Twilight quietly walked through the trees of the Everfree forest, barely able to see in the nearly pitch black night, using fuzzy silhouettes to avoid crashing into a tree. A pack of Timberwolves had separated her and her friends, and for the last hour, she had been attempting to find her way back to them. Or was it ten minutes?
She stopped. Something was watching her. She could sense it. Her ears perked as she tried to locate what's planning to make her its next meal, but heard nothing but the chirping crickets and the soft rustling of leaves in the wind. She stood still as a statue for what seemed like hours, listening to the forest.
Suddenly, her ears perked, pointing to something behind her.
"Ah see ya, mate."
She ducked just as she heard a bang and felt a projectile whiz overhead, landing in the ground in front of her with a small shower of dirt.
"Dog cunt!" The hurtful words echoed through the forest as she ran, another loud bang was followed by a projectile embedding itself into the log Twilight jumped over. She stumbled in the darkness of the night, tired from running for so long, but kept going, intent on escaping this menace. Suddenly, there was a final loud bang, and she yelped as a massive pain shot up her left hindleg, crashing to the ground.
"Git tha dog, ya li'l cunt!" The monster shouted as she scrambled onto her back, putting pressure on the bleeding wound as tears streamed down her face. She whimpered as what she recognized as bipedal hoofsteps approached her.
"Why?" She whimpered. "Why..." she screwed her eyes shut as the barrel of his weapon pressed against her forehead.
"'Cause yer a dog cunt, my fair... Twilight?" He finished in a confused tone, removing the cold metal from her head.
"Oh shit, Twilight!" He shouted, finally recognizing her. "Oh shit, oh fuck!" He panicked, slinging expletives to nopony in particular as she watched the faint outline of his silhouette drop to its knees in front of her, tossing its long weapon aside and reaching for her, but she scooted backwards, away from him.
"No, wait! I'm sorry! I'll heal you!" He explained, before grabbing her hoof. She started whimpering, trying to yank out of his grip, but she was too weak. Suddenly, she yelped as a needle was jammed into her hoof just under the digits gripping her, injecting an unknown liquid into her bloodstream. She braced, expecting more pain, but a warm feeling covered her body as the pain began to fade, albeit slowly.
"It takes a few minutes," He said softly, dropping her hoof and fumbling with something behind him, before turning back around and lighting a club-like stick, sparking a fire and lighting them up and a short area around them in light.
She opened her eyes and studied her attacker turned ally. He was bipedal for sure, similar to minotaurs, but much smaller. His chest was covered in a metal plate with leather straps, with a blue shirt underneath that covered his arms up to the gloves, and had a large red pot on his head, with blackened steel bolted to the pot surrounding his head, with a small rectangle cut just under the front of the pot. Over his waist, it wore a skirt made of road signs similar to what she saw in Manehatten, although covered in unreadable characters, likely their own language, and his legs were covered to the ankle in denim. On his left... hoof, he wore a rubber boot covering his shin, and the other one had a green rubber boot, along with two frog eyes and a mouth on the tip. His digits were also covered in road signs, although the top halves of said digits were exposed, revealing notably hairless peach colored skin. Focusing on the slit in the helmet, she could see a mix of both panic and concern in his brown eyes.
"Are you a clan member?" She asked. "Of the Zerg?"
"Zerg?" He repeated, looking around for a moment before returning his focus on her. "I haven't seen a Zerg," He answered.
"You're not a part of the seventeen members?" She asked in a confused tone with a cute little tilt of her head.
"Seventeen man Zerg!?" He exclaimed, his eyes widening in surprise.
"Is that uncommon?" She asked.
"Kinda! If there's a Zerg that big runnin' around, you can bet they're planning something big." He Explained, dropping into a sitting position with crossed legs.
"What big things are Zergs usually made for?" She asked.
"Raid large clan bases, mostly," He told her. She raised into a sitting position, carefully dragging her injured hindleg underneath her, which felt mostly healed, save for a light stinging akin to a paper cut.
"Are they planning to conquer Equestria?" She asked. He chuckled.
"Hell no," he assured her. "They'll probably raid a place or two, then get insided or something and disband."
"Insided?" She repeated.
"Some guy pretends to be a member, steals all the door codes, and raids them while they're gone," he explained easily, and she nodded.
"So you said you weren't a part of the Zerg. Does that mean there could be more of you lurking around in the shadows?" She questioned. He shrugged.
"There's like a few hundred on this server," he replied dismissively.
"Server? What's that?" She asked. Instead of answering, he got up with a grunt.
"I would love to answer more questions, but we gotta get moving," he told her, leaning down to pick up his weapon before placing it on his back. "My girl's waitin' for me back at the base." He crouched down and extended a hand towards her. She glanced between it and his face for a few moments, before lifting a hoof. He grabbed her hoof and helped her to her hooves. Suddenly, he laid his free hand on the flames of the torch, extinguishing it with a hiss, before he placed his hands under the crook between her forelegs and barrel and lifted her up. He brought her up to his body, and she instinctively wrapped her hooves around his neck as his left hand held her bottom, while the other supported her back.
"I can see well enough in the dark, so I'll just carry you there," He explained. She opened her mouth to protest, but the hand on her back rose and began scratching behind her ear, silencing her as she melted into his touch. Her exhaustion caught up to her, and she fell asleep, feeling safe in his strong and firm gasp.
Fluttershy awoke with a gasp, eyes flying open, widening in panic as she saw the wall of a cave, barely lit by the fire she could hear popping to her left.
"Woah!" A female voice said from behind her as a paw was laid on her back in a comforting manner. "Easy there. I'm not done bandaging you."
Knowing the soft touch and caring voice of a knowledgeable caretaker, she relaxed, feeling the unseen mare hold her leg up from the metal table as she began carefully wrapping something on her right thigh. she tested her opened wings, lightly raising them. The left was completely fine, apart from being a little sore, but yelped as a jolt of pain rushed through her as she tried to move the right one.
"Easy, easy," the caretaker softly told her, lightly stroking her neck. It barely eased the pain. "You're right wing took a big hit. Let it rest," she calmly ordered.
"W-What happened?" Fluttershy squeaked out. The mare took a moment to answer as she tied off the bandage.
"I'm not entirely sure. I found you unconscious on the forest floor, bleeding from multiple wounds," she explained, starting to wrap another bandage just under the previous one.
"Monsters..." She whispered, barely audible to her caretaker. "My friends..."
"Ambushed by predators?" The mare asked. Fluttershy hummed in confirmation.
"Mm. How many of you were there?" Her caretaker asked, tying off the second bandage and carefully laying her leg back down on the table.
"There were six of us..." Fluttershy started. "The princess had sent us off to meet a new sentient species that had built a home in the Everfree forest..." She paused for a moment to collect her thoughts, her caretaker stroking down her neck and along her back.
"We were stopped at the gate by one of their guards... Twilight started introducing us, but he was being rude, so Rainbow started being rude back..." Fluttershy trailed off, sniffling as a tear ran down her cheek. "I love her a lot, but sometimes she can be downright stupid..." She sniffled again as the memory played in her head.
"What happened next?" Her caretaker asks.
"They started arguing, yelling at each other... He wasn't backing down, and eventually Rainbow swung at him..." Fluttershy started shaking as more tears escaped her eyes. "He dodged it and tackled Rainbow, pinning her to the ground... She managed to slip out, to fly into the air..." She let out a shaky exhale. "But then he pointed his weapon at her... It was so loud, and fired a projectile that was way faster than her, tearing through the skin of her wing like a hungry dragon through a pile of gems... I didn't see where she crashed because he turned towards us... and I ran, running into a pack of hunting Timberwolves..." Her caretaker moved her paw to scratch behind her ears, and she leaned into it.
"We are known for being toxic and short tempered," The caretaker said.
"We?" Fluttershy whispered.
"Yep. Rust brings out the worst in people," She explained.
"Is-" Fluttershy jumped as a loud crackle echoed in the cave, followed by a static lined voice.
"Selling one duped shovel."
The mare giggled, removing her paw from her head, to Flutter's dismay.
"How many refined?" She answered.
"Found another one. This one almost folded me in half," the crackly male voice said.
"What a coincidence. I found one as well," she replied, lightly patting Fluttershy's back.
“Holy shit, how did one get that far?" He exclaimed. "Who'd you find?"
Without answering, she put what looked like a walkie talkie in front of her muzzle, holding it with five hairless brown digits, including an opposable thumb.
"Uhm... H-Hello?" Fluttershy stuttered.
"Fluttershy?" A female voice asked.
"Rainbow?" She replied.
"Don't worry! We're gonna find you!" Rainbow Dash assured her friend.
"Oh, don't worry," the male voice returned. "We know exactly where she is."
"Really?!" The female exclaimed. "Bring me to her!"
"Can't." He easily replied.
"Well, why not?!" She exclaimed again in a slightly aggravated tone.
"She's on the other side of this damn forest, which is about as big as a fucking sanctuary server," He explained.
"I don't know what that is!" She said.
"IT'S REALLY FUCKING BIG, ALRIGHT?!" He snapped.
"Oh. Right. S-Sorry." Rainbow mumbled.
"Damn," he grumbled. "Listen, I'm gonna take these mares back home, then go pick up Fluttershy, okay? Over and out," he informed his significant other.
"I'll be right here. Over and out," she told him, bringing the device back out of sight.
"He'll be here in about a week, so you're stuck with me until then," the caretaker informed Fluttershy. She turned her head to look behind her, and did a double take as she saw the creature.
The creature had a similar shape to the guard that attacked her, except she was slimmer and had wider hips. Most of her skin was exposed, smooth and consistently washed, wearing a vest of varied unreadable road signs over her chest and shoulders, along with a skirt made of road signs, which looked more like a belt than anything, with the exception of two flaps over her hips. She had a black hoofball cap on her head, and a red bandana covering the bottom portion of her face, revealing nothing but a pair of beautiful sapphire eyes.
Regardless, Fluttershy smiled. "Thank you for taking care of me."
"Wort' no thang," she replied in a mock southern accent with a wave after each word, before sliding tan gloves with solid looking knuckles over her hands.
"I need to make more bandages," she said to herself, grabbing a black L-shaped object and making it click. "I'll be right back," she approached the wall with a door she had erected into the somewhat small cave entrance, placing her hand on the doorknob and opening it, stepping out into the pitch black darkness of Luna's night.
"Don't go anywhere!" she said before closing the door, leaving Fluttershy alone. Since she couldn't move, she decided to get some shuteye, facing forward and closing her eyes.