Faun

by PresentPerfect

Faun

Crying brought the smelly dogs. They were made of trees, and when he cried, they would come and try to hurt him. Once, he had feared them and would run away from them as fast as he could, clunk-slap-slap-thunk. But now, whenever he saw their yellow eyes or smelled their breath on the wind, he would reach down into all of his hurt and give it to them. He would give them his hurt until they left. They always came back.

It was a good thing, then, that he never ran out of hurt. It was all he had to keep him company, besides his dreams.

Dreams confused him. They weren't things that really happened, but he could remember them. They told him about a place where people like him, lots of people, lived in stone boxes. They laughed and sang songs. If they cried, or if they hurt, others were there to comfort them. It was a place he wanted to go to.

The only place he knew that was full of stone boxes was the village outside the forest, and there were no people like him there. The creatures that lived in the village cried when they saw him, and so he stayed in the forest. Sometimes he cried too, when he thought about them.

Crying only brought the smelly dogs. He was hurting them now, hitting with his sloppy arm and bucking with his strong leg, and all the while he was crying. There were more of the dogs than there were of him, and their breath and his tears made it hard to see. One of the dogs hurt him on his strong arm, but he hurt it until it went away. He hurt the other one, too, and then they both left.

He was alone.

The hurt the smelly dog had given him was different from his usual hurt. He wanted to cry again, but he knew the dogs would only return. He should go and see the striped one. She sometimes helped him with his hurts or his hunger. But night was falling, and she didn't like him coming at night. She would cry or say nothing and he would be alone. He didn't know which way her tree was anyway.

He was, however, close to the edge of the forest. The half-light was coming in through the trees and he thought he smelled grass. His arm hurt. All of him hurt.

They would cry if he came. But he would cry if he didn't go. He would have to pretend. Pretend that others like him wanted to sing songs. Pretend that he saw his mother just behind a tree. Pretend that the hurt the smelly dogs gave him didn't matter. He would have to pretend, and leave the forest.

So with a clump-slap-slap-thunk, he wormed his body out of the dark forest and into the light of day.

"Lyra, sweetie, have you ever maybe thought about maybe having foals someday maybe, hmm?"

It was the languid way in which Bon-Bon rolled out her question that caused Lyra's delayed reaction. When react she did, it involved spraying a large portion of warm coffee over the living room carpet.

"Foals?" She sputtered and coughed, wiping her mouth and staring open-mouthed at Bon-Bon, who flipped through a magazine. "Are you serious?"

"Well, you know, I was just thinking about it lately is all." She didn't look up from her magazine.

Wiping the last of the coffee on her fetlock, Lyra moved from the couch to the chair and pressed her head under the magazine, staring up at Bon-Bon. Her eyes widened, as though she were trying to bore holes into Bon-Bon with them, and she spoke in a low murmur.

"You can't be serious."

"Of course I'm serious!" Bon-Bon put the magazine down. "I'm not saying we have to have any now, of course, it's just thinking out loud. You know."

"Bon." Lyra's eyes continued to widen. "You know you need a stallion to do that, don't you? You need a stallion. And this is a thing that you know about."

"Yes, sweetie, I know." Bon-Bon clicked her tongue, eyes rolling. "I only brought it up because Minuette said she was trying a spell of some kind, so I thought maybe we could talk to Twilight Sparkle over in the library. She knows all kinds of spells, you know."

Lyra made the sound one produces while sucking all the air from a room.

"You can't just ask a princess things like that!"

Bon-Bon met her with a level gaze. "She's still a librarian."

"You can't just treat a princess like a librarian!" Lyra fell onto her back, still wide-eyed. "She's a princess of... princessing! And babies are a very touchy subject, I should know!"

Bon-Bon covered her mouth while Lyra punctuated her speech with jabs of her hooves.

"If you go asking her about stuff like that, she is going to get offended--" another hoof-jab-- "and banish us to somewhere like New Jersey!"

"She's not going to banish us over a simple question, Lyra." Bon-Bon stood from her chair and stepped over Lyra. "And it's Moo Jersey. You're doing that thing again."

She closed her eyes and pressed her lips to Lyra's. Lyra's eyes widened, then relaxed, then widened again as the kiss continued. By the time it stopped, Lyra was gasping for air.

"What was that for? I thought you said I was doing the thing. The thing is usually bad."

Bon-Bon giggled. "You were. But you were also being cautious for once in your life. I think maybe you're ready to be a mom."

"A mom?" Lyra blinked as Bon-Bon hauled her to her hooves. "I thought you were gonna be the mom. I'm gonna be the awesome dad!"

"Nothing says I have to be the mother, sweetheart." Bon-Bon wrapped her hooves around Lyra's neck. "Haven't you ever wanted to have a foal yourself?"

The air in the room chilled as a look of horrified lucidity penetrated Lyra's oblivious mania. Sadness darkened the corners of her eyes and her mouth traced two silent syllables.

"No!"

Bon-Bon backed up, blinking. Lyra shook her head violently. Something that had looked like tears vanished after a moment.

"N-n-no, don't be silly, Bon." Lyra chuckled, and the gloom evaporated from her presence. "You're way better with kids than me. I mean, you're the one who's always talking about 'em. Plus you've got that earth pony thing."

"Lyra..." Bon-Bon's tone was severe.

"It just makes way more sense for you to be the mom. Now c'mon!" Lyra was at the door, opening it and rushing out of their house before Bon-Bon could to think twice. "Let's go talk to Twilight Princess!"

Over the course of the next half minute, Bon-Bon's expression changed from displeasure to confusion to wry acceptance. Glancing up to the ceiling, smiling slightly, she trotted after her wayward mate.

"The things I put up with for you..."

There was a part of Fluttershy's brain that, had she been born an earth pony, would have parsed the current absence of animals as a signal of something being amiss. Thanks solely to her talent, that portion had indeed noticed the lack of birds that morning, but only the birds. As for processing what that could mean, the signal was muffled and garbled and twisted around the various things that pegasi care about.

"Goodness, is it getting cold early?" she asked, glancing around the empty clearing behind her house. "Where are all my little bird friends?"

She flitted haplessly back and forth to the various perches and bird feeders where normally she would have spread seed. After a few moments of quiet puzzlement, she felt a tug on her tail. Turning, she saw Angel Bunny gesturing off to the west.

"What is it Angel?"

He gestured again. She frowned.

"You're right. None of my animal friends have come to get their breakfast. I wonder what could be wrong..."

Angel squeaked as angrily as a rabbit could. It was not that sound, however, which caught Fluttershy's attention. Over a rise, from where the Everfree Forest lurked in the west, there came a low moan. Her ears perked up as she caught it a second time.

"Oh my goodness! Some poor animal sounds hurt!" She moved toward the sound, but stopped herself quickly and looked to Angel. "If none of the animals are around, that must mean whatever it is is a predator, right?"

Angel nodded.

"Can you tell what it is?"

He shook his head and hopped back two paces.

"Then I'll just have to go and see for myself. You wait here, Angel, I won't be a minute."

He lagged behind as Fluttershy flapped over the rise, following the path and staying off the ground, just in case. The area was quiet as she left, neither a bird chirping nor animal rustling the underbrush. The only sound that broke the stillness was Fluttershy's scream.

Twilight didn't move from her research when she heard the knock at the door. Her nose stayed glued to the pages when Spike told her he'd get it. She hadn't thought matters of equine fertility could be so fascinating, certainly not moreso than extradimensional portals. But the copy of Mystic Mirrors and Potent Pools laying upstairs on her lectern was a testament to just how engrossing, not to mention sidetracking, the topic had turned out to be.

Twilight did at least notice the name "Fluttershy" filter down from upstairs, so she was prepared when the pegasus appeared in the doorway.

"Twilight? I'm not interrupting anything, am I?"

"Come on in, Fluttershy!" Twilight smiled and raised the book up. "I've been studying pony procreation all day, and it's just fascinating!"

Fluttershy's eyes went wide. Her face grew rosy. "Uh..."

"Did you know that ponies have lower birthrates than almost every other species in the world?"

"I did, actually."

Twilight grinned. "Did you also know that despite that, we don't have to worry about birth defects or stillbirth? Every pregnancy in Equestria is completely viable!"

"Oh, yes." Fluttershy nodded, relaxing. "I heard it was because of earth pony magic."

The intensity of Twilight's grin increased. "There are so many theories as to why, it's impossible to know the real reason! Winterheart the Elder thought it had to do with the Fires of Friendship that turned back the wendigoes."

Something in Twilight's mind popped audibly, and she blinked at Fluttershy.

"Oh, I'm sorry Fluttershy, how rude of me. I didn't even ask why you came over."

Fluttershy smiled. "It's okay, Twilight. If you're busy, I can come back."

"Not at all." Twilight set the book down. "What's up?"

"Well, it's just... I have a wounded monster in my house. And I was hoping you could tell me what it was."

Twilight boggled. Spike, upstairs, let out a, "Whoa, Fluttershy."

"A monster?"

Fluttershy cringed. "Well, a creature from the Everfree Forest, anyway. It's been very nice though, so I suppose it's not polite to call it a monster."

Books on monsters and mythical creatures floated down from the shelves. "Why didn't you say something sooner?" Twilight griped, levitating her saddlebags up to catch the various volumes.

Fluttershy hemmed and hawed as Twilight stalked up the stairs past her. "I was a little shocked at what you were reading about, is all. I had no idea you were thinking about having children."

Twilight cleared her throat. "It wasn't for me, I was researching a spell for..." Twilight stopped and looked at Fluttershy, who seemed a little disappointed. "Nevermind that now! Let's go see your monster."

"Now, I need you to promise that you won't scream when you see it."

Fluttershy and Twilight paused on the little bridge crossing the creek before Fluttershy's house. Twilight cocked her head.

"Should I be worried?"

Fluttershy shook her head. "It's just that... Oh, he's just scared, mostly, but..." She twiddled her hooves. "Twilight, you know how many animals and magical creatures and dangerous monsters I've helped, right?"

Twilight nodded slowly. "I think I have a rough estimate. You've tended to pretty much every kind of animal known to ponykind."

"Well, even still, I screamed when I saw him. We frightened each other half to death." Fluttershy's head hung a little lower. "But he was hurt, and he needed me, and once I realized he wasn't any harm, well, it was easier, it's just..." She swallowed and closed her eyes. "He's not pleasant to look at."

Twilight nodded once more and resumed walking. "It must have been one heck of an injury, then."

Fluttershy hung back ever so slightly as they reached her door. Quietly, she said, "It's not the injury."

They entered together. Despite the rays of mid-afternoon sun, the inside of Fluttershy's cottage was dim. A constant sound filtered through the close, warm air, bubbling and rasping. It made Twilight feel the same as the one time she and Rainbow Dash had flown too near a thunderhead.

Above them, in the multitude of bird houses, beaks and shiny black eyes peered out, retreating as they passed. No mice, rabbits or squirrels scampered across the floor. Even Angel Bunny, the cottage's most stalwart defender, was nowhere to be seen. Twilight's hooves started to drag and her mouth went dry.

Fluttershy motioned Twilight to a chair beside the sofa. A large form covered in quilts and blankets rested on it. It was producing the buzzing, rasping sound, timed to the rise and fall of its midsection. Twilight sat, and Fluttershy mouthed "Don't scream" as she gingerly took the top coverlet and pulled it carefully back.

Despite their tendency to display herd behavior while panicking, ponies have spent thousands of years suppressing their baser instincts in favor of the rational thought that helps build friendships, armies and empires. Of unicorns is this particularly true: to become masters of magic, they first learn to be masters of body and mind. The great cities like Canterlot with their gleaming, impossible spires stand as testaments to the unicorns' legacy of self-control. Along with these natural-born rigors, Princess Twilight Sparkle also possessed a pegasus's sharp mental reflexes and the mental fortitude that matched the physical fortitude of the earth ponies.

Despite this, Twilight's mind locked up as the blanket withdrew and exposed the creature's face.

Every neuron fired, every muscle fiber tensed, and every cell in her body cried out that this was wrong. No rational thought could explain the thing that rested before her. No twisted pony mind held captive in an asylum could have dreamed up this visage. She wanted to scream. She wanted to do nothing but scream and run and curl up in a ball and scream some more until her throat was raw.

Luckily, Fluttershy shoved a hoof in her mouth just in time to muffle the sound.

"You promised," she mouthed, pouting. She herself was not looking at the creature.

Twilight, eyes filled with tears, hyperventilated into the hoof. Fluttershy let her take as much time as she needed to calm down, but even then, Twilight couldn't bring herself to look upon the thing for more than a few seconds. She squeezed her eyes shut until Fluttershy replaced the blankets and took her hoof, leading her away from the sofa. The form stirred but did not rise. They stepped outside together, Twilight sitting down heavily against the door and wiping at her tears.

"Gosh, Twilight," Fluttershy said, "I didn't react that badly."

"What is that thing, Fluttershy?" Twilight hissed through clenched teeth.

"I, um... was hoping you'd know."

Twilight kept her voice low. "None of the books that I brought are going to have that in it. Fluttershy, that thing, whatever it is, shouldn't exist! It's just... it's wrong! Even chimeras have more symmetry than that... that..."

"Twilight, please." Fluttershy was pouting again. "Like I said, he's very nice."

Twilight's head bobbed up and down like the pendulum of a dying grandfather clock. "Right. Right, he's nice. I'm sure you're right about that." She raised her hoof to her chest, closed her eyes, and extended her leg while breathing out. "Okay. Panic time is over. Let's analyze."

The wind rustled the leaves above Fluttershy's cottage.

"Okay. I can't analyze anything I just saw." Twilight looked up at Fluttershy. "What can you tell me about him?"

"Only that he came from the Everfree Forest, and he has a lot of nasty bites and gashes on his side and foreleg. Umm, the ponyish one."

Twilight shivered as images of pale, hairless flesh mixed with a sickly green swam through her mind.

"The tooth patterns look like timberwolf," Fluttershy continued. "He must have been able to fight it off, since he wasn't hurt worse."

"Okay. No creature could live in the Everfree Forest for any length of time without a way to keep predators at bay, so you're probably right. But if you've never seen him before, and I've never seen him before, and I know darn well he's not in any of my books, then..." Twilight groaned, resting her head in her hooves. "Raagh! This isn't getting us anywhere. Did he say anything to you?"

Fluttershy frowned. "I'm not sure he can talk. Although, I'm pretty sure he's intelligent. He's conscious of everything going on around him, even if he can't tell us about it."

There was a crash from inside the cottage. Twilight stood, head whipping around.

"Maybe a little too conscious!"

Before Fluttershy could say anything, Twilight teleported into the living room.

The creature had awoken and was darting at windows. Seeing its full form set Twilight's mind into rebellion once again. Her hooves drew her back from it of their own accord. She was only able to steady herself enough not to scream before glass shattered and it was gone.

"No!" It had only taken a moment for Fluttershy to recover and open the door, but it was too late. "Don't go!"

Twilight breathed deeply, casting a worried glance at Fluttershy.

"We have to find it. If it's still hurt, it needs your help. And if anypony else sees it, there's going to be panic."

Fluttershy nodded grimly and they dashed back outside.

The yellow one had been nice to him, even if she had screamed first. She took him into a box made of trees, like the smelly dogs, only it wasn't smelly. She made the hurt he got from the smelly dogs go away. He had been dreaming, but then things were noisy and he had forgotten where he was, and now he hurt just a little bit more, all over.

He was in the village where he never went. Other than the yellow one, and the purple one, no one else had seen him. There was no more screaming or crying. He was feeling too hurt and tired to run, so he let curiosity get the better of him and started looking into the boxes while keeping to the shadows.

Ponies were inside them. They smiled and laughed, and he saw little ones at play. Some of them had a horn, and some had two wings. It looked like, if you had two wings and not one, you could float through the air. A new feeling welled up inside him as he thought about this. He couldn't describe it, but it made him feel sick.

He also couldn't look for very long. The ponies were so happy, he didn't want them to see him and cry, so he ducked from the windows before they turned. As the images played through his mind again, of seeing ponies in twos and threes and more laughing and smiling at each other, the sick feeling returned.

No one had ever laughed with him. Or smiled at him. Or even wanted to be near him. The striped one had given him food many times before, yes, but she kept her distance. She feared him, like he feared the smelly dogs finding him crying. He wanted to cry again. But that sick feeling grew and grew until it got stuck in his throat.

It was risky, but he had to look at one more box.

This one had a short wall around it, and he had to climb over to get a good look inside. It wasn't easy; his body was too wiggly for climbing. His legs went clump-slap-slap-thunk against the stone as he hauled himself up and across. The grass and flowers around the box were much nicer to walk through than the forest floor. He used his sloppy arm to pull himself up where he could see, and gasped.

Inside were two mares. One was the color of the skin on his sloppy arm and leg. The other was the color of the rest of him. Seeing her drew the breath out of him, because this wasn't the first time he had seen her.

She haunted his dreams.

He was sure of it now. Sometimes it would only be a glimpse, but he saw her, again and again, while he slept. Seeing her had always made him feel warm, though he would cry when the dreams ended and he woke. He had never understood why; he still didn't.

But the sick feeling grew and grew some more, and finally it burst up his throat and out through his mouth.

"Baghhhhh!"

Both mares turned to look at him. The light one's face froze in shock, but the other, the one from his dreams, her mouth grew and grew, and her eyes got huge, and she screamed and screamed and screamed.

With the scream echoing in his ears, his heart, his very soul, he turned and fled, clump-slap-slap-thunk, back into the forest.

By the time Twilight and Fluttershy reached the source of the scream, a crowd had gathered around the house. Some of the faces were familiar.

"What the hay's going on, Twilight?" Rainbow Dash demanded, flying over to meet them. "Everypony's talking about some monster."

"My son saw him!" cried a mare. "Looking in our windows!"

"I thought I saw something too!" shouted a stallion.

"Everypony, please calm down." Twilight flew into the air so she could address them all easier. "Yes, there is a strange creature in Ponyville."

The crowd gasped. Twilight wondered if being honest was the right thing to do in this case, but persevered. The proverbial cat was no longer in the bag.

"But I promise you, it's harmless."

"That sure didn't sound harmless," Rainbow said, then clapped a hoof over her mouth a second later.

"Yeah," said the stallion from earlier. "Why was Lyra screaming?"

Twilight frowned. "I have some theories about that. Rainbow, can you please get these ponies to disperse? We're going to get to the bottom of this."

Rainbow saluted and turned to the crowd. "Okay, everypony, you heard the Princess! Break it up, show's over, nothing to see here!"

The first thing Twilight noticed as they entered the little house was Bon-Bon, seated on a sofa across the room from them. Even considering her naturally pale coloring, she was wan. She held Lyra's hoof and stroked it. The other mare was out cold and sprawled over the rest of the sofa.

"Princess Twilight," Bon-Bon said, looking up as they entered, "thank goodness you're here."

Twilight sat down beside them, keeping her expression neutral. "What happened?"

"I saw a... a face. A horrible, horrible face, in our window. Lyra saw it too, and she fainted." Bon-Bon closed her eyes and swallowed. "I'm pretty sure every pony in Ponyville heard her scream."

"They did," Fluttershy said softly, then ducked behind her mane as the others turned to look at her.

"Have you ever seen that face before, Bon-Bon?" Twilight kept her tone clipped and professional.

"No. Never." Bon-Bon shuddered. "I'd remember it if I had."

"I don't like where this is going," Twilight muttered.

"Do you know where the creature went?" Fluttershy asked, but Bon-Bon only shook her head. Fluttershy gave Twilight a pleading look.

Twilight stood and lit her horn. "Stand back. I'm going to try and wake her up."

She pressed the tip of her horn gently against Lyra's, and her vision went black.

"Hey Annan! Tell me about Teddy Rover-zell again!"

"Ha ha! That's Roosevelt, Lyra!"

Twilight didn't know him in particular, but she knew the form. Two legs, hands, no fur save for the top of the head. She couldn't guess his age, but he was certainly older than the students she had met in high school.

"I'd never do anything to hurt you, Lyra. You know that, right?"

"I know, Annan. I trust you. I want this."

Twilight turned away from the image, her stomach dropping. "Lyra?" Her voice echoed away into the dark mind-realm. "Are you there?"

"I'm just going to go visit Canterlot, Lyra, to see your princess. I'll be back in a few weeks, I promise."

"Lyra, I need answers!" Twilight voice faded like raindrops in an ocean.

"What do you mean you never saw him? Where's Annan? I need him, where is he?"

"Lyra, please!" Twilight felt the floor drop out from under her. She should have practiced this spell more before using it, she wasn't prepared. "Please, wake up!"

She screamed as a looming, twisted face rose to meet her.

"Lyra, wake up! Wake up!"

Their screams intermingled as Twilight fell back from the couch. Lyra, sweating, sprang up into Bon-Bon's waiting embrace. She shivered and shook, sobbing loudly, while Bon-Bon stroked her mane. Fluttershy whisked over to Twilight, who waved her off and stood, shaking as well.

"I think I understand," Twilight said quietly. "Lyra, you know what that thing you saw was. I think you're the only pony who does."

"Please, Twilight, no," Lyra sobbed.

"Who's Annan, Lyra?"

"Please, don't make me..."

"You need to tell us what's going on." Twilight frowned. She didn't like accusing ponies of things, especially not those she hardly knew. She took a step forward nonetheless. "You need to tell the truth, for your sake if nopony else's."

After a few moments, Lyra's sobbing calmed. She sat up and took Bon-Bon's face in her hooves.

"You know I love you, right?"

Bon-Bon nodded.

"And you know I'd never do anything to hurt you, right?"

"I know, Lyra," Bon-Bon said gently. "I trust you."

Lyra grit her teeth. Her mouth worked soundlessly for a few seconds.

"Do you... Do you remember the year I got fat?"

"I do," Bon-Bon said, looking at her curiously. "That was just after we'd met." She gave a short laugh. "I'd been afraid I was testing too many candies on you!"

Lyra shook her head. Bon-Bon's smile evaporated.

"Oh, Lyra. Oh, baby, I had no idea..."

"I kept it hidden, from everypony."

"Sweetheart, if I'd known..." Bon-Bon reached up to brush her hoof against Lyra's cheek, but she flinched back. "You were just a kid!"

"I was fifteen." The words were spoken with the broken confidence of someone who had once wrongly believed they meant something.

"What happened?" Twilight asked. "Tell me from the beginning."

Lyra looked up at her, ears drooping, mane limp. "Once upon a time, Princess, I met a traveler from another world."

She sighed and swung her rear hooves over the sofa's edge. "He came through a portal somewhere in the Everfree Forest. He told me his name was Annan. We got to be good friends..."

"Go on," Twilight said gently.

"He told me all about his world and his culture and in return I helped him hide out in the Everfree Forest, because I knew other ponies would be scared of him." She tried to smile, but it faded before it began. "I... I got obsessed with him, and his stories, and his species and everything. Like Bon-Bon said, I was just a kid. And then, one day, well..." She laughed mirthlessly, her eyes tearing up.

"I was just a kid! Kids are hormonal. They don't think about things. They do stupid stuff. I don't think a pony ever did something that stupid, in the whole history of Equestria."

"You mated with him," Twilight murmured.

Lyra nodded. Bon-Bon looked stricken. Fluttershy was beginning to shake.

"I wanted to see what it would be like. Forbidden fruit and all that, you know?" She gave another hollow smile. "He told me nothing would happen. He was my first time. I thought I loved him. But he disappeared after that. I never saw him again, and a few months later, I found out he'd lied to me."

Twilight took a deep breath. "If it helps, he probably wasn't trying to mislead you. An interspecies coupling in his world very well might not lead to a viable pregnancy, but here in Equestria..."

"It doesn't, but thanks." Lyra swallowed. "That's why I got so big, Bon. I did everything I could to hide it from my parents. Eventually, I told them I'd been fooling around with some stallion and I was going to give it up for adoption."

"W-what did you do?" Bon-Bon asked, her voice a bare whisper.

"I went into the Everfree Forest when it was time." Lyra's tears started anew. "I spent the most painful hours of my life there, and when it was over, I was so horrified by how it looked that I threw up." She crumpled forward, head in her hooves. "And then I abandoned him!"

"How could you?" Fluttershy was crying just as much as Lyra.

"I was just a kid!" Lyra shouted. "I was scared, I knew I'd done something wrong, and I was just a kid and I couldn't handle it. And I heard him crying as I left, and I knew I had to do something, so I'd sneak out and try to feed him once or twice a week, until..."

Bon-Bon gasped. "Until I caught you sneaking into the forest and made you promise never to go back there alone." She brought her hooves to her mouth and joined in the crying.

"I th-thought maybe the monsters would take care of him." Lyra's body shook. "And eventually... I realized that right then was when I had feelings for you. That I knew you cared about me. And I thought that maybe, if I tried to get my head on straight and show you that I cared about you, too, that maybe we could be something and I could forget about him."

Bon-Bon, her face a mask of horror, drew away from Lyra.

"Lyra, that was ten years ago!"

Lyra just shook her head.

"Lyra Heartstrings."

At the words, Lyra jumped and looked up at Twilight, her tears drying. Twilight stood over her, wings flared, her voice hard.

"You may have just been a kid, but you knew right from wrong. What you did was unconscionable. So I'm telling you..."

She stopped as she realized Lyra was trembling. Fear burned coldly in her eyes. Furling her wings, Twilight forced gentleness into her voice.

"Not as a princess, but as a decent pony. You have to make this right. For yourself if nopony else. If I was in your position, I would never be able to forgive myself until I had."

Lyra nodded weakly, and Twilight turned her head.

"Fluttershy, do you--"

But nopony was there.

She whipped her head back around. "Did you see where she went?"

Both mares shook their heads.

Then, from the dark depths of the Everfree, there came a scream.

The yellow one had helped him, so he would help her. The smelly dogs came in more numbers than they ever had before. They were not going to hurt her, not if he could do anything about it.

But there were so many of them. They were tricky, and clever, and one would draw him out while another one attacked him from behind. He hit with his sloppy arm and his strong arm. He bucked with his sloppy leg and his strong leg. But there were more of them than he had arms and legs. He was getting tired. He couldn't move right. His hurts hurt more and more.

The yellow one screamed again. He turned and threw himself onto the dog that was hurting her. The sick feelings from before had turned into a burning, deep in his belly, that fueled his strength more than his hurt ever had. He roared as he wrapped his arms around the dog's neck and wrenched. It broke like a twig.

He threw the smelly dog head at another one, and it whimpered and retreated. But there were still more. One sank its teeth into his back, and he cried out. It thrashed and tore at his wing. The yellow one screamed things he didn't understand.

He was so tired. Part of him wanted to give up and just let them eat him. But he couldn't. He wasn't doing this for him. When a smelly dog attacked him, he could just kick it until it left and that would be the end. They didn't come for him often. But these dogs didn't want to leave. It was going to be him or them, and if it was him, it would be her too. He had to keep fighting.

With all his strength, he bucked, and the dog on his back flew into the air. It crashed into another, which scrambled back to its feet and fled. The one he threw didn't move. There weren't so many now. He could deal with this many; he had before. But he took a step and he fell to the ground. He heard the yellow one screaming. The smelly dogs closed in around him. Then something purple flashed before his eyes and they disappeared.

He smiled and rolled onto his back.

The yellow one was there, standing over him, crying. The purple one was there too, and the two mares who looked like him. They were all saying things he didn't understand. The smelly dogs were gone.

He felt sleepy. It was time to have a dream. Maybe he would dream about the stone boxes, where he could laugh and play with ponies. Maybe he would dream about the green mare he had seen so many times before.

But he didn't have to dream about her. She was right there! His thoughts were getting foggy, like the forest on a spring morning. He reached his sloppy arm out to her. He touched her and she moved back.

It was okay. She was here right now, and that was what he wanted. He smiled. And the feelings in his chest, they bubbled up his throat and out his mouth as two words.

"Twilight, please you have to help him!"

Fluttershy huddled over the creature, sobbing and hugging him tightly. Blood pooled on the forest floor around him.

"He's bleeding out, you have to get him to the hospital! Or my cottage! Right now!"

Twilight shook her head. "He's lost too much blood. If I teleport him, the magical shock could kill him!"

"Please!" Fluttershy's voice tore its way from her throat. She looked frantically to Bon-Bon and Lyra, who was standing well away.

"Lyra, please, help me! Help him!"

Lyra shook her head wordlessly.

Anger crept into Fluttershy's distraught voice. "You have to do something! He's your son!"

"No he's not," Lyra murmured. "He was just a mistake..."

"Lyra, this isn't you," Bon-Bon said, he legs shaking. "You're not heartless!"

"Lyra, he's dying, he needs you!" Fluttershy hiccupped, and looked once again to Twilight. "Twilight, my kitchen, in the cabinet above the sink!"

"R-right, I'm on it!" She winked out of the clearing a second later.

Fluttershy was quiet for a moment after. Lyra took a hesitant step forward. The hairless appendage reached out and tried to grasp her hoof. She scuttled backward, shaking her head.

Something dark and hateful rose up in Fluttershy. She crouched over the dying creature and glared up at Lyra.

"How dare you. How dare you not even acknowledge your own flesh and blood? I've never met a pony so spiteful and heartless!" Her voice cracked and her tears began anew. "Have you no shame? How can you stand there and callously watch your own child die? How can you do that and call yourself a pony?"

Tears stung at the corners of Lyra's eyes, but she said nothing.

"He saved me," Fluttershy continued, the emotion draining from her words. "He saved me because I helped him. He was a good pony! He doesn't deserve this!"

She glared up at Lyra once more. "Just say something to him! He's about to die! Tell him you love him! Tell him you're proud of him!"

Lyra smacked her lips, her throat trembling. "I... I can't..."

The creature under Fluttershy moved. Its hand reached out once more toward Lyra.

"Ma... ma..."

And then it went still.

A second later, Twilight reappeared, holding a first aid kit and two rolls of bandages. She glanced at Fluttershy, cradling the still form, and hung her head.

"You didn't love him," Fluttershy moaned. "You didn't care about him. You threw him away like garbage. He didn't even have a name..."

"Modo," Lyra said quickly. Everypony turned to look at her. "His name w-was Modo. Annan told me a story, about a hunchback in a place called Noter's Dam, a-and I thought, if that guy was a quasi-Modo, then he--" she inclined her head to the still form-- "was the full thing."

Fluttershy stood. She very carefully brushed blood from her coat, leaned down and planted a soft kiss on Modo's temple.

"Twilight, I am leaving," she said, voice like vibrating piano wire. "I'm sorry, but if I stay here any longer, I am going to do something I regret." With that, she walked from the clearing, legs shaking.

Twilight watched her go. Nopony else moved. After a long minute, Lyra cleared her throat.

"P-Princess, would you mind... teleporting us back to town? I'm not sure how well I can walk right now."

Twilight looked at Lyra, but received nothing but blank sadness in return. She nodded.

"Just her, please, Princess," Bon-Bon said, aloof. "I have some thinking to do."

Lyra turned to her, aghast. "Bon..."

Twilight cast the spell on her before anything more could be said. As Bon-Bon walked past her, eyes downcast, she held out her wing to stop her.

"Please," she said softly, "I don't mean to tell you how to run your relationship, but what I say now, I say as the Princess of Friendship. Be kind to her. Rash actions are what brought us here today."

Bon-Bon nodded slowly. "Thank you, Princess. I'll keep that in mind." And she ambled out of the clearing as well.

Twilight sighed. Around her, the sounds of the forest reemerged. No sign of the timberwolves' return was forthcoming, so she just stood and viewed the scenery.

The forest was lovely when you weren't running for your life through it. He must have had a decent home here, when it was kind to him. When he wasn't fighting off timberwolves or manticores or any number of other things far more monstrous than he had been.

Perhaps he fit right in. Maybe the forest had recognized him as one of its own and cared for him these ten long years as his mother had not.

She shook her head. She supposed she couldn't be angry at Lyra the way Fluttershy was. Lyra had just been a kid. A teenager, yes, but still not able to make decisions that important by herself. Not even Annan could be wholly blamed; he hadn't known better for other reasons.

Something niggled at her, something she'd seen in Lyra's mind. Had he lied about going to Canterlot? She would have to write to Celestia later.

For now, she had a hole to dig. Here in the forest he had inhabited, unknown, for so long, was as appropriate a place to do it as any. And when she had filled it back in, she would go into town and find a proper stone to carve the name "Modo" onto.

She looked down at the body, to gauge just how large the hole needed to be. A tear ran down her nose and clung to the tip. Her lips quivered. Her voice came in a whisper.

"Why?"

My Dearest Princess Twilight,

I remember the human you mentioned coming to Canterlot ten or so years ago. He was delirious from illness at the time. I knew about his species, but not enough to help him, and I'm sorry to say he passed away just over a week after he arrived. I still have his personal effects and will send them to you, should you wish. As I said, he was delirious and left no final requests, but I feel the pony who made friends with him might wish to have something to remember him by.

When I crafted that spell to prevent miscarriage, I knew there could be terrible consequences if I miscalculated. Meddling in the web of life was necessary to keep our species alive, but I never considered that a scenario like this would ever occur. I blame myself, at least in part, for what happened in Ponyville. The magic is old enough that it may now be immutable, but I will see what can be done to prevent another tragedy of this sort. Perhaps my sister can help.

Thank you for telling me about this incident, Twilight. It must have been difficult for you, but I think you handled it admirably. Write to me again should you need anything.

Yours,
H.R.H. Princess Celestia of Equestria

P.S.: Do keep the origin of that spell between us, won't you?