Fluttershy whimpered, lying on the forest floor surrounded by her own blood. Surrounding her were her closest friends, Twilight had erected a shield around her while Rainbow and Applejack busied themselves attacking the… the thing. She had no name for it. It was huge and covered in dull brown hair that was matted across its chest. It had beady brown eyes, and huge limbs with digits at the end that seemed perfect for grabbing things.
It had. It had grabbed her wings as she approached and attempted to speak to it. It crushed her wings; she felt and heard the snapping of several bones as her wings folded like tissue in its grip. She lay there now, whimpering still, even as the noise of the battle roared over her.
Rainbow collided with the shield, causing it to briefly flash as it resisted her weight and impact. She slid down the shell of it, hitting the ground with a groan as she struggled back to her hooves. She swallowed as she looked up and saw Applejack get in close and slam her hind legs firmly into the knee joint of its left leg. It roared at this, reaching down, and wrapping one of those huge gripping appendages around her barrel and lifting her up off the ground.
“AJ!” Rainbow cried. Fluttershy winced, withdrawing into herself. The cries of her friends tore through her, leaving bruises across her heart.
In the next moment, Fluttershy heard a sickening thud, the sound of flesh impacting a sturdy tree, and the grunt of her friend losing what wind she had in her lungs as she fell to the ground. Another moment later and another sound crashed through the glade, Fluttershy couldn’t identify it.
“Take that you brute!” cried her familiar, elegant, voice of Rarity. Whatever she had done, the creature had become quiet. Fluttershy heard the thrum of the magic shield go silent, and then felt a hoof on her muzzle.
“Fluttershy…?” Twilight calmly asked, though Fluttershy could hear the beginnings of panic edging into her voice slowly.
“I-I…” Fluttershy tried, but pain overwhelmed her senses and shut her down. She whimpered, instead, as the remainder of her response. Another moment and she felt herself enveloped in the odd, weightless, sensation of a telekinetic grip. She felt herself go motionless from hoof to snout, but she trusted the pony who had her and offered no struggle.
“Girls come on. We have to hurry back,” Twilight said. She heard all five sets of hooves, and one set of claws, approaching her location as the telltale increasing hum of Twilight’s magic sounded as well.
In a moment she felt the terrifying nothingness of her body ceasing to be in one place, the strange sensation of traveling through the ether, and the also terrifying sensation of coming into existence in another place all at once. She kept her eyes squeezed shut, her heart pounding as she continued to whimper from pain and fear in near equal measure.
“Pinkie, can you find a nurse please?” Twilight spoke clearly, but urgently, first to Pinkie, “Spike? Are you okay?”
Spike replied quietly, “I’m fine. Fluttershy’s in much worse shape… I think I’ll heal, don’t worry ab-“
“You know that I’m going to worry about you, no matter what you say, right?” Twilight asked, though the tone suggested it was entirely rhetorical.
After a moment, there was some shuffling as two sets of hooves jogged up, and something squeaked in time with them. After a moment Fluttershy felt her gently lowered onto something soft, and then a soft rattling as she felt herself moved through a set of double doors that swing freely on their hinges.
“Ms. Shy, you’ll be alright. We’re going to take good care of you, don’t worry,” said a warm, maternal voice.
Fluttershy only whimpered in response.
Fluttershy’s eyes slowly opened, taking in the sterile white room, the ugly green blankets, and the railings surrounding the bed she found herself lying in. Applejack laid on the nearby couch, on her back and lightly snoring with a book open over her barrel. After a moment more, Rainbow Dash entered the room and trotted up to Applejack, nuzzling her muzzle gently until she awoke.
“Mm… Dashie?” Applejack said sleepily.
“Hey there, sleepyhead. How are you feeling?” Rainbow asked.
It was then that Fluttershy noticed the bandaging around Applejacks’ barrel, and Rainbow Dash’s right foreleg. Fluttershy groaned, and this caused Rainbow’s head to whip around.
“Fluttershy?!” Rainbow asked, her voice squeaking at a higher register.
“R-Rain…,” Fluttershy tried, but her voice was raw and ragged, she barely got out the first half before she broke into a fit of coughing.
Applejack tumbled off the couch she was on, crashing to the floor with a grunt before Rainbow helped her back up and they both trotted up to the bed.
“Fluttershah?” Applejack said, “Ya okay? Just… uh… nod n’ that’ll be enough.”
Fluttershy tried to nod, and managed a little, but then the movement caused a sharp pain in her back and she squeaked as she jerked forward.
“Oooh, careful ‘Shy, that’s… Your wings are in really bad shape, try not to move around on your back too much, okay?” Rainbow said, oddly gentle with her brash, raspy voice.
“Mm… Wh…,” Fluttershy’s voice croaked out, but still she barely began to speak before she began to cough again.
“Shah, have some water,” Applejack said as she trotted to a table on wheels and carefully wheeled it to the bed, the upper part and lower part were far enough apart for the whole thing to fit around the bed, so the table ended up in front of Fluttershy, where a pitcher and glass of water sat.
Fluttershy nodded, taking the glass proffered to her by Rainbow Dash and sipping it down slowly before taking it in large, greedy, gulps. It went down smoothly enough, and her throat felt a thousand times better for it.
“Wha… What happened?” she asked, her voice still hoarse but her coughing fit subsided.
“We fought… I dunno what it’s called, but… It was big and… it was mean… You tried to talk to it, and it attacked you… um… it ruined your wings, it’ll be a long time before you can use them again, Fluttershy,” Rainbow answered grimly.
“Eeyup, was right frightenin’ too. Thought ah was gonna lose Dash,” Applejack said.
“You… AJ, you were way worse off than I was!” Rainbow shot back.
“Nuh uh, no way,” Applejack shook her head, “Tweren’t all that bad compared to you, RD.”
“I…,” Rainbow’s eye twitched, “Let’s just not do this right now, okay?”
Applejack shrugged, which caused her to wince, “Right ya are.” Applejack turned back to Fluttershy, “Ya’ve been out fer a few weeks now. Doctors thought it best to keep ya knocked out, ‘cuz of the pain n’ all.”
Fluttershy blinked and nodded her understanding.
“Is everypony else okay?” Fluttershy asked.
“Yeah, Rarity threw a boulder at it… Got it in the head… Knocked it out. Twi went back later, don’t know what happened after that, but she says it won’t be a threat anymore,” Rainbow answered.
Fluttershy swallowed, “What about you two? I heard… um… I heard you,” she said, gesturing weakly at Applejack, “hit a tree… I think? It… was scary.”
Applejack nodded slowly, “Yeah… That happened. Hurt pretty good too. Ah’m okay though, ribs were mighty bruised and Ah had to let Dash take care o’ some of the chores ‘round the farm for a week or so until I finally got tired of her doin’ ‘em wrong and pushed through the pain to do ‘em myself.
Rainbow Dash snorted as she smacked Applejack’s shoulder with a forehoof, then pulled her into a hug. “I still say everything goes faster when I do the chores,” she chided.
“If’n ya don’t count all the extra time spent fixin’ yer mistakes, I s’pose,” Applejack replied.
Fluttershy swallowed again, sighing as she closed her eyes.
“Everypony’s okay?” she asked again.
“Yeah, you’re really the worst off, Flutters… Are you okay?” asked Rainbow.
“I… I’m okay, yes,” Fluttershy answered, “As long as you all are.”
“We’re fine, Sugarcube,” Applejack assured her, resting a forehoof on Fluttershy’s foreleg.
“How is the sanctuary?” asked Fluttershy.
“Angel is showin’ Spike and Twah the ropes over there… when Rarity ain’t tryin’ ta figure out how you manage to do all that you do over there n’ teach… Pinkie… well she’s so dang good at doin’ a whole lot in a little time, that the only thing keepin’ her from bein’ a good fit fer the job is her energy!”
“Oh my, is she frightening the creatures?” asked Fluttershy.
“Just the small ones, really. Bigger ones don’t mind her much,” Applejack replied, “Rainbow n’ me take our turns too, but I don’t know nothin’ bout critter care… so I jus’ put the food where it’s s’posed to go.”
Fluttershy nodded, “Okay… When will I be released from here?”
“Doc’s don’t think it’ll be too soon. Speaking of…” Rainbow said as she reached off and pressed a button with a forehoof.
After a moment, a nurse entered the room to see what was going on.
“Did somepony press the… oh, is Ms. Shy awake?” Nurse Redheart asked.
“Yeah, she is,” answered Rainbow Dash.
“Right, let me take her vitals. Please step back, okay?” Nurse Redheart instructed.
Rainbow Dash and Applejack cooperated, stepping back as Nurse Redheart stepped forward and withdrew a sphygmomanometer from her mane. “Hold out your leg, dear,” Nurse Redheart said gently.
Fluttershy held out her foreleg, and Nurse Redheart wrapped the cuff around it, gently affixing it before she set the bulb on the floor and began to pump.
Fluttershy sat in her cottage, a saucer and cup of tea poised carefully on one hoof.
“How are you feeling, Fluttershy?” asked Discord, his head floating around behind her to check on her wing. The lonely appendage twitched as he gazed at it, then Fluttershy stretched it and folded it back neatly on her back.
“I’m fine. Thank you. The tea is lovely, Discord,” she said with a smile as the tea bags floated around them, singing in tune. Discord’s head returned to its neck and proceeded to look Fluttershy in the eye.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you, had I known I’d have changed it into something much less threatening,” Discord said.
“It’s okay. Everypony came out of it alive. I’ll be fine, I promise,” Fluttershy said.
“You know I could always fix that for you…,” Discord hinted none too subtly.
Fluttershy shrugged, spilling a drop of tea before she proceeded to lap it, “No, that’s fine. I’ll be okay,” Fluttershy replied with a smile and a squeak.