The Other World

by FlimsySpark

To take Angel and to leave (part 1)

At the bottom of a great majestic oak, under the midday sun, a small primrose yellow pegasus, with a long pink mane, was shaking her wings with great effort. A fine bouquet of roses clamped between her teeth, whose petals moved in the wind she was producing, the pegasus was visibly blushing, without being able to reach more than four feet high from the floor. Discouraged, Fluttershy let herself fall back on the ground, on her four hooves. Her legs slipped, emptied of any strenght, letting her breathless, her legs and belly spread on the fresh grass. She sighed. It wasn't the first time she found it difficult to fly.

At first lost under the green shadow of trees, at the beginning of her adventure, she almost had a stiff neck after looking up so many times toward the treetops, searching for a high shelter. A thick shower, darkening the atmosphere, had caught the puny teenager, plunging the forest into a sudden cold. One wing stretched in order to protect her stuff, wrapped in a tied cloth, she miserably dragged her hooves under the heavy rain, her mane wet with mud after sliding on the ground. She was tired, dirty, ashamed, and even the fear of being lost had left her mind, as she was so weary, being able to think of only one thing : getting dry. Drawing her heavy bundle of memories with her teeth, taking care of not spoiling it, she had walked under a soothing shadow, while the grey and damp atmosphere chilled her bones. Without noticing it, she had snuggled against the soft trunk, rough in some spots, the gigantic trunk of the great oak. In this place, a heavy and rather low branch formed some sort of a little protective cathedral. Dizzy by her own fatigue, drunk with having walked for so long, and full of confused thoughts, the small pegasus had fallen asleep, tightening under her wing her precious bundle of belongings. The rustling of rain on the leaves, and its ripple on the ground's shimmering puddles, made a pleasant lullaby, as her body dried, and warmed up, pressed against the cloth package.

The next day, she had discovered that the tree hid a shelter, because the comings and goings of many birds and rodents woke her up. It had taken her almost an hour to flutter from one branch to another, carefully, to the hollow's height. She found then how large was the shelter, its pleasant exposure to the light's rays, and dreamy pictures of a peaceful life in this place invaded her mind. The squirrels and the birds, surprised by the equine's arrival, started to evacuate the hollow, cautious. The pony's appearance was for something in the move, because her mane was terribly tousled, her body was muddy and she had sunken eyes. It looked like the scary and silent face of a ghost. Fluttershy was sorry about frightening the little critters, but she was tired to the point of not being able to talk to them.
And after that, she had to get off again, still from one branch to another, each time on the edge of falling. The teenager made it slightly complicated, trying not to spoil the beautiful green foliage, full of rain and sun. She talked to the big tree along the way. « Ho, you've got very discarded branches M. Oak, it... it's not quite practical. » Talking with M. Oak was more reassuring than thinking about the void under her hooves.
Down after all, the puny pegasus could savor some moments again, the four hooves safely landed on the lawn and the damp soil. And finally, she bravely brought, until the fallen night, each object contained into the bundle, one by one, in order to not take any risk. « Excuse-me M. Oak » she said, « I'm almost done. » The last inhabitants of the hollow had fled away, scared by her unknown smell and the strange look of her belongings. But Fluttershy didn't regret, that night, to have made such an effort, warmly wrapped in her soft blanket, staring at the stars, celestial paper that could only be seen from a tree as big as this oak. « Good night, M. Oak... » Unfortunately, since the few days she spent here, each time she had to climb up and down with many efforts, challenged by her vertigo and her lack of self-confidence. Her coming to earth had made any ascent much more difficult for her than previously. The solid and reassuring ground, spreaded all around the Earth to the horizon, gave her such a feeling of safety, that receding from it beyond four or sixth feet, gave her a striking anguish.

Today, she had met her first true friend since her escape, and the big brown bear was waiting, his black eyes impassively shining, sat on a strain wood coated with moss. She wanted so much, to fly, to simply fly to the shelter, and to come back, as if it was nothing, with the two little pieces of hollow wood, she was using as cups. And she would bring back the small ragdoll rabbit too. And they would have some tea. The roses's petals crushed into fresh water from the stream, would have a sweet taste, almost imperceptible. They would be together, sharing a pleasant moment with each other, admiring the woods beauty, crossed by magical looking sunrays. But nothing was achieved. Her body spread on the ground, Fluttershy let her jaw loosen and the roses bouquet fell, and scattered a little on the floor. She felt like a coward, and a weak. Any pegasus would have spent less than a minute to rise and come down, along the great nut coloured trunk, avoiding the branches covered by jagged leaves, with a pretty green sometimes a bit blue. M. Oak was so tall... The young runaway awkwardly mixed the use of her four hooves to the use of her wings. “I'm just a failed hybridization” she said to herself. “I am like those small hens that earth ponies breed, unable to fly higher than a tree... But... But... Those little hens are so adorable... It's so sad...” Some tiny tears appeared in her eyes, while she was staring at the wide trunk in front of her. She put down her chin on the ground, the grass tickling her mouth. “Fluttershy can't learn to fly ! Fluttershy can't learn to fly !” she thought, while pouting a bit.

« Groar ? » said the brown monster, which had observed his new and strange friend fluttering awkwardly, then slump on the ground. He got up, and the strain wood he was using as a chair, broke up into several pieces, as if it had hold itself only for the time it carried the colossus. He came closer to the puny and afflicted teenager, slowly, sat on his behind right next to her, and put his big clawed paw on the small head covered with pink horsehair. Fluttershy was so affected by this unexpected gesture of concern, that she swallowed a sob, and managed to say, with sadness : « I... I'm sorry... I... I can't get up there. And... And what would I do then... about the tea ? ». Convinced that she had ruined it all, the small pegasus was about to apology more and, with regret, to end that impossible friendship, as she couldn't even have the courtesy to offer a tea to the bear, so kind, who had picked the roses for her.
She was horribly surprised, and terrified, when she felt two big paws firmly seizing her, under her round belly, lifting her lean legs away from the ground, and throwing her with all their strength, high, very high in the air. Confused, she cried out loudly, and saw a lot of branches passing before her eyes, having almost no time to wonder if she will knock her head against one of these. Without realizing it, she started to flutter her wings in order to escape to the gravity's laws which, without any doubt, were going to make her fall back on the ground. She waited, screaming, the inevitable and scary fall, but nothing happened. She stopped screaming. « I'm flying ? » she said with her little mouse voice. « I'm flying ? » she repeated, wondering. « I'm flying ! » she exclaimed, finally convinced. At the bottom of the tree, the bear was quietly waiting, convinced he had done what the small pegasus expected from him, his chest swelled with pride for his brilliant idea, showing a bushy, bristly chest.

But his pride, and his chest, fastly wimped out when he heard coming from above :
« EEEEEEEEEEEKKK ! » Fluttershy just glanced at the bear. He was so low, suddenly so small, he seemed like a little bear cub, a brown spot on the verdant lawn. The soil was quite far from her small hooves dangling in the void. Even if she was moving her wings, the sight of her four hooves hanging, left to the terrible danger of void, almost gave her nausea. She carried out legs's flappings, panicked, as if it would repel the air by her movement's strenght. Her wings flappaing became erratic. She thought for an instant she would fall, but held herself back. She zigzagged from left to right, always coming back to the same area. Trying with all her might to swallow back nausea and vertigo, she caught sight of the round aperture of her shelter, about only one feet higher from her. She got back just enough hope to laboriously flutter, her eyes closed, to a branch near the opening, and finally, she landed her four hooves on the robust and reassuring wood's surface.

Fluttershy sighed with relief. She succeeded. She succeeded ? But yes ! Whatever she had felt – surprise, panic, vertigo, nausea, sensation of fainting – the wood hollow was here in front of her, within easy reach. Her best friend, her patched rabbit was here. The memories of her mom were here. The wood cups were here, too. She could get them, joyfully leave to the brook, with a little trot. She could have a tea with her bear friend, introduce Angel to him. She would not have to ask him to go away. She would not be alone. She didn't fail ! The simple joy that she could offer a rose tea to the ursine, accompagnied by her best plush friend, erased all the hardship she met during her fugue, and Fluttershy even forgot that she would have to get back on the ground by herself. She relished that moment by breathing the hight's fresh air, the almost imperceptible fragrance of oak wood, the soft breeze coming from far countries, the dry and green perfume of jagged leaves... And, of course, there was the sun's sweet caress on her snout. « What a mad idea had the bear » she thought. « But I succeeded ! » At that height there was almost no tree that tall, and nothing stopped the hot rays coming from the yellow disk.
Nevertheless, at this moment, a disturbing shadow passed above Fluttershy. The sudden coolness that passed over her face made her widely open her eyes, toward the sky. Disconcerted, the young runaway teenager had caught the shadow of an aerial squadron. Three Wonderbolts were flying in the sky, their eyes searching something in the forest. One of them shouted « Toward the West ! The screams may come from there. With me ! » And they left her field of view like lightening strikes, leaving beautiful coloured trails. Fluttershy's legs started to shake in a dangerous way. Her heart started to beat hard. Her breath was taken away. Her eyes desperately looked at the airspace. With a high pitched, muffled voice, like a little cry, she whispered : « … no... not this... » A terrifying vision crossed her mind. She saw herself, alone, standing in front of her father, here on the earthly floor, surrounded by a dark forest, standing and then shortly, on her knees, blasted by a condemnatory look, blasted by all these years of restrained emotions, facing that reality she tried to flee. In the deepest depths of heart, she felt herself shrinking, dwarfing, becoming again a little girl, then a baby. She was going to be caught. She was pursued, searched. She was going to be taken and dragged to her father. The eyes lost into the motionless blue of the sky, her pupils smaller than spots, Fluttershy would have liked disappearing. The pressure into her heart was so heavy that she felt she could do it, that she just had to stand here still, to stop moving, living, breathing, and so then... Maybe her spirit would leave that fragile body, letting itself fall into an eternal slumber, forgetting its own existence. She would not have to talk again, to fly again, she would not have any explanation to give, to all those people searching for her, she would not even have any need to shed tears, she would be one of those black and quiet pieces that compose the nocturnal sky, one of those empty and peaceful places that surround the stars...

Her desperate heart having to face the cruelty of these adults, these unknowns, and the irremediable jugdment of her father, she thought : « I'd rather disappear like this than be taken away from this wonderful, beautiful, serene world, full of animals, of kindness, full of... friends. Yes... I'd rather... disappear... » That wave into her chest, rising, huge, inescapable, of fear and despair, flooded the teenager's mind, to the point it turned off for a while, sinking into a saving nothingness. The bear, the fresh new friend which had discovered again, with a few steps, the dreams and feelings of a whole childhood, thanks to the small pony's innocence, worried seeing the pale yellow body motionless at such a height. He lifted up hastily, and called her with growling. Fluttershy dangerously trembled, perched on a branch, her mind paralyzed and her body full of a striking cold, shivery under the effect of tenseness. The bear called her again, waving one of his large paws trying to catch her attention. The small pegasus inwardly sobbed, unable to react, sorry that she couldn't answer that call. Her panicked mind didn't know what to do.

Suddenly, a little bird, like a soft leaf fallen from the sky, gently landed on the pegasus's back. Plump, and happy of living, the bird comfortably settled its small round head over his puffy belly, and whistled merrily. The pegasus heard those little spinning and pleasant notes like an echo. A squirrel climbed on the branch, curious, and came closer to the pony's pale yellow legs, sniffing. Fluttershy felt its light little steps close to her, its movements, its sniffing. Her beautiful sky blue eyes, which had closed, carried into dark thoughts, opened again. Another squirrel arrived, and had fun with the other, running between the teenager's four legs, which yet stopped shaking. The squirrels's lively little steps on the wood made a mild sound. Their chirping was funny. The blue bird was whistling, cheerful of offering its talent to any ear. Downwards, the bear, worried as a family's father, started to hook his paws on the trunk, and to rise his heavy frame to Fluttershy. Surrounded by this joyful and rambunctious life, the small pony slowly stretched her wings, her feathers opened one by one. She felt her heart, for one instant extinct, warming up. She watched with emotion these small critters sprung as message of hopefulness. The squirrels were so adorable, squabbling. The sweet little notes of the blue bird were so gleeful. Other birds, attracted by the small blue sparrow's chant, perched on the many arms of M. Oak, and a genuine concert of harmonious whizing had started. A midget white bird, a foolhardy nestling, landed in Fluttershy's pink horsehair, and settled itself there as in a comfortable nest. A new power arised into the pony's heart, a warm might, and gentle, that made her despair slowly melt down. Again she could feel the sun warming up her face and her body. Tears of joy runned along her cheeks, while other squirrels arrived, ran around, even squeezed through the wood shelter, passing some nuts, acorns. The birds from everywhere fluttered around her, curious. The brown monster, his hair bristly with concern, had reached her hight, and sat on a large branch, underneath the one where Fluttershy stood. He preferred not to hustle the damsel's thin and spindly body. He adressed her with sympathy : « Growwlff mrow ? » he said. And, she heard her friend's voice into her head. She heard it with a remarkable clarity. His voice was low pitched but soft. He was saying : « Is everything alright my friend ? ».

« My friend » said the bear. « I have a friend. » thought Fluttershy. It was like that time, that incredible moment when she could talk to the animals, and understand them beyond sounds. The miracle was happening again. The innocent filly heard what were saying all those animals, behind the squeaks, the whistles, it wasn't a dream ! A smile of happiness drew on the pegasus's face, while she was coming back to life. She remembered why she ran away, and it was for this. For all those wonderful beings that she needed to meet, for the beauty and the gentleness of an open life on the earthly world, the most beautiful place in the universe, the only one where she felt at ease, accepted and embraced by an abundant life. Spinning her head toward the small singer, she fondly rubbed her snout against the blue bird's soft feathering. « Thank you. Thank you everypony ! » she genuinely said. She bent her face toward the squirrels which where wrangling, and gave them a big sweet and tender smile. The wild rodents immediately stopped fighting, and smiled backed at her. The filly looked at the muster of little coloured birds which sprinkled her M. Oak's branches, downward, upward, merrily singing. She started flapping with a fresh lightness and fluttered with the birds, happy and joyful. She finally landed, gently, barely sounding like a windswept flower, right next to the bear. « I thank you for having been worried about me » she said to him. The bear, appeased, answered with kindliness : « What scared you little pony girl ? » Fluttershy, unexpectedly, threw herself against the furry chest, and hugged the bear the best way she could do, with her front hooves, her so small head with the pink mane softly stucked against the brown torso, disappearing into the fur, her eyes closed, a smile drawn on ther face. The brown monster was moved by such a gesture, but, he felt kind of a sadness emanating from the pegasus. He softly tightened his big paws around the child's puny body. She almost couldn't be seen under the heavy, ground coloured arms. He felt like she was going to get away.

The small pegasus pulled away from the embrace, her two front hooves still laid against the bear's torso, so she could better lift her head to see him. Wide blue eyes stared with affection and sadness into the ursine's small black eyes. « I am so sorry my friend. There are people pursuing me, and they must not find me. » She let fall her hooves, moved back more, and sat, facing the bear. He looked so big and so ill-at-ease on that branch, his arms still wide opened on the embrace she had just quitted. The bear's eyes started to shine, slightly wet. « You are going to leave, small pony girl ? » Fluttershy said nothing, but sadly nodded her head. She stared the great brown bear again into the eyes, that so great brown bear which had climbed with all his might here, on the branches, just for her. That crazy bear which had throw her in the air some moments earlier. She thought about him, sniffing the roses with such a innocence, like a child. Her eyes luminous, Fluttershy drew an affectionate smile. « You are my friend. We will meet again, it is certain. And... And I will make you that much talked about tea. » The bear nimbly rubbed his face with his big clawy paw, and turning away from Fluttershy, sad, started going down along the trunk without looking at her. But Fluttershy could hear a whispered, throttled « Goodbye... » . It was too hard for the ursine. He didn't really understand what he felt. He didn't really understand why this small, yellow as a chick and pink as a spring flower creature, had come to him, and why she was now getting away. The afternoon had been like a dream, a dream which was suddenly clearing, as if he had sharply awakened. The bear felt his heart hardening once more. It was a strange sensation, as if he gasped for air. He just wanted to forget the blue and clear eyes that stared at him with such kindness. To forget that he had been for an instant, something more than a lonely and wild creature, wandering on earth without any future and without any past. Arrived at the bottom of the tree, he let himself heavily fall on the ground, breathing a moist and hot air through his nostrils. He briskly left, shaking the ground for a moment with the bearish movement of his bulk, rushing through bushes. Fluttershy, with a heavy heart, watched him leaving. He disappeared into the woods, leaving behind him four crushed roses on the soil, and a sorrowful small filly, perched like an angel on a majestic tree.

In the branches of the great oak, the little birds and the squirrels were now going about their business. Some had left. The squirrels, mostly, were cautiously picking some acorns. One had inintiated to hide its harvest into the big wooden hollow. Fluttershy had fluttered thus far, after a last thought for her friend. It was time to bundle her stuff. There, somewhere in the sky, she was looked for. That wood wasn't a safe place anymore. She had been heard screaming, and who knows if, in one minute, or in one hour, the squadron wasn't going to fly by here again. Somewhere in the world, somewhere else, far... she would find a peaceful place.
The day started to decrease, and the light was tinted with a soft and pleasant orange. The small pegasus pulled out with her teeth, the muddy sheet she had hidden under her bed's straw, and started to put her stuff on it. She unhooked her mother's note, hold by a little wooden splinter into the oak's dry heart. She pushed with her muzzle the small withered flower pot on the sheet. From the straw, she pulled out the two wooden cups too, which were in fact two wood peel's pieces, roughly fixed. She gazed at the two objects, reflecting about what said the bear. « My friend... ». She chased this sad thought out of her mind. From the straw she pulled out anew a small fabric wallet, in which were a needle and the only thread she possessed, on a little wood reel. She got finally her dotted blanket and rolled it up with her best, to make it take less space. On the dirty sheet spreaded on the wood, almost everything was here, ready to be carried away. Fluttershy faced the small pink tool. The light made it look orange, as an old photograph. On it, flabby and crumpled, the little plush was laid there, the head with long ears slightly collapsed. The tissue's luminous white had become beige, or maybe grey, with time. It seemed old too. A black button, the left eye one, was starting to come off a little.
The small pegasus gently seized the plush with her maw and shoved her snout into the rolled blanket, in order to laid there her rag friend. She then positionned it better with her hooves, gently pushing the small piece of tissue between the blanket's folds. And, finally she could end emptying the wooden shelter, by putting the small pink stool on the dirty sheet, placing the petty stuff between its legs, and on the side, the blanket in which Angel was hidden. The sky was still blue, but at the horizon, to the hills, the orange shade was gaining ground. The oblique light made the empty shelter look strange. It was one of those lights that seemed to shelve time, and seize everything into amber. Fluttershy, quietly breathing the evening's air, loaded with the smell of plants, observed one last time that place that had been, for one moment, her home. The wood spreaded far, up to the verdant hills of the distance. The animals were out of doubt joining back their small houses, there, invisible under the trees's leafy crown. And small nocturnal beings, flying, running, would get out of their torpor, enlivening the evening's blue with peculiar, ghostly shrieks. The loneliness and the quietness of that wood, busy with a humdrum life, suddenly seemed so pleasant to her. The squirrel which decided to settle here, continued to come and go with resoluteness, bringing acorns not fully grown yet, stained with a nice lime green, that he piled up in a chosen corner. Fluttershy smiled at the sight of the serious face of the little rodent. Her shelter was in good little hands. The great oak would have again its small friends, rodents and birds. She wouldn't bother it anymore... She pushed her cloth bundle, neatly closed with a knot, to the opening. The teenager looked again at the wide hollow, engraving into her memory the colour of the wood and the drawings that life had marked on it. She greeted the bustling squirrel with a little nod, and whispered with her sof voice, suddenly looking at the wooden peel : « Goodbye M. Oak. Take good care of yourself. » Heckled, the rodent had just enough time to see the pegasus awkwardly draw her package to the exit, with the teeth. The makeshift bundle slipped, not on the close branch, like the pegasus hoped, but its weight drove it into the void.

Author's Note:

I have been taken away from the translation (french to english) by my studies recently, and tried my best to still do it, as fast as possible, considering that I had less time to do it and that I still wanted it to be as good as possible.
So, that's why there is Chapter 2 part 1 only.

I hope you can still enjoy the story, though it's slowly released :-)