Fluttershy stared at the now empty cup before her, as Fireshot and Cloudswirl walked back into the house. Both were breathing heavily, and sat on the nearest stools to them. From where he sat, Forest Breeze observed them, and sighed.
“Another one got away?” he asked.
“It’s not like we didn’t try. He had a head start anyway. Is miss Fluttershy alright?” Fireshot questioned.
“She’s fine, still shy like her name implies, and a little shaken. She’d have been worse, no doubt, if Cloudswirl hadn’t been there beside her.” Forest Breeze replied, standing up and taking with his mouth the empty cup away into the kitchen.
The room went silent. Outside, the clopping of local ponies could be heard as it was starting to get into lunchtime. Fluttershy looked at Cloudswirl and Fireshot in turn. Both seemed to be in deep thought over something.
Fluttershy’s thoughts begun to dwell on the three colts. Why had she never heard of them before? If they were famous heroes, wouldn’t they be in history books somewhere? She didn’t remember their names or recall whatever they did against Discord. A single question came into her mind, and she decided to ask them.
“Could… could I ask, have you ever heard of Windigos?” she asked, her voice growing quieter towards the end of her question.
“Heard of them? Barely twenty years have passed since they chased all pony races from our old home and to Equestria. It’s also a result of this that Discord was able to gain power so fast, all the town are so small and isolated.” Cloudswirl answered.
Fireshot was staring at Fluttershy, one eyebrow raised higher than the other. She felt uncomfortable under his stare.
“Something isn’t right. You can recall Discord attacking you and your friends, but don’t know of the Windigos? You look old enough to have been among the ponies leaving the old land.” he pondered.
Fluttershy’s eyes went wide, realising what she had just done. With one question, she had completely undone her story to the three colts. Her mind begun to race, to think of any explanation that wouldn’t cause any more problems. As she physically attempted to hide behind her mane, there was a knock at the door, which Cloudswirl went to answer.
A moment of awkward silence fell on the room, as Fireshot kept his eyes on Fluttershy. She attempted to hide behind her mane, even if it wouldn’t be enough to avoid the colt for long. When Cloudswirl returned, he was followed by a young orange pegasus, with a blue mane and goggles on his head.
“Fireshot,” Cloudswirl stopped beside Fluttershy, “this pegasus said he wishes to talk to us.”
Fireshot took a quick look at Sunshine Blaze, before fixing his eyes back on Fluttershy, and simply grunted. Standing near the doorway, Sunshine Blaze cleared his throat, and took a few steps forward.
“I am sorry to bother you three, but unfortunately, things have taken place that means I can’t stand by and not involve you. So, I must ask, have you seen anypony that seemed… strange, or out of place recently?” he asked, the tone of his voice betrayed by the simple fact of how young he looked.
“Well,” Forest Breeze spoke up, “there was a strange unicorn that these two chased after a short time ago.”
Sunshine Blaze’s eyes went wide, and he flew up to Forest Breeze as fast as he physically could.
“What did he look like? Did he say anything?” Sunshine Blaze asked quickly.
“He wore a black cloak, it hid his mark on his flank. As for saying anything, he said nothing, to us anyway.” Fireshot replied, his eyes still attempting to bore holes in Fluttershy.
Sunshine Blaze flew to the opposite side of Fluttershy to where Cloudswirl stood, and he looked up into her eyes. He seemed concerned, but sighed, realising that a risk had to be taken.
“Fluttershy, you need to tell them the truth.” Sunshine Blaze stated flatly.
Fluttershy shuffled a hoof against the ground, and stared down. She sighed and looked upward while keeping her head pointed down.
“I- I’m from the future.” She mumbled.
--
They had moved to sitting around the table. Fireshot, Forest Breeze and Cloudswirl on one side, Fluttershy and Sunshine Blaze on the other. Fluttershy was relieved that, at last, Fireshot had stopped glaring at her.
Sunshine Blaze coughed, glanced at Fluttershy, then looked at the three colts opposite him.
“Now, normally I wouldn’t have involved any pony from the past in events transpiring in the future. But as you may have guessed, that is unavoidable right now. We can’t answer anything other than what is necessary, so you can’t ask what you’ll achieve in your lives, as that may result in you not doing anything we say. Understood?” Sunshine Blaze questioned.
Fireshot, for the most part, seemed impressed by Sunshine Blaze. He lent forward and took a breath.
“How old are you young man?” he asked, narrowing his eyes.
“Good, questions like that won’t affect anything. I’m fourteen. Next question.” Sunshine Blaze grinned. Fireshot paused for a moment, and studied Sunshine Blaze. Either side of Fireshot, Cloudswirl and Forest Breeze looked at each other, surprised by how impassive and unemotional the answer was. After five seconds, Fireshot shook his head slightly and chose to ignore the tone with which Sunshine Blaze answered, and continued.
“When you say you and Fluttershy are from the future, how far exactly into the future are we talking about?” Forest Breeze asked, tilting his head.
“More or less, around a thousand years.” Sunshine Blaze replied.
The three colts glanced at each other. Cloudswirl spoke up next.
“And could you tell us what we do to Discord?” his eyes shone with hope.
“Sorry, I said no questions about your future. You’ll just have to find that out by yourselves.”
Fireshot slowly stood up, his focus on Fluttershy.
“I want to know why you lied to us miss Fluttershy. Being from the future is only part of the reason, but to lie about being attacked by Discord? I don’t buy it.” he said slowly and cooly.
Fluttershy averted her gaze. Beside her, Sunshine Blaze sighed, and looked at Fireshot, who slowly sat back down.
“Clearly, she’s too afraid of you now to speak.” Sunshine Blaze said.
“I didn’t lie.” Fluttershy said in a tone almost inaudible.
All eyes were now on Fluttershy, which made her feel uncomfortable. She raised her head, and looked Fireshot in the eye. She took a deep breath and gathered her courage as best as she could.
“I didn’t lie about Discord attacking me and my friends. He did, just, in the future.” she said.
The three colts seemed shocked and dismayed by what she said, while beside her, Sunshine Blaze held a hoof to his face. Fluttershy however knew of what she was doing, and that she was now entering very dangerous territory. One wrong word, one slip up, and the whole future could change, and probably for the worse. She ultimately decided that the best thing to do would be to say Discord had become imprisoned, while keeping who was responsible unknown.
Working this course of the conversation in her mind, Fluttershy decided it was the best. If the heroes knew that Discord did get imprisoned somewhere, they would assume it was by their actions, and history would continue as it would. She took a deep, calming breath, and continued to speak.
“You see, Discord escaped from where he was kept, and tried to keep being put back by attacking those who could do it. He did fail however.” she finished.
The three colts took in the information, looking at each other for confirmation that they had just heard the same thing.
“So, we will not ask anything about how we defeat Discord, but there is one thing that does not make sense.” Cloudswirl said.
“What’s that?” Sunshine Blaze questioned, lowering the hoof from his face.
“How did you two get to be here in your past?” Cloudswirl questioned.
“That is simple. For a reason not yet clear, that unicorn you saw earlier used Fluttershy here to open a door to the past. This is why I need your help. We must head to where she first arrived here in the past, and close the link. Obviously, to do so, it would be best that she goes back through it.” Sunshine Blaze smiled.
“And of you?” Fireshot asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Don’t worry about me, until I catch this unicorn, I will remain here. Now, shall we go?” Sunshine Blaze questioned.
Fireshot, Cloudswirl and Forest Breeze didn’t look happy, and Sunshine Blaze picked up on this quickly.
“Listen, I am of no threat to you. I only want to get this unicorn, and to do that I need to remain here. Once I have him, I’ll return to the future, and there won’t be any arguments over it, and you can’t get me to change my mind. So I repeat, shall we go?” Sunshine Blaze narrowed his eyes.
With a sigh, Fireshot only nodded his head.
--
An hour later, Fluttershy, along with the three colts and Sunshine Blaze, stood back in the forest. The song of birds echoed all around them, calming Fluttershy. The forest was tranquil despite the fact that beyond it stood an Equestria which was twisted and chaotic under the rule of Discord.
The spot where Fluttershy had entered now had a portal, and the sight of it caused Fluttershy to sigh in relief. Ahead of her, the three colts examined the portal carefully.
“So this… thing, will send you back to the time you came from, a thousand years in the future?” Fireshot asked.
“Yes. I’m- I’m sorry I lied to you…” Fluttershy replied, trying to hide her face.
Cloudswirl stood before Fluttershy, and gently turned her head to face him. This made Fluttershy blush from embarrassment, and she attempted to turn away again, only to have her head turned back once more.
“It is okay, miss Fluttershy. If I had come to the past from the future, then I too would try to keep it secret. But as Sunshine Blaze explained, that is not possible now.” Cloudswirl stated, before turning back to the portal.
“What will you do to the portal?” Fluttershy questioned, stepping closer to it.
“If the one from your future created it with ill intent, then I will place a condition upon it, should he have returned to the future. Once you are back in your own time, I shall place a spell around it, where only those who are kind and hold no evil in their hearts may take more than a few steps away from it.” Fireshot replied. Fluttershy understood, and smiled at the idea.
Fluttershy now walked up to the portal, and stared at it. It didn’t show a picture of her, instead, within the glow, she could see the library basement, and her friends standing around looking at where she would return once she stepped through.
“Th-thank you, for being so kind to me.” She said softly, looking over her back to the three colts.
In reply, they simply bowed their heads. Taking a deep breath, Fluttershy turned her head to face the portal once more, and walked into it.
--
Twilight tapped her right hoof in annoyance. Fluttershy had been gone a long time, and the other ponies had fallen asleep while waiting for her. The only clock in the basement showed that the time was now 2 am. But Twilight couldn’t sleep.
“Where are you Fluttershy?” she muttered yet again.
She blinked her eyes, and then rubbed them, as the portal with the picture of Fluttershy over it begun to ripple. A second later, the yellow Pegasus walked through it, smiling at Twilight.
“Girls! Wake up! Fluttershy is back!” Twilight yelled, frightening Fluttershy.
Pinkie Pie was the first to wake up, and had crossed the room to hug Fluttershy faster than it was possible to even blink.
“Oh my gosh, are you ok? We were all so worried about you, and I didn’t like that, so I tried cheering everypony up by suggesting a party, but Twilight wouldn’t let me go get cakes and sweets and balloons. So we tried some games, but Rarity didn't want to play tic-tac-toe with me again. Are you ok?” Pinkie Pie managed to say without pausing for breath. Fluttershy returned the hug for many seconds, then gently broke it and smiled.
“I’m fine, thank you all for being concerned.” Fluttershy replied.
“Fluttershy,” Twilight stood forward, preventing Pinkie Pie from saying anything else, “what exactly happened?”
Fluttershy recounted the events that had taken place when she had gone through the portal, noting to Twilight that the portal was not present at the other side for her to return right away (which seemed to annoy Twilight). She told them how she met another pegasus from the future who was looking for a unicorn who had got to the past somehow, and how she met the three colts, who then returned with her and planned to stop the portal being used for bad purposes.
When she had finished, her friends looked at her with great interest. Twilight had long since concluded that the reason the portal hadn’t appeared on the other side was simply because the events beyond it hadn’t been seen yet by Fluttershy. Soon after, Twilight had Spike fetch every history book she could find, and checked for any mention of Fireshot, Cloudswirl or Forest Breeze.
To even Fluttershy’s disappointment, there was no mention of them anywhere.
“So, um... do- do you think they were real?” Fluttershy asked, looking hopeful.
“It’s possible. Not a lot was recorded before the princesses came to rule, the only reason we know of the Windigos is because they caused the events that led to Equestria even being founded,” Twilight used her magic to place the last book on a pile, “so if these three did exist, they probably lived and died before historical events were written down. Maybe Princess Celestia remembers them, but I’ll have to ask when we’re done with all this.”