Once Upon a Fluttershy
Quartum 19, 1409 AN
24:05
Fluttershy tilted her head to the side, eyes locked on the enormous tree. Her ear twitched a bit, as Hummingway shifted, and she took another cautious step forward. There was something very different now, she decided; the whole area seemed more alive than it ever had been, and the tree itself was thriving. “Do you think they’ve finally brought it online?” she asked. A chorus of chirps and twitters answered her, and she nodded in satisfaction. “I thought so, too. That’s very good. It would have been so sad if they’d just let it lie fallow after all that work.”
The tree had been there for two years now, steadily growing under the watchful, if invisible, care of its development systems. The yellow pegasus had taken it on herself to also keep watch, although no one had approached her or asked her to. She didn’t figure they would mind. At least, she hoped they wouldn’t. She’d been very careful not to actually approach the sapling, and no one had ever objected to her taking her regular peeks to check on its progress.
The time it took hadn’t really bothered her; after all, real trees took much, much longer to grow, and completely new systems and programs often took years or decades to come to completion. What had bothered her was when all the development activity just suddenly stopped a week ago. She’d worried that it had been abandoned. But now … well. That didn’t seem to be an issue.
A tug on her mane caught her attention, and she looked down into the eyes of her bunny. “What is it, Angel?” she asked, and he pointed, directly at – “Oh my goodness! Is that Rainbow Dash?” She squinted, zooming her optics to take a better look. “It is! When did she get back? And who’s that with her?”
Her attention shifted to the other pony. She was a unicorn mare, with a lavender coat and purple mane with a distinctive pink streak, and for a cutie mark, a purple six pointed star with a pink shadow, and five small white stars arrayed around the main one. “I’ve never seen her before. She must be new in town. I wonder who she is?”
She took a tentative step forward, cocking her head as Rainbow laughed and ruffled the unicorn’s mane, before flying off, and watched the unicorn turn toward the tree and walk up to the door. “Oh. She must be in charge of the tree then. That makes us neighbors, doesn’t it, Angel?” The bunny rolled his eyes and tugged at his ear, looking at her expectantly.
“Well. It’s good that it’s being taken care of,” she said, nodding, and turned to leave. “Come on, Angel, we should go.” A chorus of chirps brought her up short, and she turned, gasping. “Angel! Angel, no!” The bunny, blast his wilful ways, was already halfway to the door. Wings flaring, she raced after him, praying she could catch him before-
She screeched to a halt as the door opened in response to Angel’s thunderous kick, the unicorn staring at her with a puzzled expression. Oh dear. This wasn’t how she’d wanted this to go at all. “Um … hello there!” the other pony said. “I wasn’t expecting a vis- ow!”
“Angel!” Fluttershy cried. The rabbit had leapt, as only he could do, landed on the poor unicorn’s head, and fled into the tree. “Oh my goodness, I’m so sorry. Are you okay?”
The unicorn shook herself, and blinked. “Um, yes, but what was-” A crash from behind her brought her whirling about, eyes and nostrils flaring, to rush towards the sound, and Fluttershy followed, mentally berating both rabbit and herself. But mostly herself.
She came to a halt in mid air, gaping at the sight before her: towering cases filled with rows upon rows of books, built into the very walls of the tree itself, and the mark of the system on every surface. This was a place built by the Sisters themselves, or at least mandated by them, which meant that this was a very important pony indeed. And Angel had gone and scattered books all over the place. This was not turning out to be a good day.
-oOo-
“I’m so sorry about that,” Fluttershy said, her hoof pressed gently but firmly on Angel’s head, to make sure he didn’t go anywhere. “I just don’t know what came over him.” She wanted to say that he wasn’t usually like this, but, well … that wasn’t exactly true.
“It’s alright. There was no harm done, after all,” the unicorn said, floating the last of the books back into its slot. “It was just a little surprising. He has a powerful kick for such a small animal.”
“Oh, well, yes, rabbits do have very strong hind legs.”
The unicorn gave a sudden gasp, and wheeled around to stare at Fluttershy, who shrank back, alarmed. “I just realized! You’re my first visitor!” she cried, and whipped herself back around to face the row of books. “Well, except for Rainbow Dash, but she was with me when I first got here so I don’t know if she really counts, but in any case I didn’t have the chance to do it right! Ah-hah!” she said, lighting on a particular title and floating it out from the case.
Fluttershy blinked, watching in mute confusing as the unicorn flipped though the book’s pages. Her first visitor? That made sense, the tree hadn’t been open last time she had checked, just last week. But why was that so important? “Right!” the unicorn said, and slammed the book shut, making Fluttershy jump. “Tea!”
There was a short silence, and purple pony’s smile faded, head, ears, and tail drooping. “I don’t have any tea. Wait!” In the blink of an eye, she was up again, the lines of her body expressing a kind of manic energy that Fluttershy was used to seeing only in Pinkie Pie. “Semper! Do we have any way we can get tea?”
“Affirmative, Bibliothecaria.” Fluttershy blinked, wondering why the unicorn had just answered herself, then squeaked and ducked as dozens of lavender stars flew from the walls to form a somewhat larger than life model of the unicorn’s head. “Do you have a preference?”
The unicorn blinked, brow furrowing in puzzlement, and looked over at Fluttershy. Was she looking for an answer from her? Oh dear. What did she know about tea? Rarity would know. Rarity did know. What had she used? Right. “U-um,” she said, and coughed, forcing herself to be louder. “Earl Grey?”
“Acknowledged,” the starry head said, and two cups of tea appeared on the table, steam slowly curling its way up toward the vaulted ceiling. The unicorn walked over to her cup, and looked down at it with a curious expression.
“So that’s tea. And the question of preference would indicate the existence of multiple options, which would suggest multiple flavors. Interesting.” She took a sip, her expression analytical, and then took another. “Very interesting.”
The unicorn’s found hers, and for a moment, they stared at each other, frozen in a moment of awkwardness. “Oh dear,” the unicorn said, letting the cup fall back down to the plate. “I’ve done this all wrong. I forgot about introductions.” She was slumping again, ears and tail drooping, and looked like nothing so much as a sad child. And then it clicked.
“O-oh, no,” Fluttershy said, “don’t worry! You’re doing a lot better than I usually do!” It made sense, of course; a brand new person to go with something brand new. She had to be young. Very young. It just made sense.
“Really?” the unicorn said, immediately perking up. Oh yes. Very young. Fluttershy nodded, smiling gently.
“Really.”
“Still, I could have done that better. I’m Twilight Sparkle. Designation TSparkle.ai,” the unicorn said, extending her hoof.
“Fluttershy. Designation FShy.ai,” Fluttershy said, and bumped her hoof against Twilight’s. “We’re neighbors.”
“Really? You live out here?”
Fluttershy nodded. “My house is just at the border of the forest, actually.”
“Wow! Then we should be seeing a fair bit of each other.”
“Oh, yes.” Fluttershy leaned forward, to take a sip of the tea. As she thought, it was just a basic representation. “U-um, if you don’t mind me asking, how do you know Rainbow Dash?”
“Oh! You know her? It seems like she knows everybody in Everfree.”
Fluttershy giggled. “Maybe not everybody. That’s Pinkie Pie, more.”
Twilight raised an eyebrow, her expression full of curiositiy. “Who’s Pinkie Pie?”
“Oh, well, I’m maybe not the best one to explain. You’ll meet her eventually. Everyone does.”
“Alright. Well, let’s see. Rainbow dash found me, really …”
This was actually turning out to be a pretty good day.