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The Great Escape

Clip-clop, clip-clop, clip-clop…

Her long pink tail lashing, Fluttershy trotted along the edge of one of the streambeds that ran through the West Pasture. She wore saddlebags underneath her folded wings, full as though packed for a trip.

Below in the brush-choked gully, she could hear the faint pad of paws and swish of something pony-sized moving through the undergrowth.

Her hooves clopped against the packed earth and sweet grass of the pasture, clipped short after the last hay harvest. The streambed’s little gully curved away from the blackness of the Everfree towards town, then away to the Nightmare Night grove she normally avoided. Despite her love of animals she knew enough to avoid the wilderness surrounding Ponyville except when she had her friends along.

Or on a day like this when she was trying to sneak a full-grown and jumpy wolf out of town without causing a mass panic.

Okay so far, Fluttershy thought as she passed the clock tower. Cheers and excited whinnies came from Sweet Apple Acres ten furlongs away, faint on the wind. Closest approach to town; now to make it back out without notice.

She froze at the sound of another pony’s hoofbeats, getting louder as their owner approached.

“Stay there,” Fluttershy whispered into the streambed; the rustle in the brush that had been pacing her ceased, gone silent as death itself. “Somepony’s coming.”

A sky-blue earth pony cantered towards her, pink mane pulled back by a headband.

“Miss Fluttershy!” Lotus called as she came upon the pegasus. Fluttershy shrank back with a faint smile as the blue Spa pony came up to her. “Is so good to see you again, Aloe and I have missed you at Spa. Nothing is wrong, is it?”

“Oh, no, nothing at all,” Fluttershy hoped she didn’t sound nervous. Nothing but me sneaking a pony-sized wolf out of town. “I was just taking a shortcut across the Pasture while everything’s nice and quiet. Everypony else is busy right now, after all.” She swept one wing out towards Sweet Apple Acres. Off in the distance, she could hear the excited whinnies and neighs from the Sisterhooves Social. She hoped Rarity’s plan was working. She hated to think of her friend fighting with her little sister. “I hope I’m not keeping you from anything, I know how busy you and Aloe get.” Please go so I can do this without getting caught.

“Oh, no!” Lotus gave a soft laugh. “Spa is closed now because of Social, most of town must be there. I just wanted to get few things from market.” Lotus brought her tail up and lightly swatted the saddle bags she wore, the finest hoof-sewn sturdy cloth decorated with her cutie mark, a gift from Rarity. Fluttershy remembered how delighted Lotus was when Rarity gave them to her and Aloe on one of their weekly visits. “I just need to be getting some things for dinner. Oats, honey, all of that.”

“Well don’t let me keep you,” Fluttershy moved to the side, giving Lotus room to leave. “I have to be going myself.” She froze. Was that a low snarl she heard from the underbrush? She gulped and looked to see if Lotus noticed anything. By the innocent look on her face, she hadn’t. Fluttershy’s racing pulse slowed slightly. “Better hurry to get everything done before the Sisterhooves Social ends.”

“Yes,” Lotus said, sounding almost wistful. She looked towards Sweet Apple Acres. “I wish Aloe was filly; would be fun to go and do Social.”

“It would, but I really need to be going. Oh, not that I want to run off like that,” Fluttershy hurriedly added at Lotus’ wounded expression. “I just have to really take care of something on the North End.” She pointed a forehoof at the windmill peeking over the rooftops. “It won’t wait. I’ll be sure to drop by the Spa later, I’ve missed you and Aloe so.” That part at least was no lie. She enjoyed being taken care of by the two sisters, and drinking the hot and very sweet Stalliongrad tea they made.

Lotus nodded at her, turned to leave… then froze in mid-gait. Fluttershy gulped to see her sniffing the air. It reminded her of Ardi. So did the suddenly intent look on her face. Like Applejack and Rainbow Dash when they thought they heard a monster sneaking around.

“Oh dear, nothing’s wrong is it?”

“I do not know,” Lotus said, slowly. She looked around. “For second I thought I smelled something I haven’t smelled since Stalliongrad.” She snorted and tossed her mane. “But what would big stinky nasty wolf be doing here?” She trotted off back towards town, the sound of a chuckle trailing along with her.

Ardi’s not a big stinky nasty wolf! Well, he’s not nasty. But I’m sure he can’t help smelling the way he does. Fluttershy bit her tongue at the last second.

She watched Lotus disappear into town, then went to the edge of the shadowed ditch and whispered.

“Ardi?”

Nothing. She wondered if he was even there or if he’d sneaked away while she spoke with Lotus. Then a slightly paler patch of shadow moved closer and a pair of blue eyes peered at her, seeming half-lit from within.

“Pony Fluttershy.” He sounded tense, and his half-lowered ears and close-tucked tail displayed his lupine unease to her. Fluttershy wanted to set her wing over him in comfort like when she’d taught him how to read. The poor frightened wolf.

He moved out of the shadows cast by the afternoon sun. That was one more reason she’d waited until later in the day. Aside from the Social drawing most of the Ponyville ponies to watch, the sunlight would cast deep shadows along the streambeds and ditches. Ardi assured her he could hide in them. He hadn’t lied.

“Pony Fluttershy,” he said again, sounding wary. “Is strange mare gone?”

“She is,” Fluttershy whispered. She looked around. Nopony was visible. She dropped down into the ditch beside him. “Everything is safe now.” He moved closer, and for an instant, she felt uneasy. His movements, setting his paws so carefully against the rocks and dirt, never taking his eyes from her, crouched low… If I didn’t know better, I’d think he was stalking me and about to pounce.

“Is it much further to woods?” He asked, sounding somewhere between eager and as uneasy as herself.

“Not much further,” Fluttershy said. She fluttered back up the bank and looked to see the closest trees of the grove, less than fifty lengths away. “And remember, once we’re there, I’ll lead you to the shortest path beading back north. And then we’ll part.” Ardi gave a shiver, but his gaze never left hers. She added, “I, I do like you, Ardi. I think you’re a friend. I hope we see each other again after you get home. Er, provided it wouldn’t be a problem for you.”

“I,” he glanced away, “I hope we meet again somehow, pony Fluttershy. If Fate permits.”

She smiled at him. He shivered and looked away. She glanced around and trying very hard to look as nonchalant as possible, started for the grove and the quiet forest beyond where so few ponies went, and where none would be today.

Beside and below her, Ardi weaved from shadow to shadow without a sound. He didn’t even pant.

He’s so very good at this, but then he would be, what with the, she gulped, predation he does. But he can’t help being a carnivore. I’ll be sorry to see him go.

I just wish I could convince him that ponies wouldn’t mind wolves being able to speak. It’s not something he needs to hide.

# # #

Just a little further, and I can kill Fluttershy quickly and quietly.

Ardi hated the thought, it sickened him, but he held it first and foremost in his mind. The Secret must be kept, due to his weakness. She alone knew. So she alone needed to die. It’s for the pack and all Wolves, not just me. He thought of what his pack would do, what all the packs would do, if ponies learned of them and how many ponies and Wolves would die then. Remember that and don’t be selfish. Nowolf ever said duty and loyalty were easy.

Fluttershy glanced back at him and smiled, her eyes soft and a sense of trust in her scent somehow.

He smiled back at her, ears tilting forward and tail wagging slightly. She nodded reassurance.

“Not much further,” she whispered, her voice soft even for her. She pointed ahead. “If you were up here I could show you how close we are to the forest.” She turned and hurried on.

He wanted to tell her that he could smell it, the scents of sweet maple sap and soft rabbits and good clean dirt far away from pony-fertilized fields and warm deer, the last odd this close to so many dens, or did ponies make friends with even non-speaking deer? Deer. Ardi remembered how venison tasted, best of all when the blood was still pumping after a chase and you felt so alive when you tore through their throat…

As he was going to do to Fluttershy.

Just remember, make it quick. One quick leap and bite right through her throat. He remembered learning how to hunt, making his first kill, the way the deer had thrashed and gurgled as he kept a grip on its throat and tore through the windpipe.

An image of the sweet-smelling Pegasus flashed through his mind, her eyes locked on his own in horror and disbelief as she died with his fangs in her throat.

“Fluttershy,” Ardi whispered to her, pitching his voice as though this were a hunt, which in a way it was. She stopped and looked at him. “You know that I – am grateful, for your kindness? And that I wish it were possible for me to greet your other friends?” He wondered why he said this but went on. “Only it is, is not possible. Fate does not permit it” She looked at him, her eyes wide and curious as he finished with, “Many things we wish are not possible.”

“I know,” she said, though he wondered if she still wished otherwise. “It’s alright. I’m just happy to be helping you. You’re my friend, after all.” She moved out of sight.

Ardi stared at the spot where she’d stood. Just three heartbeats long he wanted to leap before her and confess everything, beg her forgiveness.

The pack. Your aunt and uncle, your cousins and the little pups. Everywolf’s kin and friends, all dying because you weakened. Because you got poisoned and made a mistake. You know what it would be like.

Hildulf, twitching as the hunting spears impaled her like a butcherbird’s prey.

Stalliongrad kazaki in wolf-skin capes, whinnying as they skinned the carcasses of Stark and his sons.

Winterholt’s alpha bitch Stoneheart leaping onto their spear points, pulling herself down the shafts to mark at least one pony before she died.

Flier-ponies in jousting harnesses diving to the attack; magic blasts from spear-heads tearing wolves apart, their voices cut off in mid-howl.

And in the sky above them all, the Burning Queen herself, horned and winged, calling down the sun itself. Snow and ice flashing into steam, Wolves burned to wind-blown ash before they could even fall.

Ardi sighed, hardened his heart, and followed Fluttershy -

Stop thinking of her name! You can't kill her if she has a name!

The pony he had to kill.

Her life, or all the Wolves…

But that voice inside would not stop nagging.

# # #

At the Sisterhooves Social, a smiling Pinkie Pie stood at the Sugarcube Corner baked-goods stand, setting two apple cupcakes (made with Sweet Apple Acres apples, of course, she didn’t cheat her friends) down before Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo. Past them she could see ponies getting ready for the first big event, the race through the mud puddle. She caught a glimpse of little Sweetie Belle’s snowy coat and candy-cotton mane and tail. Pinkie kept her laugh to herself to think of the fun trick Rarity and Applejack would be pulling to help remind Sweetie of how much her big sis really loved her. Did they really think they could keep a secret like that from her?

“Maybe we can do this sometime, Rainbow Dash?”

“Next year, maybe,” Dash said to Scootaloo as she licked her lips at the sight of the food. “Right now let’s eat.”

“Here you go,” Pinkie said, “Two nummy-yummy deliciouseriffic cinnamon and apple cupcakes, and they cost….”

Pinkie’s voice trailed off as she started vibrating.

Pinkie Sense! Left ear twitch-twitch-flatten, a shiver in my right shoulder, three twitches of my dock… Omigosh, Fluttershy’s in danger!

“Uhh, Pinkie Pie?” The pink party pony barely heard Dash as she waved one hoof in front of her eyes. “Equestria to Pinkie! What do these cost, again?”

“Oh! Uh, nothing!” Pinkie grinned, the frogs of her hooves itching with the desire to start running right now. Gotta save Fluttershy! But have to keep it secret! Wish I knew why… “Hey, tell ya what Dashie, why don’t you and Scootaloo watch over the cupcakes and other yummy goodies! Have to run and wash my clock and wind up Gummy! I’ll be back soon! You can do that, right? Besides, Scootaloo wanted to do something together with you.”

“Huh?” Dash blinked in confusion. Scootaloo looked delighted, her little wings buzzing in her excitement. “Sure, I mean, yeah, but I’d like to know what the heck…”

“We’ll do a great job!” Scootaloo hurried behind the counter and started to yell, “HEY PONIES! FRESH CUPCAKES HERE! CAKES AND, UH, OTHER STUFF LIKE THAT! GET ‘EM WHILE THEY’RE HOT! Half off to anypony who buys for their sister!”

Pinkie raced away as a wincing Dash looked like she would rather be anywhere else as ponies hurried over to take advantage of the deal. I’ll make it up to the Cakes later, Pinkie thought as she took off at a full gallop, earth exploding under her hooves as she shot through the orchard. A leap over a split-rail fence and she was racing north on the Everfree Road, Apple orchards and Carrot fields on her right and the Everfree on her left. She didn’t question it; her Pinkie Sense would know the quickest route even if she didn’t. Gotta save Fluttershy now!

And keep it all quiet!

# # #

“Ardi? We’re here, you can come out of that ditch now.” He looked to see Fluttershy gazing down at him, her soft pink mane almost a halo around her face. Like that first night when I thought I saw the Burning Queen. Ardi gave a shiver.

“Oh, you’re not cold, are you? I can give you a blanket if you need it to stay warm on the way home.”

“I’m fine,” Ardi said with a snarl, wishing he felt less conflicted about all this. She was a pony, after all, an enemy of Wolves. An enemy who’d treated him well, but still, even if she meant Wolves no harm, what when the rest of them found out they were folk and not beasts? Like the Stalliongradders? He hurried up beside her, placing his paws carefully to make the least noise. Even so every click of a toeclaw on stones or slither of falling gravel sounded like a hunting horn to him as he moved to stand beside her. Her eyes were still full of concern. He looked away. “I’m fine. I won’t need any blanket.”

He looked around, sniffing and turning his ears to catch every sound. Fluttershy’s warm scent, tinged with fear, and faded smells of various animals and ponies that were by here sometime in the past. Still a lot of noise coming from far to the south, excited whinnies and neighs. A loud cheer went up and he froze. It died back down and he relaxed. They were in the midst of a copse of bushes, some looking bare already with winter coming but others stubbornly holding on to their leaves. A few were even still green. From pony magic?

And before them a thin grove of trees, nothing like the gnarled old evergreens of the Great Northern Forests, tall and straight as a hunting spear and smelling from some pack’s scent marking. These were narrow, their bark peeling away like the paper from Fluttershy’s books, their remaining leaves broad and multi-colored. A little further in the woods he could see the trees growing thicker and bigger and closer together, but still looking more like some farm-pony’s field than a real forest. Among them led a broad beaten-down trail where the passing of time and ponies had pounded the dirt flat.

“The forest starts here,” Fluttershy half whispered. “Just follow the trail; it’s safer than the Everfree and it’ll lead you far enough away from Ponyille that you can head back north without being seen.” She removed one of her saddlebags with a wing and set it on his back. He yipped and glanced around. Nowolf there. Good.

“I’ve put some supplies in there,” Fluttershy tightened the straps holding it on him. He growled softly, very softly, at the unfamiliar feel. “Food, water, some of my medicine if you need it though I think you won’t. There’s a blanket too,” she said, looking away shyly as he glanced at her. “Just so you don’t get cold.”

Ardi turned his head back, opened the bag’s flap with his teeth, and sniffed at it. He snorted and sniffed again.

“That blanket is the one your aunt left you?” At her nod Ardi said, “I, I can’t take it. It came from her, you told me. You keep it, pony.”

“Oh, no,” Fluttershy responded. They began walking deeper into the woods, the distant sounds of whatever pony festival dimming into silence. “She said that I should never hesitate to help someone who needed it, who or whatever they were. She’d want me to give it to you.” She smiled to say it. Not the way some higher-ups in the pack would grin at him when they tossed scraps his way, but warm and real and trusting.

Ardi froze, eyes closed as he fought his fears one last time.

Hildulf and Stoneheart on the spear points, Stark and his sons skinned, the Burning Queen melting the soil to seal in their ashes. All the Wolves, all the Packs, all the sons and daughters of Fenris dead and gone forever. Because you didn’t have the cunning to not get poisoned, or the willpower to remain silent.

“Ardi? Are you alright?”

She died when you first came here. This is What Must Be, and you are only the vessel it works through. He remembered hating that explanation when he’d heard it before and a whimpering pup asked when his sire and dam were coming back. But now he was an adult. Now he knew better. He turned towards Fluttershy. They had privacy here. She wouldn’t be found for days and he’d be long gone. Best to distract her and then make it one leap and bite. She deserved to die quickly. None of this was her doing.

“Er, Flutter-, I mean pony?” He pointed one paw back along the trail. “Maybe you can look back and let me know if anywolf is coming from the town? I… think I smell somewolf, I mean pony.”

Fluttershy looked at him in confusion, but she turned and looked away, giving him a marvelous view of her throat. Right there, the spine and windpipe and great vessels in the neck. It would be only a moment of pain.

He gathered himself, crouching for the leap.

One pony or all the Wolves of the North. There is no chance, no accident. There is only destiny, What Must Be.

The words did not comfort. But at least it would be quick and --

“HEY FLUTTERSHY!”

Ardi somehow changed direction in mid leap and vanished into the deepest of the nearby bushes with barely a rustle of leaves to mark his passing.

He growled soft and low. Now what? He peeked and froze. He could feel his tail curling close in fear as he saw which pony spoke to Fluttershy.

It was Her. The pony who nearly killed him.

The Poisoner.

# # #

“Eeep!” Fluttershy found herself a length in the air at the surprise, nothing odd for her. She looked and relaxed at the sight of a cotton-candy pink mane and tail. “Pinkie Pie! What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be selling food at the Sisterhooves Social?” Pinkie looked up at her, coat damp with sweat, sides working as though she’d galloped all the way from Sweet Apple Acres. She looked – worried? Fluttershy wondered if it something she’d done, and she said, “Not that I’m telling you what to do, of course. But I was hoping for, well, a little privacy.”

Pinkie Pie waited for Fluttershy to return to the ground before she started speaking.

“Huh? No, it’s okay, we have all the privacy we want out here in these really lonely woods where anything could happen with nopony noticing.” She shook herself and said, her voice almost holding a quaver, “It’s almost as spooky as Nightmare Night!”

Fluttershy wondered if the shrub Ardi hid in seemed to shiver at those words. She remembered what he’d said about Nightmare Night and Pinkie and getting sick from her treats; he simply refused to believe it’d been an accident.

“I guess it is,” Fluttershy said, “Though at least Princess Luna isn’t here. She’s kind of scary…” She kept her eye on the bush, still holding its leaves for now, a month after the Running of the Leaves. There were others nearby, about one of Ardi’s leaps away; maybe he could sneak past Pinkie Pie using them and get away? If so, she needed to give him the chance.

“Yeah, Princess Luna,” Pinkie said, as she set herself between Fluttershy and the shrub. “I mean, we all thought she was being scary to celebrate the holiday, but she wasn’t. She just wanted to be friends and I, uh, kind of made a mistake and hurt her. Which I’m really really sorry for.”

“I’m sure she knows that, Pinkie.” Fluttershy tried to figure out where Ardi was. She thought she heard a soft rustle of leaves and saw a slight shiver going from one bush to another. But it wasn’t much further away. Ardi could have crossed from it to her side in just a few moments. Why wasn’t he running? Moving away from Pinkie and closer to the bush, Fluttershy said, “But maybe you could write her a letter and send her some cupcakes? I’m sure she’d like that, and the sooner the better.”

Her pointed remarks seemed to escape Pinkie’s notice. She trotted along, once more standing between her and the hidden wolf.

“Maybe I will!” Fluttershy’s hopes crashed as Pinkie added, “Urrr, sometime later.” The pink pony bounced around the pegasus, her head snapping around. “Wow, it sure is spooky out here. You kinda expect to turn around and see,” she stopped, wheeling around to face the bush, head down, “BAM! A monster! Bblbblbbl!” She stuck out her tongue and shook her head. Fluttershy knew she heard Ardi gasp and growl then. Pinkie looked at the bush. “But then you look and realize it wasn't a monster and you were being a big silly-willy-sillypants and scared of nothing. Boy, you really feel dumb then, huh? And sorry if you hurt somepony."

Fluttershy cringed at the sound of a choked off lupine whine. Pinkie binked. "Huh. Say, is there a poor lost doggie in there? Maybe I can give him something to eat.”

Fluttershy’s mind’s eye filled with the image of the panicked wolf racing away from Pinkie Pie and back into Ponyville, possibly right into the middle of the mares and fillies leaving the Sisterhooves Social.

In an instant she found herself settling down between Pinkie and the bush. She caught a glimpse of off-white pelt as she did.

“Pinkie Pie!” She said in her strongest voice, which would be called ‘mildly annoyed’ by most ponies. Pinkie froze as Fluttershy said, “There’s no dog there. There’s nothing here for anypony to be scared of.”

“Huh, well, duh,” Pinkie said, waving her hoof dismissively. “I know that. I mean, you’re here, right? And you know how to handle animals. Ooh!” She hopped up and down. “Like remember that one time with the dragon? And how you made it back down even though you were scared to death? And then with the manticore when we healed Princess Luna?” She looked past Fluttershy, right at the bush and the wolf beyond it. Fluttershy gulped, but Pinkie said in a slightly less bouncy then normal voice, “Or when you kept your promise to Photo Finish for so long even though you were unhappy? Just so you wouldn't hurt anypony who trusted you?”

“It wasn’t easy,” Fluttershy answered her. She wondered where all this was coming from. What did her modeling career have to do with anything? “Photo was so demanding, and I knew it made Rarity so unhappy, but I wanted to try and get Photo to accept some of her dresses and to keep Photo happy.” She sighed and shivered, memory taking her back to the nonstop photo shoots and publicity. “But I really didn’t like it very much at all.”

“So why did you do it?”

Fluttershy looked at Pinkie. The party pony wasn’t facing her. She was posed like Winona on a “point”, staring right at the bush where Ardi hid. From what she knew of wolves, she could almost see him holding perfectly still to avoid drawing attention. And Pinkie’s voice, so oddly unlike the normal her. Did, did she somehow know?

“I promised,” Fluttershy said, wondering now just what was going on. “I said I’d help her so I did. That’s it, Pinkie Pie.”

“I wouldn’t break a promise I made to a friend.”

# # #

I wouldn’t break a promise I made to a friend.

Ardi stiffened at those words. Upon first hearing and seeing the Pink Poisoner, he half expected Fluttershy to point him out to her. It would be so easy. All she needed to do afterwards was to say that he’d stolen from her and that she meant to lead him to be captured or slain. Cornered as he was he’d have no choice but to fight, but meanwhile Fluttershy could fly away.

And if he died in the fight, as he half expected – something about that poofy-maned pony made him think of the stories told of the Twisting One and his mad powers; or tales told of lone wolves who accepted wanderers into their dens and made them into dinner – then whatever she said about him talking would almost certainly be ignored by other ponies. What proof would there be?

And yet, rather than yell and run or fly, she’d stood her ground and kept trying to give him a way to escape. She gave him a keepsake from her dead kin that she must have known she’d never see again if he took it. She was protecting him like a dam with her pups, or a packmate to their fellows, with no consideration of herself. If the ponies caught her now, after defending him, wouldn't she be in as much trouble AS him?

Did I actually think she’d betray me?

Ardi took his old plan and tore it between his fangs.

He didn’t care if the ponies dragged him back, poisoned him again, and flayed his pelt. He wasn’t going to hurt Fluttershy.

He looked up and froze as blue eyes seemed to lock on his own.

She knows I’m here!

Then the poisoner turned away, and Ardi knew he’d escaped detection.

“We-ell…” The poisoner rubbed her chin with one hoof. “Okay then! You can take care of yourself.” She tousled Fluttershy’s mane. “Just remember to call for Aunty Pinkie if you ever need her!” She turned and bounced away back towards the pony-dens.

“I’m a year older than you,” Fluttershy muttered in an annoyed tone after she left. She turned to the bush. “Ardi? Are you okay?”

“I am,” he said as he slithered out of the bush. Leaves barely rustled as he did. But Fluttershy managed an eep as he rubbed his cheek against hers wolf-fashion. Her soft warm scent put him more than ever in mind of a den, filled with the close company of other wolves, pups and elders, male and female, and all of them sleeping soundly.

Maybe if one pony knows about us, it isn’t the end. A very alien though came to Ardi then. And maybe, just maybe, more than one might know someday, and we’ll still be safe?

“Ardi?”

“Just thinking,” he told her. “My pack won’t believe me when I tell them about this.” He looked her in the eye. Her eyes widened as he said, “Or that you know, and we can still be safe.”

“But Ardi, you said your pack would never forgive you if somepony knew they could still talk…”

“They will once they know how much you can be trusted,” Ardi said. A vision of mocking and snarling wolves rose in his mind’s eye. Bah. My uncle is pack alpha, the alpha of alphas, They'll listen. I'll convince them. He half lowered his ears and said, “I mean, I’m pretty sure they will. Besides, if worst comes to worst I’ll just return here and stay with you.” He broke off and looked her in the eyes. “May I?”

“You’ll always be a guest with me, wherever I am.”

“Thanks,” Ardi said. He shared one last nuzzle with Fluttershy, gave her face a slurp. With one smooth silent leap he turned and raced down the trail away from that town full of crazy ponies, with Fluttershy’s pack resting on his back.

To the Great Northern Forests and home.

# # #

Fluttershy gulped a little to see just how far and how quietly Ardi could leap. If he’d ever meant to ambush her she’d never know until too late. She relaxed. Now don’t think that. He’s a friend. He may be a little scary when he’s not ready to run and hide, but he’d never hurt you.

Fluttershy turned to head home, wondering if she would ever see him again. She hoped so. And who knew? Maybe next time everything would go well and she’d be able to introduce him to other ponies.

Those thoughts kept her occupied until she got back into town. She saw many mares and their little sisters in the streets, their hooves clopping over the dirt. Pinkie Pie seemed to be apologizing to Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo about something. Most ponies were whinnying and neighing about the events of the Social. Including one pair in particular.

“Fluttershy, dear!” Fluttershy smiled as Rarity trotted over to her, little Sweetie Belle at her side. The pegasi’s eyes widened – was that a layer of mud on Rarity’s normally-pristine coat? Her friend must have noticed, for she said, “Oh, this?” She slapped her tail, also a mess, against her side. “Just the side-effect of mending fences with Sweetie Belle.” She nuzzled her little sister, who returned it with affection. “We were going to go and get cleaned up at the Spa. Why not come with us?” She pointed her hoof at Fluttershy’s stained yellow coat. “You could use the attention, if I do say so.” Rarity looked back at Fluttershy “But where have you been, dear?”

“Oh,” Fluttershy said, glancing off towards the north. “Just saying goodbye to a friend. “ She saw the question in Rarity’s eyes and said, “Nopony you know yet.”

"But I hope you get to meet him and his friends soon."

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