//------------------------------// // Chapter 15: Pain // Story: What is a Tatzlpony? // by Skylight77 //------------------------------// “ACHOO!” Fluttershy sneezed harshly, turning her head to the side to avoid hitting Rainbow Dash with it. It was a rather rough sneeze and she ended up sniffing hard afterwards. Her headache only got worse after that. Traveling the Everfree Forest like this was certainly not the best of ideas. But that was why Rainbow Dash insisted Fluttershy ride her as they traveled. That injury would only get worse if Fluttershy didn’t take it easy on herself. Sure, Rainbow may have taken a similar blow to the head, but it certainly wasn’t the first time. After all, she was a lot more hard headed for that. Something caught Fluttershy’s eye. “Wait, Rainbow Dash,” she called. Rainbow stopped walking for her and looked in the direction she was looking. They were starting to enter an area with a lot of thorns. Fluttershy saw these thorns before, but not this thickly covered. The path Rainbow was traversing seemed only a little clear, like it had been traversed by only one pony. That pony was probably Rainbow Dash if she wanted to come here. But the spot Fluttershy was looking at was just outside the path and inside the mess of thorns covering the trees, bushes, and branches. As Fluttershy wanted, Rainbow moved closer towards the bush. When they got there, Fluttershy gently slid herself off Rainbow as Rainbow moved the thorned vines away for her. Getting them moved required a bit of precision and force. Rainbow was careful enough with it so that she could force it apart without getting cut or scraped. Fluttershy gasped upon seeing what was there. “Oh no…” she said as she knelt down. There was a jackalope buried underneath those thorns. Its horns seemed to have gotten caught in them and it got stuck. Judging on the rough treads on the grass, it was running from a predator. Fluttershy brought her hoof to it to get a better look. The worst of her fears happened. One of the thorns had pierced into the creature, probably from its struggles. It wasn’t moving. “This little guy didn’t make it…” Fluttershy said as she removed the jackalope from the thorns. The life of a prey was cruel in this forest. And sadly, it was nothing new she witnessed. She placed the jackalope in her bag and went back to Rainbow Dash. There was nothing she could do for the little guy. ______________________________________________________________________________ Rainbow Dash continued to carefully traverse through the thick thorns after Fluttershy climbed back aboard. Fluttershy took this time to observe the scenery. With the branches leaning this close to the ground, flying was next to impossible. It would be very easy to get her feathers caught in these thorns, or possibly get them clipped if she tried spreading them. Evident by the jackalope she found earlier, most of the creatures and its predators probably avoided this place. Riding Rainbow Dash like this felt oddly relaxing to Fluttershy. It gave her time to reflect on why they were going here, even with her headache making it difficult to think. She thought on them and questioned them. Rainbow Dash was a tatzlpony. What is a tatzlpony? That was the question she needed answered, because whatever it is, Rainbow really wanted to know if they were good or not, to know if she was good. Are they good? Fluttershy traced back to what she knew about them so far. A tatzlpony looked much like normal ponies, mainly distinguished by the marking in their eyes and their limb-like tails. Rainbow Dash seemed to behave much like an animal. But was that due to her tatzlpony instinct or her memory loss? What Fluttershy did know was that they seemed to feel the need to swallow other ponies whole. Why would they do that? They certainly seemed to have quite an appetite. But the ponies they swallowed were stored in a pouch, not eaten. Was that to keep them protected like Scootaloo, or capture them like Clang? Could they actually eat ponies if they wanted to? And what about what Clang said about her. Did she really- “Mmm…” Fluttershy had to stop her thoughts right there as her headache returned quite painfully. There just wasn’t enough to go by yet. She hoped that once they arrived at their destination, they would have time to relax so that she could pick at Rainbow’s brain. Rainbow had to remember something about her past, right? After all, she knew Rainbow Dash. Tatzlpony or not, Rainbow would never do something like that. Fluttershy shortly noticed that some of the branches started to change as they went deeper. The thorns were getting less thick. And in their place, there were berries, large green berries. A silent gasp escaped her mouth. She’s seen them before, hasn’t she? Rainbow pushed through the last bush filled with thorns in her way, carefully passing through. Fluttershy had to duck and squeeze her eyes going through it. On the other side, she saw something even more ominous. “Oh my…” she said as she slid herself off Rainbow Dash, still holding onto the leash. It was a wide clearing decorated by a few large rocks, some of them flat. A few edible plants and flowers decorated the grass. At its center was a large spring lake. That lake looked pure enough to drink from. Her eyes turned back to the branches from the trees. Despite how thick they were in blocking out the skies, light shined in. Most of their branches were covered in thorns. But some of them... there were many berries growing, large green ones that Fluttershy knew she saw before. “So this is where they came from?” she asked. Rainbow nodded at her with a smile, then started walking towards one of them. Fluttershy followed with a sigh of awe seeing how calm and safe this area felt. She watched as Rainbow reached her tongue out towards one of the berries. Seeing that tongue made her a bit nervous again. But watching it stretch so far made her wonder just how long those things really were. It slowly wrapped around the twig of the berry and gently snapped it off. Suddenly, Rainbow cringed very harshly, releasing a painful moan as she dropped the berry. Fluttershy gasped. “Rainbow! What’s wrong?” Rainbow quickly retracted her tongue and braced her cheek with a hoof, squeezing her eyes tightly. “Rainbow-” When Fluttershy tried to step forward, Rainbow opened her eyes and flinched back. She tried again, and Rainbow just stepped back further. Fluttershy noticed the increase in pressure from her grip on the leash. If Rainbow stepped any further, she could lose her grip on it. Looking along the ground, she found a twig from one of the trees sticking out. She placed the leash around that twig then looked at Rainbow Dash firmly, who was still trying to back away. Slowly, Fluttershy took another step. “Rainbow, please. Show me what’s wrong.” Each step Fluttershy took, Rainbow tried backing away more. The collar made it more difficult, but Fluttershy knew it wouldn’t hold if she didn’t treat this delicately. She slowly reached her hoof up to Rainbow’s cheek. Rainbow winced hard and looked away, causing the collar to be tugged quite harshly. It threatened to rip right out of the twig. Then, the hoof touched her shivering cheek. “Please open up and show me,” Fluttershy said as she gently rubbed with her hoof. Rainbow’s struggles eased from that touch. “I won’t get scared. I just want to help.” Rainbow opened her eyes and looked at Fluttershy upon those words. That voice alone comforted her, but it also made her not want to extract this upon Fluttershy. Every time she opened her mouth and showed what was inside, Fluttershy would fear it. She wanted to avoid getting Fluttershy scared if she could, but the concern Fluttershy had was probably worse. Rainbow opened her mouth and stuck out her tongue. Upon seeing that long black tongue, Fluttershy gasped. “Oh my!” Immediately, Rainbow retracted her tongue back and closed her mouth, regretting having shown. “I-I’m sorry. I-It wasn’t that, it’s just…” Fluttershy stumbled over her words and retraced them. “That looked painful. Please show me again.” Rainbow believed that may have been too hasty of a decision. It really did hurt a lot and she’s been trying to endure it for a while. Maybe Fluttershy could do something about it. Looking around, she saw a nearby rock that was big and flat enough for Fluttershy to do her thing. Fluttershy noticed the direction that she looked to and looked as well, seeing the same one. After nodding back to her, Fluttershy detached the leash from the collar and they walked over to that rock together. When they got there, Rainbow stuck out her tongue again and let it lay against the rock. Fluttershy saw the damage again and shivered. There was a dent, a huge dent that you would see from a metal bar if an iron hoof clanged against it hard enough. Even for a tongue as flexive as this, there was no way this sort of bending was natural. The dent spread far enough to match the size of a hoof. “How did this happen?” Fluttershy asked as she hesitantly moved her hoof towards the tongue. It started shaking in response and she couldn’t blame it. The thought of Rainbow’s battle with Clang came to mind. Somewhere during that fight, Clang must’ve struck Rainbow’s tongue. Rainbow has taken some serious abuse in the past, but she’s never had to endure a blow to the tongue before. The thought of how that felt made Fluttershy uncomfortable. “Just relax Rainbow. This may sting a little, but I can fix this.” Sweat began to run down Rainbow’s head as she stood there, keeping her mouth open. The closer Fluttershy got to her tongue, the harder she had to breathe through her nose. Her hooves shook and her wings wanted to take her away, but she forced herself to stay put. When Fluttershy’s hoof made contact, she winced and moaned harshly, but managed to keep herself put. In a gentle motion, Fluttershy pressed the dented portion against the rock, pushing the muscles back into place. Each press made Rainbow wince, but she kept herself as still as she could. A few one to one taps were applied to different section. When Rainbow's moans got louder, she went slower. Hard pressures had to be applied to get the muscles back in place, but not too hard as the pain would be too much. Rainbow’s muscles got more tense the more times Fluttershy had to apply harder pressure. It didn’t help that the more Fluttershy worked, the more her hooves got covered in saliva. She put one hoof underneath the tongue with the other on top and pressed hard, bending the tongue’s muscles back in place. Rainbow flinched and groaned harshly from that. “S-Sorry,” Fluttershy said. Bringing both hooves back on top, she pressed down on it again to flatten the pressure on the muscles. Rainbow’s breathing got heavy at that point while Fluttershy started sweating from the stress. The muscles on the tongue seemed to be back in place, but there was still a visible mark left behind. Simply touching it made Rainbow wince. Fluttershy moved her hoof to bend the tongue in its intended direction. She overlapped it so that it would form a loop around the mark, then moved the tip of the tongue underneath. Using her muzzle to keep the loop in place, she pushed the tip of the tongue to go through the loop. When the tip was through, she placed her mouth on the side of the tongue to pull it through. That pull made Rainbow stretch her tail outward. The loop formed a knot around the marking. When Fluttershy let the tongue go, she had to let out a breath and gasp for air. Rainbow also released a sigh of relief when all that rough pressure had ceased. Fluttershy could feel Rainbow’s breath from nose and mouth during that whole ordeal, finding herself out of breath as well. It made her headache get worse. Opening her eyes, she asked while panting. “Feeling better?” Rainbow retracted her tongue closer to her and used a hoof to press the knot. Excitement rushed through her body. Most of the pain had gone away, no longer being uncomfortable. It felt too good to be true, but it was. Fluttershy’s magical hooves had done the trick. When she retracted her tongue back to her mouth, she let out a big smile. That smile was something Fluttershy could smile back to, despite being out of breath. She rushed to Fluttershy and started licking her cheek with one of her other tongues. Fluttershy had to look away while she giggled from the affection. “Aww! You’re so sweet!” As she was being licked, she started scratching the back of Rainbow’s mane with her hoof. The licking halted and was replaced by what sounded like pleasant moans. Seeing the reaction made Fluttershy giggle more. She continued the scratching and moved lower along Rainbow’s sides. It made Rainbow bend over sideways allowing Fluttershy an easier time to get to her stomach. Rainbow started laughing after falling down on her back. Her tail swished along the grass as Fluttershy’s hoof rubbed against Rainbow’s belly. “Who’s a good tatzlpony?” Fluttershy teased as her smile got so bright. “You are Dashie! Yes you are!” Her rubbing had caused one of Rainbow’s tongues to stick out as she was laughing from the rubs. Seeing this sort of obedience made it hard to believe a tatzlpony could be dangerous at all. It brought her so much joy tickling Rainbow’s belly and using cute words to compliment her wonderful behavior. Suddenly, Rainbow’s tongue outstretched further and quickly wrapped around the back of Fluttershy’s head. The giggling stopped and Fluttershy’s eyes went wide. She felt her head being tugged down, making her fear grow exceptionally. And then, what happened after was the last thing she expected. Rainbow brought her head up as she let her tongue slide off, leaving a good rub along Fluttershy’s cheek before it slid back to her mouth. Fluttershy felt Rainbow's lips press together against her cheek. A smooch sounded. Fluttershy was stunned with pea-sized pupils. A huge wave of pleasure rushed through her body as she stared at Rainbow Dash. Rainbow was lying down on the grass with her eyes closed, a huge smile plastered on her face. Her breathing was settling calmly while Fluttershy felt like she was out of breath, yet couldn’t breathe. She brought a hoof to her cheek, feeling the spot that was smooched. Why did that happen? And why did it feel so wonderful? When she saw Rainbow’s eyes open, her heart beat faster. This love that she felt for animals, she thought that was why she felt this way about Rainbow Dash. But no. This feeling... it was much stronger with Rainbow Dash right now. Why was that? Was she falling for… “Ahh…” Fluttershy felt her strength give away right there. Seeing this, Rainbow's expression changed to concern. She caught Fluttershy from falling as Fluttersyy was placing a hoof on her head. All this thinking was not helping her headache. She could see that Rainbow was getting worried about her. “It’s alright,” she said. “It’s just a little headache.” Rainbow picked herself up so that she could help Fluttershy’s balance on her hooves. Carefully letting go, she saw Fluttershy taking a deep breath after being able to stand properly again. Fluttershy looked to her with a smile. “Thank you,” she said. “Maybe that’s telling us it’s time to eat.” Hearing that, Rainbow’s concern turned to excitement that caused her tail to wag. Instinctively, she extended two of her tongues out towards Fluttershy. Seeing those tongues coming towards her, Fluttershy gasped and flinched away. “Not like that!” she said quickly. Immediately, Rainbow retracted her tongues. Shame and regret was written on her face seeing Fluttershy shiver like that. “Phew…” Fluttershy sighed before going to her bag. After digging through it a bit, she pulled out a box. “I meant with this.” The box she pulled was red and white with a pink bow tied to it. Carrying it in her hoof, she walked towards the most center spot she could manage between the lake and the trees. Rainbow watched as Fluttershy carefully placed that box down. That box… it stirred a strong memory in her. But the memory felt so different. It wasn’t a pleasant memory like her other ones. She watched as Fluttershy carefully pulled on the strap from the bow tie. A shiver ran through Rainbow’s features. For some reason, she knew what would happen. When the bow tie nearly got unstrapped, her eyes pulsated, and she gasped. Rainbow lashed two of her tongues towards Fluttershy. Fluttershy’s eyes shrunk when they wrapped around her waist. And at the same time, the strap came undone. Many animals both predator and prey, ran, flew, and dug away when the entire forest shook from a loud explosion. ______________________________________________________________________________ Meanwhile, somewhere in Ponyville, in the middle of a park actually, five ponies were situated in front of a tree that many fillies and colts loved climbing. One pony was held there against their will, sitting in a cage while three fillies and a large muscular pegasus, known as Bulk Biceps, scolded him. “YOU WANTED TO PREVENT A DISASTER?!” All his words sprung quickly and at a very loud volume that everypony had to cover their ears with. “ALL YOU DID WAS CAUSE ONE! ATTACKING AN INNOCENT PONY WHO JUST WANTED TO TAKE CARE OF HER FRIEND. MY FRIENDS AS WELL! HOW IRRESPONSIBLE!” Clang was grinding his teeth as he covered his ears with his hooves. It barely helped with blocking the sounds. He just about had it. “Irresponsible?!” Clang yelled back at not nearly as loud of a volume. “I’ll tell you what’s irresponsible!” He pointed to Bulk Biceps. “You should be at a mental hospital-” then to the fillies, “-and you three should be at school!” “And you should be at work,” Scootaloo retorted back. “I AM working!” Clang responded. “Yeah. Workin’ fer us,” Apple Bloom said. “I AM NOT WORKING FOR YOU!” Clang yelled. “Then who are you working for?” Sweetie Belle asked. “I’M-” Clang almost responded quickly but stopped himself, grumbling really aggressively. “When I get out of here, you kids are-” A loud rip sounded. “GAAH!” Angel quickly fled the cage once again before Clang could react. He placed the duct tape into the large pile of tape that held the rest of Clang’s coat hair that spawned from this interrogation. Pretty soon he would have to switch sides. The hairs that spawned Clang’s Cutie Mark was nearly gone, impossible to make out now. “Darn it! I thought we had him this time,” Sweetie Belle said. “Come on girls. Let’s think back.” Apple Bloom looked to Scootaloo as she continued. “Scootaloo, you said somepony gave you that letter ta give ta Fluttershy. Who was it?” “I don’t know,” Scootaloo responded. “But now that you mention it...” she looked to Clang sinisterly. “Whoever gave that to me was a mare in a robe. And she looked scared. Terrified. Like something really bad would happen if Fluttershy didn’t get that letter.” ”P-Please… Give this to F-F-Fluttershy… I-It’s about her job. She must k-k-know." “She kept grasping, and her hooves wouldn’t stop shaking,” Scootaloo continued. “I thought she was just really worried about Fluttershy’s job.” All three fillies and Bulk Biceps turned their attention to Clang. His expression had changed. “I BET YOU THREATENED THE POOR MARE, DIDN’T YOU?!” Bulk Biceps continued yelling. “SETTING A TRAP FOR POOR FLUTTERSHY TO CLAIM YOUR PRIZE!” Clang wasn’t responding. He was lightly gritting his teeth while looking down. His eyes… they were shaking, shaking out of fear. One word came out of his mouth silently. “Witch…” “SO YOU ADMIT TO IT BY INSULTING THE DELICATE?! WOULD YOUR CLIENT EVER WANT THIS?! DO YOU EVEN HAVE A CLIENT?! ARE YOU JUST A ROGUE PONY HUNTER TRYING TO MAKE AN EXCUSE?!” “I ADMIT TO NOTHING AND I WASN’T INSULTING!” Clang suddenly yelled back louder than he’s ever managed. That level of volume caused Bulk Biceps’ eye to twitch. The ears of the CMC raised sky high. “Ooh! You shouldn’t have done that!” they all said in unison. Bulk Biceps' head started to shake as steam blew out of his nose. The three fillies pulled out some ear plugs and placed them over their ears. Even Angel placed ear plugs and hid behind the tree. They knew what would happen now. And one last look at Clang’s face told them he probably knew now, and probably regretted it. All three fillies squeezed their eyes after Bulk Biceps lowered his head. Before they knew it, a quick bright light flashed, followed by a loud explosion. It caused a powerful wind to blow their manes apart, threatening to pry them off the ground. The wind settled quickly and all was silent. That seemed oddly short-lived from a pony like Bulk Biceps. They opened their eyes. The cage’s bars that held Clang had been blown open. All sides were charred off. “W-Whoa,” Scootaloo spoke up first. “I didn’t expect that out of Bulk Biceps.” Clang was sitting in the back of it, eyes wider than ever with gritting teeth that could only be expressed when being confronted by a monster. “I-It’s y-y-you…” he said very hesitantly. Before the CMC could wonder what he meant, a new voice spoke very seriously. “Leave! Now!” All three fillies froze on that spot with shrunken eyes. They saw Clang fleeing the scene quickly out of fear. They saw Bulk Biceps still dazed from the bright flash that must’ve happened earlier. And they saw Angel looking behind them with fear in his face. Together, they slowly turned around. “Where’s Fluttershy?!”