. “She tried that on me when we first met, but she couldn’t fly then…so this might be a bit of an experimental outing; that is, if you still want to take her out,” her face fell slightly. “I’d understand if you didn’t…”
“No, no, I”- Volare looked from Fluttershy to Shae, who looked almost friendly now. She seemed to know what was about to take place, and her claws scratched impatiently at the leather saddle. Fluttershy looked up at him with a hopeful smile. “Well, I’d hate to disappoint you two…I guess, as long as she doesn’t try to tear me some new eye sockets, I’ll be ok with putting her through her paces.”
“Oh, wonderful!” The yellow Pegasus hovered for a joyful moment before coming back down. “Ok, you’re going to need a couple of things; just a moment” she explained as she hurried into her cottage, leaving Volare alone in the yard with Shae and Iron Will. The minotaur approached the bird and extended a hand in greeting, to which Shae sniffed it like a dog and gave it a quick nuzzle.
“Heh, she’s not as bad as the act she puts on, most of the time” Iron Will chuckled. “Even so, you just never know how she’s gonna react around strangers.”
“Well, she seems a bit better-behaved than Angel,” Volare nodded towards the cottage.
“Hahaha, ya got that right, Spike-head,” the minotaur laughed heartily as Fluttershy returned, carrying her personal saddlebag.
“Here you go, Volare,” she strapped the bag to Shae’s perch-saddle. “I’ve packed you a full lunch of dried fruits and pressed rice-cakes in there, as well as a map in case you get lost.” She seemed to have had this planned in advance, and Volare couldn’t put his hoof on it, but it unsettled him just a bit. Or maybe it was the giant pink butterfly emblazoned on the side of the saddlebag he was wearing. He cringed slightly and did his best to ignore Iron Will’s soft snicker behind his hand.
“Wait, where exactly am I taking her?”
“Well, I was going to ask you to follow the brook in front of my cottage south down to the Ponyville stream so Shae can stretch her wings.”
“And hunt?”
“…yes, that too," she replied after a moment.
“I figured as much; ospreys eat fish, so you’d want me to stay near water, right?” he asked matter-of-factly.
Fluttershy smiled softly, glad that Volare wasn’t making a huge deal about it. She nodded. “Mhm, that’s right. And if you want to, you can circle around Sweet Apple Acres and say hi to Applejack and her family on your way back.”
“Heh, I’d like that,” he smiled in return, though his face quickly creased with mild concern. “But is Shae ok with that?”
“Oh yes, she should be; she’s already met Applejack when Big Macintosh was recovering from his applebucking accident here. Just make sure Shae eats before you go there, and there shouldn’t be any problems.”
“Alright then,” Volare nodded. “When do we leave?”
“Right now if you want,” Fluttershy replied.
“Oh, right,” he chuckled. “Well then…I guess I’ll be off. Any particular time you want us to be back?”
“Any time before sunset should be good. Just make sure to pace yourself, and if you lose sight of Shae, just call her like I showed you; she should come back.”
“Sounds good,” the blue Pegasus turned towards the back gate of the yard. “You ready, Shae?”
“You promise not to eat Spike-head’s face off while you’re gone?” Iron Will chortled before Fluttershy gave him a kick to the thigh that he hardly felt.
“Haha, very funny,” Volare rolled his eyes, and to his utter amusement, Shae did the same. “Hey Fluttershy, before we leave…”
“Mhm?”
“Can Shae…understand us?”
“For the most part, I’m not entirely sure,” Fluttershy tapped her chin. “I mean, she seems at least as smart as Angel Bunny, so I’d assume she could understand our body language and tone of voice at the very least. Why?”
“Oh, just wondering, that’s all,” Volare gave the osprey a short glance before turning back to the gate. “Well…here we go!”
As he trotted out the gate, Shae settled herself on her perch, chirring lightly as he rounded the cottage and headed for the brook. As soon as his short tail disappeared around the corner, Iron Will turned to Fluttershy, his usually confident face creased with mild concern.
“Is something wrong, Will?”
“Well, it’s just that I’m a little worried with you sending out Volare on his own so soon, that’s all.”
“I think he’s well enough to take a little trot around the Acres,” she replied with a little nod of self-assurance.
“Yeah, I know…but you could have gone with him, right?”
“Mhm, I could have…but he needs to feel like he’s making progress by doing something on his own for a bit,” Fluttershy replied. “Besides, if I’m there, Shae won’t act naturally and that won’t help matters either.”
“Well, I just hope you know what you’re doing, Fluttershy,” the minotaur sighed and scratched the base of a horn. “Want me to follow and keep an eye on him?”
“No, I think he’ll be ok,” Fluttershy cocked an eyebrow in mild amusement as she watched the solitary cloud that had been hovering over her cottage since yesterday scoot across the sky, following Volare’s trail. “I’ve got a feeling he’ll be plenty looked after.”
Whether that’s good or bad remains to be seen…
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Volare’s hooves clipped over the small wooden bridge that spanned the brook in front of Fluttershy's house. He briefly considered simply staying on the road for easier travel, but a light tug on his mane from Shae’s beak convinced him otherwise.
“Alright alright, we’ll follow the water,” he chuckled as he left the road and turned slightly northeast, following the brook. Although it was only early morning, he could already see the air above the stream dancing and refracting as the sun’s rays pulled the moisture above the surface. Small birds winged through the air above them, and he could hear hidden animals scurrying through the stand of trees to his right as he trotted along, causing Shae’s head to rotate around in little jerks of observation in the manner of all birds of prey. It had been years since he’d done a little nature hike like this, and to say that it was a breath of fresh air...
Huge understatement he thought as he inhaled the clean air deeply through his nostrils; so much cleaner than what he was used to on Earth…if he was really going to stay here, he wasn’t sure if he’d ever get used to such unsullied beauty the likes of which no longer existed on Earth, at least, that he was aware of. For nearly 10 minutes of trotting, he was so engrossed in his thoughts of the natural world around him that he hardly noticed them coming to a convergence of the Ponyville Stream from the northwest and the brook he was following. He halted at the water’s edge and looked left and right as did Shae before she chirred at him and pointed to the right with her beak.
“South then, eh? Well, you know the area better than I do, Shae,” Volare nodded and turned right, following the widening stream until they came to a bridge that led over it and into Ponyville itself. From this distance he could just barely make out the shapes of multi-colored ponies wandering to and fro among the shops and little goods stands, going about their lives as if nothing would ever go wrong while under the close protection of the two Princesses living high on the mountain that loomed up into the clouds in the far distance past the town. A moderate breeze was blowing towards them, bringing with it the muffled drone of ponies conversing, selling, and haggling over pricing as well as the delicious scents of fresh baked goods…which got Volare’s stomach rumbling. The osprey’s head cocked to the side in curiosity at the sound emanating from below her clawed feet.
He momentarily considered crossing the bridge and touring the town by himself for a bit, maybe even grabbing a bite to eat…until he was reminded that he wasn’t alone by a sharp peck to his neck from the osprey riding on his back. He turned to face the bird of prey with a look that said: ‘alright then, what do you suggest we do?’
In response, Shae ruffled her black and white feathers and pecked at his saddlebag already full of food prepared by Fluttershy.
“Oh, right, heheh,” Volare chuckled sheepishly as he opened the bag and laid out a paper-wrapped package of rice cakes. There was no way Fluttershy could have prepared those that morning; he’d woken her up. She must have made them last night after he fell asleep…which meant she had planned this little outing this morning. He looked to Shae bemusedly.
“So does that mean she knew you’d try to take my head off when we first met, eh?” He gave the osprey a gentle nudge with his muzzle but only received an irritated chewk and a peck on his nose in return. “Alright, alright, I’m sorry…sheesh, testy bird…ow!” He turned back to see Shae sitting there with a yellow strand of his mane in her beak, having yanked it out of the back of his head. “You’re a sneaky one, you know that?” The osprey responded with what Volare swore was a chuckle of a chirr-chirr-chirr noise.
“Well, just for that,” Volare smiled and plunked himself down on beside the bridge and leaned back against one of the wooden posts that flanked either side of the entrance to the span. “I think I’ll just sit here and eat for a spell.” Shae responded by first attempting to snatch the rice cake from Volare’s mouth and then by hopping down from the saddle and appearing to sulk for a moment.
“Aww, come on Shae,” Volare offered her a piece of the rice cake. “I’m just hungry and weak, that’s all. I know you’re hungry too and we’ll get back on the trail as soon as I eat, ok?”
The osprey looked at the rice cake and back to Volare before almost seeming to shrug her wings in defeat and settling down in his shadow, ignoring the food and closing her eyes for a moment as the Pegasus munched away at the rice cake, not noticing the small cloud that had literally been shadowing them for half the time they’d been walking.
…….
“Poor guy,” Dash said to herself from high above Volare and Shae. “He’s getting better, but he can’t even walk half a mile without getting tired…I guess that’s progress though.” Dash flopped down on her belly and observed the Pegasus below her eating and conversing with Shae…and at that moment she had the strangest desire to be that bird, if only so she could sit and listen to Volare talk.
“What the hay? Snap out of it, Dash,” she muttered to herself. “You promised you wouldn’t bug him and mess up his recovery and that’s just what you’re gonna do!”
Then why am I spying on him like this…is it because I’m worried Fluttershy’s training might make him pass me up? Nah, that’s crazy…then again…maybe I’m just worried he might-
The rainbow Pegasus snapped out of her musings when she noticed a sudden bout of movement down below her.
……..
“Whoa, watch out, Shae!” Volare cried as the osprey’s mighty wings swung open, nearly knocking the food out of his hoof in the process. Everything had been fine until just a moment ago, when something had jumped and splashed in the stream behind him. Shae’s eyes had snapped open and she turned to observe the water’s surface intently, hardly moving a muscle save for her golden eyes. At the sight of a second splash, she’d practically exploded into movement. And with her wings now spread wide, she hopped up onto the post Volare was leaning against and faced into the wind, her head bobbing up and down slightly as she tested the air currents.
“What’s gotten into you?” Volare inquired before the osprey gave a loud cheeereeek and took off into the air. Volare gasped as she nearly hit the ground from such a short takeoff perch before the wind filled her wings and she climbed nearly 200 feet into the sky. At first, Volare’s heart did a little jump at the sight, that sense of vertigo sneaking up onto him again, but it quickly evaporated as Shae dove back down on the breeze, skimming just over his head with a gentle chuckling chirr, as if she was having fun buzzing him like that. Volare hopped to his hooves and watched as Shae again banked over the stream convergence and glided, her eyes riveted on the surface of the water.
Um, what was it Fluttershy said-oh yeah: observe how she flies Volare thought, focusing his attention on her technique. He quickly picked up her flight pattern a she circled over the water, waiting for another splash it seemed: Flap, flap…glide. Flap, flap…glide, a pattern which conserved energy and made the most out of the breeze blowing over the short plain between their location and Ponyville. He saw that, although she’d only been back in the air for a few weeks, she showed no fear of the air beneath her wings failing her, or the ground that would surely rush up to strike her if she fell…no, she flew fearlessly…and then suddenly, she spied another splash in the stream, her wings folded up into her body and she dropped like a feathered stone towards the surface of the water, making Volare’s stomach clench in anticipation of the impact to come. He didn’t even have enough time to scream out a warning…
Shae’s body hit the stream's surface talons-first with a wet smack and she disappeared under the water for a moment, leaving Volare’s heart in his throat, thinking he’d just seen this crazy bird kill itself. But then, she emerged from the water, gave the water clinging to her feathers a great shake, and pounded her wings against the air, gaining altitude again and uttering an irritated series of tittering noises as she circled the water again for another attempt. Volare then looked down under the surface of the stream to see a multitude of fish swimming there, and he quickly berated himself for a fool for thinking Shae so stupid.
“Come on Shae, you can do it,” he breathed as the osprey dove into the water twice more, but both times came back out empty-clawed. She alighted on the wooden post and shook the water from her feathers, clicking her beak and scratching at the post in frustration.
“A little rusty I take it?” Volare’s query was met by an angry glance and a sharp kee from the bird who folded her wings up and returned to watching the water intently.
“It’s ok, Shae,” he trotted up next to the post and stood next to the bird of prey, noticing that she was breathing hard. “I kinda feel your pain…want to fly, but just can’t…hey, at least you gave it a good try”- the osprey cut him off with a quick buffet of her wing to the side of his head, as if to say: ‘shut up, I’m working here!’
She quickly returned to watching the water, her gaze never wavering from the gently flowing stream, waiting for the next ripple that indicated the location of her prey. A very long moment of breathless silence passed in which Volare trotted over and observed the water himself; there wasn’t a single ripple of a fish to be had. Thinking quickly, he tossed the remains of his rice cake into the stream. Immediately, the surface boiled as a multitude of fish swarmed up to devour the morsel so carelessly thrown in the water. Shae saw the action on the surface and looked back him with an expression of almost reluctant gratefulness. She suddenly leaped from the post, halfway opened her wings, and hit the water with a great splash. At first, Volare thought she had somehow missed, but instead he let out a whoop as Shae emerged from the water with a medium-sized silvery fish clasped in her sharp black talons. She circled over the small field between the stream and Ponyville before dropping the flopping fish in the short grass and landing next to it.
“That was awesome, Shae-” the blue Pegasus began to say, but his beaming smile wavered as Shae pinned the fish to the ground with a claw, slime and blood oozing out from between her talons. She gave him a quick glare of triumph before spreading her wings protectively over her kill and began to savagely slash through the shining fish scales with her sharp beak.
……
Even high above them, Dash could see the blood and entrails being ripped from the flopping fish as Shae savored her well-earned meal. She’d never really seen such a display of violence by another predator before, and she couldn’t quite tell if she was fascinated or revolted by the sight of this bird ripping pieces off the animal that she’d just plucked from its home and snuffed the life out of. She finally decided that it was more revolting than fascinating and she quickly flopped over on her back and looked away, though she could still hear the clicking and popping of fish scales being torn away as well as the crack of bones as the osprey hungrily ate her breakfast.
…….
It was strange, watching Shae tear into and eat that fish in front of him…not in the sense of he’d never seen another creature killed before, but strange in the sense that although he’d had his own wing torn off and reattached; although he’d already had a number of close calls with death since he’d gotten there; and the very bird of prey he was watching had come within an instant or two of likely tearing half of his face off, Volare had never really stopped to consider just how violent this world could actually be until he witnessed such an act naturally occurring right in front of him. Life was real here, as was death…it just took witnessing it first hand for him to appreciate that here just as he did on Earth.
Seeing is believing he thought as he watched Shae devour the fish for a few more moments before she stopped and looked up at him. She slowly relaxed her wings and brought them back to her sides as she cocked her head and chirred, her hunger apparently sated for the time being. She then did something he didn’t expect as she grasped the remains of the fish in a claw, of which there was still a considerable amount, and hopped towards him before laying the fish down before him and stepping back. When he gave her a curious look, she responded by nudging the fish towards him and stepping back again, waiting…but for what?
“I’m afraid I don’t understand,” Volare shook his head before Shae slowly opened her offal-covered beak and clacked it together once before looking between the fish and himself. Again, she nudged the fish a little closer to him and sat back, waiting. It was then that he understood what she meant, and quite frankly, it made his stomach churn a little bit.
“Um, Shae, that’s nice of you and all, but…I-I dunno if I wanna eat something you’ve been, well, kinda annihilating,” he chuckled nervously. When he didn’t make a move towards the fish carcass that she’d offered him, Shae’s feathers drooped a bit, and she made a disappointed-sounding noise in her throat, almost as if she felt like she’d done a bad job.
“No, Shae, no, it’s not your fault,” Volare quickly said. “I just…” he looked at the fish remains and visibly shuddered this time before shaking his head firmly. “I couldn’t take the food that you hunted and earned. Maybe next time when I haven’t already eaten something myself, ok?”
Although it wasn’t really the answer she wanted to hear, it did seem to perk the osprey up somewhat as she hopped back over to the fish…and proceeded to devour what remained.
“Jeez, I think you needed it more than me anyway,” Volare laughed out loud, not quite hearing the sound of retching coming from the cloud above him.
Two Hours Later…
Volare and Shae had continued on their way along the Ponyville Stream after a quick rest, finally turning away towards the south as the water wrapped back north around the town’s southern edge. Instead, Volare trotted along the path that led out of Ponyville and towards Sweet Apple Acres. The orchard of apple trees on the other side of the white rail fence to their right waved in the near-noon breeze, wafting the smell of their ripe fruit all over the countryside. Off to their left and south of Ponyville lay a series of largely empty fields of tall prairie grass swaying in great golden waves as far as the eye could see, terminating in a low hill that poked up above the horizon far in the distance. After nearly a half hour of slow-paced trotting, Volare passed the sweet Apple Acres farm proper nestled amongst the trees. But surprisingly, besides the occasional sound of chickens clucking, the place seemed vacant.
“Wonder where everypony went,” Volare said out loud, to which Shae simply shrugged her wings. She soon seemed to lose interest and the osprey fluffed up her feathers and leaned into the Pegasus’ mane, quickly falling asleep in from the combination of Celestia’s warm autumn sun and Volare’s hoofbeats, the pace of which he felt himself better able to manage as time passed. Maybe it was the nice weather, maybe it was the food Fluttershy had given him; either way, though he felt his hooves growing a little bit heavier with each trotting step, he still felt better than he had in the past few days.
How long have I been here anyway…less than a week? he wondered to himself as his hooves jogged along, slowing eating up the miles of road that stretched around the border of Sweet Apple Acres.
As they continued along their way, they reached a junction in the road. The path to the left continued off into the south and disappeared over a low rise out of the valley, while the path to their right curved back around the massive Acres. Not wanting to get lost, Volare took the right path, and within a few minutes they came upon a familiar building: the cow barn that the Pegasus had nearly knocked the weather vane off of the night he’d had his flight accident. It was certainly bigger than he remembered from way up in the air, and as he trotted towards it, he was greeted by a loud twangy whoop as an orange Earth Pony wearing a Stetson hat galloped out of the barn and gracefully leaped the fence before skidding to a stop in a cloud of dust a few feet from the Pegasus, startling Shae from her slumber with a squawk and causing the osprey to flutter off and sit on a fence post while shooting the Earth Pony a bit of a sour look, not happy about being woken up from her nap like that.
“Well lan’sakes look at ya’ll there all up an’ at’em,” Applejack grinned brightly as the cantered up to Volare and gave him a great hug, mindful of his wing still trussed up in the sling. “How ya doin’, sugarcube? Oh, is that lil’ Shae? Back in tha air again, Ah take it?” She beamed at the osprey who returned the smile with a wary glance.
“Mhm, she is, and I’m doing much better lately, AJ, thanks,” he looked past her at the barn. “Whatcha doing here at the barn? I passed by the main farm a while back and the place looks empty. Where’s everypony gone?”
“Well, Ah’m here at the cow barn fer the afternoon and Big Macintosh is in town runnin’ tha apple stand,” AJ explained. “Grannysmith is more’n likely inside the farmhouse restin’ and Applebloom is in school at tha moment.”
“Makes sense,” Volare nodded. “Fluttershy has me out with Shae to put her through her paces since she hasn’t been recovered and flying for very long.”
“She already eaten lunch?”
“Yep, she did,” Volare’s face contorted at the memory. “That was certainly different to watch.”
“Yep, Ah’ve seen her eat a fish er two more’n once. Heh, and other ponies say Ah have bad table manners,” AJ chuckled. “Then again, life’s gotta do what life’s gotta do ta continue, ya know?”
“Indeed,” Volare’s stomach grumbled yet again and he blushed. “Heh, I guess the snacks Fluttershy sent with me aren’t exactly the most filling things in the world.”
“Ya got anymore in that saddlebag-hey wait a sec, is that Fluttershy’s?” AJ smirked in amusement.
“Uuhhh, maybe,” Volare replied as he turned his body to hide the pink butterfly saddlebag strapped to his side. “She’s letting me borrow it to carry my food in; I’m pretty sure it’s the only one she had.”
“Heheh, no problem, Volare,” AJ grinned. “Not like it sets off yer eyes er nothin’…”
“Wait, really?” the Pegasus asked uncertainly.
“…nope,” Applejack chuckled, prompting Volare to give her a playful shove before she motioned over to the wooden bench sitting in the shade of the trees around the cow barn. “Ah got me a couple o’ apples for a snack. Wanna join me for a little lunch outta tha heat of the day?”
“Heh, that actually sounds pretty good,” the Pegasus conceded and looked back to Shae. “Wanna sit in the shade, pal?” The osprey responded by fluffing her feathers out and turning her back to the sun, obviously more in the mood for catching a few rays instead. “Alright, suit yourself, but there’s plenty of room over here if you change your mind.” He followed Applejack over to the bench and opened the saddlebag, pulling out the package of dried fruit Fluttershy had packed. The majority of it looked like apples, but there looked to be a few grapes and what cranberries in there as well.
“Mm, that looks good an’ all Volare,” AJ smiled and held up a yellow-green apple with her hoof. “But Ah’ll bet it don’t beat tha taste o’ this here golden delicious.” She bit into the fruit with a crunch and smacked her lips loudly. “Mmmm, just as great as the rest of them. How’s that dried fruit o’ yourn comin?”
Volare poked at the fruit with his muzzle and took a bite. He was pleasantly surprised to find it was bursting with flavor, having little to no juices in it to dilute it. He himself held up the dried fruit and grinned. “I think I like it just fine, AJ. Besides, Fluttershy must have sent it with me for a reason, so I’ll at least humor her and eat it.”
“That’s mighty considerate of ya, Volare,” Applejack nodded and finished her apple, core and all. “So, what’s the plan for tha rest of your day?”
Volare then went on to explain how Fluttershy had him on a training regimen of sorts, that yesterday she’d put him through a base test and that today was mainly about observing Shae in flight and making sure she didn’t get into any trouble during her hunt.
"Beyond that, I was going to finish taking a lap around the Acres to give myself a bit of a lower body work out then head back to Fluttershy’s place.”
“Sounds like a pretty full day. Oh, how’d yor first impression go with Angel Bunny?”
“Oh…him,” Volare made a face. “Well, let’s say it could have gone much better.”
“What happened?”
“He tried to pull my head off, I think.” By the end of Volare’s description, Applejack was wiping away tears, she was laughing so hard.
“He’s an ornery critter fer sure,” AJ finally said. “But don’t feel like he’s singlin’ ya out; he tends ta do that with everypony that shows up there. Heck, he even did that to Big Macintosh when Fluttershy was helping him recover from his applebucking injury.”
“Oh, how so?”
“Well, Ah guess he mistook Big Mac’s leg fer a really big red carrot er somethin’, cuz one minute we’re talkin’ with Fluttershy an’ tha next thing we know, this little white rabbit had a hold o’ Big Mac’s leg with his teeth, growling an’ bitin’ like a critter 10 times his size,” Applejack had to pause as both her and Volare shared a hearty laugh for a moment. “He’s a brave one, though, an’ Ah’ve never really seen him give up without a good fight first.”
“Why do you suppose he acts that way?”
“Hrm, couldn’t really tell ya,” AJ scratched her head. “Mah best guess is he thinks Fluttershy is his momma, so if’n Ah were ya’ll, Ah wouldn’t put any moves on Fluttershy while yer there,” she waggled her eyebrows suggestively prompting Volare to swipe her hat and swat her with it.
“Hey, hey, hey, leave mah hat outta this,” AJ chuckled and jammed it back over her blonde ponytail mane. “It didn’t do no harm ta nopony.”
“Alright, alright sheriff, I’ll behave,” Volare chuckled.
“So, why exactly did Big Mac tell ya to have Fluttershy help ya with yor situation? Twilight not able ta find a solution in that big ol’ Library o’ hers?”
“No, she couldn’t find a single book on the subject,” Volare explained. “So that’s one of the things she’ll be doing in Canterlot while she’s there for a while.”
“Well, if anypony can find ya tha right information ya’ll need, it’d be Twi,” Applejack patted his crippled wing gently before giving him a gentle smile. “Hope she does, cuz Ah dunno how a skinny feller like yerself’d do with bein’ an Earth Pony, heheh,” she chuckled again even as Volare attempted to shove her off the bench with a laugh of his own. True, between being somewhat leery of getting back in the air when the time came to simply getting his wing healed correctly, he was still very worried about his future in regards to flight. But the more that he thought about it, the more he realized that Applejack was right: Twilight Sparkle was his best chance at getting airborne again. He’d just have to be patient about it and trust in her for now…
------------------------------------
After explaining her plans to Cadance and Shining Armor, Twilight had spent the majority of the day wandering through the streets of Canterlot, checking out all the shops and venues she hadn’t seen in a good while, as well as seeing how the city had changed since the Changeling attack the past spring. In the weeks following the attack, many more forms of security had appeared under Shining Armor’s watch, ranging from extra enchantments on a number of gates to the physical increase of the number of Royal Guards in certain areas. The Princesses weren’t about to drop their guard anytime soon in case of a retaliatory attack from Queen Chrysalis or any fanatics that might have supported such a take over.
But soon, as the months passed, and the likelihood of such an event decreased, the strain of keeping that much of a military presence began to show as the populace began to complain about their home being treated as more of a fortress than a city. Many of the Canterlot ponies had even begun to publicly protest the situation, and it was at that point that Celestia and Luna conceded to allow the extra Royal Guards they had brought in to return to their respective towns. Ever since the drawdown, the city had returned to its previous state, albeit Shining Armor still did his best to keep security as sharp-eyed as possible.
And so, things had returned to normal, although a number of new buildings erected since the incident marked where the attack had physically scarred the beautiful city; not to mention all the holes smashed into the street by the Changelings themselves that were still being encountered and filled in by repair crews. But all in all, the ponies themselves had thankfully not changed too terribly much. They were still as friendly as Twilight remembered, if a bit more appreciative of their belongings due to the attack.
After eating a brief lunch, Twilight made her way towards the Canterlot Library, located halfway up a large round tower near the center of the city. Waving a quick hello to the guards stationed outside of it, she sat her saddlebags down at a table off in a quiet corner of the building and breathed in deeply, the scent of thousands upon thousands of books recalling the memories of how she used to spend hours just studying and enjoying the texts of the past during her earlier years. She zapped the lamp on the table with her magic, giving the corner a soft flickering light before she headed off towards the filing system, intent on finding the spell she’d used to repair Volare’s wing as quickly as possible. She’d let her sibling know that she might be gone for a good while, even prepared to camp out inside the Canterlot Library if need be. She wasn’t scheduled to meet the Princesses for a few days, giving her plenty of time in which to work…
---------------------------------
Volare finished eating lunch with Applejack and had prepared to set off again to complete the trek around The Acres. She’d offered to go with him, but she had to finish up her chores at the cow barn.
“I’m sure I can manage it, AJ,” he smiled and gave her a hug goodbye. “Thanks for the lunch and the talk.”
“Just head on down here any ol’ time and we’ll chat it up again if’n Ah get tha chance to,” the Earth Pony returned the hug and waved him on his way. “Just be careful when ya get onto tha west side o’ The Acres cuz that’n borders tha Everfree Forest. An’ critters occasionally come outta it ta sniff around the orchard fence, so just keep yer eyes peeled, Volare.”
“Will do, AJ,” Volare gave her a quick salute. “Come on, Shae. Cheereek,” he whistled, calling the osprey to his saddle.
“Looks like ya’ll’re gettin’ tha hang o’ her already, Volare,” AJ chuckled, though Shae lightly pecked the back of the Pegasus’ head in a defiant manner.
“Heh, let’s just call it a work in progress for now,” Volare replied with a swat to Shae’s tail feathers with his good wing. “Take care, AJ!”
“See ya soon, Volare!”
And with that, he headed off out of the cow barn yard and down the trail that curled around the southern tip of the orchard. As he walked, Volare noticed that Shae kept glancing up into the late afternoon sky.
“Whatcha got, Shae?” he asked as he too quickly scanned the sky, but it was empty save for a single cloud…a cloud he was starting to think was following him…nah, it had to be his imagination. With a shrug of his shoulders, he continued along the path. After a few more minutes of trotting, the path turned north and began to lead the through a relatively narrow gap between the trees of the Everfree Forest and the apple trees of Sweet Apple Acres. And with the sun falling the way it was in the west, it was making that narrow gap more shadowy and less and less inviting by the minute.
“Well, that looks ultra friendly,” Volare muttered sarcastically as he approached the gap. Further in, the older, graying trees from the Everfree actually arced over the path; the tips of their branches intertwined like claws with the apple trees on their right, creating a tunnel that would likely be completely dark once evening was upon them. He momentarily considered simply walking all the way back around Sweet Apple Acres, but that would not only take hours that he didn’t have since he’d promised Fluttershy to be home by sunset, but he’d have to walk back past Applejack who’d probably have a good chuckle at him being afraid of the dark or something.
“Hell with it; we’re going in,” Volare declared as Shae scratched her claws on the saddle and sheeked fiercely.
The blue Pegasus quickened his pace as he approached the first real challenge he’d faced in Equestria. As he jogged along, he became aware of two sets of green eyes watching him from out of the darkness of the Everfree on his left, though every time he turned his head to look, they blinked out of existence, only to reappear further down the road. What the hell?
“I got a bad feeling about this, Shae,” Volare muttered; the osprey seemed to nod her head in agreement as she kept her eyes riveted on the close-in branches of the tree line and the skittering of dead leaves being kicked out of the path of something following them in the underbrush.
……………
“Hey Ray,” Jill hissed in the growing darkness of the trail within the fringes of the Everfree. They’d been sent out by an irritated Trixie to confirm exactly where Volare had been taken to; though it might have been towards Fluttershy’s, there was no telling where they might have turned off on the way there.
“Yeah, what’s up?”
“Looky what we got here,” she pointed a hoof and grinned wickedly at the dark blue shape trotting through the fading light and into the corridor that ran parallel to the Forest. “He look familiar to you?”
“You gotta be kidding me,” Ray said as he glared out of the bushes and observed the Pegasus known as Volare making his way along the darkening path, a good-sized black and white bird of prey riding on his back. “It’s too bad the boss says he’s not a target yet, or else this’d be the perfect time, don’t you think, sis?”
“Indeed…then again, I’ve never been one against taking the initiative,” she grinned as she followed them parallel to the path, making sure to avoid stepping on twigs or anything else that might overly reveal their presence.
“No sis,” Ray warned as he tugged on her cloak. “If the boss finds out you disobeyed”-
“He won’t find out if you keep your trap shut!” Jill whirled and practically snarled. “Besides, it’s been a damn long time since I’ve gotten a chance to pull something limb from limb,” she grabbed a branch from the ground with her magic and plucked the leaves off one by one in emphasis. “It’d be-*pluck*-so-*pluck*-damn-*pluck*-easy to do it right here…where nopony can see us or stop us…maybe the bird at least…yes, I’ll bet I could make it squawk, heeheehee…”
As she giggled, she slowly extended a hoof into the twilight to reveal that it wasn’t really a hoof anymore: that from the end of the hoof a series of blunt claws had begun to emerge. The front teeth of her mouth elongated and she growled lightly through her grin as her green mane expanded to the point that it sprang out from under her hood in great shocks of spiky hair.
“Sis, control yourself,” Ray pleaded with his sadistic sister. Oh why had he promised mum he’d stick by her despite her issues?! Luna help him, that was why they were in this situation in the first place! Damn you, Jill!
“Move your worthless flank, Ray!” Jill screeched and swatted him in the face with the branch. “I’m gonna have my fun and nopony, not even you, is gonna deny me of that!”
…………..
“What the hell is that?!” Volare cried at the sudden bout of screeching and hollering. The forest suddenly became quiet for a moment…but that was soon followed by something close to his size crunching through the underbrush and giggling maniacally. Every possible nightmarish thing Volare had ever seen in movies or video games or heard of in ghost stories came ripping through his mind as he saw a pair of malicious bright green eyes creeping straight for him out of the shadows. But just as he felt the urge to run, he remembered the young osprey on his back, depending on him to look after her. He knew she could probably hold on as he ran, but he wasn’t about to take the chance and abandon her to…whatever the hell that was!
“Alright look you,” he shouted at the eyes heading towards him. “I’ve had a long-assed day and I’m tired and cranky and not in the mood to screw around here! So if you’re gonna eat me, then come outta there and eat me already!!” He stomped his hoof and spread his good wing menacingly as he yelled, and his heart swelled with pride as Shae screeched her own warning out into the shadows before brushing his neck with a wing of her own, as if to say: ‘I’m here and I’ve got your back, pal!’
For a moment, the eyes continued to stalk towards them, and Volare prepared himself to fight…whatever that thing might be to keep Shae safe, but miraculously, they stopped just short of popping out of the underbrush before blinking into darkness and disappearing. After a long moment of silence, they heard footsteps of some sort stumbling off through the trees, headed away from the pony and the bird on the road.
“You think we scared it off, Shae?” Volare asked the bird who responded with a smug little puff of her chest and a jerk of her beak towards the northern end of the tree tunnel.
“Good idea; I don’t wanna push our luck either, even if we are pretty badassed,” Volare grinned in the dark and Shae simply rolled her golden eyes as the Pegasus trotted briskly towards the exit.
………....
“Jill, listen to me,” Ray whispered fiercely into her ear. “If you use the power that the boss gave you when he didn’t give you permission to, he will know! He’ll feel it and he’ll come looking for you and it won’t be you doing the dismembering then! Please listen to me, sis!” His final plea stopped her just short of the road. She turned to face him, her face still contorted, but not in a toothy grin this time; no, it was a look of guilt and sorrow. Ray grunted in surprise as she grabbed him in a hug around his neck before allowing him to lead her away from the road and back into the woods.
“Ray…what the buck is wrong with me?” she asked, holding her shaking hooves in front of her face. The claws were gone…they were just hooves again, and her teeth were back to normal, as was her mane.
“It’s what the boss has done, sis…it’s not you,” he gave her another hug before setting her up against a tree. He had a theory about what the boss’s influence did to those that chose to follow him, and he had a feeling that those that were mentally unstable were the first to completely lose themselves to the desires that he dangled in front of their noses…again he found himself wondering just how in the hell they’d gotten themselves into this mess. “You just stay right here and I’ll follow the Pegasus. I’ll be right back as soon as I confirm where he’s going, ok?”
“Ok,” Jill whimpered through the mane that now dangled over her face. Ray nodded and continued to trail Volare and his bird. Yet again, as he’d done dozens of times in the near-past, he swore that if he ever got the chance, he’d get himself and his sister as far away from all this as he possibly could. And if he had to face down the bastard that had forced them into this predicament, doing these horrible things for him just because they made one little bad deal…well so be it! Better to die with a free will than live a slave…
…………………..
Rainbow Dash had wanted so badly to tell Volare not to go through that place, that she had a really bad feeling about it, but she was caught between her promise to not interfere and her sense of loyalty to her friends. By the time she’d made up her mind to reveal herself and convince him to go back, he’d already run into it. Despite her worries, things stayed quiet under the trees…but not for long.
“Oh no, nononononono,” Dash hissed and cursed as she propelled her cloud along the top of the tree tunnel, unable to do more than listen to a series of cackling giggles emanating from under the branches, soon answered by Volare’s shouting and Shae’s fierce screeching. Dash gathered herself for a dive that would send her crashing into the tunnel and into a fight with Celestia-knew-what in there in order to keep her friend safe. But just as she jumped off her cloud, she spotted Volare’s blue form in the rising moonlight come trotting out of the tunnel as if nothing had happened!
“Dang, flyboy can handle himself when he needs to after all,” she chuckled in relief as she waited for a moment to make sure whatever he’d encountered in there didn’t follow him. When she was sure the coast was clear, she got back on her cloud and continued to follow her friend, who by this point was jogging along at a good clip and headed straight for Fluttershy’s cottage. Even so, Dash had to fight the urge to fly down there and make sure he was really ok, maybe even give him a hug and a stern warning about messing around in the Everfree…but she knew he had to do this on his own, that she was only there to make sure he was safe; and safe he was, for now…
……………..
As Volare cleared the final rise in front of him, he breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of the warm, inviting light from the windows illuminating the grass around Fluttershy’s cottage. “Holy crap, finally!” he exclaimed as he trotted up to the front door and knocked on it with a hoof. Within moments, the top door swung open and Iron Will appeared, immediately grinning when he saw Volare and Shae.
“Well, looky here,” he said as he opened the lower door. “Looks like ol’ Spike-head made it back in one piece after all. Where’s Angel Bunny; he owes me five bits,” the minotaur chuckled as the Pegasus made his way into the house. Instantly, the smaller critters in the main room went silent at the sight of Shae perched on Volare’s back.
“Sorry guys,” Volare apologized as he hurried to the back door. “I’m taking her outside right now-oof!” He stopped dead in his tracks as he ran right into Fluttershy who happened to be coming in while he was going out. “Ah, sorry Fluttershy! You ok?”
“Oh no, I’m fine,” she smiled in return and stepped aside to allow him to head out the door. She watched for a moment as Shae gave Volare a quick nuzzle with the side of her face before flapping up and landing in her tree, settling down on the nest there and almost instantly falling asleep. The blue Pegasus turned back and smiled sheepishly.
“Heh, long day for everypony and bird involved on my end,” he chuckled. “How about you, Fluttershy?”
“Oh, the usual, mostly…nothing terribly interesting beyond tending to my animals and-oh, there was a little kitty that got stuck in a tree earlier today!” she exclaimed, eyes a little wider than usual.
“Ooh, tell me all about it,” Volare requested as he headed back inside. “Over dinner preferably; I’m starved!”
The two Pegasi swapped stories at the dining table over what had happened that day. The kitten stuck in the tree that Fluttershy had mentioned was saved by Iron Will who volunteered to climb the old tree despite the fact that Fluttershy could have flown up there and gotten it down.
“Eh, I just saw the poor little guy up there all mewling and helpless and I just acted, that’s all,” the minotaur admitted. “Couldn’t let him stay up there and make a fuss all day, could I?”
“No, and what you did was very nice, Will,” the pink-maned Pegasus patted his hand thankfully. “He’ll surely be grateful for a long time for that. Now what about you, Volare? How’d your day with Shae go?”
Volare then went on to describe the trek around the countryside, with the young osprey, (though for now he left out the part about whatever the heck it was he’d encountered in the tree tunnel if only so he didn’t worry Fluttershy). He also described in detail how he’d observed Shae in flight, like Fluttershy had instructed, particularly how he had realized that her flight pattern was an energy-conserving flap-flap-glide that allowed her to circle over the stream for quite some time, waiting for a fish to catch.
“Good observation, Volare. Keep that pattern in mind because it'll be what we base your flight training on once your wing is fixed," she smiled quickly before her tone suddenly changed slightly. "So she caught a fish eventually, I take it?”
“Mhm, she did after I helped her a bit” Volare explained what he did with the rice cake but shuddered a bit at the memory of the osprey tearing into her prey like that. “Is that why you wanted me to take her hunting; because you couldn’t stand the sight of seeing another animal killed? Cuz I know you seem to love all animals and…I guess that’d sadden you, huh?” Fluttershy looked down at the table for a moment, as if picking her words very carefully before looking up and giving him a surprising answer.
“No, it wouldn’t sadden me terribly at all, to be honest.”
“Huh?!”
“Mhm. I’m not ignorant in the ways of nature, Volare,” she said with a bit of a clipped tone. “I know that animals like ospreys and other predators need to eat at some point, and it’s not their fault that there’s only one food type they can eat. Besides, if it weren’t for them, certain animals like fish would overpopulate their habitats and ruin them for everypony, so creatures like Shae help to keep things in balance.” She twitched her mane out from in front of her eyes and looked at the blue Pegasus intently.
“And don’t think I don’t feel for the animals that die, Volare…I truly do. When I was a filly, I wished for every animal, from the smallest ant to the greatest flying dragon in the sky to live-though I wasn’t overly fond of the dragons, but that’s beside the point. As I grew, I realized that although I wanted every creature to be able to live…it’s not about what I want, but what’s required for life to go on…and sometimes that involves lives being lost. It was painful for me to accept, but without their sacrifice, life couldn’t continue for other creatures…so I guess you could say it’s a necessary evil.”
“Fluttershy, I”- Volare tried to speak, but the words caught in his throat. He might have expected such profound knowledge from someone like Twilight Sparkle…but from Fluttershy?! Even Iron Will raised an eyebrow at her statement, but kept silent, munching on a solid head of lettuce he’d plucked from the garden that day.
“Yes?”
“I just didn’t really think you thought that deeply on the subject…sorry if you thought me an ignorant fool…”
“You’re not a fool,” Fluttershy reassured him. “A bit ignorant maybe, but that’s only because we’ve just met…hrm, maybe naive is a better word, hm?”
“Heh, yeah...that works,” he muttered. I don’t think it matters if we’ve just met or not, Fluttershy…the point is, I underestimated you again…
“Something else I meant to point out; you know I flew jets for my Earth’s Navy, right?”
“Mhm, Big Macintosh mentioned it, why?”
“Well, it’s just what you said earlier that got me a bit…about the necessary evil. I think it applies to war as well.”
“Oh, how so?” Fluttershy asked, intrigued by how a concept of nature could apply to such terrible conflict.
“Well, without the bravery and sacrifice of a few…the majority may not survive,” he looked up sighed. “I think that war, and the sacrifices made during it, are the necessary evils required that ultimately lead to peace.”
“Ah, I see what you mean,” Fluttershy nodded. The closest thing she knew to war was the Changeling attack on Canterlot, but even with that little to go on, Fluttershy could see what he meant about necessary sacrifice by a few for the good of many. She and her friends were the few…and it was for the good of all Equestria that they fought that battle. Luckily there had been no death involved, but still…were they not prepared to give all as the Holders of the Elements for the good of their country and their Princesses? Did that make them soldiers just like Volare…?
Flutterhsy shook the troubling thoughts away and got her mind back to task. “So, back to Shae’s hunt…did anything else happen in regards to it?”
“Oh yeah, she did try to offer me some of the fish she caught, but I couldn’t eat it because”- Cuz it made you queasy to look at? –“because I didn’t earn the kill, and I didn’t want to take that away from her.”
“Well, if she does it again, you should accept at least a bit of it.”
“Huh, why?”
“Because that’s her species’ way of bonding with their hunting partners,” the yellow Pegasus explained. “And since you helped her gain her meal as a partner, she felt you had earned a share as well, hence her generosity.”
“Ah, I get it now.”
“Sooo,” Iron Wil spoke up, trying to change the subject from the mutilation of fish to something less repulsive. “Who’s up for the brownies I baked yesterday, hm?”
“Heh, I’ll take a few,” Volare began to say, but Fluttershy cut him off.
“No, none for you, Volare.”
“Wha-why not?” he practically whined. I mean, it wasn’t everyday you got to try a minotaur’s cooking!
“Because, while you’re recovering, I want you to stay on a strict diet,” Fluttershy squinted at him. “And unfortunately brownies aren’t on the list.”
“Well crap,” the blue Pegasus crossed his hooves. “What is on the list?”
“Just about everything you see in front of you,” she gestured to the bowls of fresh greens, soybeans, and lentils he’d been munching on. “The foods are high in iron and protein, something you need a lot of if you’re going to get stronger as well as to replenish the blood you've lost. And you know what else is high in iron and protein?” she asked with a look that said she already knew the answer, as if she were quizzing him.
“Umm…” Volare hemmed for a moment before the pieces of the puzzle began to snap together in his mind. No way… “Fish?” She simply nodded and smiled in reply. “And lemme guess, dried fruit and rice cakes too?” She nodded again. “Fluttershy…the food you prepared for me was made last night wasn’t it?”
“Mhm.”
“You had this whole day planned out from the very beginning, huh?”
*nod*
“So I guess you knew I’d get in a leg workout from escorting Shae all day as well as the nutrients I'd need from the fish she caught?”
*nod and smile*
“Zen Master, I promise to do my best not to questions your methods as often as I can,” Volare knelt comically in front of the blushing yellow Pegasus and bowed his face to her hooves. “Teach me what you know, oh wise one.”
“Hahahaha, now you’re getting it, Spike-head!” Iron Will laughed and slapped the table with a hand, happy he was finally trusting Fluttershy’s methods of rehabilitation.
………………
Outside, on the outskirts of the cottage grounds, Ray watched as Volare was led outside by a massive blue minotaur and given a blanket to use to sleep outside in the yard behind the building. He couldn’t catch much conversation at this distance, but it sounded like something about not wanting to be attacked by an Angel Bunny in his sleep, and that something called Shae would keep the bunny at bay if Volare slept under her nesting tree. Aha, so Shae must be that bird he was walking with.
“Shae wouldn’t eat him, would she?” the Pegasus asked as he settled in beneath the tree that Ray surmised held the bird.
“Nah, but Angel doesn’t know that,” the minotaur winked in the darkness and laughed heartily before clicking a finger off of his horns in a small salute. “Night, Spike-head!”
As Ray watched, the minotaur made his way back into the cottage and shut the door, plunging the backyard into the relative darkness of a moon-filled sky, the purity of which was only broken by a smattering of stars and a single cloud that had settled itself over the cottage. The green-eyed unicorn had seen enough to make his report to Trixie, and he quickly retreated, leaving Volare to sleep peacefully as he went to retrieve his troubled sister from the night-shrouded forest.
……………
“Iron Will, I need you to come with me please,” Fluttershy requested of the great minotaur as he re-entered the cottage.
“Sure thing, Fluttershy. What’s up?” he asked as he followed her out the front door of the cottage and out onto the small bridge over the brook in front of the cottage.
“I need to take care of something, and I’ll need a bit of a witness to it,” she explained, instantly getting Iron Will’s full attention. “Well, you notice that single cloud overhead?”
“Mhm, I do,” the minotaur replied as he tilted his great horned head back to give it a closer look.
“Notice anything unusual about it?”
“Hmm…now that you mention it, I think I’ve seen that cloud before lately…does that sound crazy?”
“No, because I’ve seen it too; for the past two days, actually,” Fluttershy raised a hoof to her mouth and called out. “Rainbow Dash! Please stop hiding and come down here!”
“What the”- Iron Will started to say, but he was cut off by a cry of frustration from the cloud.
“Aww, nuts!” The cloud slowly floated down towards the cottage to reveal the rainbow Pegasus nestled on top of the fluff, having certainly been observing the current situation at ground level below her. “How’d you know it was me, Fluttershy?”
“Why else would a single cloud keep still above my house since yesterday morning?” the yellow Pegasus smiled knowingly; although she wasn’t as in-tune with weather as other Pegasi, she still retained the innate instinct in regards to weather patterns that all Pegasi were born with. “Don’t you have weather duty?”
“Nope, not till tomorrow afternoon, and what I had today I got done in less time than it takes ya to say Dash” she grinned proudly as Iron Will snorted softly and leaned against the fence in front of the cottage to observe the long-time Pegasi friends discuss the situation.
“And why’d you get it all done so quickly?” Fluttershy’s seemingly innocent question caused Dash’s cool demeanor to change to one of agitation.
“Well, I erm, just wanted to take a long nap! Yeah, that’s why.”
“Over my cottage?”
“Hey, can’t a mare sleep where she wants?” Dash crossed her front hooves. “Especially if said mare got her work done hours ahead of schedule?”
“Not arguing about where so much as why,” Fluttershy replied innocently, though Iron Will silently smiled from shade of the tree, proud that she’d been able to take his assertiveness lessons and reinvent them for use in her own subtle way.
“Oh, cuz, uh…I was coming to check on Tank,” she quickly said, referring to her pet turtle.
“Dashie,” Fluttershy said in a gently chiding tone. “You know Tank lives in the swamp, right?”
“Um, well,” sweat beaded along the nervous Pegasus’ brow as she felt herself being backed into a corner, just as Volare had been with Shae…except Dash didn’t have the heart to growl at her best friend!
“I might have”-
“Dash, please stop lying,” Fluttershy said in a surprisingly serious tone. “I saw your cloud leave after Volare left with Shae today and you followed him right back to my house this evening.” She leaned in close enough that Dash had no choice but to look her in the eye. “You know you’re not supposed to be bothering him, right?”
The minotaur looked up in surprise as Dash recoiled slightly. Well, this wasn’t something he was told about…
“Yeah, I know,” Dash avoided Fluttershy’s gaze for the moment. “But it’s not what you”-
“Because you know what happened last time you challenged him.”
“I know…”
“And that’s why he’s out here, away from you, so he can take things slowly and not push himself too hard until Twilight comes back with a solution to his wing problem.”
“I know!” Dash practically shouted, causing Fluttershy to withdraw her face behind her mane. If there was one thing that still really got to her, it was angry shouting. “Ah, I’m sorry Fluttershy,” Dash stroked her friend’s mane before moving it away from her face. “I’m not mad at you, ok? I’m more mad at myself that I let things get out of hoof…and then Volare got hurt because of me…and, agh, I know I’m supposed to stay away and not bother him, but I couldn’t help it, ok? I just wanted to make sure he was doing ok.”
“And he is,” Fluttershy said reassuringly. “That’s why he took Shae out today to stretch her wings; it was also so he could get some legwork exercises in without burning himself out as if it were a contest.”
“Clever,” Dash chuckled before her face contorted into worry. “Oh horseapples, I almost forgot!”
“What is it, Dash?”
The rainbow Pegasus quickly explained how she’d spotted those two strange hooded ponies following Volare, Twilight, and Big Macintosh through town, even going so far as to observe them heading right to Fluttershy’s cottage before they broke off the chase and cut through Sweet Apple Acres, disappearing into the Everfree Forest. Big Macintosh was going to keep an eye out around the orchard while Dash had volunteered to keep watch around Fluttershy’s place.
“But that’s not the wildest part,” Rainbow Dash’s magenta eyes were wide and sincere as she spoke. “When Volare and Shae went under that tree tunnel south of here, I heard something giggling and screeching, and them him yelling at something in there. He came out ok, but it scared the hay outta me all the same!” She rubbed her mane indecisively. “I dunno what it was that he ran into in there; it might have been those two ponies in cloaks, or it might have just been some creature from the Everfree, but whatever the case…either way, he had a close call out there tonight.”
“Hm, he didn’t mention that to me…I wonder why…
“Couldn’t tell ya, pal,” Dash shrugged.
“You’re sure this isn’t a ploy to stay near Volare, right?” Fluttershy inquired warily.
“110% sure,” Dash nodded to emphasize her point.
“Shouldn’t we inform the Royal Guard about this, though,” the yellow Pegasus suggested.
“I thought about that…but what if we’re wrong and it’s just a false alarm with those two? That probably won’t go over well,” Dash explained with a frown, though she had a feeling they were probably involved in whatever Volare had encountered that evening; there were just too many coincidences! “Besides, guards here might scare them off, and I’d rather catch them in the act instead and figure out what the hay they’re up to.”
“But what about your weather duties?”
“Heh, you know I can do my duties faster than anypony around,” Dash grinned with a flap of her wings. “Ten seconds flat on most days; maybe the occasional 11 second workday, but those are few and far between.”
“Yes, yes, of course,” Fluttershy giggled softly, never wanting to argue with her oldest friend, but instead finding amusement in her outlandish claims-although they often turned out to be true.
“But that still leaves us with the problem of you being near Volare when you promised you wouldn’t…”
“Fluttershy please,” Dash grasped her friend’s hooves in her own. “When have I ever asked you for anything?”
“Um, well, last week, you asked me for a cup of”-
“Ok, that’s beside the point,” Dash waved her hooves dismissively. “The point is: I just wanna see for myself that he’s gonna be ok.”
“You don’t trust me?” Fluttershy asked, looking a bit hurt.
“No, it’s not that! I just… look what nearly happened earlier. Even though I didn’t need to help in the end, I could have if he needed me to! And if he got hurt again when I could have made a difference…I guess I’d feel it was my fault or something.”
…just tell her, Dashie.
Oh shut up, I don’t need your help!!!
…sure…sure…
Fluttershy caught the hesitance in her eyes and finally sighed. Her explanation didn’t seem to be the whole truth, but she seemed sincere enough. “Ok, I suppose since you promised to not interfere, I guess it wouldn’t hurt if you just kept an eye on him.”
“Oh thank you, Fluttershy!” Dash grabbed her friend up in a hug. “You’re a pal, a real pal, you know that?”
“Heh, I try,” the yellow Pegasus smiled.
“Think of it as one less thing you have to worry about; a little peace of mind,” Dash grinned, though Fluttershy wasn’t sure peace of mind was exactly what this was bringing her…indigestion was more like it.
“Just keep out of sight, ok?” The pink-maned Pegasus requested. “No telling how he’ll react if he knows you’re following him around.”
“You got it,” Dash saluted. “I’ll make sure he doesn’t get into trouble he can’t handle, and nothing more. See ya tomorrow!” She hopped on her cloud with a grin and zoomed off towards her cloudhouse on the southeast side of Ponyville, not intending to spend the night outside again.
“I got a bad feeling about all this,” Iron Will said aloud. “And I don’t even know half the story.”
“You’re telling me,” Fluttershy shook her mane and sighed again. “I just hope she keeps her word…” Even so, why did she feel like she’d just been roped into another one of Rainbow Dash’s crazy schemes…those always ended in disaster!
--------------------------
Meanwhile, across the valley, the soft snores of a violet-maned unicorn filled the Canterlot Library as Twilight Sparkle, having searched through a good half of the books pertaining to transformations and manipulations but finding nothing pertaining to the spell she sought, slumbered on through the night. Perhaps tomorrow would hold greater fortune in her search.
I promise you Volare…she thought to herself as she ran through the memories of every spell she could recall while she slept…I’ll fix this…I’ll give you your wings back even if I have to read every book in the Library…hrm, that actually doesn’t sound like all that bad of an endeavor...could be kinda fun, actually…
.............
A few towers over from the Canterlot Library, Princess Luna was standing upon the balcony of her abode, monitoring the moon's progress as it tracked up into the sky. She was very in-tune with all things related to her night, and she was feeling distant magical flickers of...well, she wasn't sure exactly what. But as faint as they were, they were somehow familiar to her...and not at all in a pleasant way.
----------------------------
Notes: Whew, holy hay, I’m glad this chapter is over and done with! Starting with the next one, Volare learns a little bit more about the Pegasus known as The Hurricane, we get some more insight on Ray and Jill’s situation…and will Twilight ever find the spell to help Volare?!
Volare: Dude, your preview format sucks
Me: Shut up or I’ll kill you off
Volare: ….you wouldn’t
Me: …try me…
Volare: Oh FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF-!!! Oh wait, you'd be outta a job if you did, so HA!
Me: 
EDIT: I forgot to mention; this is the map I'll be using when referencing any locations around Ponyville:
http://aurebesh.deviantart.com/gallery/31093498#/d3kk1e9
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I just realized where you likely got the Osprey's name from...
Ah...finally a story update.
Mate? Since this was just way too long for me to remember any errors,ya might wanna go back and check. I think it's somewhere near the middle.
679579 Orly? Do tell!
679602 Aha yeah, I admit I didn't do a great job of proof-reading this one cuz I wrote the majority of it after midnight
It's not a terribly horrible chapter-breaking error is it?
Ah...relax mate. It isn't but...I kinda like to be perfect...679657
After midnight??? YOU'RE A LEGEND.
679668 Sweet Celestia no, not in one night.
Two nights...I hate my work schedule
Whoa I almost thought...never mind. Damn...but at least you're not screwing anything in the story so far; keep that up!
That was a long chapter!
And now I find my self with a lack of anything to do.
Anyway, wow volare went beast mode and what is it that dashie is hidding
?
Can't wait for next chapter.
679738 Not screwing anything yet...
Me: WTF stop replying to comments, Volare! You damn pervert!
Volare:
Me: Seriously though, thanks for the support
679973 Heh, I wouldn't exactly call it beast mode; just a fight or flight response (maybe a little more than that since Volare has played the protective big brother role for a long time)
As for what she's hiding...maybe it's feelings she can't explain...and maybe she really is kinda freaked out that Volare might get better than her
...so...much...chapter!
680554 I hope it's not too much
I tried a couple of different ways to split it up, but the flow would get all messed up...so I left it that way to give you guys a sense of a good-sized passage of time as well as to convey just how huge Sweet Apple Acres and the surrounding countryside is to a pony stuck on the ground. This way, Volare's wings are appreciated a bit more if/when he gets them back.
Volare: Whoa, WTF you mean if/when?!
Love everything about this chapter, bro!
The way you portray Shy intrigues me so. Different, yet not too far off from her actual personality. In fact, it's one of the many things I loved about this chapter. Can't wait for the next! 
680477 All for a quality story mate.
As always, great chapter man!
Well, I can say one thing, you have definitely changed my view of Fluttershy. And, is it possible we are dealing with some Wereponies?! 
Keep up the great work, looking forward to the next chapter. 
680742 Well, as I said, I figured that if she spent that much time with animals, she'd have to deal with predator incidents at some point (plus what exactly does she feed those eagles, falcons, and snakes at her place eh?) So it stands to reason the optimistic, wide-eyed views she started out with would be tempered over time.
682287
682467 Heh thanks. I kinda figured I was touching on an issue that hadn't been addressed yet, and I wasn't really sure how folks would react, so I'm glad you guys reacted positively to it
And nope, not wereponies! Nothing nearly that bad....but definitely not good
STALKERDASH is off the hook
for now...
Ah crap, I saw a hallow instead of a hello somewhere in the chapter, but I lost it.
It was at a Twilight part where she was greeting some guards I think.
Now then, superlong chapter makes me super happy!
WooHoo! It was a nice calming chapter (For the most part) to go through. 
And now I see you may be adding an ancient evil thing.
yay... *le sarcasm*
I'm sorry, go ahead with it, everyone else would probably love it.
Shae is best carnivore.
683291
So Fluttershy's basically a badass.
It's very interesting how you portray Ray and Jill struggling with their own lives. You bastard, you're trying to make me feel sorry for them, aren't you?
It's working.
683291 LOL yes, for now
684577 You're welcome for the long chapter
As for "ancient evil thingy"... Believe me, I've got this thing planned out; it's not a sudden thing
IT WILL MAKE SENSE!!!
684604 She tries
684646 Yes...for he will getcha when you least expect it!
685415 Nah, not a badass...she's just very good at what she does: animal rehabilitation. I'm just going a little more in-depth into the process
(trust me, if you've ever had a traumatic injury, there are certain steps you need to take in order to have the patient fully recover)
As for Ray and Jill...yeah, like Ray said, they made a bad deal...but with whom and over what is a mystery...for now
Expect the next chapter sometime in the next few days!
(it will also be the end of The Hurricane arc)
686397
Well she does need to eat sometimes
686397 A bad deal, eh? Might one say... a Faustian deal?
689996 Not quite...it does have something to do with Ray taking care of his sister Jill despite her "issues" though...
Nice to see Shy portrayed as understanding the circle of life, so to speak. It's actually show accurate even, as there is a short scene (somewhere in season one if I remember correctly) where we see her feeding fish to some of her animals.
Volare...why you so oblivious to Rainbow Dash on the cloud following you around!?
Hmm, Shae is almost exactly how you pronounce "Tjej" which means girl in Sweden
1667000
And NO
N O, Twilight deserves him!
after I read this I had this playing in my head:
Two ideas for music he could either share, or use as a theme song;
898478
Honestly, it makes sense and it perfectly fits Flutter's character to be okay with the circle of life. She doesn't seem like the kind of mare to go around putting carnivorous animals that she's caring for on vegetarian diets, does she?
If you get rid of Shae I will give you a boo a boo my good sir
Tank is a tortoise, not a turtle. Turtles live near water, tortoises typically live in arid or hot environments, thus Tank would avoid swamps.
9561625
Fair enough