Stolen Fire

by Tzelael

Word Travels Fast

The morning sunlight crept into the window of Fluttershy’s bedroom and roused her from her sleep with its gentle, if intrusive, warmth. She groaned lightly as she lifted herself up from a rather awkward and uncomfortable sleeping position. She shuffled down the stairs to feed her animals, though black circles were under her eyes and her mane frazzled in every other direction.

On her way down, she noticed that they still haven’t come inside, though they still needed to eat. She dragged rather massive bags of food out the door and gave each animal their share of food. The sight of all of them outside was a most peculiar one; all of the animals went about business as usual, only in a ten-foot radius around the cottage, never stepping inside the bounds of that radius if they could help it.

Looking up, she saw Applejack coming down the road with a toolbox in her mouth. Despite her current exhausted state, Fluttershy smiled as her friend came up.

“Oh, hello Applejack...” Her voice was far more hoarse and soft than usual, the very act of speech exhausting Fluttershy’s throat far more than she anticipated. Applejack briefly put down her toolbox and tipped her hat in greeting.

“Howdy there. Came by to fix your lock, jus’ like I promised.” After she picked the toolbox back up, Applejack walked over to the door. She knelt down while fiddling with the assembled parts of the new lock that she’d put into place. While she did so, Fluttershy continued to feed each of the animals along the ten-foot gap between them and the cottage.

“So, how’s your guest?”

“Oh, I think he’s still asleep.”

“He rest okay?”

“A bit... He had a nightmare, but I calmed him down pretty quickly.”

“Wellp,” Applejack grunted as she worked the tools into the door. “Ya were always good with gettin’ animals calm, figures ya’d be good with folks too, if they’re a bit simple.”

“I guess so.”

Applejack leaned back against the door frame, then looked at Fluttershy. A grimace lined her features for a brief moment, though it faded once she made eye contact with the yellow pegasus.

“‘Shy, I’m not sure if you’re plannin’ on goin’ out today, but ya really should. Some folk are startin’ to get curious about why nopony’s seen ya yesterday after the whole incident.”

“It’s not too unusual for me not to go out sometimes.”

“Maybe not before, but now you’ve got friends, Fluttershy. We care about you and wanna help out, and this whole secrecy thing ain’ helpin’ things none. If this keeps up, our friends’ll start to get really worried.”

“I can’t just leave him here... I don’t want him getting lonely or wandering off. Who knows what might happen if he does...”

Applejack’s head shot up to the cottage, looking at the upstairs window. She saw the eerie, differently-colored eyes inside. As soon as the creature those eyes belonged to realized he had been seen, he hid back behind the curtains.

“I guess I can understan’ that, but today is when ya normally have your little outin’ with Rarity, right?”

Fluttershy stopped moving entirely. It was only several seconds later that her head stiffly turned around to face Applejack, utter horror frozen in her eyes.

“I... I forgot...”

“Don’ worry ‘bout it. Just go see Rarity today and leave the stranger here.” Applejack had put her tools away in the box she brought with her. She stood up and shut the door, satisfied with the click it made, then nodded. “Ya could just lock the door and let him be. I’m sure he cou–”

“No! I couldn’t do that! That’d be awful!” Fluttershy caught herself only too late to realize that she very nearly lashed out at her friend.

“I'm sorry, Applejack. I meant to say that I wouldn’t want to leave him alone for too long. You’re probably busy today, and it’s not like I can call a foalsitter to take care of him while I’m gone...” Suddenly, from out of nowhere, a flash of pink appeared from behind Fluttershy with a massive grin on its face, a high-pitched, gleeful shout bursting from its throat.

“Somepony needs a foalsitter?!” Pinkie Pie, to the collective shock of everyone present, had managed to knock both Fluttershy and Applejack on the ground with the sheer volume of her voice. “Oooh, I thought only Princess Luna could do that!”

“Oh, Pinkie! You startled me...”

“How long’ve you been here, sugarcube?” Applejack lifted herself back onto her hooves and planted her hat firmly back onto her head.

“Since Applejack started fixing the door!” The two gulped almost simultaneously. “Sooooo, there’s somepony new in town! I think this calls for a–”

“No!” Applejack and Fluttershy both yelled at the same time, knowing– no, dreading– what she was about to say.

“Awww, no welcome party? Can I at least get the welcome wagon?”

“Pinkie Pie, I ain’ entirely sure he’d understand a thing you’d say.”

“Oh.” Pinkie tilted her head, then smiled. “But Fluttershy said she needed a foalsitter to look after her friend while she goes to her spa treatment with Rarity, and I’d totally be the perfect foalsitter while she was gone!” Fluttershy, shifted nervously, looking away from her, then back up at the window.

“Well, I don’t know... Maybe you should meet him first.” In that moment that Fluttershy looked away from her bouncy, pink friend, Pinkie already hopped toward the cottage door. Panicked, she rushed after Pinkie to stop her from opening it.

“WAIT! Please, please, PLEASE don’t try to surprise him! It’ll startle him!”

“I was just gonna say hi! What’s the harm in that?” Of course, it was at that point that a set of hoofsteps boomed down the stairs, the sounds heavy and in an uneven sequence.

Thoom.

Thoo-thoom.

Thoom.

Th-th-thoom.

The sounds finally stopped when they became their loudest, just behind the door. Fluttershy and Pinkie looked between each other, then back at the door. The collective silence between the three broke when Pinkie cracked a smile.

“I’ll get it!” She then swung the door open and stared right into the eyes of the figure standing in the doorway. Pinkie scrutinized each of his features, his starkly different eyes, his lopsided, unbalanced body weight, the thinly-veiled gray skin, the stitches, and his imposing height. Fluttershy braced herself for the worst, waiting for the smile on her friend to turn to anger or disgust. Pinkie’s brow creased and her lips pursed. Fluttershy crouched down and whimpered softly until the pink earth pony bounced in place.

“Wow! You’re really big! Hi! I’m Pinkie Pie!” Dead silence followed, Fluttershy and Applejack simply waiting for the stranger to react. He leaned down, to get a closer look at the odd pony in front of him. He slowly swayed to the right, then jerked to the left, trying to cover each angle of Pinkie's body. He grunted and nodded at her– at least, the sudden, jerking motion looked like a nod.

“See? Nothing to worry about!”

Applejack loosened up with a sigh, though Fluttershy remained petrified, partially because of the disaster that was narrowly avoided. She calmed down when it finally registered that Pinkie didn’t react violently to the stranger’s presence. In fact, neither Applejack nor Pinkie Pie seemed to be affected the same way the townsfolk back in the market place were, if they were affected at all.

“Well, now that’s taken care of, I really oughta head back to the farm.” Applejack tipped her hat with a grin. “I’ll see ya’ll later.”

While Applejack turned to leave, Fluttershy looked over Pinkie Pie for a moment. Pinkie bounced around the patchwork stallion, who did little more than stare in wonderment. Fluttershy emptied out the last of her food for the animals, then walked into the house and urged Pinkie and the stranger to go in. After she closed the door behind her, Fluttershy smiled at the two of them, getting her saddlebags and loading them up with a few bits to pay for the spa. Rarity usually paid for her, but she figured it was better to be prepared.

“Now, Pinkie, please remember to be careful with him, okay? Remember to feed him and remember to feed the animals around noon. Try to keep him in the house and please, please don’t let him out of your sight.”

“Okie dokie lokie!” Pinkie then looked up at her massive companion, who tilted his head examining her, leaning down to get a better look. Fluttershy smiled, then slung her saddlebags over her back. As she left the house, she closed the door behind her. She looked back and forth between the road and her door. Finally, she walked into town and headed to the spa for her outing with Rarity.

“I don’t have anything to worry about... He’s in good hands.”

The sky seemed to be far cloudier than it should be. To her knowledge, today was scheduled to be a sunny day. The pegasi who tried to break them were slow to make any progress, the sky still blotted with several dark-grey clouds. Many of the pegasi working on it, as far as she could see, hesitated after trying to move the clouds once with no success. The sudden thunderclaps from the clouds being cleared made Fluttershy jump in place every so often.

Ponies of all walks of life gave Fluttershy quizzical looks. They turned away quickly as soon as the yellow pegasus looked their way to whisper among themselves.

"Why's everypony talking behind my back? Was what happened yesterday so odd to them?" While she didn't dwell on the question, Fluttershy's head sank along the way, her mood already soured by the unusually poor weather. She shut her eyes tightly, took a deep breath and held her head as high as she could.

"No, Fluttershy! Don't think about them. You're about to go on your weekly spa date with Rarity. It's always a nice day because you get to spend it with one of your friends. Today's going to be a good day!"

She poked her head up and saw the entrance to the spa in front of her. She opened the door and stepped through. She found Rarity flipping through a magazine, sitting on a chair by the reception desk. She perked up as soon as she saw Fluttershy step through the door.

“Fluttershy, darling! It’s so good to see you, how have you been?”

“I’ve been alright, but a bit busy...”

“Oh, I can’t wait to hear all about it!” She turned to Aloe and held her hoof up in the air in glee. “The usual!”

The spa pony nodded, taking them through the doorway and into the sauna for the first phase of their spa treatment. The two of them slipped on their robes, then sat down on adjacent wooden beams. Aloe set some coals in the pit off to the side, then poured some water onto them to generate steam. Rarity and Fluttershy lounged back, the humid, heavy air weighing them down.

“Mmm... You know, Fluttershy, I’ve heard the strangest rumor a little bit ago.”

“Oh no...”

“I heard a strange pony came into town. Apparently, he sent somepony flying into Applejack’s stand and broke part of it.”

“Oh, wow,” Fluttershy said with the most poorly feigned interest imaginable. “That sure sounds... Um... Awful...”

“That’s not the worst of it, darling. It’s almost silly just how awful this story gets.” Rarity sat back and adjusted her robe, her eyes staring at Fluttershy with the sort of scrutiny that would capture even the slightest twitch. Per her natural reaction, Fluttershy turned her head to the side with her hair covering one eye.

“The details are a bit vague, but there are those who said that this strange brute went with you.”

“He is not a brute!” The words burst out of Fluttershy’s mouth before she realized she said them, her hooves covering her mouth far too late.

“A-ha! I knew you knew something about this!” Rarity pointed her hoof over at Fluttershy in an over-dramatic expression of triumph. “Oooh, I can’t wait to hear what you know! Darling, you simply must tell me everything!”

Fluttershy shifted about in her place nervously. She curled up and gestured toward Aloe, who was still in the room and poured more water into the coals.

“Oh. Right. Aloe, could you be a dear and give me and my friend some privacy?” The spa pony simply nodded and complied immediately, closing the door behind her as the steam dispersed through the room. “Now, what do you know about him?”

“He’s... Big. He’s strong, almost unnaturally so, but I think he means well.”

“You think?”

“Well, he doesn’t talk.”

“He doesn’t speak at all?”

“He grunts and sometimes he roars when he’s angry or scared. I guess he never learned how to speak Equestrian, since ponies around him always act so strangely...”

“Strange how?”

“Angry. Scared. Violent. They even tried to attack him at the marketplace.”

“So the outburst they described was just him defending himself?”

“Yes. I took him in to try and take care of him, maybe even teach him to speak to avoid another misunderstanding...”

Rarity stared at Fluttershy, the normally refined unicorn's jaw slacked in shock. After several seconds of staring blankly, she shook her head.

“Fluttershy, darling... You can’t be serious,” she said while she snickered through each of her words.

“Well, I’m not sure how well he can handle himself while ponies are attacking him...”

“No, no, no, no, I mean about teaching him how to speak. Don’t get me wrong, darling, you’re graceful and beautiful, but eloquent and well-spoken aren’t words I’d use to describe you.” Rarity quickly realized that her words may have appeared less than kind after she saw her friend shift uncomfortably and her eye contact waver.

“What I mean is that you should probably let somepony else teach him, somepony who understands the finer points of language, and while they’re at it, teach him to be well-mannered and poised! I’m sure after such a pony came into town, no one would mistake him for anything but a gentlecolt!” Rarity smiled and stared expectantly at Fluttershy. She tactfully blinked a few times while she maintained eye contact.

It was fairly clear to Fluttershy by now that Rarity meant that she wanted to teach her guest. She realized that this might actually be a good idea. Like she said, Rarity would teach him to be well-mannered and well-spoken.

Fluttershy did worry that, as soon as she saw him, Rarity might be frightened or otherwise offended by his complete lack of fashion sense or elegance of any kind. However, this would also probably prompt her to give him a makeover and, more likely than not, an outfit that might improve his appearance.

As for the odd things that would happen in his presence, Fluttershy had already seen that two of her friends seemed immune to it, and there was a chance that Rarity wouldn’t be affected either.

“Well... Okay. Just don’t tell anyone other than our friends, okay?”

“I promise.”

“Pinkie Promise?”

“Pinkie Promise.” Rarity smiled after she made the motions. She looked to the door and perked up suddenly. “Shall we continue? I’d hate for your hooves to get pruny in here.”

“Of course.” With that, they left the sauna and continued on with their day. Once they shut the door behind them, Fluttershy smiled to herself as Rarity approached the next stage of the spa treatment.