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// Chapter 28: Search 
// Story: What is a Tatzlpony? 
// by Skylight77 
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Fluttershy could hear the echoes of her screaming as the sun came to her eyes. A twitch and a moan came from her. Carefully, she opened her eyes. There was a blur in her vision before it managed to focus. But when her vision focused, she shut them again, groaning in an attempt to pick herself up. She was lying on her stomach, but her body felt very stiff. It made sense though. If what she was told earlier was true, she had been asleep here for two days.

When Fluttershy managed to sit herself up, she felt something sliding off her, something slick and slippery. She noticed that it was a black and red rattlesnake. It was slithering away rather quickly, and she tried calling out to it while reaching a hoof out, but her voice went silent. The snake had already slithered out of view, not even looking back.

Sly, was the snake’s name. Fluttershy remembered that. A male snake that sent her mind to a paradise while she was recovering. But his behavior seemed very different out here than what she saw in her mind, at least, based on this. She could only wonder why he left so hastily.

Fluttershy looked to her side where Sly had bitten her. “Oh my…” she expressed. The bite marks were still visible, but the pain was gone. She gently rubbed on the bite mark with her hoof. “At least it doesn’t hurt. Hmm…” Looking ahead, she was also reminded of the bandage still on the back of her head. Since there seemed to be no pain on that anymore, she removed the bandages there and ran a hoof through it. With a deep breath, she left her hoof there to think.

“Okay, Fluttershy. You need to remember. What happened?” Closing her eyes, she thought back to the events of that bite and what occurred after. “Sly bit me. X sounded like she was in a panic. But… she always seems to be in a panic. I saw Rainbow Dash falling to the ground. Then, X ran towards me.” There was a pause. “Why did she run towards me? Hmm… I saw a green aura flying in the air. The same ones… t-the same ones from the timberwolves. They must’ve been putting themselves together again. But didn’t they have their timberwolf parts in the bags? They couldn’t put themselves together. But…”

Fluttershy opened her eyes and took a look around the clearing. It was still a mess with many trees torn off their trunks with leaves and sticks, as well as magical scars scattered everywhere. But something that used to be here was absent.

“I don’t see their parts here at all.” Fluttershy noticed a leaf that was scrunched up as if claws had stepped on them. She walked to it. “They must’ve put themselves back together, and chased X through the forest. But… they left me alone?” An ache came to her heart. “And what about Rainbow Dash? Did X take her? Or did the timberwolves…”

Fluttershy found her gasps going out of control. To settle it, she placed a hoof to her chest and took a deep breath. “Calm down, Fluttershy. Don’t come to conclusions like that.” She took another look around the scenery. “I don’t see Rainbow’s feathers. She must’ve been taken by X. Then…” The thought of Rainbow Dash being taken interrupted her thoughts. One image kept replaying in her mind. It was Rainbow falling to the ground after she was zapped. “Rainbow…”

Fluttershy backed herself to a nearby tree that wasn’t broken and slumped her back to it. Lately, thinking about Rainbow Dash was always making her mind go wild while her heartbeat raced. Her mind went back to that dream, specifically on their bond that Sly mentioned.

“Rainbow… What am I feeling with you? Why does it feel so…” That was when her mind wandered to another detail she was forgetting. She gasped slightly. “Something shined from my side when X was running towards me. I couldn’t feel it very well, but it felt like it came from… where my Cutie Mark is. I saw it from Rainbow too. Just before I felt…” Another gasp came. “The stab… The timberwolves… They must’ve been behind me too. Did more come? Was X trying to stop them? Then... they didn’t leave me alone.”

Fluttershy put a hoof to her mouth, now more puzzled than ever. “How did I survive? The poison. Timberwolves. That bright… light…” Thinking about that light calmed her nerves. “Our Cutie Marks… T-That must be it, right?” She couldn’t understand why, but this line of thinking brought warmth in her heart. “They must’ve… done something. The poison, the stab…”

Fluttershy let her body slump further against the tree as she sighed in glee. A smile came to her face. “Rainbow Dash… I don’t know what our Cutie Marks did. But whatever they did, it must’ve been… must’ve… been…” She quickly picked herself from the tree with a new look. “I’ve gotta find you. Where were you taken?” Turning her head towards different directions provided no clues. But a second glance at a previous clue gave her the answer. Looking back to the scrunched leaf, she noted the directions of where the claws would be and what direction they went. “This way.”

Fluttershy began running in said direction. She had no idea what lied ahead, or how far they would be. But it didn’t matter to her. Her bond with Rainbow gave her another chance, and she was not gonna waste it.


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A few minutes had passed and there was no sign of Rainbow Dash, X, or the timberwolves. That was okay, though. Fluttershy wasn’t expecting to find them so quickly. She did, however, start thinking about Rainbow Dash again. More specifically, she thought about what Rainbow’s mind was going through and why she was treating herself the way she was. The thought of Sly made it easier now.

"Rainbow... I think I'm beginning to understand now. You were a pegasus before, and my best friend since fillyhood. But now that you're a tatzlpony, and the only kind I've ever seen, you treat yourself like you were one your whole life. The reason for that? Tatzlponies must've been a race once before. You want to believe that you're not bad, that they're not bad. To accept that you were a pegasus, is like abandoning tatzlpony kind to you, isn't it? To you… it would be like abandoning the Crystal Ponies..."

A tear shed from Fluttershy's eye. But it was a shed that motivated her desires. "Well, Rainbow Dash, okay. You were always a tatzlpony. But you were always my friend too. And one way or another, I will prove to you that tatzlponies aren't bad. Even if you're poisonous, you're not bad. You'll see! You won't have anything to worry about! With Celestia as my witness, I will prove that tatzlponies are not bad creatures!"

When Fluttershy ended her self rant, she started hearing rustling in the distance, followed by a panicked voice. She thought she would be relieved to hear she was on the right track, but instead, her fear returned quite harshly.

“Oh… But before I can do that, I have to rescue you…” Fluttershy bit the bottom of her lip. It now dawned on her that she was searching for the very pony that caused her a near fatal experience. If Sly was the snake that X used, she didn’t have that sort of weapon anymore. But who was to say she didn’t have more like it? Hopefully, she didn’t.

But before that could be addressed, Fluttershy found herself having to stop her running. Something had come up in her path. It was a thick pile of bushes and logs from trees. Some of them looked to be tied with vines. Definitely not a natural formation.

“Oh my… Sly mentioned it looked like somepony was trying to barricade the place. But… hmm…” Fluttershy tested the strength of the bushes. It certainly felt like a lot of its leaves and branches had been piled together. She tried pushing against it, but it was too thick for her to go through.

“How am I gonna get inside?” Fluttershy shifted her placement, pressing in different spots of the bushes for a weak point. There didn’t seem to be any here. She could still hear the panicked voice inside as she moved further to the right to check more sections of the wall. Inside, more bushes were being placed together. How much more of a barricade did X need?

Fluttershy gasped as she soon found her answer. There was a section in the wall that seemed to be falling apart. The leaves were withering and the branches became less stable. She gently pulled against those branches to pry them apart, hoping she wasn’t making too much noise. With those obstacles off, she checked the pressure from the bushes. It was possible to slide through.

Fluttershy gulped nervously before moving forward. Each step felt like the ground would crumble underneath her hooves. The bushes didn’t just make it unsteady, but unbearably noisy as well. It also didn’t help that the leaves kept scratching her coat, making her get quite itchy.

The panicked voice she was hearing grew louder and quieter at very random intervals. She couldn’t tell if she was getting closer or not. If that was X, she must’ve been moving from one side of the clearing to another. Rustling could be heard in different volumes as well.

Fluttershy gasped when she felt her hoof meet with open air. She quickly retracted it back and held her breath. This was the clearing. Which meant this was also where X was, along with hopefully Rainbow Dash. Swallowing her nerves, she took a peek out the bushes.

Broad daylight filled her visions once again. What she saw was a clearing alright, but it looked a lot more widespread than usual. Everything from flowers to dirt looked like they had been moved around. Lots of trees in the surrounding area were missing their branches and vines, replaced by piles of them barricading the area. The clearing wasn’t exactly messy, but it looked very flat. It looked flat enough to build a hut on.

Fluttershy heard the voice again and followed it. She saw X, still flying from one section to another, moving bushes and branches, or adding new ones to them. Looking around some more, Fluttershy caught sight of somepony else.

“Rainbow!” she expressed aggressively, but silently. Her heart chilled upon seeing her, but then confusion filled her mind. Rainbow Dash had been placed in a cage. But the cage appeared to just be branches from the trees with its hinges tied together with vines. Even the door was tied with a vine, not even having a lock.

“Hmm?” she wondered. She guessed that there wasn’t much else X could’ve used in terms of the forest, but something still confused her. “That’s not enough to hold Rainbow Dash.” Flashbacks of Rainbow Dash breaking down doors and kicking through multiple tree trunks filled her mind, as well as some experiences she’s seen with her animals. “That’s barely enough to hold one of my deers. What happened to her?”

Fluttershy inspected Rainbow’s body. She was lying down motionless. Or at least, she was a moment ago. Now she appeared to be grunting and twitching. Her hooves dug into the ground as her face lifted. A gasp came from Fluttershy. It looked like Rainbow was in pain trying to pick herself up, blinking very disoriented. After getting up, she fumbled a bit. That was when she thrusted her body towards the bars, slamming her head against it.

Fluttershy gasped. There wasn’t any strength put into that charge. Things got worse when she heard X gasping as well. She must’ve heard that bang as she looked over to the cage, flying down next to it. There was a bag next to that cage. As X was whimpering in a panic, she was shifting through the bags.

Rainbow was rubbing her head as X pulled something out of the bag. Fluttershy gasped when she saw what it was. It was the Twittermite Zapper Device. Before either of them could react, X thrusted the device through the cage and connected it to Rainbow’s forehead. There was a massive flashing zap, followed by Rainbow’s shriek.

“NOOO!!!” Fluttershy yelled and jumped out of her hiding spot. Hearing the yell, X jumped in fright, tossing the Zapper in the air as her body flipped around. Rainbow’s body fell to the ground, unconscious. When the Zapper came falling back down, X fumbled her hooves toward the device, making it bounce out of her grip a few times before managing to catch it.  X was shaking, shivering, clutching the device high in the air like she was ready to swing it. Her wings were spread to keep her balanced standing on her hind hooves.

Fluttershy grew nervous with X holding the device the way she was. But when their eyes met, X held an unexpected sort of reaction. Seeing Fluttershy made her gasp and shake more harshly than usual. A fearful and shaky moan escaped her mouth, eyes pulsating. It was like she was seeing a dragon, or under the influence of Fluttershy’s Stare, even though she wasn’t using it.

“Please! Put the device down!” Fluttershy asked out of habit. When she asked that, she didn’t expect X to actually oblige. X’s shivering softened, but she also did what Fluttershy asked and lowered her device. She didn’t let go of it, but it looked like she no longer had any intention on using it. This released some tension off Fluttershy as she continued.

“Turn… the device… off.” It was a bit more carefully this time, and X didn’t respond right away. She stood there whimpering for a few seconds before she moved her hoof to the device. With the press of a button, the twittermites inside turned off their lights and flew back inside the handle section of the device, going out of view. The device was now off like Fluttershy asked.

“Okay… now…” Fluttershy gulped. “Put the device away.” X turned her eyes nervously back up to Fluttershy. There was a few more seconds of silent shivering from her before she obliged. She inched to her bag and placed the device inside. With a hind hoof, she pushed it away as far as she could, looking back to Fluttershy nervously.

Fluttershy took a deep breath. “Now…” Her heart pounded as she made the last request. “Please move away from Rainbow Dash.”

X stood there with shaky hooves, nervously gritting her teeth. She just stood there… stood there… a slow step back was taken, but that only put her closer to Rainbow Dash. After a while, Fluttershy came to the conclusion that she wasn’t obliging.

“Please move away from the tatzlpony,” Fluttershy said, being more specific this time. But X just responded with a rapid shake of her head. It was clear that X understood her the first time. She was just refusing to do so.

Fluttershy put on a stern face. “You need to release Rainbow Dash right now!” she said deeply while walking closer.

“N-N-No…” X was shaking her head as she responded. The closer Fluttershy got, the heavier her breathing became. It didn’t take long before Fluttershy was inches near her.

Fluttershy closed her eyes. “I said…” She then opened them into a fierce Stare. “Move!”

X’s eyes shrunk as her body pulled back even further, but she refused to move as her head shook. “St-Stay a-awa-a-ay!” She turned her head away and shut her eyes tightly.

“Either move away from Rainbow Dash, or release-”

X suddenly yelped and threw a punch. It collided with Fluttershy’s cheek. She yelped and backed away, placing a hoof on the spot X hit. While she was bracing her cheek, X looked up with her eyes pulsating nervously.

Something soon dawned on Fluttershy. Her eyes turned to the side of her cheek that was hit. She rubbed it with her hoof a few times, then removed it to look at her hoof. There was almost no pain coming from her cheek. It felt much like a friendly pat on the back Rainbow Dash would do whenever she accidentally put too much force behind it. But this one was on the cheek, and this was from a punch X did. Why did it only hurt that much?

An image came to Fluttershy's mind. It was an image of X trying to toss a bag over to Strike. But the bag fell short at only half way, leaving Strike shaking his head in unamusemnt. Strike said that X wasn't very strong, but she didn't expect it like this.

Fluttershy rubbed her cheek one more time to rid the rest of the pain. “I’m sorry,” she said as she put her stern face back on. “But if you won’t move, I’ll just have to make you.” It didn’t sit right to Fluttershy saying that. She didn’t want to have to fight, but now it seemed like the only option. X was pulling her head back, but she refused to move away.

“Even if she is poisonous, Rainbow Dash must be free!”