//------------------------------// // Journey to the Past // Story: Fluttershy: an Anastasia Au // by halloweennut //------------------------------// A few miles from Ponyville, just a few miles into the Everfree forest, but still safe enough to live in, was an orphanage. It was a run down structure that lacked any sort of color other than a faded gray/blue and a muddy brown. The roof was sagging from age and a snow pile that was accumulating from the falling snow. The property was bordered by a tall iron fence, rusted and bowed out in a few places. The windows were empty, some with a few curtains and random toys and dead flowers. However, the windows above the front door were lit up with the faces of a dozen or so small fillies and colts of all different ages. They were waving, and calling goodbye to one of the best ponies they knew, Flowing Grace, as she and Chrysalis, the orphanage owner exited the building. Flowing Grace, or Gracie, was an elegant, soft spoken, yellow pegasus with a long pink mane that was tied back in a ponytail. She wore an old, green, tattered coat, with a long purple scarf tied around her neck. Her hat barely kept her ears warm and was loose despite the amount of hair tucked under it, and her boots were so worn down that her hooves were barely above being frostbitten. She had become like the mother of all of them in the ten years she had lived there. While she couldn’t necessarily stand up for herself, she found it easier to help those younger and smaller than her, especially animals. Every mouse, squirrel, or any animal she came across she took care off. They absolutely adored her, save for Chrysalis. But since she was now 18, she was too old to stay. “I got you a job at a cherry farm in Dodge Junction. You go straight down the path until you get to the fork in the road. Go left,” Chrysalis snapped as she slowly trudged her way down the snowy path towards the young mare. But Gracie was too busy waving and calling goodbye up to the children. “Are you even listening to me?!” Startled by the sudden outburst, Gracie let out a small shriek, shrinking back a few feet. “Y-yes, I’m listening, ma’am.” Chrysalis growled and grabbed the end of her scarf with her magic, dragging her to the gates. “Ever since you came here, you have made yourself impossible to get adopted,” she ranted as Flowing Grace struggled to keep up with the larger mare and keep waving goodbye. “You’re a flighty, nervous little pegasus that brings in animals every other day that insists that she has a family.” The scarf came loose, and magically dangled in the air as Chrysalis ranted on. “For the past ten years, I’ve fed you, I’ve clothed you, put a roof over your head!” she threw open the gates with a overly dramatic toss of her head. Gracie lowered her head, nudging the snow with a hoof, knowing the next part of the rant as the changeling turned back towards her. “How is it you don’t remember who you are, yet you can remember every pony and animal that comes in and out of this place without a clue?” “Oh, but I do have a clue!” Gracie exclaimed, reaching inside of her coat, and pulled out a golden necklace with a bright pink butterfly gem set in the middle. It was a strange coincidence that it matched her cutie mark. Chrysalis groaned. “I know!” she smiled, too sweetly, and lifted up the trinket with the tip of her hoof, “‘Together in Canterlot’. So, you want to go to the capital to find your family?” She dropped her hoof, still smiling saccharinely as Gracie smiled and nodded in response. “Oh little miss Gracie,” her face sank back into a scowl, and she flew behind the other, and began shoving her out the gate, “It’s time you learned your place, in life and in line. No one will be as kind to you as you are to them!” She tossed the scarf into Flowing Grace’s face. “Together in Canterlot!” Chrysalis slammed the gate, and laughed heartily as the young mare watched on sadly, stuffing the scarf in a pocket. She looked longingly up at the faces up in the window of the only home she knew, before turning away, starting her trek in the snow. It was the farthest she had been from the orphanage in the past ten years. She had been found as a little filly on the outskirts of Ponyville near the train station, after the attack on the palace. She had hit her head hard, and couldn’t remember anything. Nopony had recognized her, or those that could’ve were gone, fled in a panic. She had lived in the orphanage ever since. While she knew part of her was going to miss the place, she knew it was not a real home, and now she was free to find her real one. And Chrysalis, to be honest, was really a big dumb meanie when it came down to it. “Ponies can be kind,” Gracie muttered to herself as she approached the fork, “I know she’s just saying that to be cruel. I will never stop being kind.” She flew up to be eye level with boards on the sign. One pointed in the direction of Dodge Junction, which she knew was a long trek. The other pointed to Ponyville, where she had been found. “She said go left…but I know what’s left,” she said turning away from the left facing sign, “I’ll be Flowing Grace the orphan forever. But if I go right…” She flew to the other side, starting to fly down the path, “Maybe I could find…whoever gave me this necklace. They must’ve loved me.” She pulled the necklace from her coat, cradling it in her hooves. She let it drop against her chest with a sigh. “Oh, this is crazy! Me? Go to Canterlot? I can’t possibly! But if my family is there…oh dear, what do I do? Which way should I go? All I need is a sign, a hint! Anything!” she called out into the woods before sinking down to the ground, and sat on the trunk of a fallen tree. As she sat waiting for her sign, a small white bunny popped out of the snow. With a mischievous glint in his eye, he grabbed the end of the scarf, and pulled it out of her pocket. Flowing Grace saw something move out of the corner of her eye, and turned to see the bunny begin to run behind her, the scarf trailing behind him. “Oh my goodness! Little bunny, may I have my scarf back? I’m waiting for a sign,” she said gently, trying to grab the trailing end. The bunny skirted away from her hoof, running out of her reach. The pony got up, running and sliding in the snow after the bunny. She managed to grab the other end with her hooves. The rabbit ran around her in circles, despite her cries of protest, tying her hooves together until- Woosh! She spun around on all four hooves, losing her balance, and fell into a snowbank. She watched as the bunny went down the path to Ponyville, waving the scarf in the air tauntingly. She sighed, and flapped her wings to get into the air. “A bunny wants me to go to Ponyville? That’s-” she paused with a slight gasp. She fluttered back down to the ground, walking towards the the critter, who had dropped the scarf, and was looking up at her expectantly. “I can take a hint,” she said quietly as she smiled softly and kneeled to gather the scarf in her hooves. She looked down the path ahead of her. The snowy road seemed to beckon her. She slowly stood, eyes never leaving the path. She started to softly sing to herself for encouragement. “Wings don’t fail me now Courage don’t desert me Don’t turn back now that we’re here…” She cautiously stepped forward, leaving the scarf half gathered in her pocket as the small bunny grabbed hold of the end again, pulling her forward. “Ponies always say life is full of choices,” she continued, looking back from where she came for a second as she walked farther and farther down the road, “No one ever mentions fear. Or how the world can seem so vast…..” She stopped, and scooped up a hoof-full of snow. Smiling, she threw it into the air. “On a journey to the past!” Suddenly a carriage rushed by, covering Flowing Grace and the bunny in snow. As it sped away, she flew out of the cold pile, undeterred by the snow lodged in her coat and boots. She flew forward down the road, eyes wide at every possibility rushing through her head of what she would find. “Somewhere down this road, I know somepony’s waiting,” she sang, returning back to the snowbank as the rabbit popped up out of it. “Years of dreams just can’t be wrong!” She grabbed the bunny in her hooves, cradling him and gently stroked his fur as she continued to sing. "Arms will open wide I’ll be safe and wanted Finally home where I belong!” She flew to the ground, placing the small creature back on the ground before returning her attention back to the journey ahead of her. “Well starting now I’m learning fast,” she sang walking farther from the bunny, “On this journey…” She paused slightly, looking back at the rabbit behind her before nodding her head at him with a smile. The rabbit ecstatically leaped to her, following her stride. “To the past!” As they continued on, they came across a small farmhouse, smoke curling from its chimney. A small family was playing out front. The two small fillies, excited to see a new face along with a small rabbit in the middle of winter, ran over to Gracie and began to chase after the bunny, running in circles around the mare. Their parents and Gracie laughed at their antics, however Angel, which was what Gracie decided to name him, while thinking this was fun, was growing unamused. Flowing Grace started back down the path as the children stopped chasing Angel, turning to wave goodbye to them. They waved back, the youngest calling out a farewell. Angel lingered for a second, hoping that maybe he would get a treat, before returning back to Flowing Grace. “Home, love, family,” she sang sadly as she watched the family disappear inside their home, “There was once a time I must of had them too..” Looking forward, she noticed Angel had come across a small group of squirrels, two of which were trying to play with him. She knelt down in the snow behind him, smiling at the sight. “Home, love, family, I will never be complete until I find you!” she sang, this time full of confidence as she scooped Angel up, and flew into the air, spinning around in joy before landing again, and started walking with a jaunty pace. “One step at a time! One hope, then another! Who knows where this road may go!” she continued, hopping up onto a fallen tree to cross a small brook. Angel leapt from her back, running across. She took off her hat, shaking her hair free from the hat’s confines. “Back to who I was,” she sang, dancing across the log, cheerfully pressing the hat onto her head. “On to find my future! Things my heart still needs to know!” She flew off the log, over the small crowd of woodland creatures that had been drawn out by her voice. Flowing Grace landed in the snow, and began to prance up the last stretch of the road to the peak of a hill, kicking up snow and spinning. “Yes, let this be a sign Let this path be mine Let it take me to my past! And bring me home…” Flowing Grace flew up into the air, and finally saw the roofs of Ponyville below, and the sparkling towers of the palace in the distance. She swept off her hat, spreading her arms and wings wide. “At last!” As the last note echoed over the town, she landed back on the ground. Angel jumped onto her back and they galloped down to Ponyville. The snowy path faded into cobblestone as they entered, and ponies were traveling up and down the streets. The sight of a hundred new ponies put Flowing Grace slightly on edge. Never really leaving the orphanage had made her unaccustomed to large crowds. She felt herself backing away before Angel tugged on her ponytail. She looked back at him and he pointed forward into the town. She nodded, and stepped into the fray. The town was strangely familiar to her, and she somehow found her way to the train station. She shook it off, thinking that maybe she just remembered from when she was a filly. She had been found near the train station, after all. Flowing Grace stepped onto the platform, and got into the shortest line to one of the ticket windows. “Um, sir? One ticket to Canterlot, please,” she said quietly to the porter once she arrived to the front. He was an older stallion, who looked overtired, gruff, and like he did not want to be there. “Twenty bits,” he said, glaring down at the mare. “Twenty bits! I only have two…,” she gasped. That seemed steep for a simple train ticket. “No bits? No ticket!” he snapped, slamming the window shut. Flowing Grace and the older mare behind her gasped, while Angel jumped onto the windowsill, pounding on the glass to try and get the porter back. Flowing Grace sniffed, trying to hold back tears. How was she supposed to get there now? “Pssst!” Gracie turned around to the older mare. She was wrapped in multiple shawls, and her white mane shot out from her hood in thick tufts. “See Discord. He can help!,” she whispered, eyes darting left and right. Gracie leaned closer to her. “Where can I find him?” she whispered in response, excited. Angel jumped back onto her, eyeing the older mare suspiciously. “At the old palace, but you did not hear that from me!” the mare responded, shaking her head. “Oh,” Gracie said, turning back towards town as the older mare ushered her away with whispers of ‘go’. “Discord…” She quickly said thank you to the older mare before galloping back into town.