Hitch Trailblazer woke up one morning to find a dog lying across his back, which made it a little hard to get up. He groaned and unceremoniously dumped the fluffy white ball onto the floor, where it yipped and sat up.
“What are you doing in here?” Hitch demanded, dragging himself out of bed and stumbling into the kitchen to make coffee. Cloudpuff barked and trailed along behind him. Blowing a frustrated breath, Hitch marched to the door, opened it, and pointed outside. The royal dog looked from stallion to door and whined, making a puppy-eyes face at Hitch.
“Fine, you can stay for five more minutes, and then you’re out,” he snapped, and Cloudpuff flew laps around the kitchen, yapping happily.
After coffee and breakfast (which both took longer than five minutes), Hitch now attempted to drag a reluctant dog out of his house, but that required leaving the door open so he could shove the animal outside (since when did giant balls of fluff have to be so heavy?), which meant that his own little squad of two seagulls and a crab had easy access to the inside of his house, too, which just meant a whole lot more chaos.
“Oh, come on!” Hitch yelled as Cloudpuff knocked a mug out of the cabinet, which shattered upon impact with the floor. “All right, everypony, that’s enough! You need to get out, okay? This is my house, not yours!” He tried (unsuccessfully) to catch Cloudpuff’s fluffy tail as the winged dog raced one of the seagulls across the ceiling, while the other bird and the crab had decked themselves out with paint and signs and those foam mittens that say #1 on them - where they found them, Hitch didn’t want to know.
“Oh, dear,” a quiet voice said, which he was just barely able to hear over the noise. “Do you need some help?”
“Yes, please!” Hitch groaned desperately. He turned to see a yellow pegasus mare standing next to a window, surveying the scene in front of her with confusion and alarm. Finally managing to snag Cloudpuff, Hitch dumped him into the mare’s arms. She promptly collapsed from the sudden weight, and Cloudpuff licked her cheek. “Can you tell your royals to please keep track of their dog?”
“My royals?” the mare said, confused, as Cloudpuff attempted to eat her long pink mane. “Um… I don’t think-”
“You’re a pegasus, right? You guys are, like, the only ones who have any royals - or any form of government, really. Just tell them to keep their dog in Zephyr Heights, because I can’t afford to lose all my good coffee mugs! Hey!” he shouted at his crab friend as he knocked another mug to the floor. “What did I literally just say?”
“I think you’re a little confused,” the mare said, standing up and gently setting Cloudpuff down. “You see, I’m not from around here, so-”
“Maretime Bay used to be an earth pony town - anypony who’s not an earth pony isn’t from around here,” Hitch said absentmindedly as he tried to shoo one of the seagulls from the top of the cabinet with a broom, which he lost his grip on. It fell on his head and he rubbed the growing lump on his forehead.
“No, see, I’m not even from this time period,” the mare said hurriedly. “You see, all that remains of me now is my spirit, which-”
“Let’s talk about this later!” Hitch shoved the window open and shooed the seagulls outside. He trapped the crab in a corner, scooped him up, and gently set him down in the flowerbed outside. Cloudpuff barked excitedly and flew through the window to join his new friends, and Hitch slammed the window shut behind them. He took a moment to catch his breath before turning to the mysterious mare.
Now that he was looking at her closely, he noticed that she seemed to be glowing… No, she was literally made of sparkles, slightly transparent, and though the sunlight streaming through the window was making her appear to be glowing, she had absolutely no shadow at all.
And there was that comment about not being from his time period…
“You look familiar,” Hitch decided, and indeed, looking at her felt like he was seeing somepony he had seen around town every day, but just never paid attention to. “But I don’t think we’ve met…”
He walked around her until he caught the mark on her flank, and then it came to him. “Wait… my friend Sunny has a toy figure of you! Y-you’re one of the Guardians of Harmony, right?” The mare nodded.
“My name is Fluttershy,” she said in her quiet voice. “Do you… always have a problem with animals?”
“You could say that,” Hitch grumbled. “For some reason, I’m like a magnet to animals - it’s like they can’t resist me. Like, I know I’m great, but it’s gotten a little crazy since magic came back. Now they follow me everywhere.” He groaned and let his head fall on one of the pillows on the couch. Fluttershy laughed.
“I’ve always had a way with animals, too,” she said, shrugging.
“Really?” Hitch looked up from his pillow. “How’d you get rid of it?”
“I didn’t,” Fluttershy said, looking alarmed. “Why would I do that? I can do great things with something like that! I’m not going to get rid of it!”
“But it’s so annoying!” Hitch whined, his head thumping back onto the pillow. “They never listen to me! Never! And they follow me literally everywhere and never leave me alone and do you know how hard it is to sleep when there’s a dog drooling in your ear? Really hard! I’d give almost anything to get rid of it!”
“Oh, dear,” Fluttershy whispered. “Well, maybe you just don’t know what to do with it.” She looked around the house. “I like your house,” she said kindly.
Hitch shrugged indifferently as something scratched at the door. He heard Cloudpuff whining and moaned.
“What do you do around here?” the pegasus asked, trying to start a conversation.
“I’m the sheriff,” Hitch said, lifting his head and rolling his shoulders back. “I’m basically the law and order in this town. Pegasi have a queen, unicorns… I don’t know, a Mayonnaise Police or something, and earth ponies have me. I’m really good at it.”
“What does a sheriff do?” Fluttershy asked politely.
“Right now… not much, at least not as a sheriff. I do a lot more as Sunny’s friend right now, but before, I supervised the town and kept it safe from… other things. Though mostly I just kept Sunny from getting into too much trouble… Shame all my efforts went to just about nothing. She got in plenty of trouble anyway.” He blew a frustrated breath, but he smiled at the memories of Sunny putting up posters with unity messages on them, Sunny climbing on the pavilion and giving adorable speeches, Sunny sabotaging Canterlogic presentations with her little cardboard wings and horn…
“She sounds like a very nice pony,” offered Fluttershy, taking a step towards the door, drawn by Cloudpuff’s scratches.
“Yeah, she’s pretty great… Wait, no, don’t open the-”
Cloudpuff bounded in, leaping on top of Hitch and toppling him over before beginning to drench his mane in slobber. Hitch’s ‘squad’ filed in after him and just stood right next to them.
“-door,” Hitch finished with a grumble, pushing Cloudpuff off. He glowered at Fluttershy trying to conceal her giggles. “Like I said, it is really annoying.” He looked back at Cloudpuff. “What are you doing here? You’re supposed to be in Zephyr Heights with your big fancy royal family and big fancy castle and why don’t you just go help Pipp with her live streaming? She hasn’t posted anything today, which is very unlike her, so maybe I’ll just take you there and check on her-” He broke off, realizing that Fluttershy was still there, his cheeks red. “Um… nevermind.”
“Well, I do think that this poor dog should be with his proper family,” Fluttershy said, giving Cloudpuff a pat on the head. “Do you know where that is?”
“Yes,” Hitch said, the red finally leaving his face. “It’s a bit of a walk, though. Phyllis is working with Queen Haven and Alphabittle to build some kind of transportation system between Zephyr Heights, Maretime Bay, and Bridlewood, but they haven’t even decided what they want yet, let alone start building it.”
“How long a walk?” Fluttershy asked, now rubbing Cloudpuff’s belly while he wriggled around happily. “Who’s the cutest doggie, who’s the cutest doggie, you are! Yes, you! You are!”
“About half a day if you’re fast… and probably faster if you could fly… but what we really need here is a unicorn.” He sighed. “And one of the only ones I know is in Bridlewood, which is just as far, so… not really an option.”
“Guess we’re walking,” Fluttershy said cheerfully, gesturing to the animals to follow her. They all looked at Hitch, then at Fluttershy, then at Hitch, before finally following Fluttershy out the door. The pegasus frowned.
“I’ve never had animals resist me before,” she said, eying Hitch, who shrugged.
“Feel free to keep them,” he said earnestly, and Fluttershy laughed.
“Oh, you don’t really mean that, do you?” she asked, rubbing Cloudpuff on the head. “They’re all such sweeties…”
Hitch snorted and rubbed his sheriff’s badge to rid it of dog slobber, grunting in satisfaction when it gleamed in the morning sunlight. “Right. So. Are we… going, or do you want to…” He stopped babbling as Fluttershy trotted out the door, following her and blinking in the sudden light. As they walked through town, everypony greeted him, as usual, but nopony seemed to notice the pegasus next to him. Fluttershy finally explained this as they exited the town.
“I only appear to you,” she said, gently setting down the crab she was carrying on her arm. “And anypony else I want to see me. Run along now, little guy - I don’t think you should come wherever we’re going.”
The crab let out a whine and wrapped its arms around Hitch’s leg. He sighed and bent down to address him and the seagulls.
“Hey, maybe you could keep an eye on things for me around here? Watch out for litter and such? At least I know that you guys won’t build a giant war machine,” he added, thinking of Sprout, and then felt guilty for thinking such a thing. His foalhood friend was trying so hard to win back everypony’s trust, and comments like that didn’t exactly help.
As his ‘squad’ walked back to Maretime Bay (even with magic back, the two seagulls had grown so used to walking that it became their primary mode of transportation), Hitch felt a pang in his chest like he did every time they left. He shook himself. That was just silly. Missing the company of a couple of tiny animals who did nothing but follow him around and annoy him? Perhaps it was Sunny’s influence rubbing off on him.
Fluttershy was still playing with Cloudpuff, cooing and rubbing his belly as the flying animal made a sound that would have been considered purring had he been a cat.
“How did animals get wings?” she asked. It took Hitch a little while to register what she meant.
“You mean… they didn’t in your time?” Just saying that felt weird. Hitch could almost imagine the conversations he would have with Sunny later. Oh, how was your day? Mine was fine, I got to talk to one of your idols who isn’t even from this time period. How about you?
The pegasus shook her head. “I mean, birds obviously did, and bugbears, and dragons, griffons, hippogriffs, the usual, but never ordinary animals like adorable puppies.” She bent down and told Cloudpuff, “Because that’s what you are! Yes, you are an adorable puppy. Yes you are! Yes you are!”
“Okay…” Hitch naturally took a step back. Don’t get him wrong, animals were… cool and everything (despite how annoyed he was when animals followed him around, it felt good to know that somepony thought he was worth that), but he never got like that with them. “To answer your question, I have no idea. As far as I can tell, it’s only animals that live in Zephyr Heights, the pegasus city, so maybe… they just kind of rubbed off on them?”
Fluttershy shrugged and gestured to him to lead the way. Hitch lifted his head importantly as he walked past her, but she didn’t seem to notice, so he deflated again.
They walked in silence for a while (at least, between the two ponies; Fluttershy wouldn’t shut up to Cloudpuff) until they got to a long canyon where a rockslide at the end created a path to higher ground. Once Hitch pulled himself up, he saw Fluttershy standing a few feet away from him, having flown up the cliff, surrounded by bunnies with extraordinarily long ears. “I offered to help you, you know,” she said sagely. She was so quiet all the time! As soon as the bunnies spotted Hitch, they squealed with happiness and ran over to him.
“I can do this myself,” he groaned, dragging himself to his feet. “I don’t… need your help.” He gently pushed a bunny to the side to make a clear path to the pegasus. She looked taken aback and hurt.
“I was just trying to be kind,” she whispered, turning away quickly, but not before he caught the tears in her eyes.
Great. Just great. Now he felt bad about it.
“I-I didn’t mean - I just meant, I can take care of myself,” he amended hastily. “Other ponies trying to help usually just… get in the way.”
“That’s okay,” Fluttershy whispered, smiling at him, though her eyes were still a bit red. “I understand.” She turned towards the pegasus city, which was just barely visible through a thick blanket of low clouds. “Come on. We’d better get going.”
Hitch sighed and turned to follow her, but before he could take a single step, he heard a squeaking sound, and whirled around to see one of the bunnies on the edge of the cliff, one of his legs trapped between two rocks as the ground around him cracked and crumbled, threatening to dump him into the canyon below. Hitch had a terrifying vision of the same thing happening to Sunny not long ago, and his hooves started acting before his brain did. Just before the poor bunny fell, Hitch offered it his hoof, and it wrapped it’s ears around it, allowing him to pull him to safety.
“Be more careful from now on, okay?” he gently scolded the bunny as he set him down. The little ball of fluff nodded and hugged him before bounding off to join his friends. Hitch turned around and saw Fluttershy looking at him strangely. “What?” he demanded.
“Nothing,” the pegasus said quickly. “It’s just that… what if the bunny thought he could handle the situation himself? Would you have still helped him?”
“Yes,” Hitch answered automatically. “He still needed help, even if he wouldn’t admit it.”
Fluttershy gave him another strange look. “Nevermind,” Hitch said, pushing past her and continuing on the path to Zephyr Heights. “It was just a waste of time.”
“Kindness is never a waste of time,” Fluttershy snapped, sounding so fierce that Hitch froze in his tracks. “It is never wasted, and if you thought that, then why would you help the poor bunny? If you thought being kind was a waste of time, then why do you do it every single day?”
Hitch didn’t ask how she knew that, just knew that she was right.
“It’s not the action that matters,” Fluttershy continued, now in her gentle, quiet voice. “It’s the fact that somepony went out of their way to do something nice for you, and you can ignore it, or you can acknowledge it. The choice is up to you.”
“I know,” Hitch muttered. “It’s just… it’s hard.”
“I never said it would be easy,” said Fluttershy, her voice sounding even quieter than usual. “It usually isn’t. But it is always right.”
Okay, she was definitely growing more transparent. It was like she was… disappearing. “Wait, don’t go!” Hitch protested. “I… you can’t…” But then she was gone, as suddenly as if she had never existed. Cloudpuff whined, and Hitch looked at him.
Ever since he had discovered that animals would prefer to tag along after him all day than do… whatever it is animals do, he had been annoyed, as there didn’t seem to be much he could do with being an animal magnet. It just didn’t seem useful for being a sheriff. But Fluttershy had the same problem (albeit a little less strong), and she chose to embrace it rather than push it aside. It didn’t matter who you were being kind to, since you could be kind to everyone. Hitch could be kind to ponies, so why not animals? Fluttershy did it. Sunny would tell him to do it.
Cloudpuff whined again, scratching at the stone beneath him. He kept looking at Hitch with some kind of admiration in his eyes, like he always did, as if he thought what he was doing was the best thing in the world.
Well, he had gotten this far… and he would get to see Zipp and Pipp again…
“Come on,” he decided. “Let’s get you home.”