//------------------------------//
// Chapter One 
// Story: Detour While Delivering Binks' Sake 
// by LucidTech 
//------------------------------//

        A yellow pegasus’s steps carried her deeply through the dark atmosphere of the everfree, each step careful and hesitant. Once again her mind danced over the constant urge of running out of the forest and back to the safety of her small cottage. Yet, much like the last time the idea had crossed her mind, she forced herself onward. The reason for her sudden trip to the dark woods was simple enough and it was tied closely to the set of signs she carried on her back. A few animals that had made their homes within the trees had told her about a new plant that had taken over a large part of the forest and then stopped at the edge of a lake. The plants were slightly magical and would draw the life force out of anything they grasped.

        Worried for the animals within, the cream colored pegasus had immediately crafted her wooden warnings and had set out for the ravaged part of the forest where the deadly plants thrived, so that she could save as many animals from the monstrous plants as she could, she just hoped that she would be able to keep herself together if she saw a corpse or a skeleton. 

 These were the events that had led the pegasus to the shore of the lake where she could see the dark plants sitting on the other side of the body of water. She was tired from her walk and she was about to lay down to rest when shouts arose from the thicket of plants. Adrenaline flooded her body and her weariness was forgotten as Fluttershy took to the air, beating her wings furiously as she bee-lined over the lake toward the plants to help whatever was calling for help. 

In her haste however the mare forgot to be wary of the lake. After travelling about three quarters of the length of the lake a beast emerged speedily from the water. Though it was too far to the right to hit the mare directly, it hit her wing, causing the pony’s flight path to alter and sending her careening toward the dirt at the other end of the lake. With her wing power gone on one side of her body Fluttershy crashed, milling up a fair amount of dirt as she hit the bank.

Weakly, the mare raised her gaze. The screaming had stopped, a soft tune filling the air in it’s place, and the plants had now started to encroach toward her. Her heart beat quickly as her fate approached, she was looking around for something to help her get up, but she found the pain from her crash to be unbearable. With a shuddering gasp the mare accepted her fate, tears rolling down her face.

In retrospect she should’ve asked one of her friends to come along with her, but she had been too shy to do so. Each had been busy with their own tasks, and she hadn’t wanted to bother them. It was a horrible thing for the young mare to face her likely demise so early in her life. Fear ran through her body as the noises of squirming plant life encroached closer, her tears increasing in frequency as they did so. 

Her tears continued for a moment longer before she realized that the noises were getting softer and further away, having been replaced with an odd splashing noise. After a silent moment of self-encouragement the mare managed to convince herself to open her eyes. As soon as she had done so, a stray splash of water hit her in the eye. She gave off a squeak in response and closed her eyes on instinct.

She froze. Water? How had water splashed into her eyes? Opening her eyes to a sliver to get a better view the mare was shocked still. She was on the back of... something... and it was carrying her over the water in a blur of black, white, and orange, a song coming from it’s body as it moved over the blue liquid below, the tune accented by the repeating pattern of it's four appendages hitting the surface and darting over it. She tried to look toward the head of her savior but her vision was obscured by a large collection of black hair. It would have been slightly less shocking had it been a pegasus who was carrying her, their light bone structure would allow their wings to lift them and even treading water they could get some speed. But whatever was carrying her had no wings, and she saw no magic affecting either of them.

Looking back toward the water she suddenly realized that not only was this creature carrying her over the lake, but it was moving so fast that the creatures under the surface couldn’t attack them correctly. Silent in awe, Fluttershy watched the creatures beneath try and line up for a run at them only to pull off when they couldn’t get a good angle. After a while though, their speed began to slow and the combined weight of the duo began to lower into the water.

The song from the creature began to speed up but it was clear that even after it had carried them more than halfway across the lake it couldn’t cross the rest of the distance. With new determination to help her new friend the pegasus spread her wings wide, flinching slightly at the pain, and wrapped her hooves around her savior. Surprisingly that was no hard task, her hooves meeting with space to spare, it was like she was grabbing a stick.

With a flap of her wings the pegasus lifted them out of the water just enough that the odd thing could once again run at full speed. She maintained the altitude for as long as she could, holding the thing up just enough so that it could provide the momentum. After what seemed like an eternity to the weary pair they reached the end of the lake.

Fluttershy gratefully fell to the ground, her breath heaving as she recovered from her exertion. With a smile the mare looked toward the one who had saved her, but she froze when she saw it’s face. A horse skull stared back at her, a large top hat adorning it’s head as a black afro flared off behind it. It stood taller even than Celestia and was dressed in a suit coat with an odd blue neck adornment. The stillness held in the air until at last the creature broke the tension.

“A pegasus! I think my stomach just dropped. Oh... but I’m a skeleton so I don’t have a stomach. YOHOHOHO SKULL JOKE!”

And then... Fluttershy passed out.

((A/N: First off, brook has four legs now which means more power. Secondly, I'm going with sparrow bone pegasus idea, so fluttershy is pretty light herself.

Secondly, it's important to note that, when it comes to any critiques on this piece of work, I DON'T CARE! MWAHAHAHA.))