Prince of Errors

by David Silver


25 - Behind the Thicket

Fluttershy nodded with confidence, her animals cared for. "Now I must be off." Her departure was interrupted by running right into a pony she hadn't realized was there a moment beforehand. "Oops, excuse me. Sorry."

The prince lifted an ear, blinking. "Ponies usually avoid me if they don't see me."

"Prince!" she squeaked, scrambling backwards in surprise.

"You remember my name too?" His eyes were wide for a moment before slowly blinking. "What else do you remember?"

"O-oh, is that your name?" She took an uncertain step forward. "I just... I didn't really think, I just said it. Hello. Were... you the one helping?"

"Yeah." He hadn't said a thing, just quietly lending a hoof, and things had gone so smoothly until she just crashed into him. "Where... are you headed?"

She fetched a basket in her mouth, speaking despite it, "I need to get a few herbs from the forest."

"The white tail forest?" He looked off in the direction that it would be in, not that it was anywhere in sight. "That's a long way to go this late in the day."

"Oh, no, right here." Fluttershy tossed her head towards the Everfree. "I just need... Oh dear." She looked left and right, but whatever she was searching for wasn't there.

"What do you need? I didn't put something away in the wrong place, I hope?"

"Oh, no... no... I usually go with Harry, he's... big and--"

"--The bear!" interrupted the prince. "Oh, yeah, he isn't here. Was he supposed to be?"

"He usually is, and he's big and strong and I feel safer with company in the Everfree..."

"I could go with you," he volunteered, standing up. It struck him a moment later. "Oh, hey, I guess I can't replace animals, just ponies."

"That's quite alright... You're doing it the normal way and that's kind of you." She held out the basket towards him. "Let's go."

He leaned in to get his teeth on it. He could smell her breath, their snouts brushing in the exchange. His cheeks started to warm dangerously. Ponies didn't think a thing of passing things like that, but he still had some human sensibilities, which said touching faces, even casually, was an intimate invasion of space. "L-let's go."

She trotted right past him, seemingly ignorant of any awkwardness he had felt in the exchange. "Thank you, for coming with me, and, I suppose, helping me? That was funny, in a way... I... knew a pony was helping, but I just didn't worry about who it was. Just a friend, I thought."

The prince was at her side, his pace a little slower on account of being just a little bigger than her. "I didn't mean to fool you."

"Fool me?" She inclined an ear towards him as she jumped up onto a log, her wings assisting with a lonely flap before she jumped down the other side. "It was right, wasn't it? It was a friend. I just feel bad I didn't say hello."

"Are we?" He stepped up on the same log and stepped down the other side, rushing to close the small distance that was made. "You don't remember me. That doesn't make for good friends."

"I remember we're friends. I remember you're... familiar. Do you want to be friends?"

She hadn't checked her notes, he realized. She was working off of whatever she actually could recall, which was more than most ponies who weren't pink party ponies could manage. "What are we looking for?"

"Oh, yes." She curled on herself and pulled free a paper from her pocket. She laid it flat, revealing pictures of several types of leaves and berries. Next to each was a number that ranged from 1 to 20, but not in any sequential order. "This is my list. If you see any of them, let me know."

He set the basket aside to get a better look at the list a moment. "Isn't... that--" He pointed at a berry picture. "That?" He pointed at an actual berry on a thorned bush.

Fluttershy leaned in to squint at the picture, then the real berry. "Very close, but this berry has little spots. We have to be extra careful. Using the wrong plants could hurt an animal."

"Oh..." He wasn't a survivalist. He felt silly even trying and he resumed following her, his face dark with shame.

"Don't feel bad," she counseled in gentle tones, not even facing him. Her eyes kept scanning for things as she walked. "I've made that mistake a lot of times. Only practice makes it better. You should see Zecora. She can spot the right plant without even trying, it's amazing... I feel silly when I compare myself to her... but I'm not Zecora. I'm just Fluttershy, and... I guess... I just do the best a Fluttershy can do."

"You're way better than me," countered the prince, the basket swaying in his mouth as he walked. "I guess if I saw Zecora I'd feel extra dull."

"You're not dull. Oh, here we are." She leaned in towards a bright red leaf dangling from a tree. "Still nice and fresh, perfect."

He hurried up, setting the basket down. He reached with his mouth to snatch the leaf, but she set a hoof on his back, making him hesitate. "Huh?"

"It's very prickly," she warned. "Don't grab it like that or you'll get hurt." She coiled and drew out a small set of tweezers. With a clench of her jaw, she could make them close and relaxing allowed them to open again. "Like this." She held the tweezers towards him in her mouth.

That was too much. "Uh... That is too... It'll be pointing the wrong way once it's in my mouth."

Fluttershy tilted her head, hair leaning off in the other direction, gravity caring little for her gestures. "Turn it around." She casually closed her mouth over it, sucking it in. A moment later she pushed it free with the butt end forward, turned about in her mouth as if it was nothing. "See?"

"O-oh... uh, well." It was facing the right way at least. He leaned in to accept it, but his blush kept getting worse and worse. Before their snouts had brushed, this time it was literally going in, touching noses as he got his teeth onto the little tweezers. "There."

She drew back, leaving him holding the tweezers. "Perfect. Now you can get the leaf. Just remember not to touch it."

He opened and closed his jaws, making the tweezers click softly when metal hit metal in a clack-clack. "Okay..." He leaned in, working the metal on either side of the leaf, trying to keep his lips away. Inch by inch he drew closer, then over it, nervous and shaking a little.

"Whatcha doin?!" exclaimed a new pink pony.

"Agh!" He jumped with surprise, the tweezers falling to the ground and a new pain suddenly blooming across his face. He had jumped right into the leaf and countless little pins had found his flesh. He squealed in pain and collapsed to the ground, pawing at his face with his hooves, trying, poorly, to rid himself of the agony.

Fluttershy's wings popped out. "No, no! I mean, calm down, please, oh dear, please. I'll help, please." She was dancing in place, having a little panic attack of her own. "It'll be okay, please, calm down."

Pinkie took an uncertain step back. "Oh... maybe this is a bad time?"

"You think?" Fluttershy scowled at Pinkie. "I know you care about how he's doing, but you just hurt him very badly."

"I didn't mean to!" she squeaked, her ears flopped to either side. "I'll get him somewhere safe." She pulled out a wheelbarrow from nowhere in particular and quickly scooped up the prince, throwing him into it. "Pinkie's on the case."

"Take him directly to the hospital, and I'm coming." She quickly snatched up her tweezers with a wing and tucked it away. "Now."

"Yes, Sir, missus assertive." Pinkie snorted even as she began to race off with the prince. The two ponies raced through the town with their precious cargo. Eyes turned as they went, following the doppler-shifted wail of pain as it passed them. Screaming in pain as he was, his mystic shell seemed to offer no protection. For at least a few minutes, everyone knew where he was.

Fluttershy was flying next to the wheelbarrow, a hoof reached in to the pony inside. "I know it hurts, but you're not alone," she urgently encouraged. "We'll fix this, promise. Just hang in there."

The prince was in a world of pain. It was beyond any reasonable amount for such a casual brushing of the leaf. How could any one plant inflict that much torment? He could barely think. He wanted it to stop.

He was vaguely aware that he was being moved. There was a kind presence. A hoof touched him. He hugged it. He hugged it so hard, as if he could squeeze it enough to somehow chase away the pain. He cried into the arm attached to the hoof, almost senseless, all senses focused on whatever the leaf had done to him.

Pinkie burst through the double doors of the hospital. "Emergency!" she yelped as she pulled up to the front desk but kept running in place. "Where do I go?!"

Nurse Redheart sat up in her chair, blinking at the abrupt entry. "What is--What happened to him?!" She could see angry red lesions across the otherwise grey pony that was still wailing as if they were being actively tortured at that very instant.

Fluttershy was hovering beside the wheelbarrow, her arm thoroughly captured by the prince. "There was an accident, he brushed his face against a Bright Red Stickler."

Redheart's eyes widened. "Oh Celestia--This way!" She pointed and led the charge into the hospital. "Doctor!" she called as she fled. "We have an acute case!"

"Nothing cute about this," argued Pinkie as she chased along, pushing the prince in his wheelbarrow. "Can you help him?"

Redheart turned and thrust up a hoof at Pinkie, stopping the progression. "We're going in here. The wheelbarrow can... leave now." She pulled over a gurney. "Fluttershy, you appear to be... Just help me get him onto this."

"Of course." The two mares worked together to heft the prince up and over onto the gurney, free of the wheelbarrow. "Um, I can't... get him to let go." He was quite attached to her, clinging desperately. "I suppose I'll come along?"

"For now." She pushed the gurney ahead, leaving Pinkie behind.

"Oh... I... guess I'll just... wait..." She turned the wheelbarrow around and started walking it out. "You done messed up this one, Pinkie... Yeah I know that, Pinkie, you don't need to remind me. Someone has to remind you..."


"Bright Red Stickler?" Twilight raised a brow. "Never heard of it. Hm." Her horn glowed as she grabbed several books on botany and floated them over. "Is he alright?"

"He really wasn't," sighed out Pinkie. "He never stopped... screaming..."

Twilight cringed at that. "That sounds bad... At least he's at the hospital. I'm sure they'll take care of him."

"Fluttershy's with him." She flopped in her chair bonelessly. "They were bonding so well and I wanted to be a part of it..."

Twilight hiked a brow. "You already know him better than anypony else. I'd say you two are pretty well bonded."

"Yeah," she sighed out, deflating all the more. "I messed that up..."

Twilight hesitated, setting her books down. "Pinkie, we all make mistakes. Don't let it get you down."

"You don't make mistakes."

Twilight suddenly laughed, a snort interrupting it before it resumed. "Me? Never make mistakes? I'm sorry, have we met? My name is Twilight Sparkle." She pointed at hoof at herself. "I once time traveled to warn myself to take it easy, causing myself to freak out for a week. I once mind controlled the entire town on accident! Don't make mistakes... Welcome to being a pony, Pinkie. Mistakes will happen."