Soldier grinned down at the diminutive filly that walked at his heel. "Fluttershy, I'm sure up until now your life with us has been uneventful!" he barked. "Everyone else who's been taking care of you is too soft handed, babying you and playing, but not me! No, I know what children need in their developmental years, they need adventure!" Seeing Fluttershy look nervous, he bent down to pet her. "Oh, don't give me that look! I'm not going to put you in any situation that's...too dangerous." He chuckled. "Besides, life here is hardly going to be peaceful at all times! You need to be ready for the kind of crazy violence that is normally a day to day occurrence for us!"
He gently chucked her under her chin with his right hand. "But you're still so little, so I need to make sure I only put you through something you can handle, so I looked back over what we have already done. That's sure to be a good selection, right?" He walked up to a rather large door. "Still, while we've fought other mercenaries, machines, and those crazy things my old roommate summons whenever he wants to throw us a party, none of those are readily available on demand...at least, not without spending more money than I'm willing to spend. But then I remembered one incident that was very easy to create, and one I'm sure you'll have fun with. As such..."
With a dramatic flourish, he threw the door open, revealing the ravening monster behind. "I have done nothing but teleport bread since chapter 8-I mean, for the past three days!" He didn't know why he said that bit about the chapter. Things like that just came out around Fluttershy. Kind of like how the ravening bread monster was coming out the wall. "And now we take up retroactively previously prepared defensive positions!"
Fluttershy looked up at him in confusion and made a confused cheep sound.
"...ah," Soldier said, as he remembered he was talking to a child and realigned his thoughts. "In words you can understand, this is the part where we run away!"
Squeaking happily, Fluttershy immediately began to run away, Soldier running at her side as they fled the rampaging bread monster. Eventually, they reached a foxhole, which Soldier dived into, and Fluttershy followed.
"Right!" Soldier said eagerly, grinning widely. "Now, we need to come up with a plan to bring that thing's rampage to an end. Don't suppose you have any ideas?"
Fluttershy tilted her head in confusion for a bit, then let out an affirmative squeak before flying out of the foxhole.
"Wait!" Soldier called out, leaping out after her.
Fluttershy flew up in front of the rampaging bread monster and made a loud noise. The creature turned to face her and roared. She then proceeded to babble in baby talk, a scold plainly audible in her voice. To Soldier's surprise, the bread creature seemed to wilt a bit at the scold. Fluttershy then made a commanding noise, pointing at the ground with her forehoof. The bread monster's hind portion sank to the ground, quickly followed by Soldier's lower jaw.
Fluttershy then smiled, flew up to the head of the beast, and began petting it on the top of the crust, causing the hind portion to wag happily.
"...well blow me down," Soldier whispered. "Never thought of trying diplomacy. ...not entirely sure I approve, but I guess that's her style-"
Fluttershy then settled herself at the crown of the bread monster, seizing hold of two tentacles like reins with her forehooves. With a happy giggle, she brought her hind hoof down, making the bread monster bellow and begin rampaging again.
Soldier chuckled. "Or maybe she just wanted to ride," he muttered.
The bread monster continued to lunge around at Fluttershy's directive, chomping down on various aspects of the scenery. Fluttershy giggled happily, whether reveling in the destruction or the bouncy ride was unclear.
"Well," Soldier muttered under his breath, "if she can tame that thing, it'll make a nice pet for her. Although I'm not sure it would be worth the cost of what we'd need to feed it-"
Fluttershy kicked down with both hind hooves while whipping the tentacles in her grip. The bread monster opened its mouth wide, and a blast of green energy erupted, launching off into the distance and blowing up a mountain.
Soldier stared at the destruction for a time. When he regained his composure, his reaction was very predictable. "I want one!"
Giggling, Fluttershy made the bread beast exhale the green destruction breath several more times, clapping her hooves at each explosion. Unnoticed to her, the outer crust of the creature dried out with each blast and began to crack, as though it were going stale.
Soldier, however, noticed. "Fluttershy!" he called out. "Maybe you should-"
His words came too late, as after the last blast the bread monster collapsed inwards, collapsing into a pile of breadcrumbs and ash coated in green goo.
Fluttershy blinked, staring down at the pile she now sat on. She nudged it a few times, trying to make it move. Part of the pile crumbled further, turning to dust and blowing away. Seeing that, Fluttershy's eyes went wide and watered. Clutching her forehooves to her chest, she tilted her head back, ears and wings flat to her body, and let out a loud wail.
Soldier began to panic. He had no idea how to handle crying children, and he was pretty sure being the one to make Fluttershy cry was the easy way of becoming the target of a lynch mob, with his fellow team mates right at the head and gunning for his. He began thinking quickly, he tried to come up with a way to make her stop crying. He wasn't good at comforting, so hugging and saying 'there there' probably wouldn't work.
Wait! he thought to himself. I can just go make another one, a smaller one, and give it to her as a new pet. That will make her feel better! He stopped. No, that won't work. With the environment we live in, I don't want her learning the lesson that life is replaceable, that we'll get her a new one if she breaks something. Not the right lesson for a child. But it's not like I can revive the bread monster. We don't even fully understand why the teleporter does what it- His whole body froze up. "That's it!" Pulling out a large bag, he began shoveling the breadcrumbs, ashes, and green goo - along with Fluttershy's falling tears - into the bag. "Don't worry, Fluttershy. I'll make the big guy all better!"
Fluttershy looked up at him sad eyed, making a pathetic sounding query.
"Don't worry! I know what I'm doing!" Having filled the bag, he scooped Fluttershy up and ran inside. He then tossed the bag into the oven. "Bread gets baked, so we'll just rebake it!" He then yanked the oven out of the wall. "And we'll do it with science! The teleporter brings bread to life, so we'll combine that with the oven to raise the dead bread!" Tossing the oven onto the teleporter, he triggered it. In a flash of red light, the oven vanished.
Scooping Fluttershy up, he then raced into the room the bread monster had come out of. The other end of the teleporter seemed to be erroring or something. "Don't worry, Fluttershy. Your little friend will come out of there just fine-"
There was a bright flash, followed by an explosion. When the light and smoke cleared, a small black sphere sat on the teleporter.
Soldier decided to run with it. "And he's now much more durable!" Walking up, he rapped his knuckles against the ball, receiving a metallic clang for his efforts. "See? Metal!"
"Arf arf!" the sphere proclaimed, with a sound like a barking dog echoing through metal instead of bone.
Jumping back, Soldier saw that the sphere had opened large white eyes with small black irises and white pupils, along with a large mouth that covered most of its body and was filled with razor sharp teeth.
"Arf Arf!" it said again, more insistently.
Fluttershy walked up and made a quiet, interrogative squeak.
"Arf!" the ball said, bouncing happily.
Squealing happily, Fluttershy raced forward, hugging it. It then leapt out of her embrace and attempted to bite Soldier.
"Yikes!" he yelled, leaping onto a nearby cabinet. "That chomper needs a chain!"
Fluttershy grabbed hold of a string of much smaller black balls connected to the main body of the creature and tugged. It settled down, bouncing contentedly back to her side.
Soldier stared in confusion. "Well...that little fella is your responsibility now, Fluttershy!"
Smiling widely, Fluttershy nodded, cuddling the large bouncing black ball.