Twilight took the last uncertain glance at her friends before she knocked on the door. “Fluttershy?” she called out gently. “Can we come in?”
Two days. It had been two days since the changelings’ attack. Most of Ponyville spent that time recovering and rebuilding, leaving the search for the defeated attackers to the guards sent by Princess Luna. Only a few ponies were interested in doing something else - searching for the one that had saved everypony.
However, even they had to give up quickly. Whatever Eon Guard truly was, he was nowhere within Ponyville’s limits. Coupled with the fact that he could turn invisible whenever he wanted, and shapeshift similarly to changelings, meant they would never find him… as long as he didn’t want be found.
When the realization came that Eon - for some reason - no longer wanted to be near them, Fluttershy took it hard. She had locked herself within her cottage and refused to let her friends in. They were forced to stand on her house’s doorstep, unable to leave her but not wanting to break into her home, and had to hear her cry. Her friends stayed until almost midnight before they left to go to their homes to rest. They came back the following morning.
There was no reply to Twilight’s question. The lavender unicorn sighed and looked down, feeling even worse than when she was inside the changelings’ cocoon.
“I should have told her about Celestia’s letter before all of this…” she muttered, angry at herself.
“Now, hold on there, sugarcube,” Applejack told her quietly. “What would tellin’ us that had changed?”
Shortly after Eon had defeated the changelings and run away, they all turned to Twilight to ask her what just happened. Twilight - as soon as she had recovered - had to disappoint them by saying that she had no idea what Eon was. She had never heard of such creature as him.
But she knew somepony who had.
Feeling that her mentor would understand why she disobeyed her, Twilight had told her friends about the context of the odd letter. The way Princess Celestia reacted to the news about the colt clearly meant that she somehow knew that he wasn’t a pony. Of course, that didn’t mean that the rest of the message began to make any more sense, but at least now they could hope that when the Princess would come back from Griffonia she would shed some light on Eon’s mystery.
However, that still didn’t change the fact that they couldn’t find him, and that he ran away from all of them… even from Fluttershy…
Looking back on the events of the day, Twilight had to admit that even if she had told her friends about the letter, it wouldn’t have changed anything, other than make her friends distrust the “pegasus”. It wouldn’t have affected Fluttershy, thought; it was clear from her crying that, despite knowing his true identity, she still loved him.
Twilight sighed, wishing there was something she could do. “You’re right,” she replied to Applejack’s words, “it wouldn’t have changed a thing. But maybe…”
“Saying ‘maybe’ has yet to help anypony,” Rarity said gently, trotting up to the door. She cleared her throat. “Fluttershy, dear,” the white unicorn tried her luck getting through to their hurt friend, “please let us in. I know that you don’t feel like talking with anypony, but we want to at least be there with you.”
The five ponies shared a look as they waited for response.
“Do you think she will ever come out?” Pinkie asked, her ears down. Twilight was not surprised to not hear her make any ‘crazy cat-lady’ joke this time. Even the pink party-pony had no desire to make any jokes at Fluttershy’s misery.
“Oh, she will,” Rainbow Dash muttered. “As soon as we find Eon, kick his tail, tie him up, kick his tail-”
“Ya already said that one, sugarcube,” Applejack pointed out.
“Yeah, well, he hurt Fluttershy, so there's going to be a lot of pain in store for him when I get my hooves on him.”
Rarity began to turn her head back to add something - Twilight judged by the cold in her eyes that it was along the lines of what Rainbow had said, but somewhat more… dangerous - but just then they heard a noise that they had lost hope to hear; the sound of the door opening.
The five ponies looked hopeful, but then felt downhearted when they saw not a yellow pegasus, but a white bunny behind the doors. It spoke of the gravity of the state Fluttershy was in that Angel bore nothing of his usual demeanor; his ears were laid down and he didn’t even look them in eyes. The bunny left the door open for them as he hopped back to the living room. The group shared another look before they followed Angel into the cottage.
Much to their relief, Fluttershy wasn’t crying anymore. She just laid on her couch in the living room, a blanket over her, obviously brought by Angel as the pegasus was hardly in a condition to take care of herself. The floor was covered by used tissues, and there was a few boxes of them standing on the table next to Fluttershy, half of which were already used up.
“Fluttershy?” Rarity called out gently as they trotted to her.
The pegasus stared with empty eyes at the space in front of her, but at the sound of Rarity’s voice she turned to her. Some life returned to her as she noticed that they were all there.
“Oh, hello girls,” she said with a sore voice; probably from all the crying. “Um… how long was I…”
Twilight winced at the state her friend was in as she heard her trail off like that. It was as if she had lost what made her a pony and was now reduced to this devastated creature.
“Just one day,” she replied, wondering what they could do to help her.
To her pleasant surprise, it seemed that she just did that. Fluttershy snapped, as her eyes fully conscious and she rose on her forelegs. “A whole day?!” she exclaimed. “Oh no… I- I need to feed my animal friends, I-”
She was cut off by Angel jumping up to stand on the couch next to her and shakes his head, and then pointed at his chest.
“Oh, you took care of everything?” Fluttershy asked, and looked fondly at her little friend. “Thank you, Angel, you’re the best.”
The white bunny jumped up on the couched and nuzzled the yellow pegasus at her side while she hugged him with a wing.
“Fluttershy…” Rarity started and then trailed off. Twilight caught the look of uncertainty the other unicorn shot her; how could they bring on the issue of Eon without making her erupt into tears once again? None of them knew that, so Rarity stammered as she continued: “Dear, um… how would you like to go for a walk?” she said, brightening up at the idea. “It would do you good to stretch out your legs, get some fresh air, and take your mind of… um, things.”
Fluttershy didn’t even cringe at Rarity’s slip; she just looked at her with those empty eyes, thoughtful. Finally, she nodded. “Yes, I would like that.”
“Splendid!” Rarity exclaimed cheerfully, and looked around at the group. “Now, Pinkie and Rainbow Dash can stay and clean up here a bit, while the rest of us-”
“Alone,” Fluttershy interrupted her. “I want to go alone… well, with Angel... if you don’t mind that is…”
Twilight and Rarity once again shared a look, but there was little that they could do. “Of course we don’t mind, darling,” Rarity replied, doing her best to not show her disappointment. “We’ll stay here, so if you’ll need us you can come right back… we’re here for you.”
“I know,” the pegasus said with a ghost of a smile. “Thank you girls… I won’t be long.”
With that said, the yellow mare rose from her couch with some difficulty, her muscles sore after lying there for so long, and headed towards her door, keeping her head low. Angel shook his sadly and followed her. The five ponies watched them go, refraining from making any comments until Fluttershy and Angel were out of earshot.
“Well, that’s an improvement,” Rainbow snorted. “Instead of sulking in her cottage, she’s sulking outside of her cottage now!”
“At least she’s not crying anymore, and up and about.” Rarity countered. “I think that’s some progress.”
“Yeah, I suppose. But I don’t get why she’s so down about Eon. I mean, he wasn’t even a pony!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed. “He was some sort of… giant birdy-thingy! Shouldn’t she be more ‘ewwed’ than heartbroken?”
“It’s true that he might not be a pony, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t an intelligent creature,” Twilight said as she began to levitate the used tissues up from the floor. “All the time he was in a body of a pony he acted like one, albeit a very shy one. I wonder why he came to Ponyville in the first place… oh, and ‘ewwed’ is not a word.”
“Egghead.”
Twilight was about to reply to the comment, but Rarity cut her off. “Now, on the more important matters,” the white unicorn started, looking at Rainbow Dash, “I don’t think it’s safe to leave Fluttershy completely alone. Would you mind going after her?”
“You mean ‘follow her’?” the pegasus asked with a raised eyebrow.
“No, I mean ‘go after her and make sure she’ll be alright while staying out of sight’,” Rarity replied. “‘Follow’ is such a crude word.”
Rainbow just facehoofed, muttered under her breath something, and flew out the door. Twilight sighed with relief; the thought of somepony keeping an eye on Fluttershy was calming, to say the least.
“Okay, let’s clean this place up a bit,” she said, trying to be cheerful. “Oh, and Rarity, why don’t you start the kettle up, so when they’ll get back we could have some tea?”
The other unicorn nodded and went to the kitchen, while Applejack and Pinkie Pie joined Twilight in tidying up.
With one last sad glance at her, Eon had disappeared…
No matter how hard she tried, Fluttershy couldn’t chase away that image from her head, the last moment when she saw the pony who had taken her heart.
“Except he wasn’t a pony…” a little voice reminded her quietly.
Looking back at the two-three days she knew him, Fluttershy felt that Eon’s identity as a non-pony should have been obvious to her. The way he acted, resembling more of animals than ponies; his odd body temperature; what he had written, that company of ponies was making him nervous; how on the day that she met him, he seemed to want to leave Ponyville… but then…
Fluttershy wanted to cry as the memories of the second night flowed into her mind, but it seemed as if her eyes depleted all her tears already. Her heart ached when she remembered Eon lying next to her, kissing her, licking, touching her. Despite now knowing that he wasn’t a pony, she didn’t felt repulsed at all by those memories, of his breath on her coat, of his smell… Whatever he was, to her, he was still Eon. It wasn’t as if his true form was horrifying or disgusting. To Fluttershy, he looked magnificent, still retaining the features she was more familiar with... and still handsome.
“But why did he leave?” she muttered for about a thousandth time as she trotted through the meadow on the edge of Ponyville.
Angel Bunny, who hopped next to her, shook his head sadly. He didn’t know an answer either.
Looking at him, Fluttershy once again wallowed up in memories; how Eon saved him from a manticore…
The sound of a panicked chirrup managed to break her out of her thoughts. Surprised, she looked around, and saw several of her small bird friends that lived around Ponyville hover around her. All of them looked spooked… no. Panicked.
“What is it?” Fluttershy immediately asked as two of them began to pull her by her mane. The need to help them pushed back her despair for some other time to remind of itself. “What’s wrong? Do you want me to follow you?”
The birds twittered affirmatively, letting go of her mane and flying off. Fluttershy was about to jump into the air after them, but she hesitated when she saw in what direction they flew to: into the Everfree Forest.
“Oh…” she muttered, about to turn back, but then she shook herself.
“What is wrong with me? Those birds need my help, and I’m about to leave them? Just because they’re going to the… scary… old forest? He… he wouldn’t do that…” she thought, remembering Eon. “He was brave; he fought off the entire changeling army…”
With a deep breath, she picked up Angel, put him on her back, and flew after the birds. Praying whatever it was that they wanted from her, it wouldn’t require her to fly too deep into the forest.
To her relief, her wish came true. The birds descended shortly after passing Everfree’s borders, heading for a small clearing that Fluttershy knew to have a small pond in it. She looked ahead as she followed them, anxious to see what the problem was.
Her eyes snapped wide open when she saw a big form lying next to the pond. A form that she recognized, despite not being the one that she grew familiar with during those three days they spend together.
“Eon!” she called out as she hastened, afraid that he would disappear again. “Whatever I did, I’m sorry, please don’t leave again, I love-”
As she reached him, she paused; Eon was unresponsive to all her calls. In fact, the giant kinda-bird didn’t even look her way. Fluttershy flew above him to land next to his odd muzzle. His eyes were closed, so at first she assumed he was sleeping. However, the worried chirrup of the birds around them caused her to look more carefully.
His still familiar features of his muzzle were twisted in pain, and he was barely breathing.
“Eon!!!” she screeched, fear gripping her heart. She placed a hoof to his head; he was burning up. With tears swelling up in her eyes, she called out as loudly as possible: “Somepony, help!!!”