//------------------------------//
// Reunion 
// Story: 500 X 7 
// by CHeighlund 
//------------------------------//

        At the knocking on the library door, Twilight called out.  “Spike, would you please go get that?”
        “Sure thing, Twi.” From the second floor, Twilight could hear his footsteps as the baby dragon bounded across to greet their guest.  “Welcome to the Golden Oa-oa-oa… ha.  Ha.  Ha-ha.  Ha-ha-ha-hanh…”  
Twilight looked up in confusion as Spike’s voice went from cheerful, to disbelieving, to a strange sad-sounding tone.  “Spike, is everything okay?”
“T...Twilight, get down here - I think we’re being haunted.”
“Haunted?”  Twilight bounded down the stairs.  “Spike, what do you mean by…”  She froze at the sight of the mare in the door.  “Fl… Fluttershy?  Fluttershy, is that really you?”
“Um, I think I’m really me.  I remember being me, and I don’t recall being anypony else.”  The butter-yellow pegasus shrugged.  “Is there some reason I shouldn’t be me?”
Gingerly, Spike reached over and tapped at her legs.  Finding them solid, he threw himself into them, gripping her in a desperate hug.  “You’re here… you’re really here, you’re not a hallucination, you’re not a ghost, it’s really you…”
Twilight wasn’t too far behind him, her own hooves grasping Fluttershy’s barrel with equal intensity.  “Fluttershy, I can’t believe this!  I mean, I have to, because I’m seeing you with my own eyes, but...Shy, we thought you were dead!  After that blast of magic hit you, all we could find was the tips of some feathers and a bit of hair!  How did you survive?  What happened to you?”
“I… I don’t know.  I remember trying to throw Spike to safety, and then a very bright light, and I think I blacked out.  When I woke up, I was resting on the dirt somewhere with a sore wing.  After that, Seri and Seef found me, and they took care of me until I was well enough to start back home.  I’m sorry it took me so long to get back.”
“Please, Fluttershy.  Tell me whatever you can about your trip.”
“I’ll try.  Um, could you let go of me, Twilight?  It’s getting a bit hard to breathe.”
“Oh...oh!”  Twilight stepped back, freeing Fluttershy from the death-grip hug.  “Sorry.  Now go on, please.”
Fluttershy nodded.  “It happened like this.”

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        “Ah, our fair guest is wakening up.  How do you feeling, little flier-pony?”
        Fluttershy looked upwards.  Standing above her was a brown stallion with blackish-gray mane and tail.  She couldn’t see his cutie mark, but she could see that, unless her eyes were playing tricks on her, he was one of the biggest ponies she’d ever seen,  almost the size of the princesses.  And he had an expectant look on his face.
        “Um, I’m sorry.  I’m afraid I don’t know who you are, or where I am.”
        The stallion reared back. “My sorry, little one. I am being called Seef… in your tongue, I trusting it means rock-made?  Forgiving, please; I sorrying if my talking is not so good; it is rare that I have even those who talking my Arabian tongue, let alone others.”
        Fluttershy shook her head.  “Oh, that’s all right.  You’re speaking Equestrian very well, actually.  Um, it’s a little unusual, but not much.”  She then pulled her hoof to her mouth.  “Oh, I’m sorry too!  You told me your name, and I didn’t tell you mine.  I’m Fluttershy.”
        “Much goodness and thanks do I giving, then, little Fluttershy.  My companion was finding you in the wilderness, and she was having me bring you to this place to recovering.”  He turned aside.  Fluttershy couldn’t tell what he said next, as it wasn’t in Equestrian, but he turned back to her.  “Little Seri-heart is come to seeing you.”
        Fluttershy watched as something bounded into the room.  At first glance, it looked like a yellow rabbit, a bit smaller than her own Angel-bunny, but then the bouncing creature stopped and she got a good look at it.  She’d missed one detail - the yellow ‘bunny’ in front of her had a black horn on it, almost like a unicorn’s horn.
        “Seri-heart, this is Fluttershy. Fluttershy, please meeting Seri-heart.  It is she who has been keeping you warmth through the nights.”
        “Oh, she’s beautiful.  What kind of creature is she?  I’ve never seen anything like her before.”
        Seef laughed.  “She is being an almiraj, little Fluttershy.”

        Fluttershy spent a week recuperating with Seef and Seri, helping Seef to work on his Equestrian and learning Arabian in return, and at the end of that time, she thought she was ready to try heading back to civilization.  Seef loaded her down with as much food and water as he could spare for her, but the real surprise was when she headed to the door.  Seri stood in front of it, looking up, and Seef looked at the almiraj, then back to Fluttershy.  “She wants to go with you, little Fluttershy.  She tells me you need her protections on the way.”  He shook his head.  “Be taking her, little one.  Otherwise, she will follow anyway and may come to hurt.”
        Fluttershy looked at the almiraj’s planative face, and nodded.  “Come along then, Seri-bunny.  I bet Angel-bunny would just love to meet you.”

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        Spike broke in.  “Wait, you brought a, a bunnicorn back with you?”
        Fluttershy nodded, but Twilight glared at him.  “Let her finish her story, Spike.”
        “Oh, I’m sorry, Twilight.  There’s really not that much to tell after that.  Two days after I left Seef’s house, we came into one of the smaller towns in Saddle Arabia, and from there I just kept going until I made it to the border.  After I crossed into Equestria again, I thought about trying to get a letter back to you, but I decided I could probably make it back just as fast as a letter could.  Again, I’m sorry it took me so long.”
        “I don’t care how long it took, Fluttershy.  But we do need to tell the other girls… they’ll want to know you’re back.  It’s just so good to see you again!”