Fluttershy's eye's were red and wet. Her friends had explained the situation to her, in a calm controlled manner, which is to say that it was panicked and not calm in the slightest, that they had fought and quite possibly killed her new friend. The truth had hit her hard and she had just stared at them for a while, tears forming. The silence in the room was deafening, and the tension could have been cut by a spoon. Her friends all assumed Fluttershy was about to cry, but decided to go down the route of anger instead.
“Get out.” Fluttershy's voice was stern, but still soft.
“What?” her five dumbfounded friends said in unison.
“GET OUT!!!!” Fluttershy was in full rage mode. “You, you bullies!”
“Fluttershy, calm down.” Rainbow Dash's expression was incredulous. “You gotta believe me, that creep was about to make a meal out of you!”
“Oh, I'm sorry,” Fluttershy shrunk for a moment, but then her momentum was back. “No, wait, I'm not sorry! Just because somepony looks a little different or acts a little different doesn't mean they're bad! You, you big meanies!”
Most of her friends were hanging their heads in shame, Pinkie Pie was sniffling, but not Rainbow Dash, she was getting angry right back at her.
“Look! I know that you like hanging around with bears or,... whatever!,” Rainbow Dash said incredulously. “ But not every creature is cute and cuddly! That..that thing was going to eat you! I saw it with my own eyes! Heck, he nearly killed us!”
“If he was going to eat me, then why did he save me?” Fluttershy said defensively, anger still present.
“Maybe he was saving you for later!” Rainbow dash said indignantly, throwing her hooves in the air for emphasis. “Maybe he wanted to cook you up first!”
“But didn't you say he was about to eat me while I wasn't cooked?!” Fluttershy yelled back.
“Yeah, well, maybe he got tired of waiting, you don't know! All I know is that you should be thanking us for saving your life, not getting hung up over some, some big dumb monster!” Rainbow Dash was breathing heavily, but the room had gone quiet. All the ponies were terrified of the tension and were not moving an inch. Fluttershy's eyes widened, and Rainbow Dash finally winched in the face of kindness.
“...n..now shy....” Rainbow Dash, not quite as confident as before, attempted backing away, slowly.
“Get out.” Fluttershy said simply. Rainbow dash didn't need told twice. She moved for the door.
“O-okay shy, maybe you need some time to cool down, but I'm not admitting I'm wrong here!” Fluttershy huffed steam out of her nose and Rainbow was off. The rest of her friends Mumbled their apologies to Fluttershy as they left, not daring to look her in the eye. Soon, all that was left in the room was Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and Angel. Fluttershy just sat there, cradling a rather startled Angel, not looking at her friend.
“F-fluttershy?” The pink Mare said tentatively. Fluttershy's sharp gaze turned towards her, but pinkie wasn't looking at her, she was looking at the floor. “I-I didn't mean to hurt one of your friends....I just, I thought that he was trying to hurt you and so did Twilight and all the others, we thought you were in danger and we tried to save you, and I'm really sorry and....and....”
Pinkie Pie was crying now, and Fluttershy's face struggled to stay stern. Dmitri' could be dead now, but,....she knew that her friends didn't mean to hurt him, even though Dash was just being a bit of a meanie. But she couldn't keep herself mad, not at such a sad looking Pinkie.
“Pinkie...” Pinkie Pie looked up from the floor to Fluttershy's face. Not being able to be mad, and not being able to be happy, Fluttershy decided to join the pity party and just be sad. The premiere party pony of Ponyville was great at throwing all kinds of parties, and while she tried to avoid pity parties, she still knew her way around one.
The two mares and the little bunny named angel came together in a crying hug that lasted for a quite a while.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Dmitri' sat down on a log in the middle of the Everfree. He was downtrodden, and sad. His Journal, which he'd had enchanted long ago to survive nearly anything, lay open before him, and on the page was a list. This list started with pony, then moved onto beaver, rabbit, chipmunk, moose, birds, mice, manticores, dogs, and turtles. Dmitri's stomach growled, and he pulled a piece of bark full of nuts and berries he'd collected after he found out the horrible truth of this world. Through investigation and his sense of smell, he knew them not to be poisonous, and his immediate danger of starving was relieved. Still, he knew that he would need meat sooner or later to be able to keep on going....but...his options were running thin if he wanted to find something non-sentient.
Dmitri' groaned, he wished he could just go home! The place where animals didn't talk, where it was perfectly acceptable to eat those who hit you, where the rules were simpler....but no, he couldn't leave just yet, after all, he was the keeper of the sacred object of the Trolls, and returning without it...well.... that wasn't even a consideration. He'd be welcomed back with or without it, but the honor of his family wouldn't survive, and a Troll without honor,....well, that was just unheard of. Seriously, unheard of, no songs sung of your exploits, no stories told of your deeds. It was like you didn't exist in Troll society, and Dmitri' wouldn't do that to his family, he would die of starvation first.
“Vell...I had better find a place to stay...” Dmitri' said with a sigh. His thoughts turned to what sort of structure he could make in these woods, after all the Everfree was probably where the stick had landed....even though he'd lost track of it....a place near the river would be nice, a source of fresh water easily accessible. Perhaps his new river dwelling friend would know where he could make his base camp.
It had only been a day since Steven Magnet had met Dmitri' the troll, and he was already missing the company. Steven was doing a little bit of fancying up in a mirror, as there wasn't really anything else for him to do really. Though earlier, he had socialized a little with a passing group of minotaur merchants, if you could call that socializing.
They'd wanted to know directions to the Gryphon kingdom, and he'd told them of two different routes, one dangerous route through the Manticore nesting areas, and one relatively safe route that would make them walk around the edge of the Everfree forest. They'd chosen to go with their carts down the Manticore ridden route, believing themselves to be able to handle it. Two hours later, the group returned without their carts, but with substantially more scratches adorning their bodies. Hey, at least they'd all come back alive.
Steven stopped fussing with the purple half of his mustache, and instead found himself with a nice surprise.
“Oh, Dmitri'! How wonderful!” The purple sea serpent said with a flourish. “And here I was, about to put the tea on!”
“Vould love a cup, Steven,” Dmitri' said with a smile.
“So,” Steven said, smirking as he pulled an overly huge kettle out of the water out of the river, then a giant bag of tea leaves. “How was your first day in a new place?”
“Oh, it vas eventful, let me tell you,” Dmitri' said with a groan. Dmitri' than proceeded to go into great depth and detail of his adventures in the Everfree. Steven laughed at the appropriate bits, and even showed surprise at the talking beaver.
“Personally, I've never met a beaver who could talk, or a rabbit, or any of those animals you mentioned.” Steven said with a chuckle. “But it certainly is interesting.”
“Dah, is word for it,” Dmitri' said low growl. “Still, seems like I vill be here for a vhile, so, I vas vondering, do you know of a place around here that I could maybe stay? A cave near a forest clearing vould be nice.”
“Oh, a drab old cave, no, that will simply not do!” Steven Magnet said waving his arms for dramatic effect. “I have just the right place in mind, and I think you'll just love it!”
Fluttershy was back in her cottage. She'd been allowed to go home the next day, and she'd talked to her friends, save Rainbow Dash. She knew she would forgive them, after all it was the kind thing to do. But she still needed some time. Angel had noticed that Fluttershy was feeling badly, so he tried to help his momma in any way he could. She was still sad about Dmitri', because at this point, she couldn't help but feel that he was hurt or dead, and that it was her fault. She knew that logically it wasn't her fault, but she still felt that way.
The night bathed the land in peaceful slumber, and most of her animals had gone to bed. Fluttershy couldn't sleep, so she just sat there with a cup of carrot juice, sipping lightly. She just couldn't stop thinking about Dmitri', and that she was the cause of his peril. She sniffed silently, and a single tear fell into her carrot juice. It was odd, she thought that she was all cried out, but maybe she had a few tears left in her after all.
There was a knock at Fluttershy's door, and she looked up surprised. She hadn't expected any visitors, especially since she was still mad at all of her friends. She went over and opened it, but found that there was nopony there.
A shiver went down her spine, and Fluttershy felt that something....wrong was watching her. She shut her front door as fast as she could, and pulled herself together on the couch with Angel held tightly in her hooves. She didn't know what it was that had scared her, but she didn't feel, right at the moment. After a few minutes, the feeling passed, but not without a lingering feeling of something not....right...something not natural.
“I-it's alright....” Fluttershy said to Angel with a nervous smile. “It's probably nothing.”
Angel nestled a little further into her chest fur, before silently settling down. The little cottage at the end of town had never seemed so isolated in her life.
Sleep came with difficulty that night, but Fluttershy eventually succumbed to it, though her dreams, if they could be called that, were a pony of a different color. Fluttershy found herself in an ethereal darkness surrounding her, filled with far off lights, each one it's own world. There were floating bits of earthen debris all around her. There were crystals, and besides them the remnants of a million million destroyed worlds. Fluttershy didn't know how she knew any of this, only that what she knew was true.
She began walking forward, and when she looked down, she realized she was walking on a bridge made of light, and in fact that bridges similar to hers seemed to go in every which direction. They seemed to go between the dots of light, between the worlds. But then there was a noise, similar to the screeching of a bat, but Fluttershy's trained ears could hear the difference, well... assuming that her dream self had ears. Some sort of creatures were here, something....something not right, not altogether natural.
Fluttershy was coming up to a large amount of debris that had been fashioned together into some sort of makeshift floating city, or continent, she really couldn't tell. The area seemed devoid of life, nothing, just abandoned structures. She didn't know how long she lingered there amongst the abandoned city, but the screeching noise came back, faint as it was. Fluttershy looked around frantically for the source of the noise, but once again, it faded away, and she was left to wander.
But she didn't get to wander far. The pathway slowly began to collapse around her, culminating in a pile of broken rubble and glass. This place seemed far to empty for what it was. The shadows themselves seemed to envelope Fluttershy, and soon she wanted to scream, but she couldn't, something was stopping her. She began to panic, and hyperventilate, looking for anyway out of the darkness she'd fallen into. Finally, above her, she began to feel the flap of a gigantic creature's wings, and she saw three large red eyes, shining down upon her. The last thing she heard was an earth-shattering screech, louder and more high pitched than any of the noise she'd heard before. The eyes encompassed Fluttershy's small form, and the screeching reached a crescendo...
“SKEEEEEEYAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!”
As Fluttershy awoke, scared out of her mind, so to miles away in Canterlot did Luna awake with a start. Something was wrong, and she didn't know what. Still weak from her return, she wasn't completely in tune with the dreams of her subjects, but there was a big enough disturbance that she could feel that something was wrong. Her body had a cold sweat, but her mind was blank of the whole encounter, save that it made her feel very wrong inside, as if something didn't belong to the natural order of things had found its way into Equestria.
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“So, Dmitri' do I have good taste, or do I have good taste?” Steven Magnet said with a chuckle. Dmitri' looked over at the structure that he'd been led too. It was true, it was roomy, and Dmitri' did love old architecture and buildings.
“Has nice bones...” Dmitri' mumbled under his breath. Besides, even though it was old, abandoned, and rough around the edges, Dmitri' had always wanted to live in a castle.