//------------------------------//
// There's only room for ONE Nature Goddess! 
// Story: Oh no, they're Goddesses now! 
// by James Pwyll 
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"Well...this is new."

Fluttershy, being a Goddess, had seen many strange sights in her time. Bizarre creatures, conflicts between kingdoms, the extraordinary landscapes of the world. And yet, standing here at the edge of this forest clearing, she was looking upon something that somehow managed to just seem all the stranger to her. There, right in the middle, was a youngish woman who had taken to quite a bit of a makeover of herself, filling her hair with leaves and covering her body with an outfit that, charitably, could be called minimalist, as it was made largely from forest-gathered materials. Her grin was wide, and her eyes just had an odd look to them, like she wasn't quite all there. But this strange woman was not alone here, as Fluttershy turned to see that one of her own followers, a young lady by the name of Tree Hugger, was here as well.

"Tree?"

Tree Hugger turned, smiling even as she continued to sit upon the grass, and she held up the cup she was holding as a sort of greeting to the Goddess before her.

"Hey there, Flutters! Having a good day?"

Now, most were known for being a touch more deferent to Goddesses than that, but Fluttershy seemed totally fine with the casual way her follower had addressed her, given the smile she offered in return. Sadly, that smile did not last long, as Fluttershy's gaze returned again to the bizarre woman nearby.

"And this would be...?"

Taking another sip of water from her cup, Tree regarded her companion.

"Oh, that's Gloriosa. She's from the local village."

Folding her arms, Fluttershy arched an eyebrow.

"Is she...well?"

Tree looked again to Gloriosa, who had taken to dancing around as though there was nobody else around to see her, complete with a few giddy giggles. Tree, who was clearly not as worried about this behaviour as Fluttershy, merely shrugged her shoulders.

"Meh, she's better than she was. You should have seen how stressed she was this morning. All she could talk about was all the work she'd been doing and how nothing's going right. You know, usual workaholic stuff."

Fluttershy considered that, and it has to be said that Tree's description did not, in any way, match the antics of the woman the Goddess was now looking at. If there was ever a time when this lady was stressed or overly-worried, she wasn't showing it. Tree could see this confusion upon her patron deity, and so smiled to her.

"Hey, don't worry about it. I gave her some special water and she's all better now."

Slowly, Fluttershy looked down to her follower.

"...What special water?"

Tree raised her cup, which was still half-full of the apparent water in question. Fluttershy carefully accepted it, taking a cautious sniff. It was obvious that this was not simply regular water, and her senses could pick up something extra that had been put in. Returning the cup, Fluttershy gave Tree and incredulous look.

"Tree..." she began warningly.

Tree shrugged her shoulders again.

"Hey, it's all good. Just a few local herbs sprinkled in, take a few sips and boom, your nerves are calmed. I have it all the time, and I'm fine, right?"

Fluttershy glanced up to Gloriosa, who was now starting to look to a nearby tree in the same way one would look to a lover, after which she turned back to Tree, who herself stared at Gloriosa before sighing.

"Okay...maybe she had a bit more than me...and also more than anyone I've ever seen before. But I'm telling you, she was really stressed out today!"

Fluttershy rubbed the bridge of her nose.

"Tree...if you didn't want me here to disapprove of you like this, why did you speak my name to call me?"

Tree cleared her throat.

"Yeah, um...I didn't."

At first, Fluttershy was confused by this admission, but then understanding dawned on her and she looked back over to Gloriosa.

"Why did she call for me?"

Tree scratched the back of her head, trying desperately to avoid looking her in the eye.

"Yeah, um...funny thing about that..."

Fluttershy, who had been around the block a few times, understood immediately that she was about to learn something that was going to be anything but good, and so sighed deeply, resigning herself to the knowledge that she was going to be told something silly, something devastating, or some combination of the two. So, steeling herself, she strode on forward, with any nearby critters like birds or squirrels all bowing respectfully in her presence. And it was here that Gloriosa, for the first time in all this, noticed the presence of the Goddess of Nature, and pointed a finger towards her aggressively.

"Halt, false Goddess! You dare trespass on the domain of Gaia Everfree?!"

Fluttershy stayed where she was, looking behind herself for clarification. Tree Hugger had little to give.

"It's, ugh, it's what she's calling herself now."

Though thoroughly unimpressed, Fluttershy continued onwards.

"Miss Gloriosa, is it? I am Fluttershy, Lady of all things that grow and prowl and fly. You spoke my name, yes? Called me forth?"

Gloriosa cackled wildly, for quite some time in fact, leaving the other two women looking to each other with uncertainly on how to react to it. When Gloriosa had finally ceased, she grinned, looking like she'd already won this conflict, if "conflict" is even what this could be called.

"Fool! You no longer have any right to bear the mantle of godhood! You stand before the true lady of nature!"

Slowly, Fluttershy placed a hand upon her hip.

"Um...I'm fairly certain that I don't."

Gloriosa continued on, having seemingly not even heard her.

"All in this world shall know that the pretender to the throne has fallen, and that this realm's rightful Goddess of Nature has emerged!"

"I really don't think they will, Gloriosa," Fluttershy pointed out.

But again, Gloriosa ignored her.

"Behold, as I strike thee down with great vengeance and furious anger!"

"Or with great hamminess at least," Fluttershy added.

Gloriosa, enraged at the remark, screamed loudly before aiming her hands at Fluttershy.

"Go, my vine minions! Ensnare this false Goddess and strangle her to within an inch of her life!"

A silence, save for the tweeting of the birds in the trees above. Fluttershy, for her part, looked to the left, then the right, before looking back to Gloriosa, all while tapping her foot against the ground. Gloriosa herself, despite clearly seeing that no "vine minions" were coming, nevertheless cackled as though triumphant.

"Yes! Yes! Feel the life strangled from you, Fluttershy! Your days upon this earth are finished! Hahahahahahahahaha!"

Another sigh from Fluttershy, and she raised both hands to her temples to rub them. When she was done, she looked back to Tree Hugger.

"Exactly how much of that water did she drink?"

Tree, who now nervously looked to the suspiciously-empty barrel she'd been leaning against this whole time, coughed a little bit before shrugging her shoulders.

"Oh, er...can't really say."

Fluttershy's deadpan expression gave away her irritation, but she instead turned her gaze to the more important matter at hand. That is, she would have done, had it not been for the fact that Gloriosa was not actually here any more. Looking around, Fluttershy could not see her, and so she looked again to Tree, who began to explain.

"Oh, she just stripped off her clothes and ran into the woods. You know, the usual insanity kind of thing."

Looking back to where Gloriosa had been, she saw that there was indeed a discarded outfit upon the grass, as well as signs of broken branches in the direction she'd run off to. That was pretty much it for Fluttershy, who was doing her best to keep calm under these trying circumstances.

"Very well...my next task for tomorrow...make sure those herbs only grow in places where humans aren't."

She looked back to Tree.

"What were they called again?"

Tree looked down to her cup, trying to think of the answer to that.

"Er...oh! They were called the Screaming Madness."

Fluttershy blinked, her face utterly stoic, and Tree Hugger soon got the gist of it.

"Oh, right, I guess that was a bit of a red flag, huh?"