Chapter 6
“The feelings of loneliness that we all experienced crossing the galaxy were real, much more real than anything we’ve ever encountered throughout our travels here in Equestria. The galaxy was several hundred thousand lightyears across, and was home to twelve million inhabited star systems and several trillion sapient beings. The sheer size of everything around us was enough to make us all feel sheer terror, and the fact that there were no ponies around and very little hope left for us just made everything that much harder to endure. But my friends were there beside me, and having a friend near you can make even the most hopeless of situations feel that much more bearable.”
-Twilight Sparkle, On Extra-Galactic Voyages, p. 306
Fluttershy was so panicked that she almost dropped like a stone. This wasn’t the Everfree Forest. This wasn’t even Equestria! She hoped her memory of what she learned in geography was wrong, that the Everfree wasn’t the biggest forest in the world. But she had seen a world map too many times to think otherwise.
She glided back down to earth and landed gently beside a tree. As she knelt down on the soft moss growing beneath it, a cruel realization suddenly cemented itself within her skull.
This isn’t her world. This isn’t home.
Fluttershy began to sob uncontrollably. As she laid and wept, the fearful thoughts that she had been working to keep away started flooding into her mind with a vengeance: how she was now without friends, how her friends might be hurt or drying, and how there wasn’t a thing she could do about it. It just made her cry harder.
She continued to sob until she ran out of energy and was reduced to uncontrollable spasms. After a while, she just lay beneath the tree and stared blankly into space.
Soon Fluttershy got her wits back. It wasn’t easy. It was especially difficult to fight her mind’s insistence that there was no hope. But she reasoned that as long as her friends were trapped here with her and at least one of them escaped harm, she would be okay. So she set about getting some breakfast.
She hovered a few feet in the air, looking in all directions for more of that wonderful green plant she’d eaten yesterday. She really didn’t want to have to taste-test everything in the forest, but as long as she could find that plant she had eaten earlier, she knew she’d make it.
Suddenly Fluttershy was hit on the head by a falling branch. Well, more of a twig really. Regardless, her gut instinct took over and she gasped, then flopped over on her back, legs sticking straight up into the air. She mentally chastised herself, then took note of what had caused the stick to fall in the first place. Above her, hanging from a tree branch, was one of the strangest creatures she’d ever seen. It had the body of a sloth, but the head of a goat, and what made it even more interesting was that this creature appeared permanently twisted out of shape, so that the head remained level with the ground as the arms and legs, pointing straight up and hanging on the branch above, propelled it at a snail’s pace in the ever-present quest to eat leaves. Fluttershy was astounded; this definitely confirmed that she was not in Equestria anymore. She watched the creatures for a few minutes, then called up to them. They lazily turned their heads and looked down at her.
“Um, excuse me, sirs... would you be so kind, y’know, if it isn’t too much trouble, to please point me in the direction of some sort of civilization? You see, I’m alone here and I’d very much like to find my friends, and if you could help me I would be most appreciative.”
The sloth-goats continued to stare at her for a few seconds, then went back to ambling along the branches toward whatever goal had entered their minds that morning. Fluttershy was perplexed. Had the trip through the portal somehow stripped her of her special talent? She looked at her flank; it still bore the trio of pink butterflies, so that was a good sign. However, it also meant that, despite her way with animals, they most likely weren’t able to understand her. Since she suspected every other creature on this world was as alien as the sloth-goats, she would be equally unlikely to understand them should they attempt to communicate with her.
The thought depressed her, but then she decided to lighten her spirits and try to find new and fascinating fauna. The sloth-goats were, admittedly, a curious and most interesting sight, and she wondered what other marvels this world had in store for her.
She wasn’t disappointed. Soon she encountered a beautiful red bird with a large horn on its head which seemed capable of accurately imitating anything it heard. She made a mental note to ask Twilight about transporting a few of these back home so she could add them to her bird choir. They might even be able to learn a few tunes, if she worked with them and learned their language.
As she continued, she saw a cute little furry creature about the size of a squirrel, with big bulbous eyes, a snout-like proboscis, and a pair of skin flaps which served as a set of wings. The little creature was unafraid of Fluttershy, and approached her, cooing and looking at her expectantly. Fluttershy wondered if perhaps this creature was begging for food. If it was, it meant that it was used to ponies, and that there had to be some sort of civilization here! At long last, she was beginning to get her spirits up with genuine hope for finding a way home. Perhaps the people on this world practiced magic, or even knew of a way to teleport to any desired location! No, Fluttershy, she mentally scolded herself. Best not get ahead of ourselves here. All this means is that there is probably a civilization somewhere on this world. It doesn’t mean they’d be able to help, or even that they know magic at all. But they must be friendly, or else this animal wouldn’t be so gregarious. She gently patted the little creature on the head, watched as it scampered off, and then continued on her way.
Perhaps this world isn’t such a bad place, she thought to herself. The idea brought a smile to her lips and a spring to her step. She was just about to allow herself the luxury of humming a tune when she noticed something amiss.
The animals in her immediate vicinity were no longer making any sounds. This chilled her, for she knew it could mean only one thing.
They sensed danger approaching.
It wasn’t just Fluttershy’s presence; she had been walking slowly in the forest up till now and very few animals even took notice of her, save for the little rodent-like creature. She froze, her ears scanning for any sounds that might be the footfalls of a predator. Suddenly she heard it: an ear-splitting roar. She turned around with fearful eyes to see a gigantic creature at least half as tall as the trees themselves, with a monkey-like face, pointed ears, and a black furred-body standing on two long legs. It was carrying a club which might once have been an enormous tree trunk. It had seen her, and Fluttershy wasn’t sure if it was angry because she had interrupted its hunt, or if it just wanted her to run. She was off and running before the creature had taken a single step.
She galloped as though her life depended on it. The giant crashed through the forest after her, picking its way past trees as though they were no more than inconvenient grass stalks. At least they provided a modicum of impedance to the creature, though that did little to calm Fluttershy’s pounding heart.
She must have run for a mile before she felt her legs and lungs burning, but the giant continued unabated. Fluttershy knew if she didn’t do something it would eventually overtake and capture her. She looked around. They were near a mountainous area, which suggested perhaps that there were caves she could hide in until the monster got tired of chasing her. She headed straight toward them, not pausing to rest, for she could hear the monster’s footsteps getting louder with each passing stomp. She looked up the mountainside and tried to spy a cave, but she couldn’t find one. Panicking, and she ran up the side of the mountain, her burning muscles flaring hotter in protest at the new incline. Eventually she found a cave. It was small, embedded in the rock face above her about at the giant’s eye level, but if she got far enough inside she might be able to escape the giant’s reach.
She slipped on some loose rocks as she took to the air. Diving into the depths of the cave and gliding in on her wings, she hit the side of the tunnel and bounced across the floor, grinding to a stop about fifty feet from the cavern’s entrance. She saw an enormous eyeball peer into the cave and hoped she was far back enough that the giant wouldn’t be able to see her for the sunlight reflecting off the surrounding rock. But the creature was smart. It reached a giant hand into the cave, feeling around for the pony morsel it wanted to consume.
“Go away!” she shouted as the fingers probed deeper and deeper into the cave. The giant didn’t even grunt in response. As the hand neared her, she realized she would have to give it a solid buck to the knuckles to get the message across.
As the hand got closer, she reared up, did a brisk turn, and bucked as hard as she’d ever bucked in her life. As her hooves made contact with the creature’s outstretched hand, she heard an ear-piercing bellow from the entrance, magnified by the cave’s small dimensions. She covered her ears with her hooves and turned around to see what kind of damage she had inflicted.
It was obvious why the creature was bellowing so loudly. Her buck had ripped one of its nails clean off so that it was hanging by a grisly hunk of flesh, and the end of the finger next to it was smashed hard enough by her hoof that the bone had pierced the tip. The creature continued to scream in agony for a minute or two, then gingerly retracted his hand from the small cave, blood trailing from the wounds she had inflicted.
Fluttershy was relieved, but also ashamed. She merely wanted to dissuade the creature, not hurt it. She hated the idea that she could be pushed to such lengths, but then the awful burning sensation in her legs and throat reminded her that moments ago she had been inches from death. Even Grizzly Bears back home respected her enough that they didn’t attempt to eat her alive. Still, she limped toward the entrance of the cave and called after the creature, “I’m sorry for hurting your fingers like that, but you should know better than to try and eat a helpless pony!” The creature’s only response was to turn around, swing the club over his head with his good hand, and bellow so loudly her mane was straightened.
Well, at least she apologized.
Fluttershy sighed, then limped back to the interior of the cave. It might not be a house, but it was protection enough. Ponies in prehistoric times were thought to live in caves for protection, so perhaps it would be just as good as her little cottage.
Looking back toward the entrance, she sighed again, more out of self-loathing at what she’d done to a creature just trying to eat than out of a longing for home. Then she collapsed, exhausted from what she’d just been through.
Fluttershy didn’t know how long she’d been out, but it was nearly noon when the giant had found her. But when she looked out of the entrance to the cave, she saw the navy blue of dusk. She knew the chase had taken a lot out of her, but she had no idea it would be this late when she woke up. When she stood, a new sensation flooded her brain: pain. Her legs were on fire, still tender and sore from having run from the creature. She looked at her hooves. They were badly chipped. This was not good; if she were caught like this, or worse, if the creature decided to come back and get revenge for its wounded fingers, Fluttershy would be unable to defend herself without tearing her leg muscles apart. Mentally she cursed her fear of heights. Because she had committed herself to being earthbound, her first instinct had been to run instead of take off, where she might have evaded the creature’s claws. If Rainbow Dash had seen her running like that, she would first have laughed her flank off, then would have probably flown down and snarkily reminded her that she had a pair of wings. She rolled her eyes, annoyed at the thought, but annoyance quickly reverted back to pain. Fluttershy needed to relieve it soon, or else she’d never be able to get to sleep. She might be able to find some herbs to reduce the swelling, if she could find ones with the right characteristics, but her legs hurt too much and the sky was far too dark to go traipsing through the forest on a hunt for proper vegetation. Her only choice was to find a river or pond to cool off in and, if nothing else, rid her legs of the terrible achiness.
She walked gingerly, taking each step toward the entrance with care so she wouldn’t do any further harm to her limbs. She mentally cursed; this hurt like a son of a buck! She’d felt pain before; nopony who’d ever taken a fall in Cloudsdale escaped a few bruises. Her adventures with Twilight and her friends had given her a remarkable array of cuts and scrapes. This however was the first time she’d truly exerted herself past her tolerance for pain. She was no athlete; she considered her job plenty of exercise on its own. She’d even participated in the Running of the Leaves a few times, but that was completely different: she hadn’t had to run at full tilt to avoid a horrible monster.
She took great pains to ensure that her hooves didn’t hit any slight outcroppings of rock. She had to hurry. First aid for swollen muscles was to soak them in cold water, and she had passed out for Celestia knows how long, so it was imperative that she get into some cold water as soon as possible. Of course, first aid for swollen muscles was also to apply compression, but as she had no bandages she would have to make do with merely soaking.
As Fluttershy reached the edge of the cave’s entrance, she realized she had a new problem: how to get from the mouth of the cave to the base of the mountain so she could search for water. It was relatively easy going while she was on the mostly smooth, level floor of the cave, but the ground outside was at a steep, almost vertical incline and hardly smooth. She could just use her wings and glide down, but there was not enough room in this tiny cavern to spread them fully. When she had glided in, she was already at full speed, so it didn’t matter if her wings were fully extended. She couldn’t very well hop down the mountain, either. She realized that she’d have to just jump out and hope she could get her wings deployed before she crashed into the side of the mountain.
She took a step back, breathed deeply, then did a light hop out of the cavern’s mouth into the air. As she flew out she flexed her wing muscles until they were fully extended, catching the wind as she did and using her momentum to gain a little altitude. She breathed a sigh of relief that she hadn’t caught her hoof on the edge of the mountain. When she stabilized, she realized that she’d never be able to search for water on the ground with her legs in their current condition. Reluctantly, she began to climb so she could scout from the air.
As she glided, she looked around for some sign of water. It wasn’t easy; this entire world seemed to be covered in trees as far as the eye could see. But eventually she spied a small lake about a mile from the cave.
She swooped in and landed gracefully on the water, letting its cool, refreshing temperature soak into her body and soothe her aching muscles. She didn’t bother to keep watch; she just let the coolness numb her to the pain and let her mind drift into nirvana.
Fluttershy soaked in the lake for a solid hour, snacking every once in a while from some beautiful fruit growing on what could have passed for lily pads back in Equestria, save for the bright red pome resembling an apple that grew in the center of the pads’ flowers, but by that time the sun had already set and she knew if she didn’t fly back to the cave now she wouldn’t be able to find it until morning. She started ambling out of the lake, giving her body a light shake when she set hoof on the beach. Taking her bearings before takeoff, she spread her wings and started pumping them, slowly gaining altitude. She could have climbed faster, but she was genuinely exhausted, and that relaxing bath had told her body it was time to rest. Nevertheless, she needed to get airborne and find that cave before the twilight disappeared. Luckily, the mountain chain was hard to miss, and she eventually found her way back to the entrance to her new abode.
As the last vestiges of light faded to be replaced by a field of stars, Fluttershy took notice of a peculiar sight: the lack of any sort of moon. Back home if it was the correct time of the month, the full moon could provide enough light to read by, especially now that Nightmare Moon was gone and the dark spots that had made up the Mare in the Moon had vanished to be replaced by white regolith. But here, when darkness fell, everything was pitch black. It was a little depressing, but the stars at least were a familiar sight.
As she lay down for the night, she imagined how nice it would be to finally get home and see Angel Bunny and to tend to her animals, and as she drifted off to sleep, she imagined herself reuniting with her friends once more.
For having slept away nearly the entire previous day, Fluttershy was still exhausted enough to keep from waking until dawn. When she did finally wake, she decided to see just how far back the cavern extended. If there was another attack by some wild beast, it would be best to know if there were any hiding places she could make use of.
A crack in the ceiling provided marginal light for at least fifty feet, so Fluttershy was able to see all the way back to where the cave shrank into a small crack even a mouse would be hard-pressed to fit into.
As she made her way to the entrance, all the while nursing her still-sore legs, she noticed a peculiar object resting against the wall in the back that she hadn’t noticed before, perhaps for lack of light. It was about as tall as she was and made of metal. As she got closer and stood in front of it, she could see it was a cylinder with multiple hatches and vents. It had two stubby legs on either side and a once-silver dome on top which played host to several more hatches and various bits and baubles that she couldn’t imagine the purpose of.
It was obvious this thing was a machine, but she had no idea what its function was apart from taking up space. She supposed it would make a good barricade if it came to that. With that thought she decided to move it so that it would provide a better hiding place, at least until her body healed enough to take an extended flight; there was no way she was chancing being chased by another of those hideous giants.
As she moved the thing, she heard a peculiar whirring noise inside it, followed by some beeping. It was utterly unlike anything she had ever heard before, even on phonographs. As the whirring ramped up, several of the dark panels on the dome began to illuminate. Fluttershy was becoming terrified; the only time something ever lit up on its own back in Equestria, it was magical in nature, and foreign magic was not to be trusted.
She scampered out of the cave and flew off to where she could watch the cavern from a safe vantage point at the top of a nearby tree. So far the cave was the only shelter she knew, and she didn’t want to give it up just yet, but she had to make sure that... whatever it was, wouldn’t explode or cause harm to anypony.
So she waited.
After several minutes had passed, she was wondering if it had simply jammed. Suddenly she heard a mournful whistle, like a bird who was wounded or saddened by the loss of its partner. This simple sound touched her heart. She whistled in a similar tone, and the voice whistled back to her, accompanied by a tone that she swore sounded like it was asking a question.
Slowly, cautiously, Fluttershy ascended back up the mountain toward the sound, answering each whistle with a tune of her own, and then came to the realization that the sound was coming from her cave.
She entered the tiny cavern to discover the machine had rotated its dome so that a boxlike projection on top was facing her. Since it had nothing else which might be described as such, she surmised that it was what the machine used for an eye.
But this didn’t make any sense. Machines, even magic-powered ones, weren’t self-automating, except for a machine which was under a “come-to-life” spell, and Fluttershy couldn’t have conjured one even if she wanted to or knew how, as she lacked a horn to focus the magic. That left only one conclusion she could think of: that this thing, whatever it was, was alive in some way.
Perhaps this is what the inhabitants of this world looked like. Of course, Fluttershy had never seen an animal or pony who was made of metal, but in the grand scale of the universe she supposed anything was possible.
She slowly approached the machine. As she did, it began whistling excitedly, in what was a distinctly happy tone. Fluttershy made her way to what she supposed was the front of the machine and sat down. All the while that box-eye thing tracked her, confirming what she suspected.
She sat for a minute or two, wondering how one would address a living machine. Finally, she settled for a simple, “Hello, there.”
The machine beeped.
She continued, “Are you alone here?”
The machine chirped and whirred. Fluttershy wasn’t sure what it meant, but she guessed it meant yes judging by the forlorn tone of the whir.
“I’m Fluttershy. What’s your name?”
The little machine beeped a string of tones, but Fluttershy wasn’t sure how to interpret them.
“I’m sorry, I really can’t understand you. Is there some way you could write down your name for me?”
The machine beeped a confirmatory tone, then a device on its head lit up, projecting an image in midair. Fluttershy was shocked and jumped back a bit, but didn’t leave. So it is a magical device! But who charmed it? As she watched, the machine spelled out a string of unfamiliar letters.
Fluttershy was more confused now than before she’d asked. This language was far from Ponish and made no sense at all. The letters were simply alien to her.
“I’m sorry, but I really don’t know what that means.”
The little machine beeped an interrogative.
“Hmm? Oh, I suppose you’re asking me if I’m from around here?”
The machine chirped.
“Well, the answer is no, I’m from nowhere near here.”
The machine, knowing that projected words and its natural speaking voice would be useless, formulated its next question by projecting the image of a star system, then another and another, in rapid fire succession, overlaying it with the image of a human shrugging his shoulders.
Fluttershy had no idea what message or question the machine was trying to convey. The strange figure was the most confusing bit, as she had no idea what it could be.
The machine then stopped the hologram for a second, seeming to be doing some internal calculations, then wiped out the human and replaced it with an image of Fluttershy shrugging her shoulders.
Now she understood. It was asking her which one of these was her system. But as she had never seen her planet from space, she could no more tell the machine which was her world any more than she could explain how unicorns could do magic.
“I’m sorry sir, but I don’t know which of these is my home. I do know it’s far away from here, but other than that I can’t be sure.”
The machine’s next projection was of another machine Fluttershy didn’t recognize, which didn’t surprise her. Then another, and another. Each of these machines had a small area with a window and the figure of a pegasus pony with its hooves on a mechanism in front of it. She wasn’t sure what it was at first, but then decided it was the machine asking her if she had come on one of these... well, she had no idea what to call them, but they seemed big enough that “ship” would be an appropriate word to describe them.
“Oh, are you asking me if I came on a ship? I’m sorry, but no. You see, my unicorn friend Twilight-“
The machine stopped her with an interrogative whine.
“What? Oh. You do know what a unicorn is, don’t you?”
The machine made a raspberry sound.
“Oh, I’m sorry. Unicorns look like me, except instead of wings they have a horn on top of their head.”
The machine projected an image of Fluttershy, then removed her wings (something Fluttershy found oddly unsettling to see) and plopped a curved horn like that of a Rhinoceros on the crown of her head, between her ears.
“No, I’m sorry, but you have it wrong. You see, the horn is straight, about this long -” she held out her front hooves about six inches apart, “- and it sits right above the eyes.”
The machine beeped in understanding, erased the curved horn and replaced it with a straight one, placing this one about an inch above virtual-Fluttershy’s eye line.
Fluttershy was excited. “Yes! That’s a unicorn! Now, about how we got here. Twilight gave my friend Rarity, another unicorn, a spell she could perform to see into the past, but then-“
The machine again interrupted her with some beeps and whistles.
“Please sir, let me explain, and I promise I’ll answer all of your questions, okay?”
The domed machine made a quiet buzz.
“Thank you. Now as I was saying, Twilight gave my friend Rarity a spell to see into the past, but then when it was cast we all got sucked into a vortex that pulled us into this universe. I have no idea where my friends are or whether they’re... whether they’re still...” Fluttershy trailed off as a wave of emotion overwhelmed her.
The machine made a mournful sound, as though to comfort her, then it opened up a metal panel, extended a clawed hand, and began gently stroking her mane. She looked at the little machine, wondering whether it could truly be called that after displaying such empathetic emotion.
“Thank you.”
After talking with the machine for an hour and getting a few false starts, Fluttershy was beginning to understand the scope of what had happened. As it turned out, she was not only far away from her world, but she and her friends had been thrown across space to another galaxy entirely. This was sorrowful news, but at least it meant that she knew where she was, and perhaps if she could get this information to Twilight Sparkle, they could use it to teleport home.
Before long however, she was starting to get mentally exhausted. Talking to this machine, while pleasant enough when she could interpret its beeps and whistles, was still a chore. Suddenly, she had an idea.
“I was wondering something. Would you like me to teach you the Ponish alphabet so you can ask me questions and answer mine?”
The machine chirped excitedly.
“Oh good! Now let me see, what can I use to write with?”
Fluttershy looked around and found a small rock that fit perfectly between her teeth. She tested it out and found that it produced a nice white line when scraped against the side of the cave, then she turned around to face the wall opposite the machine, made two angled, downward strokes, then a single horizontal stroke in the middle.
“Okay, here’s the A, which can stand for an ‘ay’ or ‘ah’ sound.”
After going through all twenty-six letters and ten numerals, she felt confident enough in her teaching job to ask the machine to try it out. It beeped and whirred, then projected a text message in the air.
“Is this satisfactory?”
Fluttershy was ecstatic. “Oh yes! Yes, indeed! Now then, before we go any further, can you please tell me your name?”
“My official designation is R2-D8-113-B-26, but you may call me anything you like.”
Fluttershy looked at the designation for a moment. It made absolutely no sense, but then she read it aloud. “How about I just call you Artoo Dee-ate? Would that be alright?”
The machine chirped, then displayed the text, “Yes, that would be satisfactory. Most droid owners prefer to call their property by a shortened variant of their full designation to make it easier to verbally address them.”
Fluttershy did a double-take over the word ‘droid.’ “Is that what they called living machines here?” she asked.
The droid ‘looked’ at her with its eye, paused for a bit, then started displaying a new line of text. “I am not alive. I was activated in the Industrial Automaton factory at 03:27 hours on-“
“No! You must be alive! You stroked my mane!” Fluttershy couldn’t see how this machine could exhibit pony characteristics and not consider itself alive!
It stopped the line of text, erased it, and began again. “But I possess no flesh. My mind is merely a set of carefully written programs designed to mimic human behavior in order that I may serve my masters more efficiently.”
This both shocked and saddened Fluttershy. Where she came from, anypony who was capable of not only carrying on a conversation, but actually empathizing with another pony, would be considered perfectly normal, and certainly alive.
“Well I don’t care how you define it. If you can talk to me like this, if you can stroke my mane and make me feel better, then you’re alive, no matter what you say.”
R2-D8 made a contemplative tone, but generated no more holographic texts. Fluttershy then began to go over that sentence again in her mind more carefully this time. Something had stuck out at her.
“Wait a minute . . .”
She looked at the droid with a suspicious eye.
“Human?”