Chapter 55
It was past the witching hour, well and truly into the dark of the night. The air had cooled considerably, and for this, Flicker was thankful. It got a bit warm inside of his suit. He moved with his army, prowling the outer perimeter, picking off stragglers. Something had happened further into Ponyville, but he wasn’t sure what. The flow of rats had ceased. Flicker didn’t hear the sounds of alarm or see a panic, so he assumed that everything was business as normal.
Soon, it would be time to fetch a barrel and begin cleanup of his area. There were several hundred corpses of rats, some of them messy, but this would be a quick, easy cleanup, and he wasn’t worried. Hearing a flutter of wings, Flicker turned, thinking there was a princess nearby, but when he looked all he saw was a pegasus landing close to him.
Rainbow Dash, Element of Loyalty, longtime companion to Princess Twilight Sparkle, and the fastest pegasus pony in Equestria. He wondered what he had done to get her attention, and in the back of his mind, he pondered what sort of authority she had. After a few seconds of consideration, he decided that Elements of Harmony had considerable authority, so he bowed his head.
“Wicked said to begin cleanup of your area,” Rainbow Dash said as she stared up at Flicker on his stilts. “There’s been a lull in the action and somepony is getting a pep-talk from Twilight. I don’t know what happened.” The pegasus pony shrugged with her wings. “After you clean up your area, Wicked wants you to take your cats and patrol along the river on the White Tail Woods side of town.”
“Okay.” Flicker’s mechanical voice caused Rainbow Dash’s ears to perk up.
“All of you are so wonderfully creepy!” Rainbow Dash shivered and gave her wings a flap. “This job looks cool and all, but I bet all the cleanup is boring and super grody.”
“It’s a living,” Flicker replied, realising that Rainbow Dash was one of those sorts of ponies. In his annoyance, his breathing increased a bit, and now it made a noticeable sound through his respirator.
“You sound like Scourge Slithers, the sworn arch-nemesis of Radiance from the Power Ponies. In the movie, Scourge Slithers gets all burned up and crispy from being set on fire after a big neon sign fell on him when he and Radiance and Mistress Mare-velous were having a big showdown. After he was all burned up and crispy, he gets remade and he’s half dragon, half machine—”
Flicker wanted to know how a dragon got burnt up.
“—and when he breathes it makes this awesome sound, just like you do and his voice sounds amazing!” Rainbow Dash stopped in her fan-fillying before she let out a squeal and revealed her eggheadedness. Taking a deep breath, Rainbow Dash did her best to look nonchalant. “That movie was absolutely ruined though with that kiss between Radiance and Mistress Mare-velous… everypony knows that Mistress Mare-velous would hook up with Zapp, because they’re awesome together, although there is something to be said about Zapp and the Masked-Matterhorn getting together, because that would be kinda hawt…”
The little pegasus mare shuffled around on her hooves in a manner that most would find a little awe-inducing in its awkward, fillyish adorableness. But not Flicker. No, he just wanted to do his job, not discuss inane comic book movies. He looked down at Rainbow Dash and drew in a deep breath which reverberated through his respirator.
“Is there anything else?” Flicker asked.
“Nope!” And with that, Rainbow Dash flew away, taking off in a streak, grinning with awkward reckless abandon.
Hennessy’s keen eyes watched as his fellows worked in the distance, cleaning up an enormous mass of corpses strewn about in the road, and nowhere near the train station where the killing was supposed to happen. Head cocked off to one side, his ears flopped over, he wondered what went wrong and he watched with idle curiousity. He felt Fluttershy shift against him and he sighed. The yellow pegasus was nice and he liked her a great deal. She was quiet, calm, and kind.
A second princess flew overhead and Hennessy watched as Twilight swooped just above the thatched rooftops. A blue pegasus with a rainbow mane and tail flew beside Twilight and Hennessy wondered what it might be like to be a pegasus.
“You’re not like the others,” Fluttershy murmured, trying not to be offensive or say the wrong thing as she attempted to make conversation.
“I s’pose I ain’t,” Hennessy replied as he shook his head. “I ain’t a killing sort and I just signed a pacifist’s writ. I want to give life, not take it. I ain’t sure what to do with my life though, not yet.”
“Sometimes, as awful as it is, you have to take life,” Fluttershy whispered as Twilight circled overhead and in the distance, tall, grotesque distorted shadows, dark shapes in the night, moved about, doing their ghoulish job.
“Flicker takes life and I don’t think he ever gives a second thought about it.” Hennessy felt Fluttershy snuggle a little closer to him and the yellow mare shivered. “For him, it’s as natural as breathing. It bothers me a bit that he’s so good at it, but that’s just his way. I just wish that he’d have some sort of feeling about what he does. He’s my friend and I worry about his soul. Sometimes I wonder if he’s even aware that he has a soul. He doesn’t do much to look after it.”
“You worry for your friend, that’s touching.” Fluttershy took a deep breath and the feathers on her wings fluffed out to keep her warm in the cool night air. “I worry for my friends too. I suppose I am the caregiver in our little group. Twilight’s become a little colder, but she won’t admit to it. Some bad things have happened. And Rainbow… she got bored once she became a Wonderbolt. Rainbow likes to chase things, I guess, and once she has them, she gets bored. She’s changed too since she started going off with Tarnish and Daring Do.”
“I worry for Piper too,” Hennessy admitted, musing on what Fluttershy had revealed to him, and he marvelled at the complexity of friendships. “I love her like a sister and it bothers me a whole lot that she’s becoming like Flicker. Piper has a lot of ambition and need for power. She’s been hurt, I think, maybe her parents didn’t do it on purpose, not like how my Pa did, but I done reckon that Piper thinks that having power will make her feel better. Those who feel powerless tend to want power, I done reckon.”
“I understand. Twilight is that way, wanting more power, but she actually has good parents, and I don’t think she feels powerless very often.” Fluttershy blinked, her ears perked, and for a short time, she looked quite troubled. “I keep Twilight and Rainbow leveled out, that’s my purpose, I think, as their friend. The past few years have been hard and I’ve had to do a lot of soul searching. I’m not the pony that I once was, my friends have changed me, for the better I think, and I’m pretty sure that I’ve changed them too.”
“So it falls on me to keep those two leveled out?” Hennessy asked.
“Well, somepony has to,” Fluttershy replied. “If I wasn’t around to be the quiet voice of reason for Rainbow and Twilight, things might be very different for both of them, and not in a good way. Twilight is becoming more and more aggressive and I take it upon myself to hold that in check.” She sighed, paused for a moment, and then after another forlorn sigh, she continued, “And Rainbow Dash has this root, it is a tiny, fragile, delicate thing, and it is all that keeps her in Ponyville. I have become its caretaker, I see that it is nourished and tended to, because if it was to die, I think Rainbow would blow away with the wind.”
“You sound wise.”
“Oh, I don’t know about that… some time ago, I went to the druid grove, seeking answers for a problem, and I allowed that place to change me,” Fluttershy said to the colt beside her in a low, soft voice. “It awoke something within me, some awareness that I can’t explain. It’s made me a better pony.”
“Maybe I should go there.” Lifting a front hoof, Hennessy began to rub his chin.
“Everything comes with a price…” Fluttershy’s voice was flat and cold. “Be careful what you ask for, Hennessy, you might get what you need, not what you want.”
“I don’t follow.” Hennessy shook his head and became aware of the fact that Fluttershy was stroking his neck with her wing.
Fluttershy tilted her head back and looked up at Princess Luna, who continued to circle overhead. “When the spirit of the grove touched me, I don’t know what else to call it, I became painfully aware of the cruelty of nature, the lack of compassion… being the Element of Kindness, I found the opposite of everything I believe in and place my hopes in… as I drowned in the water where Tarnish destroyed Grogar’s crown, I realised, life was all about suffering and pain… that is all there is, and living is all about avoiding pain. We eat so we don’t feel the pain of hunger. We run from monsters so we don’t feel the pain of death and being eaten. Life is about the avoidance of pain.”
“Huh.” Hennessy drew in a deep breath and tried to wrap his mind around what Fluttershy had said.
“It isn’t enough to avoid the pain though,” Fluttershy continued, “avoiding pain is just base survival, and it doesn’t mean much. It is existence, and nothing more. That’s not the same as living. Living…”—Fluttershy pulled Hennessy closer and gave him a squeeze—“living is what happens when you find meaning in the suffering, with meaning comes understanding, with understanding comes purpose, and with purpose comes fulfilment, and somewhere in the middle of all of that, if you are lucky, you find wisdom. But it only comes if you embrace suffering, not run from it.”
Hennessy was unable to respond, but he gave serious thought to Fluttershy’s words as the pair of them lapsed into an agreeable, comfortable silence. Enough had been said, and now, it was the time for thinking, to strive for meaning. The colt realised that he had made a friend, somepony he could have deep, meaningful conversations with. Flicker was not one for navel gazing and Piper… well, Piper wasn’t much for it either.
This felt good, and Hennessy was thankful for the company of the sunny yellow mare.
Staring off towards the White Tail Woods, Flicker thought about how close to home he was, but still so far away. He was working and he couldn’t take a short walk to go and visit his family. There were rats here, by the river, and his faithful minions did his bidding. His cats went into burrows, into hollow trees, beneath the bridges, and everywhere his cats went, rats and rodents died.
Moving on stilts allowed Flicker to move about and make good time as he went from bridge to bridge, following the old farm roads that circled through this area and went back to Ponyville. There were new houses here, new farms, new growth, and as more ponies pushed into the White Tail Woods, more animals would be displaced. The wild animals would get into the garbage, break into houses, and they would bring fleas and other parasites. With parasites, incidences of disease would increase.
Civilisation came at the cost of pushing back the wilderness, pushing back the wilderness displaced the wild animals, and the wild animals brought with them contagion. It was a cycle that gave Flicker a reason to pause and consider the odd quirks of life. After a little thought and weighing the various options, Flicker came to a very simple conclusion.
The wild animals could be killed and civilisation could be allowed to flourish.
As far as conclusions went, it wasn’t his very best, but Flicker wasn’t so good at figuring these sorts of things out. It was the reason why he seldom allowed these flights of fancy and he pushed these thoughts out of his mind so that he could return his attention to doing his job.
With his brain now cleared, other things rushed in to occupy his consciousness. He thought of his sister, how close she was, just down the road and over a bridge, in fact. Thinking of family, Flicker’s mind brought up the issue of Hennessy. Family of his own was a delightful possibility in the distant future.
How would it work? What would happen? Would it be possible? He didn’t even know how to define his current relationship with Hennessy, but it was something like a good friendship with interest… interest in what though? There was a vast, empty, unknown space that loomed before him, something that existed outside of work and purpose. The strict, orderly civilisation of Flicker’s mind just pushed a little ways into the expansive, unknown, unexplored wilderness of his heart… and didn’t like what it had found there. The wilderness was fraught with danger, it was brimming with the unknown, and Flicker was very much becoming a Canterlot pony.
The thought terrified Flicker so much that he shoved it out of his mind and pretended as though it never happened. It was better to do his job and focus upon that, rather than flights of fancy. There just wasn’t enough dynamite to properly explore the wilderness and deal with all of the things he might encounter there.
Why not all three?
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Damn, Fluttershy got borderline nihilistic over the years. In her own caring way, of course.
Rainbow's to caught up in her ships to consider a fleet.
7825845
See, that's the thing... finding meaning is an insulation against nihilism.
If anything, she's found more of a reason to care.
All three? Why not just omni-ship that team of six? X3
All three is good too! AppleDashLight is the best trio possible!
7825854
7825845
Everything sucks, the world is inherently meaningless, and thus we must create meaning? That sort of thing?
To some extent I would even agree with Flicker's conclusion. It is true that civilization is better than savagery, because civilization offers a richer and deeper memetic space in which ideas can develop -- arts and sciences. And civilization also allows the flawed to survive their flaws and live to develop their merits. So civilization should expand, and the wild yield -- up to a point.
On the other hand, wildness is also important: it represents a fallow-state of genetic diversity from which civilization itself ultimately springs. So, while the civilized needs to be protected from the wild, the wild also needs to be protected from the civilized, lest wildness be entirely destroyed and civilization left as a vulnerable monoculture. A world that was nothing but cities, suburbs, farms and ranches would be greatly impoverished.
Thus, there needs to be a balance between Civilization and Nature. As technology advances, it's increasingly possible to crush what remains of Nature, yes, but it's also possible to deploy one's society in ways that maximize both Civilization and Nature. For instance, as we decouple the atmospheric system from our energy generation system by means of orbital solar and variously-based nuclear fission and fusion power plants, we will be able to enjoy high-energy based ways of life without skewing our climate, in ways impossible to the coal-burning 19th or oil-burning 20th centuries.
This importance of preserving Nature is something I did not truly appreciate until I met my wife, 12 years ago. She is a nature-lover and a natural scientist who taught me much about ecology and zoology, with the result that I now have a deeper understanding of ecological interactions and the ways in which our own civilized world sprang from Nature.
I disagree with many environmentalists in that I think that Humanity (or Equinity, for that matter) could survive in a severely depleted ecosystem, one in which the only other animals and plants that survived were those either useful enough to us or good enough at hiding from us and scavenging from us that we could not exterminate them. The survival needs of Humans are air, water and certain nutritional biochemicals: these are currently attached to a living planet, but do not necessarily need to be.
However, a depleted ecosystem would be a much duller world in which to live, and it would have less resilience if our life support systems failed. To destroy the genetic and cultural diversity of the Earth would be a terrible tragedy and sorry waste: we would be throwing away the results of natural experiments that have been running for millions of years, in some cases billions of years. One day, when we colonize other worlds, we will regard living ecosystems as natural resources of immense value to us for numerous purposes -- 'tis folly for us to destroy the one which Nature has bequeathed us here on Earth!
Flicker could most definitely benefit by conversing with Fluttershy, who appreciates the beauty and glories of Nature -- but I fear he is not yet ready to understand and pay attention. After all, he considered Rainbow Dash too playful and silly -- and she is one of the "hard mares" of the Mane Six (the others being Twilight Sparkle and Applejack, along the 'hard-soft' axis of displayed affect. Fluttershy he would consider purely soft and wishy-washy.
Part of it of course is Flicker's rather proto-fascist nature. I really do think that if he'd grown up in a different environment -- say, Germany from 1900-1930 -- there'd be no "proto" about it. He'd flat out be a Pony Ernst Rohm. But part of it is that Flicker is not yet all that mature, and he doesn't yet realize just how very strong indeed Rainbow Dash, and -- in her softer way -- Fluttershy, are in truth. The very strong often both need and desire silliness and fun as an expression of themselves as they are when not struggling for the survival of their species against cosmic evils.
This is the first fruit of my new keyboard to your Story Comments, and thus you receive me at my old 80 wpm typing speed. Oh, and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, Kudzu!
Existence is avoiding what would bring your end. Life is what happens when you make yourself more than just existence. It lacks meaning but that gives it meaning, and gives a power that cannot be replaced. A contradiction that has all the truth in the world.
With existence death is meaningless.... With life, death has all the meaning in the world.
though what makes equestria different to our world is that all that becomes more than simply philosophy. In equestria, the metaphor becomes literal.
7825226
"Use the Horse, Luke!"
*Luke looks over his shoulder, where a pink, curly-maned pony has somehow wedged herself in alongside a distressed-looking R2-D2. She is waving. Luke is very concerned*
7825854
Fluttershy was introduced to nihilism, and decided it needed a caring hug.
Well- hmm.
Hey Rainbow, how would you feel if Radiance, Mistress Marevelous and Zapp hooked up. (Or Mistress, Zapp, and Masked-Matterhorn depending on what Kudz meant)?
I have heard this quote a lot actually, though I can't recall where...
There is a entire rant i have for this, but this guy (7825998) alread got the main points...
Motion seconded. It has been moved and seconded that Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Twilight Sparkle (hereafter known as AppleDashLight) be shipped together in the Weed-verse. The question is on the AppleDashLight shipping; those in favor state aye, those opposed state no.
Aye.
EDIT: This in no way obligates Kudzu. He's gonna do what he's gonna do.
I think Tarnish as resident head druid might have some interesting things to say to Flicker about this train of thought.
7826284 actually, we know that he does have a lot to say about this. The question is, would he say it?
7826204 It is only two-thirds complete in the Chase.
The Rule of Three?
7826284
Tarnish still contends that nature sucks.
The universe is fucked up, doesn't care what you think, and will reap your sorry ass one day. Welcome to Natural Order.
7826343
Well between the Giant Spiders, being raped by a Manticore, A Volcano literally exploding from under him and Maud, all the various things he dealt with as a courier, particularly flying skunks, and possibly even nature and/or destiny itself making him the pony incarnation of poison joke, I cannot really blame him.
7826343 I fully agree with Tarnish that nature sucks. People seem to have this nostalgic thinking that everything in nature is this wonderful little cycle of life.
But what nature really is survival of the fittest, the weak are killed, very harsh and unforgiving. 
I like to think that as we get smarter that we find value helping the weak, protecting that which can not protect it self. Understanding that just because we can do something does not mean we should. Basically thinking about others. 
But I know that we all have a long way to go. 
Trivial reflection of the day.
So if Piper is like the Pied Piper, does that make Flicker like The Nutcracker?
(jump to 46 minutes for Rat King's defeat, notice Nutcracker's bloody sword.)
So, it seems like Dash isn't fond of RariJack, but is open to either AppleDash or TwiDash. Kinda self centered.
With Flicker, I'm not sure whether lack of dynamite is a problem or a solution.
7827597
... explain. I don't get it.
7827553
Try Latin.
7826386
At least until we learn and evolve enough to grab the universe for the balls and force him to reconsiderar his policy.
7827834 "NOW 'AT'S THA SPIRIT!" *waves wooden leg around*
Nature has only the meaning we grant it. That's my opinion on the subject. Neither nature nor civilization is neither inherently good or bad. The difference between the two is that nature represents potential, while civilization is that potential realized. Nature is adaptive, but simple and primitive. Civilization does not adapt, but forces that which does not agree to bend to its will. It's the difference between the oak and the reed. Which stands better before the wind? It all depends on your point of view.
(EDIT)
That being said, I detest nature. I'm a city boy at heart, and bugs and mice and pollen just drive me insane. I've been beaten up by a Celestia-forsaken TREE, for Alicorn's sake.
7729229 heh
I hate to bother others by asking this, but how do you turn write in Lima Bean's font?
7843246 huh. I did not know that.
7825998 The problems with destroying Nature are even MORE dangerous as you talked about in Monoculture. There's been times where the only solution to a sickness or disease that viciously attacked our crops, were found in wild Nature. Furthermore, you might not realize that the nature you are destroying is BENEFICIAL to Humans. Such as destroying Trees and other stuff that protect against flooding.
Rainbow Dash is as subtle as a freight train crashing through a burning building during a KISS concert on the 4th of July.
I think you need to add “and” between nourished and tended.