CHAPTER TEN
Fluttershy escorted Beast Boy to her cottage, and showed him a little more of Ponyville along the way. Thankfully, because of Rarity’s work on his mane and tail some ponies didn’t recognize him and didn’t confuse him for Changeling.
Ponyville seemed like an okay place to Beats Boy, but it sure seemed to be lacking a lot. No automotive vehicles, just wagons, air-balloons. There were shopping boutiques, café’s and mostly homes with thatched roofs, but no video arcades, major shopping malls, or even a theme park.
“If I didn’t know any better, I’d think I’d gone back in time to the 1900s.” Beast Boy said.
“Ponyville is just a simple town.” said Fluttershy “There are other fine places-- Canterlot, where the royal sisters live, Cloudsdale, home of the Wonderbolts, Manehatten and Fillydelphia, now those are bustling places.”
Beast Boy noted the names of each place, “Um… are all places in this world somehow named like horses or ponies.”
“Oh, no.” said Fluttershy “There’s many places to visit in Equestria, but right now we should get you settled in. You’ve had such a hard day.”
He couldn’t’ argue with that. Despite his almost being sentenced, he was still getting used to the world around him. It seemed so strange yet almost his own world at the same time.
Soon they arrived at Fluttershy’s, and the place looked fairly beautiful to Beast Boy. It was like coming to a small farm. Then again she told him she was animal caregiver, even to big burly animals, like bears, and moose.
All her animal friends seemed excited that she was home and huddled around her, especially her Number-One pet rabbit, Angel.
“Everyone, this is Beast Boy, and he’ll be staying with us for a little while. So I want you all to make him feel welcome, okay?”
All the animals agreed and circles around Beast Boy, dancing in a ring around him; their way of saying “Hello and Welcome.”
Beast Boy felt the squirrels brushing their tails against him, and the birdies softly flying past him and their feather brushed against his face. “Hey, that tickles.” he giggled.
Fluttershy giggled too, and she gazed into his eyes and he gazed back at her. “Um… well… let’s get you settled in.”
By nightfall, Fluttershy made some honey thanks to the friend bees from the hives in her backyard. Beast Boy was forced to drink his tea through a straw since he wasn’t able to grab and lift up the cup. Normally, Beast Boy wasn’t much for tea anyway, but he found it tasting so warm and sweet, he couldn’t stop until the tea was just about all out.
“I’m glad that you like it, Beast Boy.” Fluttershy said to him.
“It’s actually making me feel a little better… all considering.”
“Is something wrong?”
Beast Boy could think of no other way to put it “No offense but… I’m still having a hard time believing all this is real. I mean… I’m talking to a pony. Heck, I’ve become a pony, and not like the kind in my world.
…It’s just that, I never thought such a place like this could exist, and I’ve been everywhere.”
Fluttershy was more than understanding of all this, and yet it still concerned her the way he didn’t want to go back to the human world. “Beast Boy… what if something bad did happen to you here? Somebody must miss you in your world.”
Hearing that made Beast Boy think back to his own world, and it made some of his sadness catch up to him again. “No…” he simply said “Nobody misses me.”
She found that difficult to believe. “But what about you…? Isn’t there anyone you miss?”
Just thinking about the people he missed who either didn’t miss him, or were not even back there waiting for him increased his sadness.
“I… I really don’t want to talk about that. I’m sorry.”
“No… I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have brought it up if it bothers you so.”
He smiled sadly at her. He tried not to let it show, but he was beginning to feel Fluttershy was very sweet and kind; much kinder to him that most people he ever knew.
He let out a small yawn, and Fluttershy and Angel yawned too. “I think we should all go to bed. It’s been a long day.” said Fluttershy.
Beast Boy agreed, and soon Fluttershy’s sofa was all set up for him. It felt really comfortable to him, even in his pony-form.
Fluttershy even tucked him in like a loving mother-figure. “There, is that good?” she asked tenderly.
“I’ll be okay…” he replied and he gazed deeply at her “Thank you, Fluttershy.”
Feeling flattered and happy, she bent down and softly pecked his head. “I’ll see you in the morning. Everything will be okay.”
Then she blew out any candles, and turn out the lights before heading off to bed herself with Angel.
Beast Boy looked out the window, and the night sky really seemed beautiful. He then let out a small yawn and casually drifted off to sleep.
Next morning he opened his eyes, only to find he was no longer on the sofa. For that matter, he was no longer a pony, but his normal self again. “Dude… it was all a dream.” he said to himself.
He got up and realized he was in the cave where he first met Changeling, only all the stolen money and goods were no longer there either, and the only footprints in the sands were that of which he made upon the night when he left Titan’s Tower in a huff, after quitting the team.
He stepped out of the cave and could see all of Jump City still as it was. He felt somewhat disappointed that all those things didn’t really happen to him. Yet they felt so real. He felt along his head where Fluttershy had pecked him, he could still practically feel the warmth.
Of course, putting all that aside, “What am I going to do now?” he wondered “I can’t go back to the tower, and there’s pretty no place I can go in the city. No one will accept me.”
Suddenly, he heard a loud noise, sounded like an explosion from several blocks away. “Dude!” he cried, and he changed into a falcon and flew off to investigate.
He found those same five guys whom robbed the bank from the other day were back, and armed in the same exo-suits as before, and were robbing the bank again. They were faced with the other Titans.
“Titans go!” shouted Robin.
All the Titans charged in at once, but the crooks all laughed and fired their suit weapons--missiles, flame-throwers, machine guns.
“NO!!!” Beast Boy cried as he watched each and all his friends get totally trounced to death.
All four of them lay in the street, severely wounded and bleeding streams of blood. The crooks then made off with all the money they had stolen and were gone.
Beast Boy, devastated, dashed over to Robin. “Robin! Are you alright?” he cried.
“No… thanks… to you…!” Robin growled weakly.
“We… needed you!” cried Starfire.
“You were… there… for us!” groaned Cyborg.
Raven said nothing, and just looked at him shamefully. Then, feeling it was taking too long to expire from her injuries, she shot her own self in the head with a tiny burst of her power.
“Raven!” cried Beast Boy, and then all the others expired from their injured. “No…!” he peeped softly as ears came to his eyes.
There was worse to come as he soon found himself surrounded by an angry mob of people from the city.
“He murdered the Titans!”
“He let the bad guys get away with our money!”
“Get him!”
Beast Boy tried to protest, but before he knew it the people jumped all over him, and he was brought before a court of justice.
“Beast Boy, what have you to say for yourself?” the judge sneered.
Beast Boy opened his mouth to speak, but the judge immediately decided “Ah, who cares? …Death by the electric chair.”
“What?!” snapped Beast Boy.
All the people seemed to cheer, more as if they personally just wanted him to be executed for petty reasons.
“Burn the freak!”
“Go away Greenie!”
“Die!”
He suddenly found himself strapped into the chair, and who was given the honor of pulling the switch…!
“Terra!” cried Beast Boy “You can’t! You wouldn’t! You know me better than that.”
Terra looked at him grimly and shook her head saying, “Sorry, but… I don’t know you. I’ve never known you. Things Change…”
“NO, TERRA DON’T…!!”
She pulled the switch! Everything flashed.
…And his eyes snapped open, and he gasped softly in shock. He was a unicorn, on Fluttershy’s sofa in her house, in the magical world of Equestria.
THAT… was all just a dream. He was very relieved, but he couldn’t help but think to himself, “The Titans don’t need me, and I don’t need them. They can manage just as well without me…
…Can’t they?”
Exhausted, he lay back down and softly drifted back to sleep.